The Phenomenon of Biculturals’ Lived Experiences as Shin-Nikkei and Their Consumption Behavior in Hawaii

Abstract

This study seeks to verify the existence of a phenomenon of bicultural consumers’ feeling towards their ethnicity (Fielding and Fielding, 1986) by exploring their verbatim self-reports with a minimum of formal structure. The methodological approach employed in this study is a response to the epistemological call for more naturalistic and experiential research approaches (Giorgi, 2006a, 2006b; Rook, 1987; Hycner, 1985; Belk, 1982). This approach is sympathetic to phenomenological psychological criticism of excessive reduction of naturalistic and experiential approaches in behavioral research (Husserl, 1975; Merleau-Ponty, 1962; Giorgi, 2006), and seeks to provide a comprehensive account of bicultural consumer’s felt ethnicity. The objectives are to identify components that construct a bicultural Japanese-American’s felt ethnicity as well as behavioral characteristics in ethnic-situated consumption. Research has shown that ethnic individuals may identify strongly or weakly with their ethnic group and variance in the strength of ethnic identification results in differences in attitudes toward institutions (business and government), use of media language, brand loyalty, and preferences for prestige and ethnically advertised brands (Deshpande, Hoyer and Donthu, 1986). It can be inferred, therefore, that differences in ethnic identification strength may exist in Japanese-Americans, and such differences may result in different responses to consumption-related situations. “So what?” According to market research, it has been asserted that foreign marketer often faces problems with adapting a product to sell abroad. Products are not measured solely by their physical specifications; rather the nature of a product is in what it does to and for the customer-to habits, tastes, and pattern of life. Ultimately, the aim of foreign marketers is to gain product acceptance not only by the largest number of consumers in the market but also within a short span of time (Catoera and Graham, 2003, p.355). However, because there are cultural factors involved, resistance from consumers are inevitable. Therefore, marketers need to be aware of the importance of cultural characteristics (i.e. Japanese-Americans’ cognition patterns as a majority ethnic group) as it is a determinant of the degree of success or failure. This is not only because of this group of Asian-Americans are the majority of the population but in fact they are a growing segment in the United States. In summary, this study focuses on these central aspects of conventional, everyday bicultural consumer’s ethnicity related behavior: (1) the experiential features that characterize a bicultural’s feeling towards ethnic identification depending on their bicultural qualities (acculturation level, ethnic orientation and perceived parents’ ethnic cultural identity), and (2) bicultural consumer’s ethnic-association experiences in different consumption situational contexts.