Title:
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Self-Gift Behaviour of Ethnic Minority Groups in Britain
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In recent years, some researchers have started examining the existence of crosscultural
self-gifting, as well as its place in consumers' lives, according to an
individual-centred versus a group-centred view of self. Nevertheless, inconsistent
findings of prior research call for further studies clarifying the role of self-view in
self-gift consumption. This study thus attempted to fill this gap by examining ethnic
immigrant consumer groups' self-gifting behaviours in comparison to White host
members in the UK. Furthermore, the increasing size and growing spending power
of ethnic minority groups, varying acculturation processes, and different self-views
together highlight a need for a better understanding of how the self-gift phenomenon
might vary between Whites and South Asian immigrants in the UK. Thus, the
primary objective of this research was to examine the differences and similarities in
self-gift attitudes and behaviours between British Whites and South Asian
immigrants (British Indians, British Pakistanis, and British Bangladeshis). This
research is theoretically grounded in the literature from three domains - namely,
ethnicity, attitudinal and behavioural dimensions of acculturation and self-construal
- to investigate the ethnic groups' self-gift attitudes and behaviours and to explore
the interaction effects among these three domains on self-gifting.
Data collected utilising a survey method provided evidence to support the
prominence of self-gifting amongst British consumers, including the three ethnic
minority groups. The findings also indicated some similarities and differences in
self-gifting of these ethnic groups in terms of their ethnicity, acculturation, and selfconstrual.
Although the main findings suggested that British Whites and South
Asian immigrants do not differ in most self-gift attitudes and behaviours, South
Asian immigrants who attitudinally acculturate in both host and home cultures are
more likely to engage in self-gifting than immigrants who only have high attitudinal
acculturation in either the host or the home culture, or who have low attitudinal
acculturation in both cultures. In addition, Strong behavioural acculturating
immigrants are more likely to engage in self-gifting than Weak behavioural
acculturating immigrants. The results from combined White and South Asian
samples demonstrated that individuals who hold equally high independent and
interdependent self-views are more likely to engage in self-gifting than individuals
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who hold either high independent self-views or high interdependent self-views only,
or who hold low self-views in both categories. However, the impacts of
accultUration and self-construal on self-gift attitudes and behaviours may differ
depending on ethnicity.
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