Consumer multiculturation in multicultural marketplaces: Mexican immigrants’ responses to the global consumer culture construction of Tex-Mex as Mexican food

Cecilia Ibarra-Cantu and Dr Fiona Cheetham

Journal of Business Research, 2021, vol. 134, issue C, 70-77

Abstract: This study examines the consumer multiculturation of Mexican immigrants in the context of their food consumption practices in the UK multicultural marketplace. Adopting a qualitative methodology involving interviews and participant observation allows participants to share their responses to global consumer culture constructions that equate Tex-Mex with ‘authentic’ Mexican food culture. Focusing on situated, dynamic interactions among multiple cultural elements – consumers, brands, marketing ideology - within multicultural marketplaces our research contributes to the theoretical development of consumer multiculturation by: (1) broadening the concept to embrace the intercultural dynamics of production (specifically crafting); (2) conceptualising creolisation cooking practices as a contextually contingent creative, productive and tangible means through which immigrant consumers exercise agency during consumer multiculturation; and (3) identifying clarifying practices that translate immigrant consumers’ home food culture for others, simultaneously problematising the cultural meanings of globalised foreign/ethnic food brands. We conclude the paper by discussing the implications for cultural branding strategy.

Keywords: Clarifying practices; Consumer multiculturation; Craft consumption; Creolisation cooking practices; Global consumer culture; Multicultural marketplaces (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296321003416
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:134:y:2021:i:c:p:70-77

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.05.012

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Business Research is currently edited by A. G. Woodside

More articles in Journal of Business Research from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().