The Effect Of Acculturation On Customers' Decisionmaking Styles-A Research Based On Perceived Culture Distance

China is a unified country and in almost all the studies,scholars consider China as a whole.However,China has a vast territory and different topographic and geomorphic conditions,so there is a diverse range of cultures.The most typical one is the difference between the coastal and inland areas.Because of the long history of accepting western civilization,the coastal residents have the western ways of thinking.Besides,with the high development of the society,there are more and more inter-reginal communication,especially that more and more inland residents go to the big coastal cities to look for a better life.Shanghai is a super city and attracts many outsiders to be there.When these people go to a strange city,there will rise a question that how to integrate with the new culture? And during the process of acculturation,will they change their behavior styles? If we put it in the consumption and market research,we can study the relationship between the acculturation and customer's decision making styles.In this paper,the author took Shanghai as an example and investigated the outsiders who came to Shanghai to study whether their different acculturation states will affect their own decision-making styles.Based on the literature review,the author found the methods that can identify the acculturation and decision-making styles,making the research framework.And also design the questionnaires to do the field research,collecting the information.After the data analysis,there are several conclusions:(1)Unlike other studies,the outsiders who live in Shanghai have 6 kinds of consumption patterns.Perfectionism/brand loyal orientation,Confusion due to overchoice,Novelty and fashion consciousness,Recreational and hedonistic shopping consciousness,Price or value consciousness and Brand consciousness.Besides,based on Berry's Two-dimensional model of acculturation—the host culture identification subscale(Shanghai culture)and ethnic identification subscale.As a result,there are four groups,which are assimilation,integration,marginalization and separation.(2)Compared with the Shanghai culture identification,the ethnic identification affect the six kinds of styles significantly;Shanghai culture identification are not significantly related to “Brand consciousness”,“Confusion due to overchoice” and “Recreational and hedonistic shopping consciousness”,which means that with the higher Shanghai culture identification,the outsiders care less about brands,cannot be confused by too much choice,and do not pursue the recreational and hedonistic shopping.(3)The four acculturation groups,their customer's decision-making styles are significantly different.In the end,according to all the conclusions,the paper lists some marketing suggestions,such as the market segmentation and the use of marketing strategies.At last,the author talked about the limitation of this research and carried out the prospects for follow-up study.