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Purpose – Religion is an important driving force behind many lifestyle decisions. Therefore, it is surprising that research on cultural consumption and stratification has linked religion and religiosity with consumption patterns only to a limited degree. In this chapter, we outline several theoretical directions that can be used for studying the link between religion, religiosity, and cultural consumption and the consequences of this link for cultural stratification.

Design/Methodology/Approach – Our empirical analysis is based on data from the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP), conducted in 2007 and pertaining to samples from 33 countries.

Findings – We present cross-national evidence illustrating that, first, there is a positive correlation between religiosity and cultural consumption in many countries and, second, there is little evidence that religion is significantly linked to cultural consumption. Furthermore, we find that the effect of religiosity on cultural consumption is comparable to that of important socioeconomic factors such as education and socioeconomic status. We offer three possible explanations to the findings. First, that religious individuals tend to be active individuals; therefore, they go more often to religious services and they are active also in cultural participation. Second, a certain level of religiosity affects cultural consumption by setting standards for the intensity of social ties. Third, religiosity plays a central role in marking boundaries of cultural distinction. In the last part of the chapter, we delineate motivations for further research interest in the link between religion and cultural consumption and discuss possible avenues for the development of such research.

This paper focuses on patterns of film consumption within cultural consumption more broadly to assess trends in consumerism such as eclectic consumption, individualised consumption and omnivorous/univorous consumption and whether economic background and status feature in shaping cultural consumption. We focus on film because it is widely consumed, online and offline, and has many genres that vary in terms of perceived artistic and entertainment value. In broad terms, film is differentiated between mainstream commercially driven film such as Hollywood blockbusters, middlebrow “feel good” movies and independent arthouse and foreign language film. Our empirical statistical analysis shows that film consumers watch a wide range of genres. However, films deemed to hold artistic value such as arthouse and foreign language feature as part of broad and wide-ranging pattern of consumption of film that attracts its own dedicated consumers. Though we found that social and economic factors remain predictors of cultural consumption the overall picture is more complex than a simple direct correspondence and perceptions of other cultural forms also play a role. Those likely to consume arthouse and foreign language film consume other film genres and other cultural forms genres and those who “prefer” arthouse and foreign language film have slightly more constrained socio-economic characteristics. Overall, we find that economic and cultural factors such income, education, and wider consumption of culture are significant in patterns of film consumption.

This study aims to identify the role of consumer characteristics in cultural consumption tendencies. Additionally, the study examines whether country differences and prior experience in the country affect consumers' cultural consumption tendencies.

The effects of cosmopolitanism, consumer ethnocentrism, individual innovativeness, and lifestyle on cultural consumption tendencies were tested. Moreover, we assess whether country type and prior experience are differentiating factors for cultural consumption tendencies. To this end, two countries – the USA and South Korea, representing Western and Eastern cultures, respectively – were selected to achieve comparable results in two different cultures. The research data were collected from 775 people using an online survey method and analyzed using path analysis and an independent samples t-test.

Consumer characteristics affect cultural consumption tendencies. These effects are culture-specific and cultural product-specific. Cosmopolitanism has a positive impact on cultural consumption tendencies, while consumer ethnocentrism has a negative impact. Individual innovativeness and lifestyle partially affected cultural consumption tendencies. Notably, these effects differ by country type. However, cultural consumption tendencies do not differ according to consumers' prior experience.

This study provides insightful information for e-retailers to be mindful of global consumer characteristics. Accordingly, cultural consumption patterns can be used as the basis for market segmentation. In addition, understanding global consumer characteristics and their cultural product- and culture-specific effects on consumption will help cultural industry players in their segmentation and targeting decisions.

Notwithstanding the rich body of literature on cultural consumption, this study provides consumer-level comparative empirical research from a marketing perspective. Essentially, the study is novel as it reveals the consumer characteristics that affect cultural consumption tendencies.

This paper aims to explore the relationships among local food consumption experience, cultural competence, eudaimonia, and behavioral intention. Building upon acculturation theory, need hierarchy theory and self-determination theory, the current study develops a conceptual model of local food consumption as international tourists’ acculturation process.

This study collects data from 305 Chinese outbound tourists and uses partial least squares-structural equation modeling to examine the developed model.

The findings reveal a significant effect of the local food consumption experience, consisting of novel, authentic, sensory and social dimensions, on cultural competence, which subsequently evokes eudaimonia and behavioral response toward local food. The mediating effect of cultural competence is also confirmed.

Destination marketers and restaurant managers should recognize local food consumption as a meaningful tool that contributes to tourists’ cultural competence and eudaimonic well-being during travel. They should strive to craft an indigenous consumption setting and provide employee training on the history and culture of local food, helping tourists understand local food customs and embrace different food cultures.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, very few studies have attempted to examine the meaningful consequences of local food consumption through the theoretical lens of acculturation. This study dives into international tourists’ local food consumption and pioneers a conceptual model to capture how local food consumption experience provokes their eudaimonia and behavioral desires through the mechanism of cultural competence.

The consumer acculturation literature argues that reconstituting familiar embodied practices from the culture of origin leads to a comforting sense of home for consumers who move from one cultural context to another. This paper aims to extend this thesis by examining further dimensions in migrant consumers’ experiences of home culture consumption.

This paper analyses data gathered through multi-modal depth interviews with Southeast Asian skilled migrants in New Zealand through the conceptual lens of embodiment.

Building on Dion et al.’s (2011) framework of ethnic embodiment, the analysis uncovers home culture consumption as multi-layered experiences of anchoring, de-stabilisation and estrangement, characterised by convergence and divergence between the embodied dimensions of being-in-the-world, being-in-the-world with others and remembering being-in-the-world.

This paper underscores home culture consumption in migration as an ambivalent embodied experience. Further research should investigate how other types of acculturating consumers experience and negotiate the changing meanings of home.

Marketers in migrant-receiving and migrant-sending cultural contexts should be sensitised to disjunctures in migrants’ embodied experience of consuming home and their role in heightening or mitigating these disjunctures.

This paper helps contribute to consumer acculturation theory in two ways. First, the authors show how migrants experience not only comfort and connection but also displacement, in practices of home culture consumption. Second, the authors show how migrant communities do not only encourage cultural maintenance and gatekeeping but also contribute to cultural identity de-stabilisation.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether ethnic consumers' consumption of cultural apparel, and attributional responses related to their consumption, is predicted by their strength of ethnic identification. The study also examined whether the consumption of cultural apparel mediates the influence of strength of ethnic identification on consumers' attributional responses.

Internet survey research was the chosen methodology for this study. A convenience sample of 106 research participants from four ethnic subcultures in the USA were recruited.

Regression analyses revealed that strength of ethnic identification was a significant predictor of cultural apparel consumption and attribution of emotions and meanings to the consumption. Further, consumption of cultural apparel perfectly mediated the influence of strength of ethnic identification on consumers' attributions of emotions, and partially mediated this influence on consumers' attributions of meanings.

The study provides valuable implications for channeling apparel product development, merchandising, and retailing to better meet the emotional needs and preferences of ethnic consumers. The main limitation of this study is the use of a non‐representative sample.

Prior research on ethnic consumers' motivations in consuming cultural products is limited. This study fills this gap in the literature at a time when large retailers are seeking to attract ethnic consumers through culturally targeted apparel products and brands.

The analysis of cultural consumption centers on the influence of individual characteristics (mainly social class). However, this chapter proposes that this relationship is contextual. More specifically, this relationship varies according to the nature of local cultural scenes where people live. In order to show the contextual impact of cultural scenes, we analyze a representative survey among a Spanish population. Three main conclusions are drawn. First, two main dimensions explain the patterns of cultural consumption by the Spanish population: the classical distinction between popular and high culture, and the distinction between conventional and unconventional cultural practices. Second, other characteristics, beside social class, are important to explain the implication of population in different patterns of cultural consumption, for instance, age; young people are oriented toward more unconventional practices regardless of their social class. Third, local cultural scenes matter: the difference between cultural practices of different groups (for instance, young and old people) is reduced in municipalities oriented toward unconventionality, showing an “assimilation contextual effect.” This contextual effect also has some impact upon local cultural policies that we mention briefly.

The analysis of lifestyles and cultural consumption has focused mainly on determining the impact of individual attributes on the types of practices developed by individuals. However, the effect of the access or exposure to certain opportunities of cultural consumption is less frequently analyzed, or even whether this exposure has different effects according to different social groups. The analysis of this issue is one of the objectives of the “Cultural Scene” research program, which is being developed under the project “Cultural Dynamics of Cities.” In this chapter, we try to determine whether existing cultural scenes in different municipalities influence how Spanish residents develop their cultural practices, with data from a nationally representative survey.

The study addresses gaps in sustainable luxury consumption research by analyzing the role of social norms in different cultural settings. It investigates how social norms, self-control, conspicuousness and future orientation shape sustainable luxury consumption in individualistic (UK) versus collectivist (China) national cultures.

The study was based on survey data from British and Chinese luxury product consumers collected through online panels. The final sample included 452 valid responses from the UK and 414 from China. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling.

The study found that descriptive norms positively influence sustainable luxury consumption in individualistic (UK) and collectivist (China) cultures. Injunctive norms affect sustainable consumption only in the UK. Future consequences universally impact sustainable consumption. Conspicuous consumption negatively affects preferences for sustainable luxury brands. Self-control enhances the impact of descriptive norms in the UK but reduces the impact of injunctive norms in China.

This study uniquely explores how social norms and cultural influences impact sustainable luxury consumption in individualistic and collectivistic societies. It highlights the moderating role of national culture, providing actionable insights for luxury brands to enhance sustainable consumption with culturally tailored strategies. The research challenges the universality of the theory of normative social behavior, advocating for its refined application across different cultures.

Cross-cultural influences are important considerations in the international marketing of luxury brands. These influences have predominantly been understood through cross-national approaches and the lens of glocalisation. The purpose of this paper is to study augments these paradigms by advancing the view of luxury brand markets as confluences of multiple cultural beliefs.

A hermeneutic analysis of 24 in-depth interviews was conducted with luxury brand consumers in New Zealand.

The findings describe two cultural beliefs that convey divergent meanings and shape luxury brand consumption styles in a multicultural marketplace. More specifically, the authors illustrate that consumers can be influenced by and shift between both local and foreign cultural beliefs in a single national market.

The study offers a situated account of the New Zealand luxury market. Other cultural beliefs may be in operation in different national markets.

This paper makes three contributions to the international marketing of and cross-cultural considerations for luxury brands. First, the authors illustrate that cultural diversity must be considered not only at the cross-national level, but also at the intra-national level. In particular, the authors show that the global-local dichotomy in cross-cultural luxury branding needs to be augmented with the local-foreign dimension. Second, this is the first study in this area to empirically demonstrate the impact of multicultural marketplaces on luxury brands, where consumers emerge as contextual cultural shifters. Third, the authors advocate a shift from the prevailing glocal approach to a new multicultural approach in luxury branding.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the consumption and demand of Chinese citizens for public digital culture, and make suggestions for government-supported public digital culture providers.

Through a questionnaire survey, this study investigates the provision of public digital cultural services (PDCS) from the perspective of consumption and demands.

The results indicate: the Chinese populace as a whole had low expenses on digital cultural services, and had not effectively utilized them to support their own development; significant disparities exist between demographics, particularly between urban and rural residents; the populace were strongly interested in participation in public digital culture, but the services had low actual utilization rates; and the services had been unable to meet the users’ quality-related demands.

The first study to approach the provision of PDCS from the side of consumption and user demand.