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Cosmopolitanism and expatriate’s preference for host country food: The conditional effects of experiential capital and retail development

In this paper we explore the insufficiently addressed domain of expatriates’ preference for local (host country) food. Extant literature on this segment of consumers shows that tensions created by moving abroad are also reflected in their varying preference for host country foods. By drawing on social identity theory, we investigate how a cosmopolitan identity drives a preference for host country food under the contingent effects of an expatriate’s experiential capital and host country’s retail development. Based on a unique dataset of 293 expatriates living in six countries of the Greater Middle East, the findings from binary logistic regression model show that cosmopolitanism significantly explains expatriate’s preference for host country food. We also show that the dimensions of experiential capital have countervailing moderating effects on this relationship whereas in countries with lower levels of retail development, the relationship between cosmopolitanism and expatriates’ preference for host country food becomes stronger. The findings of this study imply that cosmopolitan expatriates should not be considered a uniform segment as previous studies have advocated. Eventually, this study offers valuable contributions to literature that investigates the influence of socio-cultural identities in food consumption as well as to literature dealing with expatriate consumer behavior.

Cosmopolitanism ; Expatriates ; Host country food ; Expatriate experience ; Retail development ; Social identity theory

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