Understanding Reference Group Affiliation as Adaptation Motive to Cope with Acculturative Stress and its Effect on Brand Attach

Abstract

The transition to a new institutional environment can be an exciting experience for newlineindividuals coming from multi-cultural roots, especially for young students and adults. newlineHowever, the dilemma of being accepted in a perceptually culturally-distant newlineenvironment in the new institute poses challenges for the individual- both newlinepsychologically and socially and is the experience of acculturation and corresponding newlineadaptation to the new environment. This study contributes to the acculturation newlineliterature by providing an integration of constructs salient for individuals who are newlinesevere to moderately stressed on encountering the new institutional culture, and newlineexhibit a need to seek association with a reference group to address the acculturative newlinestress levels. The factors like the need for security, self-verification, state self-esteem, newlineand group-related factors such as similarity and interdependence on others tend to newlineinfluence the need for reference group belongingness during acculturation, which is newlineresearched in depth in this study. The results indicate that the need for a stressed newlineindividual to belong to a group is accentuated due to a drop in the currently-held selfesteem newlineand a simultaneous need to self-verify. Additionally, similarity to other newlinemembers of the reference group is not deemed important by the individuals, while newlineinterdependence on the reference group is significant. newlineAs this study is longitudinal research, the study extended to brand attachment newlinethrough brand self-connection and brand prominence for three most premium brands newlineApple phone, Zara-the apparel segment, and OnePlus, the Phone segment again based newlineon the pretest. Brand self- connection and Brand prominence was significant for all newlinethe three brands. The study contributed that brand attitude didn t moderate the newlinerelationship between the need to belong and brand attachment, but brand attitude newlinemoderated brands Zara and Oneplus, which is a very interesting insight. newlineStudy 2 involved understanding enhancing self after associating with the newlinegroup which was required for self-verification during acculturation. The effect of selfenhancement newlinehad a significant impact on brand attachment for all the three brands newlinetogether. Also, the moderation of brand attitude on self-enhancement and brand newlineattachment was found not significant. newline