Using cultural factors to explore sport consumption behaviors of ethnic minority groups : The case of Asians in the United States

Purpose – Despite the remarkable economic power and rapid growth of the Asian population in the USA, relatively little attention has been paid to this group in the sport management literature compared to African-Americans and Hispanics. In addition, sport management scholars have paid limited attention to two important cultural factors: ethnic identity and acculturation. The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach – This study attempted to examine a comprehensive sport consumption model for Asians by testing theoretical relationships between these two cultural factors (ethnic identity and acculturation), fan identification, and sport consumption behavior. Findings – The structural equation modeling results indicated that ethnic identity indirectly affected consumption of sport products reflecting attributes of a native country, e.g. ethnic player popular sports in a native country through identification with the sport products. In contrast acculturation indirectly affected consumption of sport products reflecting attributes of a host country, e.g. popular sports in a host country. Originality/value – The results of this study provide implications on how sport marketers should effectively design sport products based on the Asians’ levels of acculturation and ethnic identity.