Expatriate Adjustment and Engagement with Host Country Gastronomy: Investigating The Role of Identity Projects

Abstract

Research on expatriate consumer behavior suggests that expatriates can be attracted to host country gastronomy, but sometimes they also suppress themselves from engaging with it. To shed light on these inconsistencies, this study draws on cross-cultural adjustment literature and social identity theory to explore under what circumstances expatriates increase their tendency to visit restaurants offering host country cuisine. To test the proposed model, a survey was conducted among 289 expatriates living in the six countries of the Greater Middle East. The data were analyzed by means of confirmatory factor analysis and hierarchical regression. The findings show that general adjustment is a positive predictor of more frequent visits to local restaurants. However, the findings also indicate that this relationship is conditioned by an expatriate’s identity projects which are associated with cultural integration, cosmopolitanism, and international experience. Overall, novel extensions to the literature that investigates an expatriate’s engagement with a host country’s food and gastronomy is provided.

Keywords

general adjustment language ability cosmopolitanism international experience expatriates restaurant visits social identity theory

Introduction

Over the past couple of decades, migrations have been on a significant rise globally. According to the OECD’s (2018) International Migration Outlook and recent U.N. Statistics (2019), 272 million people are living outside their country of origin. As a prototype of moving individuals, expatriates are distinct in that their stay in the host country is of a finite duration and they often change living locations during their lifetime. The recent “HSBC Expatriate Explorer Survey” (2018) reveals that one of the most motivating factors for expatriates to move abroad was to improve their quality of life. Quality of life also entails the availability of consumer products and services that would satisfy their needs, among which food is most essential. Although the extant industry reports fall short of focusing on expatriates’ interaction with local cuisine and gastronomy, some narratives suggest that experiencing local food might be energizing for an expatriate’s smoother adaptation to the host country (InterNations, 2020). Within this context, academic studies reveal that expatriates might have complex food choices. Findings so far suggest that they might be interested in engaging with food of the host country, while they also tend to maintain their connection to familiar food traditions associated with their home country and/or global consumer culture (Bengtsson et al., 2010; Bundy, 2017; Cappellini et al., 2019; Thompson & Tambyah, 1999). Hence, such findings hint at the possibility that the inclination toward local food and gastronomy might not be prevalent among all expatriates, thus calling for further investigation into this topic for two reasons.

First, while previous studies have found that an expatriate’s engagement with local food may be attributed to their better integration into a host country’s society (Seo et al., 2012), the consumption of local food must be considered at the physiological/functional level. Studies from the area of travel and tourism (e.g., Björk & Kauppinen-Räisänen, 2016), revealed that food neophobia can be a significant barrier for foreigners to engage with local gastronomy and thus lead to lower levels of well-being (Pourfakhimi et al., 2020). In order to shed light on how expatriates achieve well-being in a host country setting, the academic literature has shown a great deal of interest in the cross-cultural adjustment of expatriates (Grinstein & Wathieu, 2012; Shaffer et al., 1999). Within this domain, authors have made distinctions between various types of adjustment processes; namely, work, interaction, and general adjustment. Whereas work and interaction adjustment are commonly explored in work-related settings (e.g. Bhaskar-Shrinivas et al., 2005), general adjustment refers to an expatriate’s adaptation to everyday living conditions and can thus be directly related to the consumption practices of expatriates (Grinstein & Wathieu, 2012). Yet the current literature offers surprisingly scant evidence (e.g., Miocevic & Zdravkovic, 2020b) on how adjustment influences the behavior of expatriates as consumers, but it can be suspected that a better adjustment to living conditions in a host country can resolve many issues encountered by expatriates, encompassing also their engagement with local food.

Second, the cross-cultural psychology literature investigating the broader impact of expatriate adaptation suggests that identity projects are a relevant predictor of expatriates’ behavior in the host country (Adams & van de Vijver, 2015). Studies have suggested that an expatriate’s (a) integration within the local community (Bardhi et al., 2012), (b) cosmopolitanism (Thompson & Tambyah, 1999), and (c) experience (Sussman, 2000) have identity-shaping potential and thus may (better) predict food consumption behaviors among the expatriate population. Since consuming local food is not only defined through a physiological perspective but can also be shaped as an outcome of specific identity projects (Matson-Barkat & Robert-Demontrond, 2018), we believe that such an approach may offer valuable new insight into the food consumption behavior of expatriates. To the best of our knowledge, the impact of an expatriate’s identity projects has not yet been investigated in a hospitality setting.

In this regard, the present study aims to answer the following research questions:

Research Questions 1: Does general adjustment increase an expatriate’s frequency of visits to restaurants that offer local cuisine?

Research Questions 2: How do an expatriate’s identity projects, related to local integration, cosmopolitanism and international experience, condition this relationship?

By drawing on the cross-cultural adjustment literature and social identity theory (SIT), this study reveals the importance of an expatriate’s identity projects as conditioning mechanisms that extend the theoretical understanding of when an expatriate’s general adjustment triggers local restaurant visits. Against this background, this study delivers the following contributions to the extant literature.

First, this study extends the existing hospitality literature by showing that both physiological and cultural perspectives in food consumption should be valorized. Put differently, a higher engagement with host country gastronomy occurs when general adjustment is complemented with an expatriate’s localized identity that has been developed through socio-cultural integration efforts (Bierwiaczonek & Waldzus, 2016; Seo et al., 2012; Ward & Kennedy, 1994) and cosmopolitan identity (Adams & van de Vijver, 2015).

Second, this study further shows that experiential capital can be a significant identity cue in explicating the link between general adjustment and local restaurant visits. Unlike the two prior identity traits that enhance social identification effects reflected through in-group cohesion, international experience might reveal distinctiveness tendencies or why some expatriates strive to differ from the rest of the expatriate cohort.

Within this context, visiting local restaurants may be regarded as a means of satisfying both the physiological (Björk & Kauppinen-Räisänen, 2016; Seo et al., 2013) and cultural (symbolic) needs of an expatriate (Matson-Barkat & Robert-Demontrond, 2018; Seo et al., 2012). Consequently, the frequency of visits to local restaurants provides a convenient context to investigate how an expatriate’s identity projects complement general adjustment in explicating their engagement with host country gastronomy.

Literature Review and Theoretical Framework

Expatriates and Local Food-Seeking Behavior

While there is a rich body of literature investigating tourist engagement with local food and gastronomy (e.g., Coskun & Norman, 2021; Fusté-Forné, 2019; Uehara & Assarut, 2020), studies investigating expatriate engagement with host country food and gastronomy have, so far, been relatively scarce. For instance, consumer culture studies have shown that expatriates are keen to try new and exotic food from a host country, but also that they are heavily reliant on known and familiar food products (Bengtsson et al., 2010; Bundy, 2017; Cappellini et al., 2019; Thompson & Tambyah, 1999). Furthermore, some studies went a step further and ascribed an expatriates’ engagement with local food products (Miocevic & Zdravkovic, 2020b) and local restaurants (Seo et al., 2012) through a sociocultural adaptation lens. Yet the consumption of food is first and foremost a physiological process and interaction with novel foods can create barriers for expatriates (Bardhi et al., 2010), and potentially trigger neophobia (Kim et al., 2009). These notions suggest that an expatriate’s preference might be explained through the expatriate’s ability to adjust to the host country environment.

Expatriate’s Adjustment

Studies have so far investigated how the level of adjustment affects an expatriate’s ability to navigate the host country’s environment in both their private and professional spheres (Shaffer et al., 1999). Against this background, we argue that an expatriate’s adjustment to living conditions in a host country can offer more insights when expatriates increase or suppress their engagement with local food and gastronomy.

Both the academic literature (Grinstein & Wathieu, 2012) and industry reports (InterNations, 2017) have found that adjustment remains the key challenge for expatriates’ well-being. Expatriate adjustment has been extensively studied in cross-cultural psychology and the international human resource management literatures within which researchers wanted to reveal how adjustment affects the private and professional life of expatriates (Bhaskar-Shrinivas et al., 2005). The present study exclusively relies on general adjustment since it is most closely related to the everyday living activities of expatriates, especially those which are tied to consumption practices and behaviors (Grinstein & Wathieu, 2012; Miocevic & Zdravkovic, 2020b).

Expatriate’s Identity Projects

Besides general adjustment, the literature suggests that an expatriate’s identity-based traits are important determinants of the expatriate’s behavior in a host country environment (Adams & van de Vijver, 2015; Grinstein & Wathieu, 2012; Wilson et al., 2013). SIT posits that individuals tend to derive their self-views from belonging to certain social groups (Tajfel & Turner, 1979). According to SIT (Tajfel, 1982), individuals tend to acquire the behaviors of the social groups they belong to. Studies following SIT logic show that consumers buy certain products and brands to engage in specific identity project creation (Belk, 1988). A consumer identity project refers to a situation in which consumers exploit various marketplace resources, including products and services, to build a particular identity (Arnould & Thompson, 2005). We believe that an expatriate’s preference for host country gastronomy is dependent on the identity project they enact in a given situation. Here, the extant literature on expatriates recognizes three pillars that shape an expatriate’s identity projects; namely, sociocultural integration (Bardhi et al., 2012), cosmopolitanism (Thompson & Tambyah, 1999), and international experience (Sussman, 2000).

To better adapt to a host country, some expatriates strive to develop a localized identity through the sociocultural integration process (Bardhi et al., 2012; Ward & Kennedy, 1994). Within this perspective, Wilson et al. (2013) identify the expatriate’s host country language ability as the most instrumental skill of achieving cultural integration, thus attaining the local identity. According to the literature, host country language ability represents the most pragmatic sociocultural integration mechanism, which is especially relevant in the context of local food consumption (Laroche et al., 1998; Miocevic & Zdravkovic, 2020a; Seo et al., 2012). When expatriates show an aspiration to learn a host country’s language, then they explicitly communicate interest in integrating into the local culture and community. Accordingly, by consuming more local products, they signal their localized identity.

The literature naturally sees expatriates as individuals who are able to develop and nurture cosmopolitan identity (Hannerz, 1990; Thompson & Tambyah, 1999). Cosmopolitanism can be defined as a set of values, opinions, and skills which reflects an appreciation for, desire to learn from and ability to engage with different cultures (Cleveland et al., 2014). Generally, the marketing and hospitality literatures are very consistent in framing cosmopolitanism as a form of identity project by which an individual participates in and appreciates other cultures by engaging with food and products originating from it (Cleveland et al., 2009; Wang & Mattila, 2015; Zhang & Hanks, 2018). By being open to encounters with different cultures, consumers with a cosmopolitan identity engage in behavior that is welcoming toward products from other countries (Zeugner-Roth et al., 2015).

During their lifetime, expatriates gather specific experience that is dependent on the time they spend abroad. Such accumulated experiential knowledge helps them navigate more effectually within new environments (Black et al., 1992) and represents a salient cue of their identity (Sussman, 2000). Studies have shown that an expatriate’s overall experiential capital is a unique resource that steers expatriate behavior (Selmer, 2002) in both work and general life settings. Furthermore, the literature indicates that increased experience is positively related to novel food consumption (Seo et al., 2013) indicating that experience is a relevant identity trait that can shape an expatriate’s stance toward local food and gastronomy.

On the whole, the model used in this study aims to investigate the impact of expatriate general adjustment on the frequency of visits to restaurants that offer local cuisine. It is assumed that the strength of this relationship is contingent on an expatriate’s identity projects which are built around host country language ability, cosmopolitanism, and international experience (see Figure 1).

Figure 1

Conceptual Model

Research Hypotheses

Marketing studies have found that engagement with local gastronomy has a positive effect on an expatriate’s life satisfaction and experience in a host country (Usunier, 1998). However, Holt’s (2004) seminal work on food preference suggests that consumers will be unwilling to sacrifice their customary food choices when they are away from home. In this regard, the literature on expatriate food choices provides some interesting points of departure for the present study. For instance, Bundy (2017) shows that expatriates have fluid food behavior by simultaneously maintaining their original eating habits (i.e., by consuming food from their country of origin), while also engaging with the food culture of a host country. However, the literature mostly remains silent in explaining this phenomenon. When moving abroad, expatriates are confronted with the challenge of blending in, at the psychological level, with the setting of a new society. One of the key measures of an expatriate’s adaptation to a host country is general adjustment. General adjustment represents the psychological state of comfort when an individual assesses her ability to adapt to the host society in areas that are essential for everyday living and functioning, such as food, housing, health care, shopping, and entertainment (Black & Gregersen, 1991). Mainstream cross-cultural psychology studies suggest that adjustment to living conditions in a host country (Bierwiaczonek & Waldzus, 2016; Ward & Kennedy, 1994) may initiate a higher well-being for expatriates (Grinstein & Wathieu, 2012) and steer them more toward local food products (Miocevic & Zdravkovic, 2020b). By achieving higher levels of general adjustment, an expatriate will feel less alienation when engaging with local gastronomy which is reflected through local restaurant visits. Thus, we offer the following null and alternative hypotheses:

Hypothesis 1₀: General adjustment does not have a significant relationship to the frequency of visits to restaurants that offer local cuisine.

Hypothesis 1_A: General adjustment has a positive and significant relationship to the frequency of visits to restaurants that offer local cuisine.

Studies in the field of cross-cultural psychology found that sociocultural integration can significantly explain the preference for host country food products both in the cases of migrants (Kizgin et al., 2018; Laroche et al., 1998) and expatriates (Miocevic & Zdravkovic, 2020a). A recent meta-analytic review suggests that host country language ability is one of the most instrumental skills for achieving cultural integration (Wilson et al., 2013). Within the hospitality area, studies have shown that highly language-proficient expatriates tend to have a positive attitude and preference for host country food (Seo et al., 2012). However, in line with SIT, sociocultural integration can also be considered a reflection of an expatriate’s identity. In this regard, Bardhi et al. (2012) show that some expatriates tend to attain traits associated with the host country community and thus engage in identity change by becoming “more local.” Since consumption of local food can be considered not only a physiological but also a cultural experience (Seo et al., 2012), it is posited that general adjustment will lead to the higher frequency of visits to restaurants that offer local cuisine among expatriates who have a stronger host country language ability. Therefore, we hypothesize:

Hypothesis 2₀: Host country language ability does not moderate the relationship between general adjustment and the frequency of visits to restaurants that offer local cuisine.

Hypothesis 2_A: Host country language ability has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between general adjustment and the frequency of visits to restaurants that offer local cuisine.

SIT indicates that tendency to buy/consume novel products and brands can be attributed to an individual’s level of openness toward cultural differences (Prince et al., 2016). As a reflection of this identity, cosmopolitanism has drawn attention in explicating an individual’s inclination toward new, unique, and exotic experiences offered by products from cultures and countries different than their own (Cannon & Yaprak, 2002; Riefler & Diamantopoulos, 2009; Zeugner-Roth et al., 2015). Both the cross-cultural psychology (Adams & van de Vijver, 2015) and marketing literatures (Thompson & Tambyah, 1999) argue that expatriation is a natural context in which individuals can nurture a cosmopolitan identity. In one of the few studies dealing with migrant workers, Bardhi (2006) specifically focuses on transnational mobile professionals, a group of contemporary nomads, as she says, who are characterized by high levels of cosmopolitanism. As she further highlights, this group of individuals are generally keen to experiment with and consume local food and patronize local restaurants. In a similar fashion, consumer culture studies reveal that cosmopolitans have a greater appreciation for exotic foods, art, music, and fashion (Thompson & Tambyah, 1999), suggesting that their consumption occurs at a symbolic level. Based on the preceding review, it is assumed that cosmopolitanism will have a positive moderating influence on the relationship between an expatriate’s adjustment and the frequency of visits to restaurants that offer local cuisine. Put differently, besides the comfort gained by general adjustment, visits to local restaurants are also a means of symbolic consumption (Matson-Barkat & Robert-Demontrond, 2018) which attracts expatriates with a strong cosmopolitanism. Consequently, it is argued that cosmopolitanism can strengthen the relationship between general adjustment and the frequency of visits to local restaurants. Thus, it is hypothesized:

Hypothesis 3₀: Cosmopolitanism does not moderate the relationship between general adjustment and the frequency of visits to restaurants that offer local cuisine.

Hypothesis 3_A: Cosmopolitanism has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between general adjustment and the frequency of visits to local restaurant.

Throughout their lifetime, expatriates accumulate international experience which may significantly affect their adjustment when moving to a new host country. In this case, expatriates with greater accumulated experience from prior expatriate endeavors are able to foresee all the barriers and impediments related to general and work adjustment in a host country (Black et al., 1992). So far studies have shown that prior experience is instrumental in enhancing an expatriate’s ability to adjust to the host country (Lee & Sukoco, 2010), suggesting that adjustment and international experience work in concert. By following the tenets of SIT, we frame international experience as an inference of an expatriate’s identity (Sussman, 2000) through which they can signal their experiential capital. Research reveals that greater prior experience increases future local food consumption intentions (Seo et al., 2013). To support their identity project, it is expected that highly adjusted expatriates with greater international experience from prior sojourns will show stronger tendencies to visit local restaurants. Therefore, it is hypothesized:

Hypothesis 4₀: International experience does not moderate the relationship between general adjustment and the frequency of visits to restaurants that offer local cuisine.

Hypothesis 4_A: International experience has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between general adjustment and the frequency of visits to local restaurant.

Methodology

Research Context and Sample Characteristics

In order to test the previously formulated hypotheses, this study uses hierarchical regression analysis on data collected through a survey-based study. The study has been conducted among expatriates who are currently based in six Greater Middle East countries, which are among the most popular destinations that attract expatriates (Migration Policy Institute, 2018) and share a common cultural and historical background (Perthes, 2004). The basic rationale for specifying the study population this way was to ensure a sufficient level of relevant cultural dynamics which are necessary for achieving the main study objective, i.e. to analyze how general adjustment and identity projects affect the dining-out behavior in relation to expatriate locations. The respondents were approached via an expatriate community network and the data were collected online using a semistructured questionnaire. Since it is generally difficult to obtain data from expatriate populations, this study opted for convenience quota sampling, which has also been used in previous expatriate studies (e.g., Froese & Peltokorpi, 2013; Zhuang et al., 2013). Overall, data collected from 289 respondents entered the data analysis stage. An overview of main sample characteristics is provided in Supplement Table I (available online). Additionally, an overview of the respondents’ countries of origin is provided in Supplement Table II (available online).

Roughly two thirds of respondents were female (i.e. 64.7%) and one third male (i.e. 35.3%). The majority of respondents were aged between 20 and 49 years (i.e., 83.4%) and roughly half of them were married (i.e., 52.2%). With regard to an expatriate’s international experience, the number of respondents increasingly declines as their number of years of experience abroad rises. Such, half of the respondents have international experience of up to 5 years (i.e., 49.8%) and roughly another quarter of respondents of up to 10 years (27.0%). Similarly, the number of respondents declines as the number of years spent at their current expatriate location rises, with more than 70% of them having spent less than 4 years there.

Measurement Operationalization

The focal variables in this study were measured using multi-item constructs (i.e., General adjustment, Cosmopolitanism, and Host country language ability) and single-item scales for the discrete continuous variables (i.e., Expatriate’s international experience and Frequency of visits to local restaurants). In particular, general adjustment was measured using items from the operationalization by Shaffer et al. (1999). Cosmopolitanism was operationalized using the scale by Cleveland et al. (2014), and host country language ability was measured using the scale by Gim Chung et al. (2004). Full item batteries for multi-item constructs can be found in Supplement Table III (available online). An expatriate’s international experience was measured by asking respondents to indicate the number of years they have held expatriate status. To measure the dependent variable, the respondents were asked to indicate the frequency of visits to restaurants that offer local cuisine (with anchors 1 = never to 6 = very frequently). Although the hospitality literature covers a wide range of measures to capture restaurant patronage (i.e., by measuring attitudes, intentions, and behaviors), this study opted to measure the frequency of visits to restaurants that offer local cuisine. This approach can be deemed appropriate given the departing conceptual model and responding theoretical frame. In such cases, visiting local restaurants can be seen as a means of cultural and symbolic consumption, which would be appropriate for testing this study’s theoretical assumptions based on SIT. A decision has further been made to control for (a) host country effects (the dummy variable), (b) the expatriate’s home country individualism index (Hofstede et al., 2010), (c) the respondent’s age, (d) the time spent at the present location and (v) the expatriate’s marital status.

Analysis and Results

Measurement Model

In order to assess the measurement model for the latent variables used, first a confirmatory factor analysis was conducted in LISREL 8.80. Standardized factor loadings of the three latent constructs are above the 0.7 threshold, or reasonably close (Hair et al., 2010), except for two general adjustment items that had low loadings on their respective factor and thus were dropped (“housing conditions” and “health care”). Overall, the content validity of the construct was not compromised (see Supplement Table III, available online). The final measurement model consisted of 3 constructs and 10 items and exhibited a very good fit to the data (i.e., χ² = 53.20, degrees of freedom = 32): root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.047; normed fit index (NFI) = 0.98; comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.99; and goodness of fit index (GFI) = 0.96. The measures had average variances extracted (AVE) of no less than 0.50, confirming the existence of sufficient convergent validity (Supplement Table III, available online).

Next, to assess whether the constructs exhibit discriminant validity, the squared correlations between each pair of constructs and their respective AVE values were compared (Supplement Table IV, available online). The findings showed that the squared correlations between any two constructs did not exceed their respective AVEs, meaning the constructs are sufficiently distinct from each other. To sum up, the conducted tests provide sufficient evidence of the dimensionality, reliability, and validity of the measures employed (Fornell & Larcker, 1981).

Additional to typical reliability and validity assessments for the latent variables, this study performed tests to control for potential common method variance (CMV) using the procedures recommended by Podsakoff et al. (2003). Since data collected through surveys typically rely on single informants, the results might be confounded by CMV. To deal with possible CMV issues, first Harman’s one-factor test was performed by entering all variables into a single-factor confirmatory factor analysis (Podsakoff et al., 2003). The fit indices were then examined to assess the extent to which a single latent factor might present an alternative explanation of the derived factors. The results indicate an unacceptable model fit (χ² = 869.98, degrees of freedom = 54): RMSEA = 0.224; NFI = 0.64; NNFI = 0.57; CFI = 0.65; and GFI = 0.68, and therefore suggest no alternative explanation (Hu & Bentler, 1999). Second, a marker variable test was conducted. This was done by choosing a marker variable which was not theoretically related to any of the focal study constructs (i.e., Respondent’s value orientation in shopping—“When I buy packaged food products, I like to be sure that I am getting my money’s worth”). Next, the lowest correlation between the marker variable and main study variables was identified (r = .01; p = .82), and this correlation was partialled out from the original bivariate correlations between the main constructs. A subsequent examination of the results showed that the results still remained significant, which gives confidence that CMV is not an issue that undermines the empirical assertions in this study.

Model Specification and Hypotheses Testing

In order to analyze the model properties and to test the hypothesized relationships, this study used hierarchical regression analysis. The estimation procedure encompassed four models—that is, Model 1 included key control variables (i.e., age, time spent in location, marital status, expatriate’s host country individualism index, and host country dummies); Model 2 added the direct effects of focal predictors (i.e., general adjustment, host country language ability, cosmopolitanism, and expatriate’s international experience); Model 3 examined the linear interaction effects between predictors (i.e., general adjustment × language, general adjustment × cosmopolitanism, general adjustment × international experience); whereas Model 4 included their quadratic effects in order to control for any possible nonlinear effects of adjustment and moderators (i.e., general adjustment², general adjustment² × language, general adjustment² × cosmopolitanism, general adjustment² × international experience). Quadratic effects were added since some studies suggest that expatriates’ adjustment might assume a U-shaped relationship (Bhaskar-Shrinivas et al., 2005; Peltokorpi & Pudelko, 2021; Ward et al., 1998), advocating a potential curvilinear shape of the expatriate adjustment process (Torbiörn, 1982). Therefore, we believe that the inclusion of quadratic effects as additional controls is appropriate and justified.

Since all measures exhibited satisfactory levels of reliability, summated scales were used (Spector, 1992). Later on, the independent and the control variables in the model were mean-centered, and the linear and nonlinear effects were calculated. Eventually, main regression diagnostics suggested the absence of any multicollinearity issue. In Table 1, indices on model fit show that the R² significantly increased, gradually from Model 1 to Model 4. Since Models 1 to 3 are nested within Model 4, this model will be used to test the hypotheses.

Table 1

Hierarchical Regression Model

Dependent Variable—Frequency of Visits to Local Restaurants
Predictors	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3	Model 4
Controls
Age	.01	−.02	−.01	−.02
Time in location	−.02	−.08	−.06	−.05
Relationship status	−.09	−.10	−.09	−.07
Individualism index	.07	.05	.04	.03
Host Country Dummy 1 (Azerbaijan)	.04	.14*	.11	.06
Host Country Dummy 2 (Jordan)	.25**	.17*	.17*	.18**
Host Country Dummy 3 (Kazakhstan)	.09	.05	.05	.06
Host Country Dummy 4 (Qatar)	−.06	−.10	−.08	−.08
Host Country Dummy 5 (Saudi Arabia)	−.03	−.04	−.03	−.02
Host Country Dummy 6 (UAE)	−.05	−.14	−.11	−.06
Main effects
General adjustment (AD)		.27**	.26**	.24**
Host country language ability (LAN)		.02	.04	−.06
Cosmopolitanism (CO)		.07	.08	−.00
International experience (IE)		.03	.01	.05
Interaction effects
AD × LAN			.10	.17**
AD × CO			−.04	−.01
AD × IE			−.10	−.12*
Quadratic effects
AD²				−.01
AD² × LAN				.15*
AD² × COS				.16*
AD² × IE				−.09
R ²	.13	.20	.22	.26
ΔR²	.13**	.07**	.02	.03*
F value	4.54	5.41	4.90	4.59
ΔF	4.54**	6.54**	2.33	2.81*

p ≤ .05. **p ≤ .01.

As the findings in Table I suggest, the main effect between general adjustment and the frequency of visits to local restaurants is significant and positive, thus providing support for Hypothesis 1 (β = 0.24, p < .01). With regard to Hypothesis 2, which assumed a linear interaction effect between general adjustment and host country language ability on the frequency of visits to local restaurants, the findings again provide evidence for a positive and significant relationship (β = 0.17, p < .01). Figure 2 suggests that more frequent local restaurant visits are prevalent among highly adjusted expatriates with high host country language ability. Accordingly, there is sufficient empirical support for Hypothesis 2. Next, the results further show that the linear interaction effect between general adjustment and cosmopolitanism is not significant (β = −0.01, p > .05), but its quadratic interaction effect is positive and significant (β = 0.16, p < .05). Figure 3 shows that expatriates who are well-adjusted and have strong cosmopolitan identity show a stronger tendency for local restaurant visits, thus leading to Hypothesis 3 acceptance. Surprisingly, the results show that the interaction effect between general adjustment and an expatriate’s international experience exhibits a significant but negative effect on the frequency of visits to local restaurants (β = −0.12, p < .05). From Figure 4, it is evident that highly adjusted expatriates with greater international experience tend to decrease their visits to local restaurants, thus leading to Hypothesis 4 rejection.

Figure 2

Moderating Effect of Host Country Language Ability on the Relationship Between General Adjustment and Frequency of Visits to Local Restaurants

Figure 3

Moderating Effect of Cosmopolitanism on the Curvilinear Relationship Between General Adjustment and Frequency of Visits to Local Restaurants

Figure 4

Moderating Effect of International Experience on the Relationship Between General Adjustment and Frequency of Visits to Local Restaurants’

Regarding the control variables, only the “Jordan” dummy variable was found to have a positive impact on the frequency of visits to local restaurants. This is not surprising since Jordanian cuisine is highly associated with Arabic food and is well-known around the globe (Smith, 2018). To inspect the robustness of the findings, additional post hoc tests were executed and the model was run without the control variables. The results remained similar in terms of paths and statistical significance.

Discussion and Theoretical Implications

In today’s globalized world, frequent migrations and reallocations of people necessitate researchers to investigate their behavioral patterns within new cultural settings. By taking this perspective, the present study builds on inconclusive findings from the literature that investigated the food consumption (food buying and dining-out) practices of expatriates. From a theoretical standpoint, this study builds on the cross-cultural adjustment literature by revealing that rising adjustment levels of expatriates may positively influence their intention to dine out in local restaurants. On top of this, this study also makes some important extensions to the literature through the tenets of SIT (Adams & van de Vijver, 2015; Tajfel & Turner, 1979) by showing that the influence of general adjustment on local restaurant visits can be further explained by an expatriate’s identity projects, shaped through cultural integration, cosmopolitanism, and international experience.

First, the data corroborates the theoretical assumptions that general adjustment is directly and positively related to an expatriate’s frequency of visits to local restaurants. Higher general adjustment enables expatriates to feel comfort while settling in, and less alienated when interacting with host country gastronomy. Yet visits to local restaurants can be labeled as a means of cultural and symbolic consumption (Matson-Barkat & Robert-Demontrond, 2018), where an expatriate’s identity projects can play an instrumental role in explaining their patronage behavior. Expatriate identity projects have been outlined as important predecessors of expatriate behavior, but they have received only scant attention in the literature (Adams & van de Vijver, 2015; Bardhi et al., 2012; Sussman, 2000), especially in explicating local restaurant patronage.

By drawing on SIT, this study reveals that in the context of expatriates who have cultivated a strong local identity through mastering the host country language, adjustment will result in a higher frequency of visits to restaurants that offer local cuisine.

Furthermore, our study demonstrates a positive moderating effect of cosmopolitanism on the curvilinear relationship between general adjustment and the frequency of visits to local restaurants, thus shedding new light vis-à-vis the initially proposed hypothesis. In the case of highly cosmopolitan expatriates, this relationship is U-shaped, suggesting that cosmopolitans are initially fascinated by local gastronomy but as their general adjustment increases, their visits to local restaurants exponentially grow. For such expatriates, visiting local restaurants can be valorized at a symbolic level where such activities represent a source of inference of their cosmopolitan identity. This finding is in line with studies that regard the expatriate adjustment process by means of the U-shaped “marriage model,” which starts from honeymoon, going through culture shock and responding adjustment, and ending with mastery (Torbiörn, 1982). On the other hand, consumers who score low in cosmopolitanism might be driven more by functional aspects of restaurant patronage. They would therefore be inclined to decrease their visits to local restaurants after a certain point, as they may opt for other dining options which provide more comfort (e.g., restaurants serving other global cuisines), or, alternatively, they may opt to dine at home. By arguing that restaurant visits satisfy both physiological and symbolic needs simultaneously, the current study extends the hospitality literature (Matson-Barkat & Robert-Demontrond, 2018; Seo et al., 2012) by showcasing how an expatriate’s local and cosmopolitan identity projects complement adjustment in driving greater local restaurant patronage.

This study shows that an expatriate’s international experience has a negative moderating effect on the relationship between adjustment and the frequency of visits to local restaurants. The findings reveal that in the case of expatriates who are maladjusted, an expatriate’s international experience becomes a strong driver of local restaurants visits because of the cross-cultural capital accumulated throughout their sojourns, and thus making them less anxious about visiting local restaurants (see Figure 4). However, with an increase in their general adjustment, highly experienced expatriates decrease their visits to local restaurants. Unlike social identification effects that occur through cosmopolitanism, international experience proves to be a trait that triggers distinctiveness effects within the expatriate cohort. In other words, highly adjusted and highly experienced expatriates might see no value-added in increasing their frequency of local restaurant visits. They avoid social identification and signal tendency to differentiate themselves from expatriates who have low experiential capital (Brewer, 1991). These findings enrich the findings from the literature that explores expatriates’ local food-seeking behavior (Bundy, 2017; Miocevic & Zdravkovic, 2020a; Thompson & Tambyah, 1999) by showing that international experience and general adjustment can be substitutable when it comes to the prediction of local restaurant patronage due to optimal distinctiveness effects.

Implications for Practitioners

From a practitioner standpoint, restaurant managers aiming to market themselves to the expatriate population should be aware that success increases with rising levels of both host country language ability and the cosmopolitanism of expatriates. Since it is not feasible to get insight into these levels prior to any marketing research efforts, which would facilitate managers to segment a particular expatriate population according to these variables, restaurant managers could still provide menus in important expatriate languages as this could have a positive effect on attracting individuals who are less proficient in the host country language. Results suggest that cosmopolitan expatriates follow a learning curve when engaging with restaurants that offer local cuisine. Cosmopolitanism steers individuals to seek out new sources of cultural novelty. Restaurant managers could use this insight and incorporate various aspects of storytelling (Liu et al., 2018; Mattila, 2002; Mkono, 2012; Mossberg, 2008) to promote the cultural uniqueness and historical traditions of the host country’s cuisine and gastronomy, which would strongly appeal to cosmopolitan expatriates. As such they would secure the continuous engagement of highly adjusted and highly cosmopolitan expatriates. To cater to less cosmopolitan expatriates, restaurants could focus more on functional aspects of their offering, which would include benchmarking international success stories in terms of quality assurance and menu experimentation. Such tactics might cause less cosmopolitan expatriates to remain engaged with local restaurants. The findings also indicate that international experience can be substitutable with general adjustment. In this case, less adjusted and highly experienced expatriates would still embrace visits to local restaurants. Likewise, restaurants could organize themed dinners for highly experienced and adapted expatriates in order to evoke authentic, memorable experiences and boost revisit intentions (e.g., Tsai & Lu, 2012), analogously to events organized by expatriate community networks.

Notwithstanding the traditional marketing tactics in attracting those expatriates who are less proficient in a host country language, less cosmopolitan and yet highly experienced, local cuisine restaurants could engage in educational efforts with the goal to decrease general neophobia and risk perceptions among expatriates with regard to local food and gastronomy. For example, local restaurants could develop educational brochures or smartphone applications in partnership with other restaurant owners and/or local destination management companies. Using these or similar communication channels directed toward expatriates, local restaurants could educate and familiarize this specific market segment with local traditions. For highly experienced expatriates, in turn, restaurants may offer innovated and/or modernized menus, because “regular” local restaurants may be unattractive for them as experienced expatriates wish to differentiate themselves from the less experienced expatriate population.

Limitations

Finally, this study had several limitations which could be addressed by future research in this area. First, future studies may be conducted in geographical contexts other than the Greater Middle East in order to cover more exotic types of cuisine which are less familiar to restaurant goers worldwide (e.g., Southeast Asian or African cuisine). Put differently, the findings of this study may be reinforced by testing them in settings which grant even lower levels of expatriates’ familiarity regarding local cuisine.

Second, future studies may take a more complex approach to measuring the international experience of expatriates by also considering earlier visited host country destinations. In the present study, only an aggregate measure has been used, and future studies could investigate whether cultural distances between previous and current destinations of expatriates affect their willingness to visit local restaurants. Moreover, it would be interesting to see whether adjusted expatriates have increased or decreased visits to other restaurants which offer popular global cuisine (e.g., Chinese, Indian, or Italian cuisine). Likewise, future studies may provide more detailed insight into the motivation of expatriate visits to local restaurants versus dining at home. As this study confirms, not all highly adjusted expatriates are inclined to increase visits to local restaurants, so future studies may shed more light on these behaviors.

Third, although complex to implement, a longitudinal research design might help grasp the dynamics of how adjustment affects the frequency of visiting local restaurants, whereas a qualitative approach could provide a more in-depth insight into the reasons why this frequency is increasing or diminishing among highly adjusted expatriates. Accordingly, future studies could tap into the potential intervening influence of the psychological coping processes of food neophilia and neophobia, as they might as well provide additional explanatory power (Kim et al., 2009).

Fourth, and finally, future studies may address a potential technical issue which has been indicated by the exclusion of two general adjustment items in this study, due to their low loadings. Since the general adjustment items cover quite distinct facets of the construct that must, in fact, not necessarily correlate, future studies may consider the appropriateness of treating them as formative rather than reflective construct indicators (Mikulić, 2018; Mikulić & Ryan, 2018).

Concluding Summary

To sum up, the current study aimed to tackle inconsistencies in the literature dealing with expatriate food consumption. In this regard, it is hypothesized that higher engagement with local gastronomy (proxied through local restaurant visits) is driven by an expatriate’s ability to achieve higher levels of general adjustment within a host country. On top of this, this study extends the literature by showing that local restaurant patronage should also be assessed at the cultural and symbolic levels. To this end, by drawing on SIT, this study shows that host country language ability, cosmopolitanism and international experience offer novel insights into how expatriates’ identity projects might further our understanding of their visits to local restaurants.

Supplemental Material

sj-pdf-1-jht-10.1177_10963480211014933 – Supplemental material for Expatriate Adjustment and Engagement with Host Country Gastronomy: Investigating The Role of Identity Projects

Supplemental material, sj-pdf-1-jht-10.1177_10963480211014933 for Expatriate Adjustment and Engagement with Host Country Gastronomy: Investigating The Role of Identity Projects by Dario Miocevic and Josip Mikulic in Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research

Footnotes

ORCID iD

Josip Mikulic

Supplemental Material

Supplemental material for this article is available online.

Dario Miocevic, PhD (e-mail: dmiocevi@efst.hr), is an associate professor of marketing at the University of Split, Faculty of Economics, Croatia.

Josip Mikulic, PhD (e-mail: jmikulic@net.efzg.hr), is an associate professor of tourism at the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Business and Economics, Croatia, and a scientific advisor at the Institute for Tourism, Croatia.

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