International Journal of Hospitality Management 31 (2012) 916–927 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect International Journal of Hospitality Management jo ur n al homep age: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhosman The effects of acculturation and uncertainty avoidance on foreign resident choice for Korean foods Sunhee Seo a,∗ , WooMi Jo Phillips b,1 , Junghee Jang a,2 , Kawon Kim c,3 a Department of Food Service Management, Ewha Womans University, 305 Human Ecology Building, 11-1 Daehyun-dong, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 120-750, Republic of Korea b Apparel, Design, & Hospitality Management, North Dakota State University, Dept #2610, P.O. Box 6050, Fargo, ND 58108-6050, USA c Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel & Restaurant Management, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77004, USA a r t i c l e i n f o Keywords: Acculturation Uncertainty avoidance Dining-out behavior Foreign residents Korean foods Korean restaurants a b s t r a c t This study attempts to identify dining-out patterns among foreign residents in South Korea, examining the differences in foreign residents’ attitudes toward Korean foods and behavioral intentions to patron- ize Korean restaurants based on their acculturation and uncertainty avoidance levels. The results show that foreign residents in South Korea dine out frequently and intend to revisit Korean restaurants. How- ever, the high acculturation group has a more positive attitude toward, better understanding of, and more preference for Korean foods than the low acculturation group. Satisfaction, revisiting, and recom- mendation intentions for Korean restaurants are higher among the high acculturation group than the low. The low uncertainty avoidance group spends more money for dining out than the high uncertainty avoidance group, who perceive Korean foods as expensive. Attitudes toward, understanding of, and pref- erence for Korean foods, do not differ significantly between the two uncertainty avoidance groups; nor do satisfaction and behavioral intentions to Korean restaurants. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The number of foreigners in South Korea has increased sig- nificantly. This is especially true for major cities like Seoul, the capital, which had 255,749 foreign residents in 2009, or 2.44% of the total city population (Seoul Census Bureau, 2010). Foreign res- idents in Seoul have increased by 24.4% since 1970. International businesses, exchanges of human resources, international students and scholars, and foreign spouses should boost the number of for- eign residents by 10% each year (Ministry of Justice, 2004–2007). Globalization has given people opportunities to experience other cultures and move to other countries, so this growing trend is true not only for South Korea but other countries like Japan. However, the growth rate of foreign residents in South Korea is more notice- able. In Japan, foreign residents have increased by 56.8% from 1991 to 2000, while South Korea showed an increase of 426% from 1995 to 2004 (Ministry of Justice, 2004–2007). Multiculturalism has become a worldwide social trend. Cus- tomers in multicultural societies have diverse wants based on ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +82 2 3277 4484; fax: +82 2 3277 2862. E-mail addresses: seo@ewha.ac.kr (S. Seo), woomi.phillips@ndsu.edu (W.J. Phillips), junghee- -@hanmail.net (J. Jang), kkim17@uh.edu (K. Kim). 1 Tel.: +1 701 231 7358; fax: +1 701 231 5273. 2 Tel.: +82 2 3277 3791; fax: +82 2 3277 2862. 3 Tel.: +1 281 777 2487. their cultural backgrounds. However, immigrants and long-term residents must adapt to a different culture. One major cultural adjustment is to the food in the host country. Most immigrants and foreign residents are adventurous enough to move to another country initially, so many of them are ready to try new and different foods. Moreover, immigrants and foreign residents who cannot find food items and ingredients from their home countries inevitably consume the foods offered in the new country. In either case, immi- grants and foreign residents need time to adjust to the foods of their new country of residence. This process of adjustment, along with social integration and adapting emotionally to their new environ- ment, is called acculturation. Through acculturation, immigrants and long-term residents change their behaviors, values, and atti- tudes toward the new culture (Fugita and O’Brien, 1985). Acculturation has been studied as a critical influence in the lives of immigrants and long-term residents (Fugita and O’Brien, 1985). Bojanic and Xu (2006) asserted that the new culture and lifestyle in the United States influence the dining-out behaviors of Chi- nese immigrants. Chinese are especially particular about the food they consume. Thus, in adjusting to the life in the U.S., Chinese immigrants may adjust their food choices as exposure to new and different kinds of food in the U.S. provides chances to try those foods. However, acculturation to a new society occurs at differ- ent rates and different levels. Some accept a new culture relatively quickly whereas others require more time. These individual differ- ences in acculturation could be explained by uncertainty avoidance, which can explain the tolerance level for uncertainty or ambiguity 0278-4319/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijhm.2011.10.011