International marketing antecedents of acculturation experiences of postgraduate overseas business students in Australia: a PLS approach

The more acculturated an international student is to the environment, the better the chances of succeeding in a foreign environment. Most international students experience some level of culture shock and adjustments. Studies have shown that the cultural background of overseas students may influence their learning expectations and its antecedents and consequences are of importance to marketing theorists and practitioners. This paper tests various hypotheses related to acculturation and its antecedents with regard to student university experience. By applying the partial least squares technique, this paper empirically validates these hypotheses. A total of 350 postgraduate overseas business students in Australia from twelve different countries participated in this study. The findings suggest that acculturation of overseas postgraduate students is strongly influenced by aspects of their safety, university experience and proper management of financial resources. Implications for the universities to optimize the potential of overseas postgraduate students will very much depend on their ability to acculturate them into their home country environments