Am I welcome here? Exploring how ethnic consumers assess their place identity

Bitner's [Bitner, M.J. Servicescapes: the impact of physical surroundings on customers and employees, J Mark 1992;56(April):57–72.] and Tombs and McColl-Kennedy's [Tombs A, McColl-Kennedy JR. Social-servicecape conceptual model. Mark Theory 2003; 3(4):447–475.] servicescape frameworks serve as models for illustrating how consumers perceive physical and social elements in consumption settings. This study builds on these frameworks by suggesting that consumers respond to additional elements in a social servicescape to assess their place identity. Place identity refers to the congruency between a consumer's self-identity and a place. On the basis of data collected from ethnic consumers, we posit that consumers assess their place identity by evaluating the ethnicity of employees and customers in a setting, a process termed “place likening,” and by responding to verbal and nonverbal cues in a consumption setting. We demonstrate how physical and place identity elements influence responses among Hispanic and homosexual consumers.