خدمات وابسته به زبانشناسی: صحبت کردن به زبان آنها ممکن است کافی نباشد  The linguistic servicescape: Speaking their language may not be enough

1. Theoretical framework To understand the impact of language on consumer responses, it is necessary to first review how language affects consumer behavior and to what extent language has been included in servicescape research. Later, the research framework of a linguistic servicescape is introduced in order to set the stage for research directions and propositions. 1. Hispanics in the United States and banking With a US population of 53 million in 2012 (Brown, 2014), growing to 100 million by 2050, Hispanic immigrants from Mexico, Central and South America as well as Hispanic American customers are being targeted by retail banks as excellent growth prospects (Shanmuganathan, Stone, & Foss, 2004) with more than half of all US retail banking growth over the next two decades predicted to come from the Hispanic market (Ayers, Kiser, & Sanchez, 2004). Not only do the majority of Hispanic banking customers prefer to speak Spanish, but language barriers are a significant reason why many Hispanic immigrants decide to remain “unbanked” (Robbins & Contreras, 2013). This has prompted major public and private institutions such as the US Federal Reserve Bank, Bank of America and Charles Schwab to provide Spanish-language advertising campaigns as well as services like multi-ethnic branch staff, multilingual signage, specific Hispanic-targeted service products and even dedicated Spanish-oriented branches (Shanmuganathan et al., 2004). 1.2. Language and consumer behavior Research in the area of consumer behavior provides insights into how factors like language and ethnicity can influence consumer evaluations and choices. Given the large and growing Hispanic population in the United States, research has focused mainly on how this language group responds to different language appeals in advertising. This is a common problem throughout the consumer behavior and language literature: “Most research about bilingual consumers focus on language use in situations without active consumer involvement, mainly bilingual advertising or text-processing” (Holmqvist et al., 2014: 951). Koslow, Shamdasani, and Touchstone (1994) report that Hispanics, whether immigrants or Hispanic Americans, feel positively towards retailers who use varying amounts of Spanish in advertising. Research by Chattaraman, Rudd, and Lennon (2009) and Chattaraman, Lennon, and Rudd (2010) on Hispanic consumers in the United States show that these consumers make higher aesthetic judgments and evaluate products more highly if the product has both language and cultural background cues. Dolinsky and Feinberg (1986) show in a study involving Hispanic- and non-Hispanic Americans that both groups become stressed and suffer overload when provided information in a non-native language. Information overload also occurs sooner in the Hispanics than in non-Hispanic Americans. Donthu and Cherian (1994) show that Spanish language usage by a retailer leads to ethnic identification with the retailer which influences shopping behavior of Hispanics based on the strength of their identification with that ethnic group. Research by Rosenbaum and Montoya (2006) suggests that ethnic consumers are more likely to be loyal to stores based on appropriate verbal and non-verbal cues including interacting with store employees of their same ethnic background (Rosenbaum & Walsh, 2011).