In order to cut down the overuse of plastic bags, the Taiwan government had implemented a restriction policy for the use of plastic shopping bags. Under this policy, hypermarkets, department stores, supermarkets and many other stores are prohibited from offering free plastic shopping bags. They can only sell them. Meanwhile, since their goods are cheap, various, and many hypermarkets have become a main shopping place and the kind of store where Taiwanese spend most of their money. This study was aimed to find out the variables affecting shoppers¡¦ bag-use behaviors¡Xwhich included bringing one¡¦s own bag and requesting bags from the salesperson¡Xat hypermarkets. A bag-use model was proposed for these variables. It included six variables and was based on Hines, Hungerford and Tomera¡¦s (1986) model of responsible environmental behavior and Cheng¡¦s (2004) integrated model of environmental behavior. The variables were environmental concern, environmental responsibility, attitude toward the behavior, self-efficacy, response efficacy and situational factors. Results showed that the bag-use model could predict both kinds of environmental behaviors (Nagelkerke R2 = .68, .60). Self-efficacy was the main variable that determined whether shoppers would bring their bags to shopping, whereas situational variables determined whether shoppers would request bags from the salesperson. Implications of these results and suggestions for the authorities were discussed.

Acculturation is the process in which individuals modify themselves to a new, dominant culture and how individuals acquire knowledge, skills, and behaviors appropriate to the consumer culture of the dominant culture. This study seeks to determine how the acculturation influence variables mentioned in past studies, the situational variable of companionship during consumption, and the marketing tactics employed by Taiwanese firms influence consumer acculturation of Latin American student visitors in Taiwan, i.e. attitude toward Taiwanese brands, consumption intention, and consumption behavior. Two product categories are studied: food and clothing. Data from Latin American student visitors were collected via web-based English and Spanish questionnaires as well as two in-depth interviews. Regression analysis and cluster analysis results indicate the following main findings: (1) marketing tactics employing English, Spanish, or Latin elements result in less preference consumption of Taiwanese food products and brands; (2) Taiwanese companionship during consumption is positively associated with more preference and consumption of Taiwanese food and clothing brands and products; (3) permanent residence intent and Taiwanese clothing preference and consumption are positively associated; (4) Taiwan media exposure is positively associated with Taiwan clothing consumption; (5) cosmopolitanism is negatively associated with Taiwan clothing consumption; (6) food product consumer acculturation is higher than clothing products in terms of consumption intention and consumption behavior whereas preference of Taiwanese brands in both product categories do not vary; (7) four acculturation patterns that coincide with past studies were identified among the Latin American student visitors in Taiwan, namely integrationists, assimilationists, separatists, and marginalizationists. These findings not only identify Berry’s acculturation patterns among visitors, but they also provide a different insight into consumer acculturation by studying visitors who by nature are different from the commonly studied immigrants: they do not travel in family units, hence the food habits are not as change resistant, and they do not intend to stay in the host culture for long, hence they supply of clothing they bring along with them allows them to refrain from consuming host culture clothing. Findings also contribute to both academia and management by discovering the negatively relationship between marketing tactics employing English and Spanish elements (e.g. English/Spanish communication content, salesperson, and brand names) and visitors’ consumer acculturation.