• Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.39-50
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• 2019

Social commerce is a term derived from the fusion of social media and e-commerce. This study aims to classify social commerce benefits as social benefits, confidentiality benefits, economic benefits, and customization benefits based on previous research claims. We also examine the effect of social commerce relationship benefits on trust and flow, and the effect of trust and flow on customer loyalty. Also, we examine how the relationship between trust and customer loyalty, and commitment and customer loyalty varies with self determination. The following are main results of this study. First, social benefits, confidentiality benefits, economic benefits, and customization benefits have significant effects on trust and flow. Second, social commerce trust and flow have a positive effect on customer loyalty. Third, the relationship of social commerce trust, flow, customer loyalty is differ depending on self determination. This study suggests the necessity of differential approach according to self-determination.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.120-128
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• 2013

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of relational benefits on perceived value in order to enhance customer satisfaction and win customer loyalty in the specialty coffee shop business. Structural equation modeling was performed and the structural model estimated with AMOS (ver 5.0). A total of 329 valid responses were used for data analysis. The findings show that confidence benefits among the relational benefits have a direct effect on perceived value. In addition, confidence benefits also have an indirect effect on customer satisfaction and loyalty from this perceived value. However, social benefits and special treatment benefits of customers had no effect on functional and symbolic value. In conclusion, establishing confidence benefits with the customer at the specialty coffee shop significantly influenced their perceptions of value, customer satisfaction, and loyalty.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.125-137
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• 2018

Credit unions organized and operated by the members of communities, work-places or groups are co-operative entities where customers act as owners not just transaction partners. The foregoing organizational characteristic of credit unions exerts beneficial effects on their customer relationship, and underscores the need for diversifying their relationship marketing strategies. This study sheds light on the structural relationship of credit unions in terms of principal variables of relationship marketing, i.e. relationship benefits, customer satisfaction and long-term relationship orientation. Specifically, we classify the relationship benefits into three sub-dimensions, i.e. confidence benefits, social benefits and special treatment benefits, and structuralize a causal model involving the customer satisfaction and long-term relationship orientation. From December 26, 2017 to January 26, 2018, A total of 360 questionnaires was collected. Of these, 346 were selected as the final samples, excluding 14, which are difficult to use in statistics. The reliability analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and regression analysis was performed by using the 'SPSS 24.0'. And confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation model analysis was performed by using 'AMOS 24.0'. The findings highlight the following. First, confidence benefits directly impact on the long-term relationship orientation, and indirectly influence the latter by the medium of customer satisfaction. Second, social benefits directly influence the long-term relationship orientation, without exerting any indirect effects on the latter via customer satisfaction. Third, special treatment benefits do not directly impact on the long-term relationship orientation but have indirect effects on the latter by the medium of customer satisfaction. Fourth, customer satisfaction has positive effects on the long-term relationship orientation. The findings suggest credit unions should establish a long-term relationship with their customers by providing them with confidence benefits to earn their trust and confidence, with social benefits to build a relationship of affinity and friendship, and with special treatment benefits to meet their needs in the long, not short and temporary, term.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.9 no.9
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• pp.371-378
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to classify the customers according to the characteristics of the relational benefits and to compare the performances of the sub-groups. As a result of the research, the group type according to the relational benefits was subdivided into 3 groups, and each group was named emotional relational group, continuous relational group and intermittent relational group considering customer characteristics. First, the emotional relational group is the group that emphasizes the empathy and assurance between the service provider and the customer, and the continuous relational group is the group with the highest social, confidence and economic benefits. The intermittent relational group was simply a transaction-oriented group. This implies that a differentiated customer management strategy is needed for each relational benefit group based on customer experience in medical services.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.413-425
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• 2016

This study investigated what effects the relational benefits perceived by the customers of solely operated beauty salons have on customer satisfaction, recommendation intention, and defection intention through the convergence of cosmetology and business management. For this, a total of 322 customers of solely operated beauty salons were chosen as final valid samples. For data analysis, frequency analysis, reliability analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and correlation analysis were performed using SPSS 15.0 and AMOS 18. For a hypothesis test, lastly, path analysis was conducted using structural equation modeling. The study results found the following: First, among the relational benefits perceived by the customers of solely operated beauty salons, confidence benefits and social benefits had a positive effect on customer satisfaction. Second, the relational benefits perceived by the customers of solely operated beauty salons had a positive effect on recommendation intention. Third, confidence benefits and social benefits had a negative effect on defection intention. Fourth, customer satisfaction had a positive effect on recommendation intention. Fifth, customer satisfaction had a negative effect on defection intention. Sixth, in relationship between the relational benefits perceived by the customers of solely operated beauty salons and recommendation/defection intention, customer satisfaction revealed partial mediating effects.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.31-56
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• 2009

As the competition intensifies and the market matures, marketers are more and more concerned with the relationship marketing. Many of the previous researches have pointed out that not all of the consumers are relationship-oriented. But none of the previous research has systematically investigated this issue. This research investigated the relationship among the three concepts: consumers' intrinsic characteristics, perceived importance of relational benefits, and relationship building intention with the salesperson. In this research the perceived importance of relational benefits is treated as mediating variable in the relationship between consumers' intrinsic characteristics and relationship building intention with the salesperson. The conceptual model in this study can be depicted as follows. From the consumers' perspective relational benefits can be defined as "the additional benefits consumers can receive in addition to core services through the long-term relationship with the service provider." And in this study two kinds of relational benefits are adopted by reviewing the previous research: confidence benefits and social benefits. Relational benefit received from the salesperson is very important to predict consumers' relationship building intention with the salesperson. The more relational benefits consumer wants from the salesperson, the more relationship building intention he/she has. From this point two hypotheses are derived as follows. Hypothesis 1: As the perceived importance of confidence benefit from the salesperson increases, the relationship building intention with the salesperson increases. Hypothesis 2: As the perceived importance of social benefit from the salesperson increases, the relationship building intention with the salesperson increases. In this study four individual characteristics(risk taking tendency, variety-seeking tendency, product knowledge, trust orientation) are hypothesized to influence the perceived importance of confidence benefits from the salesperson. And three individual characteristics(interpersonal orientation, price consciousness, trust orientation) are hypothesized to influence the perceived importance of social benefits from the salesperson. These 7 hypotheses are as follows. Hypothesis 3: As the risk taking tendency increases, the perceived importance of confidence benefits from the salesperson decreases. Hypothesis 4: As the variety-seeking tendency increases, the perceived importance of confidence benefits from the salesperson decreases. Hypothesis 5: As the product knowledge increases, the perceived importance of confidence benefits from the salesperson decreases. Hypothesis 6: As the trust orientation increases, the perceived importance of confidence benefits from the salesperson increases. Hypothesis 7: As the interpersonal orientation increases, the perceived importance of social benefits from the salesperson increases. Hypothesis 8: As the price consciousness increases, the perceived importance of social benefits from the salesperson decreases. Hypothesis 9: As the trust orientation increases, the perceived importance of social benefits from the salesperson increases. The whole model in this study can be depicted as follows: Data were collected from the 396 consumers who actually trade stocks through the salesperson and were analyzed using structural equation model. The analysis results show that consumers' perceived importance of relational benefits(confidence benefit and social benefit) play the roles of mediating variables in the causal relationship between consumers' inherent characteristics and their relationship building intention with the salesperson. As for the individual characteristics, the influences of variety-seeking tendency, trust orientation, and price consciousness are statistically significant. It was found that variety-seeking tendency has a significant negative effect on the perceived importance of confidence benefit, and that trust orientation has a significant positive effect on the perceived importance of both of confidence and social benefit. Finally it was also found that, on the contrary to the influence direction suggested in the hypothesis, price consciousness has a significant positive effect on the perceived importance of social benefit.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.155-175
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• 2010

Most of the service industries including finance and telecommunications have become matured and saturated. The competitions have become severe while the differences among brands become smaller. Therefore maintaining good relationships with customers has been critical for the service providers. In case of credit card and debit card, the similar patterns are shown. It is important for them to maintain good relationships with customers, and therefore, they have used marketing program which provides customized services to customers and utilizes the membership programs. Not only do they build and maintain good relationships, but also highlight their brands from the emotional aspects. For example, KB Card or Hyundai Card uses well-known designers' works for their credit card design. As well, they differentiate the designs of credit cards to stress on their brand personalities. BC Card introduced the credit card with perfume that a customer would like. Even though the credit card is small and not shown to public easily, it becomes more important for those companies to touch the customers' feelings with the brand personalities and their images. This is partly because of changes in consumers' lifestyles. Y-generations becomes highly likely to express themselves in many different ways and more emotional than X-generations. For the Y-generations, therefore, even credit cards in the wallet should be personalized and well-designed. In line with it, credit cards with good design can be seen as an example of brand identity, where different design for each customer can be used to recognize the membership groups that customers want to belong. On the other hand, these credit card companies offer the special treatment benefits for those customers who are heavy users for the cards. For example, those customers who love sports will receive some special discounts when they use their credit cards for sports related products. Therefore this study attempted to explore the relationships between relational benefits, brand identification and loyalty. It has been well known that relational benefits and brand identification lead to loyalty independently from many other studies, but there has been few study to review all the three variables all together in a research model. Furthermore, as reviewed above, in the card industry, many companies attempt to associate the brand image with their products to fit their customers' lifestyles while relational benefits are still playing an important role for their business. Therefore in our research model, relational benefits, brand identification, and loyalty are all included. We focus on the mediating effect of brand identification. From the relational benefits perspective, only special treatment benefit and confidence benefit are included. Social benefit is not applicable for this credit card industry because not many cases of face-to-face interaction can be found. From the brand identification perspective, personal brand identity and social brand identity are reviewed and included in the model. Overall, the research model emphasizes that the relationships between relational benefits and loyalty will be mediated by the effect of brand identification. The effects of relational benefits which are confidence benefit and special treatment benefits on loyalty will be realized when they fit to the personal brand identity and social brand identity. In the research model, therefore, the relationships between confidence benefit and social brand identity, and between confidence benefit and personal identity are hypothesized while the effects of special treatment benefit on social brand identity and personal brand identity are hypothesized. Loyalty, then, is hypothesized to have positive relationships with personal brand identity and social brand identity. In addition, confidence benefit among the relational benefits is expected to have a direct, positive relationship with loyalty because confidence benefit has been recognized as a critical factor for good relationships and satisfaction. Data were collected from college students who have been using either credit cards or debit cards. College students were regarded good subjects because they are in Y-generation cohorts and have tendency to express themselves more. Total sample size was two hundred three at the beginning, but after deleting those data with many missing values, one hundred ninety-seven data points were remained and used for the model testing. Measurement items were brought from the previous literatures and modified for this research. To test the reliability, using SPSS 14, chronbach's α was examined and all the values were from .874 to .928 exceeding over .7. Using AMOS 7.0, confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to investigate the measurement model. The measurement model was found good fit with χ²(67)=188.388 (p= .000), GFI=.886, AGFI=.821, CFI=.941, RMSEA=.096. Using AMOS 7.0, structural equation modeling has been used to analyze the research model. Overall, the research model fit were χ²(68)=188.670 (p= .000), GFI=.886, AGFI=,824 CFI=.942, RMSEA=.095 indicating good fit. In details, all the paths hypothesized in the research model were found significant except for the path from social brand identity to loyalty. Personal brand identity leads to loyalty while both confidence benefit and special treatment benefit have a positive relationships with personal and social identities. As well, confidence benefit has a direct positive effect on loyalty. The results indicates the followings. First, personal brand identity plays an important role for credit/debit card usage. Therefore even for the products which are not shown to public easy, design and emotional aspect can be important to fit the customers' lifestyles. Second, confidence benefit and special treatment benefit have a positive effects on personal brand identity. Therefore it will be needed for marketers to associate the special treatment and trust and confidence benefits with personal image, personality and personal identity. Third, this study found again the importance of confidence and trust. However interestingly enough, social brand identity was not found to be significantly related to loyalty. It can be explained that the main sample of this study consists of college students. Those strategies to facilitate social brand identity are focused on high social status groups while college students have not been established their status yet.

• 한국경영정보학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.365-371
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• 2007

인터넷 쇼핑 시장의 확산과 함께 소비자들은 이전보다 더욱 다양한 형태의 인터넷 쇼핑몰을 접할 수 있게 되었다. 따라서, 소비자들은 다양한 쇼핑몰의 선택의 기로에 서게 된 반면, 인터넷 쇼핑몰 업체의 입장에서는 고객의 유지가 매우 중요하다. 특히, 오프라인 기반을 갖춘 Brick & Clicks 인터넷 쇼핑몰의 경우에는 오프라인 고객을 온라인상에서도 그대로 유지하길 바랄 것이다. 그러나, 실제로는 많은 고객들이 오프라인 쇼핑몰과 온라인 쇼핑몰을 동일하게 이용하는 Brick & Clicks 쇼핑몰을 선택보다는 인터넷 상의 순수한 Pure-play 쇼핑몰을 선택하기도 한다. 이에 본 연구에서는 소비자가 Brick & Clicks 인터넷 쇼핑몰이나 Pure-play 인터넷 쇼핑몰을 선택하는 행동에 대해 스키마 관점에서 살펴보고자 한다. 본 연구에서는 인터넷 쇼핑몰에 대한 스키마 형성에 신뢰, 구조적 확신, 관계혜택이 영향을 준다고 보고, 총 514여명의 인터넷 쇼핑몰 사용자를 대상으로 실증분석을 하고 결과를 도출하였다. 분석결과 Pure-play 인터넷 쇼핑몰이 고객에게 더 높은 평가를 받는 것으로 나타나 Brick & Clicks 인터넷 쇼핑몰의 특화가 필요한 것으로 판단된다.

• Culinary science and hospitality research
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.266-279
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• 2014

The purposes of the study are to segment the American family restaurant market based on relational benefits and to compare each group's demographics, dining characteristics, relationship quality(consumer identification, switching costs, satisfaction, commitment), and relational outcomes(positive word-of-mouth intentions and share of purchases). 510 responses were collected from American family restaurant customers and analyzed using frequency analysis, EFA, reliability test, cluster analysis, MANOVA, discriminant analysis, chi-square test, and ANOVA. The results of the study found three different types of relational benefits: confidence, special treatment, and social benefits. The results of cluster analysis identified three market segments, namely, high relational benefits consumers, medium relational benefits consumers, and low relational benefits consumers. The three groups were different in terms of age(p<0.05) and level of education(p<0.05). In addition, high relational benefits consumers showed a higher level of relationship frequency(p<0.001), relationship quality(p<0.001), and relational outcomes(p<0.001), followed by medium and low relational benefits consumers. Overall, the results indicated that family restaurants need to deliver excellent relational benefits to customers in order to achieve desired relationship quality and relational outcomes. Managerial implications were provided.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.89-102
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• 2021

The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of shipping service firm's perceived relational benefits on switching barriers and loyalty focusing on tug boat service. To achieve the purpose of the research, literature survey on existing literature, thesis, research report is performed and also reliability analysis, validity test and multiple regression analysis using SPSSWIN 18.0 is used in this research. To verify a research model and hypothesis, a questionnaire survey among employees of shipping companies and shipping agencies was executed. 76 copies of total 200 copies of questionnaires were collected and the number of questionnaire used for empirical analysis was 76 copies. The main results of the study are summarized as below. First, Hypothesis 1 "shipping service firm's perceived relational benefits has a positive impact on the switching barrier" was supported by this study. Second, Hypothesis 2 "shipping service firm's perceived relational benefits has a positive impact on the loyalty" was supported in this research. Finally, Hypothesis 3 "switching barrier has a positive impact on the customer's loyalty" was also supported. Further research can be extended by adding more questionnaires including more shipping service firms all over the nation.