• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
• /
• v.23 no.1
• /
• pp.1-19
• /
• 2014

Weather seems to influence industries in a variety of ways. On a day-to-day basis, it is the most volatile external factor influencing consumer and market behavior. And, because weather is constantly changing, industries must deal with a continuously shifting array of opportunities and risks. This study aims to examine how climate and weather changes and information, as external environmental factors, have affected the Korean industries, particularly marine shipping and logistics. To find out the economic value of marine weather information, we use measurable results of VVOS(Vessel and Voyage Optimization Services) in the ocean shipping, which the marine weather software tool can save fuel costs up to 4%. When the fuel saving is same as VVOS's performance, the saving of Korean flag ship is estimated about 62 billion won and the saving of total flag ship is estimated about 519 billion won. However, coastal shipping companies have been struggling with the heavy weather factors, such as wave height, wave period and wind. Major findings are that wind and wave height have a significant negative effect on cargo transport, while wave period has a significant positive effect on cargo transport. And to conclude, when we use efficiently the marine weather information, we can increase cargo transport and save fuel costs etc.

• Asia-pacific Journal of Multimedia Services Convergent with Art, Humanities, and Sociology
• /
• v.7 no.12
• /
• pp.37-50
• /
• 2017

This study was performed to understand Malaysian Muslims' awareness, attitudes and purchasing behaviour on ginseng (G) and red ginseng (RG) products. A survey of 200 Muslims residing in Malaysia was conducted on awareness, eating experience, preferences, cognitive efficiency of G and RG products, purchase behaviors and satisfaction through a online-survey methodology. Results shows that 50 % and 40% of the participants aware the G and RG products. In particular, awareness amongst female or married consumers is relatively high. Health promotion is the major reasons to consume eat G and RG products in this group of participants. However, the most frequently consumed type of G products was ginseng coffee, candies and chocolates, in their 40s and 50s or married consumers. Participants are also aware of the efficacy claims of these products with regard to improvement of fatigue, immunity and hypertension. While Malaysian Muslim consumers are satisfied with the health claims, convenience to purchase and tastes and aroma, they are dissatisfied with packaging specifications, price. Participants would intend to recommend G and RG products to relatives (82.6%), and are willing to buy them in the future (83.5%). Conclusively, there must be a clear interest and demands of Halal-certified G and RG products among Malaysian Muslims and it is deemed to need of strategic product development and marketing to enhance awareness of G and RG products in the future.

• Journal of Distribution Research
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.29-62
• /
• 2012

As distribution environment is changing rapidly and competition is more intensive in the channel of distribution, the importance of retailer image and retailer equity is increasing as a different competitive advantages. Also, consumers are not functionally oriented and that their behavior is significantly affected by the symbols such as retailer image which identify retailer in the market place. That is, consumers do not choose products or retailers for their material utilities but consume the symbolic meaning of those products or retailers as expressed in their self images. The concept of self-image congruence has been utilized by marketers and researchers as an aid in better understanding how consumers identify themselves with the brands they buy and the retailer they patronize. Although self-image congruity theory has been tested across many product categories, the theory has not been tested extensively in the retailing. Therefore, this study attempts to investigate the impact of self image congruence between retailer image and self image of consumer on retailer equity such as retailer awareness, retailer association, perceived retailer quality, and retailer loyalty. The purpose of this study is to find out whether retailer-self image congruence can be a new antecedent of retailer equity. In addition, this study tries to examine how four-dimensional retailer equity constructs (retailer awareness, retailer association, perceived retailer quality, and retailer loyalty) affect customers' repatronage intention. For this study, data were gathered by survey and analyzed by structural equation modeling. The sample size in the present study was 254. The reliability of the all seven dimensions was estimated with Cronbach's alpha, composite reliability values and average variance extracted values. We determined whether the measurement model supports the convergent validity and discriminant validity by Exploratory factor analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis. For each pair of constructs, the square root of the average variance extracted values exceeded their correlations, thus supporting the discriminant validity of the constructs. Hypotheses were tested using the AMOS 18.0. As expected, the image congruence hypotheses were supported. The greater the degree of congruence between retailer image and self-image, the more favorable were consumers' retailer evaluations. The all two retailer-self image congruence (actual self-image congruence and ideal self-image congruence) affected customer based retailer equity. This result means that retailer-self image congruence is important cue for customers to estimate retailer equity. In other words, consumers are often more likely to prefer products and retail stores that have images similar to their own self-image. Especially, it appeared that effect for the ideal self-image congruence was consistently larger than the actual self-image congruence on the retailer equity. The results mean that consumers prefer or search for stores that have images compatible with consumer's perception of ideal-self. In addition, this study revealed that customers' estimations toward customer based retailer equity affected the repatronage intention. The results showed that all four dimensions (retailer awareness, retailer association, perceived retailer quality, and retailer loyalty) had positive effect on the repatronage intention. That is, management and investment to improve image congruence between retailer and consumers' self make customers' positive evaluation of retailer equity, and then the positive customer based retailer equity can enhance the repatonage intention. And to conclude, retailer's image management is an important part of successful retailer performance management, and the retailer-self image congruence is an important antecedent of retailer equity. Therefore, it is more important to develop and improve retailer's image similar to consumers' image. Given the pressure to provide increased image congruence, it is not surprising that retailers have made significant investments in enhancing the fit between retailer image and self image of consumer. The enhancing such self-image congruence may allow marketers to target customers who may be influenced by image appeals in advertising.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.27-39
• /
• 2009

Compulsive consumption is regarded as a global phenomenon that can adversely affect consumer well-being. Although the topic has been studied in different cultural settings, we have seen relatively little theory development and explanations of compulsive behavior Nearly all previous empirical studies attempt to explain this behavior by correlating measures of compulsive behavior with independent variables taken within the same time frame. However, recent developments in social sciences suggest that such a phenomenon may best understood in the context of the person's earlier-in-life experiences. Using the life course paradigm as an overarching framework, the present research extends previous work on this topic. Following hypotheses were drawn from literature review: H1: The earlier in childhood and adolescence a person experiences family dislocation, the greater his or her likelihood of exhibiting compulsive behaviors in adulthood. H2: The earlier in life the young person experienced family dislocation, the greater the number of family disruption events the young person experienced prior entering adulthood years. H3: Family dislocation leads to (a) increased frequency of socio.oriented family communications and (b) decreased frequency of concept-oriented family communication. H4: Young adults who were raised in families characterized by a strong socio-oriented communication structure are more likely to exhibit compulsive consumption tendencies than those who were raised in families characterized by a weak socio-oriented family communication structure. H5: Young adults who were raised in families characterized by a strong concept-oriented communication structure are less likely to exhibit compulsive consumption tendencies than those who were raised in families characterized by a week concept-oriented family communication structure. H6: The relationship between family disruption events experienced during adolescence and perceived stressfulness of these events is moderated by (a) global family support, (b) emotional family support, and (c) material family support. Those reporting higher levels of family support as teenagers are less likely to report experiencing stress due to family disruption events. H7: Perceived stressfulness of family disruption events experienced during adolescent years are associated with compulsive consumption tendencies in early adulthood. H8: The greater the number of family disruption events young adults experienced during their adolescent years the more frequent was their communication about consumption with their peers. H9: The more frequent was the young persons' communication with their peers about consumption during their adolescent years, the more likely they are to report compulsive buying tendencies as young adults. We use a sample of 120 Thai undergraduate students attending classes taught in English as part of a four-year international program. Product-moment correlations, hierarchical regression analysis and partial correlation were used to analyze data. Results of testing hypotheses showed that hypothesis 2, 4, 7 and 9 were supported and hypothesis 1, 3, 5, 6 and 8 were not supported. Our study did not find a significant relationship between the age when a person experienced family dislocation and their compulsive behavior tendencies expressed as young adults. We did not find a significant relationship between family dislocation and family communication structures. But we found a significant positive relationship between socio-oriented communication structure and compulsive buying and a significant relationship between our peer communication and compulsive buying measures. Also we found perceived stressfulness due to the disruptive events to have a significant positive relationship between the perceived stressfulness and compulsive buying. Implications from these findings, limitations of this research and future research suggestions were discussed.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
• /
• v.21 no.4
• /
• pp.45-62
• /
• 2011

The notion of information systems (IS) continuance has recently emerged as one of the most important research issues in the field of IS. A great deal of research has been conducted thus far on the basis of theories adapted from various disciplines including consumer behaviors and social psychology, in addition to theories regarding information technology (IT) acceptance. This previous body of knowledge provides a robust research framework that can already account for the determination of IS continuance; however, this research points to other, thus-far-unelucidated determinant factors such as habit, which were not included in traditional IT acceptance frameworks, and also re-emphasizes the importance of emotion-related constructs such as satisfaction in addition to conscious intention with rational beliefs such as usefulness. Experiences should also be considered one of the most important factors determining the characteristics of information system (IS) continuance and the features distinct from those determining IS acceptance, because more experienced users may have more opportunities for IS use, which would allow them more frequent use than would be available to less experienced or non-experienced users. Interestingly, experience has dual features that may contradictorily influence IS use. On one hand, attitudes predicated on direct experience have been shown to predict behavior better than attitudes from indirect experience or without experience; as more information is available, direct experience may render IS use a more salient behavior, and may also make IS use more accessible via memory. Therefore, experience may serve to intensify the relationship between IS use and conscious intention with evaluations, On the other hand, experience may culminate in the formation of habits: greater experience may also imply more frequent performance of the behavior, which may lead to the formation of habits, Hence, like experience, users' activation of an IS may be more dependent on habit-that is, unconscious automatic use without deliberation regarding the IS-and less dependent on conscious intentions, Furthermore, experiences can provide basic information necessary for satisfaction with the use of a specific IS, thus spurring the formation of both conscious intentions and unconscious habits, Whereas IT adoption Is a one-time decision, IS continuance may be a series of users' decisions and evaluations based on satisfaction with IS use. Moreover. habits also cannot be formed without satisfaction, even when a behavior is carried out repeatedly. Thus, experiences also play a critical role in satisfaction, as satisfaction is the consequence of direct experiences of actual behaviors. In particular, emotional experiences such as enjoyment can become as influential on IS use as are utilitarian experiences such as usefulness; this is especially true in light of the modern increase in membership-based hedonic systems - including online games, web-based social network services (SNS), blogs, and portals-all of which attempt to provide users with self-fulfilling value. Therefore, in order to understand more clearly the role of experiences in IS continuance, analysis must be conducted under a research framework that includes intentions, habits, and satisfaction, as experience may not only have duration-based moderating effects on the relationship between both intention and habit and the activation of IS use, but may also have content-based positive effects on satisfaction. This is consistent with the basic assumptions regarding the determining factors in IS continuance as suggested by Oritz de Guinea and Markus: consciousness, emotion, and habit. The principal objective of this study was to explore and assess the effects of experiences in IS continuance, with special consideration given to conscious intentions and unconscious habits, as well as satisfaction. IN service of this goal, along with a review of the relevant literature regarding the effects of experiences and habit on continuous IS use, this study suggested a research model that represents the roles of experience: its moderating role in the relationships of IS continuance with both conscious intention and unconscious habit, and its antecedent role in the development of satisfaction. For the validation of this research model. Korean university student users of 'Cyworld', one of the most influential social network services in South Korea, were surveyed, and the data were analyzed via partial least square (PLS) analysis to assess the implications of this study. In result most hypotheses in our research model were statistically supported with the exception of one. Although one hypothesis was not supported, the study's findings provide us with some important implications. First the role of experience in IS continuance differs from its role in IS acceptance. Second, the use of IS was explained by the dynamic balance between habit and intention. Third, the importance of satisfaction was confirmed from the perspective of IS continuance with experience.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
• /
• v.5 no.2
• /
• pp.109-125
• /
• 1987

Previous studies show that working wives in the market contribute to the family economy that affects the family member's behaviors as consumers. Accordingly, the consumer behavior among working wives would be differ form that among nonworking wives. As the number of working wives in the market is increasing, this study focuses on the estimation of the degree of rationality in purchasing decision making among wives in relation to their working status. Therefore, this study attempts to construct an rationality index of a purchasing decision making both at a high and a low involvement situation by working and nonworking wives, and analyzes the differences in the results of the two groups. This study also examines how the rationality indices vary with the selected socioeconomic variables. The data are obtained from self-administered questionnaires from a sample of 217 working and 191 nonworking wives at Seoul and Seongnam in 1986. The statistical methods used in this study are Factor Analysis, Multiple Regression, and Analysis of Variances. The major findings of this study are as follows; 1) The mean value of the rationality index among nonworking wives is higher than that among working wives. Under a high involvement situation, the mean value of the rationality index among working wives is negative. Therefore, it is likely that nonworking wives make purchasing decisions more rationally than working wives. 2) The higher the degree of wive's education, the more rational the purchasing decision making. Under a low involvement situation, the higher the monthly family income, the more rational the purchasing decision making . under the same situation, the shorter the duration of marriage , the more rational the purchasing decision making. 3) Under a low involvement situation, the rationality indices of working wives vary with their occupations. The rationality indices among those in selling and service jobs are lower than those among those in professional jobs. 4) The impact of the selected socio-economic variables on the degree of the rationality in purchasing decision making differs depending on whether the wife is working or not. Under a low involvement situation, the positive impact of the monthly family income on the rationality in purchasing decision making is stronger among nonworking wives than among working wives. Under the same situation, the negative impact of the duration of marriage on the rationality is stronger among nonworking wives than among working wives.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
• /
• v.12 no.1
• /
• pp.52-63
• /
• 2000

In Korea, most of the patients with chronic liver diseases have been using some kind of alternative therapies at home. however, the question is why do people turn to alternative therapy and how the patients are able to use the alternative therapies widely, though the effects have not been proven scientifically. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the process of the patients' experiences using the alternative therapies. The 16 participants were from internalmedical departments in hospital and the permission was received to participate in this study from the subjects. The data were collected with interviews and participants observations, analyzed by the grounded theory methodology of Strauss and Corbin(1990). With the analysis of the data, 15 categories were generated such as psychological pressures, barriers of role performances, distrusts of western medicine, blind obediences to the treatments, attitudes towards alternative therapies, supportive systems, obstacles to taking alternative therapies, financial burdens, collecting informations, pursuing alternative modalities, efforting diversities, analyzing by themselves, managing the body, accepting the disease, and ambivalence. The paradigm model was developed to identify the relationships of categories. The central phenomenon of the experiences of seeking alternative therapies was named jagi momdasrim. The central concept of jagi momdasrim is a mind-set to desire to wellness and to take more responsibility for one's own healing by pursuing alternate healing modalities rather than the western medical system. The process of jagi momdasrim evolved several stages such as seeking, finding, struggling, overcoming, fulfilling, and governing the diseases. Four patterns of taking alternative therapies were found as follows: the bulsin-chujong-hyung, the suyoung-hyung, the yangdari-gulchiki-hyung, the chamjae-hyung. In conclusion, the phenomenon of alternative therapies as consumer-driven force to heal the chronic liver diseases of the patients could be explained as an adaptive behavior through the process of jagi momdasrim. However, since most of the participants practicing some kind of alternative therapies had no evidences of its effects and never tried to consult with their medical doctors about alternative therapies, we should approach more actively. Therefore, it is recommended for nurses to listen and watch the patients behaviors of using alternative therapies and find out how to educate the patients about the proper and safe way to take the alternative therapies.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
• /
• v.13
• /
• pp.135-158
• /
• 2004

On-line consumers have some visit behavior characteristics when they visit internet-shopping mall between visit-stage and purchase-stage. Therefore, information of on-line consumers have influenced on internet-shopping mall's profitabilities at site manager's perspectives. For examples, Are any on-line consumers continuous visiting under any situations? Or are any on-line consumers purchased on any specific internet-shopping mall? Expecially in this paper, researcher tried to understand visit behavioral characteristics of on-line consumers using two-stage mixture regression analysis. Throughout this process, it could be proposed method, which could be reinforced competitiveness of internet-shopping mall by segmental decision-making method. Additionally, it is expected that visit behavioral characteristics' information could be supplied strategic implications between visit-stage and purchase-stage Throughout empirical test it could be proved two-stage decision-making process, which decision-making process of on-line consumers would be processed visit-stage and purchase-stage. In this study, researcher proposed suitable response strategy after understanding visiting behavioral characteristics of on-line consumers. This paper has some academical contributions, which visit behavioral characteristics of on-line consumers could be grasped the meaning by site stickiness and navigation pattern.

• Journal of the HCI Society of Korea
• /
• v.13 no.2
• /
• pp.5-20
• /
• 2018

The fully autonomous vehicle, which has been actively studied in a worldwide before commercialization, is expected to become a living space by securing time and space compared to existing automobile. For this reason, interior design of fully autonomous vehicle has become very important. To enhance passenger's experience and satisfaction in fully autonomous vehicle, it is necessary to design an optimized space that can support in-vehicle activities. For this purpose, efforts to analyze the passenger's in-vehicle activities should be preceded. However, there were limited studies that define space and in-Vehicle activities of fully autonomous vehicle in Korea. The purpose of this study is to suggest the guideline of the interior design of fully autonomous vehicle by analyzing and classifying the scope of activities that the passenger can perform within the vehicle. As a method of the study, literature studies on future concept cars, human lifetime behavior and consumer needs had been conducted. As a result in-vehicle activities could be applied in a fully autonomous vehicle. Four in-vehicle activities 'work', 'home life and personal care', 'relaxation' and 'conversation and hobby' had been derived through the analysis of in-vehicle activities. Based on the results, the interior design of fully autonomous vehicle guideline has been suggested. The study is significant because the result of the study can act as a basic study which considers the activities in the fully autonomous vehicle environment.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.13 no.7
• /
• pp.350-360
• /
• 2013

The satisfaction of customers, who are in a servicescape, will be subject to many environment stimulations. In particularly, in the hospitality industry such as restaurants service experience for customer is very important. Thus, not only the stylistic elements but also the social and socially symbolic elements. So this paper expands Bitner's servicescape framework by conceptualizing the existence of a expanded servicescape. The expanded servicescape has three important dimensions, which is the physical, the social and the socially symbolic. Structural modeling largely supports the hypothesized framework and the results about the relationship between expanded servicescape factors, relationship quality(satisfaction, trust, commitment) and repurchase are summarized as follows. And this study utilizes a questionnaire survey to gather data regarding consumers' perceptions by using expanded servicescape. First, the analysis proved that except comfort the physical dimensions which including comfort, convenience, aesthetics caused a positive impact on customer satisfaction. Second, social dimensions which including appearance, etiquette and professionalism caused a positive impact on customer trust. Third, except community symbolic dimensions which including nostalgia, connection to culture caused a positive impact on customer commitment. Forth, it proved that expected relationship quality(customer satisfaction, trust, commitment) caused a positive impact on repurchase behavior.