• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.21-43
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• 2013

Internet vendors are gradually realizing the importance of "locking-in" online customers in order to ensure profitability. Erection of switching barriers increases customers'lock-in and in turn may result in their willingness to pay price-premium for the same service. However, raising customer lock-in online is difficult because search costs are very low. Therefore, this study examines the effect of switching barriers (customer satisfaction, perceived value and relative advantage) on switching costs and the effect of switching costs on customer's willingness to pay more. Since switching costs and consequent relationships may depend upon the type of product therefore the research model in this study is examined for both search products and experience products. Data is collected through an online survey from two websites (one each for search product and experience product). The empirical results show the key role of switching costs in customers' willingness to pay more and the relationships among the four constructs. The theoretical and practical implications of this study are also discussed.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.5-14
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• 2020

Purpose: Trust plays an important role in e-commerce because consumers perceive more risk involved with this type of shopping than traditional way of shopping. Trust is defined as complex and multidimensional issue. This paper argues that trust should be considered to have two important components as trust belief and trust intention, in which trust belief has three components as competence, integrity and benevolence. Research design, data and methodology: This study examines the relationship between retailer website quality (web design, navigation, information), reputation and risk toward trust. In addition, trust and risk toward buying behavior are also considered, leading to customer satisfaction. The paper is conducted on a sample of 594 customers with direct experience of online shopping in Vietnam. Both confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and a structural equation model (SEM) were utilised. Results: Empirical findings from this paper indicate that trust is high order construct. Website quality and reputation have positive impacts on customers' trust. Trust has a positive relationship to buying behavior and customers' satisfaction while perceived risk has negative relationship to buying behavior. In contrast, a relationship between perceived risk and trust is not supported in this study. Conclusions: Improving reputation and website quality (especially information) may increase customers' trust and eventually lead to purchase decision.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.544-555
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• 2004

The purpose of this study is to highlight the importance of relationship marketing which has been developed as an alternative way of handling marketing in family restaurants. This study focused on the consumers' behavior - mainly their switching behavior and loyalty toward relationship marketing activities exercised by from family restaurants. 269 usable questionnaires were collected from customers patronizing three family style restaurants in Seoul. Several statistical methods were used including descriptive analysis, reliability test, covariance analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and covariance structural analysis. The result drawn from empirical test proved that relationship marketing activities actually are the significant determinants of relationship quality and thus to the customers' behaviors toward the restaurants they patronize. Managerial implications can be drawn from the result findings that restaurant companies can identify the activities of relationship marketing to continue the long-term relationship with their customers. Also restaurant companies can use the activities of relationship marketing as differentiating strategies, and allocate their resources into the activities of relationship marketing.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.3
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• pp.257-285
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• 1999

Korea Postal Service(KPS) nowadays lies in competitive environment with alternative business such as door-to-door delivery service. Customers began to complain about postal service quality and ask the government to reform a public firm through management innovation. But, Korea Postal Service has not met the break-even point between it's revenue and expenditure because the service is under the government system and cannot independently make major decisions on products, pricing, services, personnel management, financial policies and etc. The objective of this study is to provide marketing planners and practitioners with some guidelines when they establish marketing strategies and to help marketers on theories and practical instructions about postal service marketing when they interact with customers. I. A field survey on both customer satisfaction and internal staff satisfaction was conducted to get some ideas for the marketing strategy planning. II. Practical guidelines and instructions were made for marketers to communicate with customers in various areas such as pricing, product, service demand, marketing channel, promotion, and etc. III. Some suggestions on marketing policies for planners and mangers in the marketing strategy were described including personnel resource as well as physical resource. IV. Special issues on small packet market and direct mail market were discussed and some alternative solutions were proposed. V. Database marketing strategy was emphasized to get new business opportunities such as direct mail, and to provide differential services to customers as much as their contribution into the profitability for KPS. VI. Cyber Post Office should be constructed on Internet to provide new services which are combined with physical material flow and information technologies.

• Management Science and Financial Engineering
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.81-97
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• 2010

Trust is one of the most important aspects of the relationship between retailers and consumers in e-commerce. Users may have concerns about transaction security or personal information leakage when they engage in transactions over the Internet. It can be difficult to attract customers if the retailers or service providers cannot establish trust with their customers. There have been many studies of trust-building mechanisms between customers and e-storefronts. However, little work has been done on identifying the relationships between customer satisfaction, purchase intention, and trust. In addition, trust building occurs in the pre- and post-purchase phases of an e-commerce transaction, as well as gradually over repeated transactions. Thus we distinguish between cue-based trust and experience-based trust. The objective of this study was to explain the impact of trust on customer satisfaction and purchase intention in relation to e-commerce sites from the perspective of a multi-dimensional concept of trust. We surveyed 350 undergraduate students and obtained 331 responses for analysis. The result of our analysis showed that cue-based trust has a positive relationship with trust based on experience. Although the two concepts of trust have positive relationships with satisfaction, the path coefficient of trust based on experience was higher than that of cue-based trust. In addition, the purchase intention mediates the relationship between cue-based trust and experience-based trust.

• Culinary science and hospitality research
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.14-24
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• 2010

This study examines life satisfaction of restaurant customers in Busan and their quality of life in order to verify the causal relationship of two variables. A survey was conducted from restaurant customers in Busan from on April 1st to April 30th, 2010 for an empirical analysis. Three hundred and sixteen questionnaires were selected as a valid sample for a demonstration analysis. The summary of this study is as follows: First, fife satisfaction have a positive influence on the quality of life such as personal growth, self acceptance, and independence. However, autonomy factor is rejected. Second, there is no difference in fife satisfaction by gender and education. Third, there is no difference in quality of fife by gender and education except for self acceptance factor.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.1-22
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• 2007

The present study examined the effects of the factors of port service quality on customer satisfaction and surveyed customers' perception on service quality and their satisfaction with port services by comparing Incheon Port with Qingdo Port, Tianjin Port and Dalian Port. According to the results, the quality of port services can be divided into three levels-inner quality, external environment quality and interaction quality, and except the external environment quality of the Dalian Port, the three levels of service quality were found to have significant effects on customer satisfaction. In addition, according to the results of comparing customers' perception on the three levels of service quality among the ports, the Incheon Port was inferior to the Qingdo Port, the Tianjin Port and the Dalian Port in inner quality, and to the Qingdo Port and the Tianjin Port in external environment quality, but superior to the Tianjin Port and the Dalian Port in interaction quality. However, customers' satisfaction with the Incheon Port was lower than that with the Qingdo Port and the Tianjin Port.

• Culinary science and hospitality research
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.15-26
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• 2012

As the living standards are improving, the interest in wine is getting higher and its consumption is increasing. Accordingly, this study is designed to find out how wine is selected depending on cooking methods when a customer selects wine by Western menu. For the purpose of this study, the customers who have used Western restaurants in hotels in Seoul area were selected for the survey from November 1 to November 30, 2011, and 177 copies of the questionnaire were used for analysis. As a result of analysis regarding the difference in satisfaction with wine selection by sex, women were analyzed to have a higher intention than men. In the satisfaction of customers by age, the older people responded to generally have a higher degree of satisfaction. In the satisfaction of customers by monthly income, the ones who earn more than 11 million won a month were identified to have a higher degree of satisfaction than those who earn 3 million won a month.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.77-96
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• 2017

This paper attempts to analyze the influences of Korean global retailer's service marketing mix on local customers' satisfaction and their loyalty behaviors. Based on a literature review, three hypotheses are putting forward. The data from 139 customers in Weihai, China were used to test these hypotheses. This paper used Structural Equation Modeling to identify the relationship among the service marketing mix, the customer satisfaction and the customer loyalty behaviors. According to the empirical analysis, this study showed satisfactory data-fit of the proposed model and supported two of the three hypotheses. The empirical results indicated that the service marketing mix factors except the promotion factor take significant effect on the local customer satisfaction, and this in turn have influence on the customer loyalty behaviors. The result shows that Korean global retailers will need to leverage service marketing mix strategically when entering China. Practical implications of these findings needs to be considered for the global retailer to establish an effective marketing strategy.

• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.31-41
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• 2017

Purpose - As the domestic coffee market is rapidly growing and competition is intensifying, coffee shops need to establish a marketing strategy that grasps the needs and desires of consumers in order to secure a competitive advantage in terms of survival. From this point of view, this study suggests what choice attributes consumers consider when visiting coffee shops, and analyzes the effect of customer choice attributes on franchise and private coffee shops using fsQCA. Research design, data, and methodology - In the present study, we tried to understand the effect of the combination of choice attribute on satisfaction by the type of coffee shop based on the complex system theory, while studying the existing coffee shop choice attribute focuses on the causal relationship. FsQCA is a complementary analytical method between quantitative and qualitative research, and is a method for effectively analyzing the complex combination of causal variables. Result - The results of the study are as follows. First, cleanliness was found to be the most important factor in determining coffee quality, which is the most important factor affecting customer satisfaction. Second, customers who prefer franchise coffee shops seem to be most concerned about atmosphere, menu, cleanliness and price. On the other hand, customers who prefer private coffee shops consider image the most important. Conclusions - The implications of this study are as follows. Overall, coffee shops should manage cleanliness basically regardless of the type of store, but they should manage the choice attributes differently depending on the type of coffee shop. Franchise coffee shops will be able to increase the level of store satisfaction by systematically managing the store atmosphere, menu, cleanliness, and price according to the manual using the advantages of the franchise system. On the other hand, unlike the franchise coffee shops, private coffee shops can operate autonomous stores, so customers can use various marketing mixes to enhance their store image.