• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.79-86
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• 2015

Purpose - The cosmetics industry is a traditional high value-added industry in terms of the domestic demand, small batch production systems, exclusive competition, and raw materials highly dependent on overseas countries as well as an oligopolistic market structure. However, new foreign brands and growing consumer awareness of inexpensive products, has triggered a shift. In line with changing lifestyles and the polarization of consumption, the industry faces a new market structure. Among its key characteristics is the cosmetics industry's numerous distribution channels (i.e., department stores, door-to-door sales, online shopping malls, brand shops, and discount stores). Therefore, the study of its distribution channels is essential. Research design, data, and methodology - The study analyzed channel distribution power divided into coercive and non-coercive power. The factors of coercive power included: unilateral request of an increase in commissions, interference in sales by taking advantage of a superior status, unilateral buck-passing at the time of a problem, unilateral request to stop sales activities, and a unilateral business contract; the factors of non-coercive power included favorable payment conditions, offers of various kinds of information, policy on commission reduction, pride in market entrance, and promotion support. In addition, the mediating variable "interdependence" was applied to the execution of department store (or mart) power and their shop conflicts and satisfaction to examine direct and indirect influential power. The methodology was a survey of managers of cosmetics shops in department stores (or marts). The questionnaire, based on a five-point Likert scale, included questions about basic personal information, execution of power, interdependence, conflict, and satisfaction. The study distributed 198 questionnaires and collected 131. Ten questionnaires with missing or hard to analyze data were excluded. Thus, 121 copies were analyzed. Results - According to the analysis, the execution of coercive power by department stores (or marts) did not affect interdependence, but the execution of non-coercive power did. Interdependence did not influence conflict, but did affect satisfaction. Additionally, the analysis revealed direct influential power: the execution of coercive power positively affected conflict and negatively influenced satisfaction; the execution of non-coercive power positively affected satisfaction. Conclusions - To offer suggestions for distribution business relations in the cosmetics industry, this study investigated how the execution of power by department stores (or marts) affected their shops. More specifically, it examined how much the execution of both coercive power and non-coercive power influenced conflict and satisfaction, and analyzed the mediating role of interdependence. In line with previous study results in various areas, coercive power was shown to be the source of conflict, leading to a decrease in satisfaction, whereas non-coercive power significantly positively influenced satisfaction. Moreover, non-coercive power increased interdependence, which led to greater satisfaction. As a result, interdependence had a mediating effect on non-coercive power and satisfaction. Based on the results, department stores (or marts) should look for improvements plans that increase interdependence. Such plans could alleviate conflict with the shops, increasing their satisfaction.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.10
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• pp.101-108
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• 2015

Purpose - The convenience store business sector in South Korea has contributed to economic growth and job creation, and the growth potential of this market segment remains very high. In addition, service value is a more important factor than price in determining purchase intention. Research in the convenience store market is relatively very low compared to other retail sectors. In particular, research on service quality for the convenience of retailers who examine and analyze customer behavior and service quality factors used in the convenience store side of the situation is very inadequate. We have investigated the relationship of store service quality, service satisfaction, and store loyalty. In addition, we have examined the way service value moderates the relationship among these variables. Research design, data, and methodology - The questionnaire was developed using modified and supplementary questions based on the KD-SQS and RSQS models. The study suggested a theoretical model composed of 15 hypotheses on the relations between theoretic variables, and surveys conducted with consumers in discount stores in the Seoul and Gyunggi Metropolitan area in order to verify the hypotheses. We used the SPSS/PC statistical packages to analyze the results. The number of surveys used was 227. Moreover, a structural equating model was also used to analyze the reliability and validity of the composing elements and to verify the suggested hypotheses. Results - The overall results of this study are as follows. First, all service quality elements have a significant effect on service satisfaction. Second, all service quality elements have a significant effect on store loyalty. Third, service satisfaction has a significant effect on store loyalty. Finally, when the participants were divided into high and low service value the results of the multiple regression analyses showed that only the relationship between policy of service quality and satisfaction, and human interaction and policy of service quality and loyalty were significant. The implications are discussed based on the findings of the study. Conclusions - First, through direct hypotheses testing, we confirmed that the convenience service quality positively impacts the service satisfaction and loyalty of buyers. In particular, the reliability, origin benefit, and promotion were found to have more influence on satisfaction and loyalty of consumers of a convenience store. Further, for the service quality of the convenience for the consumer loyalty, greater human interaction was a high-value and statistically significantly higher than the degree of improvement in consumer loyalty. This underscores the importance of education and human services management of employees working in a convenience store. In particular, frequent changes in personnel generate results that negatively impact loyalty with customers. These results may lead to a serious problem in the economics of the store. Therefore, it should enhance the value of services through the establishment of training and compensation for employees. In addition, a certain educational level is required as well as a basis for compensation and retention.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.97-104
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• 2015

Purpose - The distribution of agricultural products is changing due to recent shifts in environmental free trade. Specifically, the competitiveness of domestic agricultural products has weakened as a result of the Korea-China Financial Trade Agreement. Agricultural producers are faced with increasing difficulties and organized production centers are growing in importance daily. To overcome this crisis, agricultural producer organizations are vying for environment-friendly agricultural certifications, Good Agriculture Practices (GAP) and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP). In particular, as consumer demand for higher safety grows, farmers are increasing their certification rates. Therefore, this certification system is expected to help strengthen the competitiveness of agricultural producer organizations. Research design/data/methodology - Organized production centers are classified by certification. A survey was conducted with 91 organizations using factor analysis and logistic regression analysis for the examination. The factor analysis results are as follows. Raw material procurement, education·specialization, marketing, joint business, organizing ability, business management, effectiveness, certification, and larger organizations were classified as the nine types of factors. These factors affect the organized production centers and are used in the logistic regression analysis. The purpose of such research and analysis is to suggest a direction for future production center policies. Results - The basic statistical results are as follows: analysis of the producer organizations of 91 sites, average number of members per site of 1,624, and average sales of 25,961 million won. Additionally, the average income per farmer is 175 million won, and the pooling system rate is 53.5%. The factor analysis results are as follows. Factor 1 consists of contract cultivation, ongoing shipment, selection subdivision, traceability, and major retailer management. Factor 2 consists of manual cultivation, specialty selection, education program, and R&D. Factor 3 consists of advertising, various dealers, various sales strategies, and a unified sales counter. Factor 4 consists of agricultural materials co-purchase, policy support, co-shipment, and incentives. Factor 5 consists of the co-selection and pooling system. Factor 6 consists of co-branding and operating by the organization's article. Factor 7 consists of the buy-sell ratio and rate of operation of the agriculture promotion center. Factor 8 consists of bargaining power in volume and participation rate of farmer certification. Factor 9 consists of increasing new subscribers. The logistic regression analysis results are as follows. Considering the results by type of certification, the environment-friendly agricultural certification type and the GAP certification type have a (+) influence. GAP and HACCP certification types affecting the education·specialization factor have a (+) influence. Considering the results for each type of certification, the environment-friendly agricultural certification types on the effectiveness factor have (-) influence; the HACCP certification types on the organizing ability and effectiveness factor have a (-) influence. Conclusions - Agricultural producer organizations should develop plans as follows: The organizations need to secure education for agricultural production; increase the pooling system ratio for sustainable organizational development; and, finally, expand the number of agricultural producer organizations.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.37-47
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• 2018

Purpose - In this study, the safety related tasks for low cost carriers' were examined and measures to improve them were suggested. As the air demand increases rapidly, number of passenger has mushroomed in Korea and in order to keep with the demand low cost carriers have played a role. However, low cost carriers' safety related tasks are not reliable level so far. Thus, in this study, the low cost carriers' current situations in terms of safety are investigated, especially regarding how well the ICAO's new safety policies are applied. Research design, data, and methodology - The results of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation' investigation are introduced and field study results are analysed. Current status of retaining experts, staffs, administrators in terms of aviation safety tasks of low cost carriers is compared to those of major airliner and low cost carriers' aviation safety culture is also analyzed by examining the systems and questioning staffs. Especially the culture regarding aviation safety is very important because the culture surrounding the safety tasks plays a major role in every respect of conducting the tasks. Results - Overall the current status of low cost carriers' aviation safety tasks is below standard. Especially retaining experts and staffs is basically below the required level. Also, system and organization to conduct safety tasks are not satisfactory. In particular, aviation safety culture is not settled to operate appropriately. Conclusions - The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and member states are continuing to launch new safety policies in response to the surging demand for air travel worldwide. The most urgent and important issue among the various safety policies is to reduce air accidents. In order to reduce the number of accidents, ICAO decided to reduce the number of accidents by using the Reactive Safety Management. ICAO has to ensure that each member country can implement proactive safety management for aviation safety. A safety management system (Safety Management System) is a system in which each member state implements a fulfillment standard. The current situation and problems of the safety management system for each airline are suggested and proposed for improvements.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.35 no.7
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• pp.801-815
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• 2011

This study examines the characteristics of marketing and customer that influence the selection of multichannel (preference/frequency of use) in the fashion retail. The subjects of this study are men and women live in Seoul/Gyeonggi province and Busan/Gyeongsangnam-do in their 20s-40s who have shopping experiences in fashion items of more than 2 shopping channels among offline stores, catalogs, and the internet. The survey period was from March to May 2010 and 411 forms were used in this survey. The data were analyzed by a reliability analysis (Cronbach's ${\alpha}$), a factor analysis, t-test and one-way ANOVA. The main results of this study are summarized as follows. First, marketing characteristics, which effect the selection of multichannel (preference/frequency of use), consist of sales promotion, service, price, merchandise, and distribution. Those have a significant influence (***p${\leq}$.001) on choosing multichannel of fashion retail. Price has a significant impact on the preference of multichannel and merchandise affect for frequency of use in multichannel shopping. Second, customer characteristics have a significant influence (***p${\leq}$.001) on the monthly average purchasing amount, shopping hours, shopping frequency, brand knowledge, and price sensitivity. Particularly, monthly average purchasing amount & shopping frequency have meaningful differences in the frequency of using multichannel; in addition, shopping hours were affected by preference & frequency of use. Price sensitivity has a greater influence on the frequency of using multichannel and brand knowledge has a greater effect on multichannel preference. Customer's information searching characteristics have main 3 factors through the use of marketing information, personal information and experience information. Application of experience information is the main factor in preference and frequency of using multichannel shopping. The customer demographic characteristics of age (*p${\leq}$.05, **p${\leq}$.01) and gender (*p${\leq}$.05) show a difference for selecting multichannel. There is no difference for marital status, average household income per month, and job.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.60-70
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• 1997

The purpose of this study is to survey the sales of brassieres positively those of elderly women's (aged 50 or older) ones in particular through 72 sales outlets and thereby, in order to present the more comfortable brassiere models which can serve to reinstate elderly women's constitution and provide the useful basic data to brassiere makers and distributors for their business. The results of this survey and the suggestions therefrom can be summarized as follows; 1) Brassieres usually sell at 10,000-20,000 wons, which allows for 15% or more margin rate. Brassieres are disposed through bargain sales once or twice every year where their price are discount 10% or higher. Meanwhile, the majority of the brassieres distributors maintain more than 15% stock rate. The accumulated stocks are primarily disposed through return to makers or bargain sales. About 15% of the brassieres sold are returned by consumers to distributors to be replaced. 2) About a half of distributors operate some or other types of sales education programs. Most of these distributors feel that their educational program have been effective which suggests the effectiveness of sales educational program. On the other hand, 83.3% of the distributors operate in-house repair shops, while the absolute majority of them brief their customers on how to wear brassieres or clean them. 3) Because elderly women's understanding of brassieres sizes is very poor, they tend to ask help of the 'sales people about their sizes before purchasing and proper one personally. In other words, it has been disclosed that old women respond positively to seller's recommendation for their brassiere sizes. 4) It has been found that the brasseries sizes purchased by old women most are. 85A, 90A and 85B in their order, which suggests that the most popular size for under bust circumference is 85~90cm, while their primary cup size is "A". 5) The type of brasseries favored most by elderly women is the "full-cup" type, while their most favorite brassiere design is a soft and simple one. The colors preferred most by them are white, beige and pink in their order. 6) When being consulted by elderly women, sales people experience various difficulties due to their poor understanding of sizes and complaint about prices. Lastly, it has been found through this survey that elderly women want to see some sales promotion material featuring their brassiere sizes and their production arid ask the brasseries makers to produce more diverse brasseries sizes.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.1-16
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• 2006

Recently, there has been prevailing of the combined utilization (CU) with herbs and prescribed drugs in medical therapies in the world. But the information about frequency, efficacy and safety of this CU has not well known in Korea, yet. This study aimed to identify the status of CU by Koreans, and to inquire which side effects of CU represent to those people. A self-completed questionnaire survey was performed through each health examination center in twenty general hospitals and one oriental hospital. Of the initial 2,100 health examinees, 1,851 were participated in this survey, resulting in a response rate of 88.1%. The proportion of CD was 26.3%. The most commonly mentioned reason of CD was 'to promote general health and well-being' (17l persons, 35.5%). The main route of taking CD was self-purchase at drugstore or at herbs market, followed by the prescription of (oriental)physicians. 33.0% (151 persons) of those who took the CD rated it as effective. 93 respondents (19.8%) were experienced several adverse effects including nausea, fatigue, and dizziness. The growing simultaneous use of herbal products and pharmaceutical drugs by Korean consumers may be continuously increased the risk of herb-drug interactions. The medical professionals should be provided with comprehensive and up-to-date information about potential benefits and risks of herbs and prescribed drugs. In the future studies it may be recommended to deal common cold, health promotion, indigestion, headache, and hypertension for the effect and safety of the CD by well-organized prospective study design.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.14 no.9
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• pp.85-94
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• 2016

Purpose - Recently, Mobile technologies and devices including smart phones and tablets have increased the possibility of communicating with other people and sharing personal information without time and space restriction. In order to realize the market potential related to mobile technologies, a large number of internet services have been incorporated into mobile platforms. Especially, The number of MIM(Mobile Instant Messenger) users has been increasing dramatically and services using MIM platform also have diversified. In spite of drastic growth in markets related to MIM, there is little empirical research on MIM and users' behaviors. This study designed to examine the structural relationships among belongingness, loneliness, self-disclosure intention, system quality, and self-disclosure behavior in context of MIM. Research design, data, and methodology - Three hypotheses were about the relationship among belongingness, loneliness and self-disclosure intention. The other two hypotheses were about the moderating effect of system quality in the causal relationship between self-disclosure intention and self-disclosure behavior. The data was analyzed by structural equation modeling. Research data were obtained from 330 undergraduate students who were KakaoTalk users and total 314 valid questionnaires were used in the final analysis. Results - The results from this study are as follow. First, the belongingness and the loneliness had a significant impact on self-disclosure intention in MIM. Second, the self-disclosure intention in MIM also had a positive impact on the self-disclosure behavior. Lastly, there is a moderating effect of the system quality in the relationship between the self-disclosure intention and self-disclosure behavior in MIM. Specifically, the higher system quality level was perceived, the positive effect of the self-disclosure intention in MIM on the self-disclosure behavior was greater. Conclusions - Based on the results from this study, academic and practical implications can be drawn. First, the study extends the scope of research about SNS through focusing on MIM to be classified by closed type SNS and identifies the relationship between emotion, behavioral intention and behaviors in MIM. Second, this study provides strategic guidelines to increase the efficiency for promotion activity. Limitations for the study also should be discussed.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.101-125
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• 2008

This research suggests an ideal role between franchisee and franchisee for survival and development of the Korean franchise business by identifying causal relationships between entrepreneurship of franchisees and their business performance. Besides, when considering multi-dimensional features of a franchise system, this study aims to show that the market orientation of the franchisee and the relationship commitment between franchisee and franchisee will play an important mediating role to achieve a better business performance. Thus specific causal relationships among sub-dimensional constructs of entrepreneurship and market orientations were investigated. They are innovativeness, risk-taking propensity, pro-activeness, information creation, intelligence generation, intelligence dissemination, response design, response implementation. The results demonstrate that pro-activeness of franchisee plays a crucial role for franchisee's business performance. It was noted that franchisor's market orientation and innovativeness is also important for high market orientation of franchisor. The higher the market orientation of franchisor was, the higher relationship commitment of franchisee was formed. By identifying the mediation effect of relationship commitment and market orientation of franchisor, this paper showed that relationship commitment positively affect the improvement of franchisee's business performance. Above all, it should be noted that this research empirically identified the relationship between franchisee's entrepreneurship and business performance that most of the previous researchers have ignored. Furthermore, the analysis was conducted at sub-dimensional construct level. It is expected that empirical results from this study will be able to provide a meaningful framework and theoretical basis for future research on franchise, entrepreneurship and market orientation.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.41-48
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• 2014

Purpose - This study aims to investigate a solution to reduce the negative reactions arising from the performance of duties or the job distress of workers in the service industry, because human resource statistics regarding workers in the service sector have been unreported, while concerns regarding exposure to emotional exertion and poor working conditions have been continuously increasing. Research design, data, and methodology - This study specifically focused on workers in highway service areas. It differs from previous studies because it involves the perspective of the person-organization fit and regards workers' cognition of leaders through the psychological distance toward the leader and the contact frequency between workers and leaders within the framework of the leader-individual fit. Moreover, this study highlights the role of the self-leadership of workers as an important factor that becomes manifested in the individual-level fit to the organization. Hence, this study investigates whether the positive role of the above factors, in turn, could reduce job distress. Workers from highway service areas in Gyeonggi-do province provided data; 141 valid questionnaires are collected. SPSS 19.0 and AMOS 19.0 were used to test the reliability and validity of constructs. Simple regression, multiple regression, and 3 step mediation tests were used to test the hypotheses after the correlation tests. Results - Results indicated that leader-member contact frequency and psychological distance have negative effects on job distress but positive effects on self-leadership. A mediation test revealed that self-leadership, in the relationships between contact frequency and job distress and between psychological distance and job distress, resulted in partial mediation and full mediation, respectively. Conclusions - The result can be understood through two different possible explanations. First, service area workers generally possess a positive perspective toward their leaders. This can be interpreted to mean that increased contact frequency and psychological distance would be considered as supports from the leader, rather than intrusive controls or management schemes. Therefore, the management in highway service areas should invest efforts in increasing contact frequency as well as maximizing psychological similarities by adopting the viewpoints of workers in terms of moral and ethical management, to reduce the workers' job distress. The results relating to self-leadership also indicate that increased contact frequency must be accompanied by intentions for the effective promotion of workers' self-leadership. It also signifies the necessity of a strategic approach by leaders to induce workers to perceive "in-group"ness as suggested both by the similarity-attraction theory and by the social identity theory. In addition, the results of the mediation test of self-leadership indicate that because workers' self-leadership activates upon increased contact frequency by the leader, it should not be a means of control and should not be utilized only from the perspective of management. It is also suggested that strategies such as transfer of authority could have a positive effect in promoting the expansion of self-influence from workers.