• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.30 no.4 s.152
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• pp.644-654
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• 2006

The purpose of this study is 1) to analyze the clothing purchasing behavior according to gender 2) to analyze the characteristics provided by the fashion on-line community, 3) to analyze the effects of the fashion on-line community characteristics to community commitment and brand loyalty. As for data collection, on-line survey was conducted for the fashion online community members in 'daum' portal site and total 404 volumes were used for the study analysis. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, $x^2-test$, factor analysis, regression analysis by utilizing the SPSS 10.0 program. The results of this study were as follow: First, it was found that characteristics of fashion on-line community are three factors of 'interactivity', 'information provision' and 'interest provision'. Second, as the analysis result of the effects of the fashion on-line community characteristics to the community commitment and brand loyalty, the more 'interactivity' and 'interest provision', the higher 'behavioral commitment' and at this time brand loyalty was high. The higher 'interactivity', 'interest provision' and 'information provision', the higher attitudinal commitment and brand loyalty. In addition, the more 'information provision' and 'interest provision' were, the more it positively influenced brand loyalty. It is considered that this study will help fashion enterprises establish an on-line community strategy to induce brand loyalty by analyzing the community utilization pattern of fashion on-line community members.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.65 no.7
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• pp.101-117
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• 2015

Along with the development of overall internet service, online fashion communities appeared and have started to thrive. The growth of mobile service has led to an even bigger expansion of these communities, and will wield a strong influence for the foreseeable future. The purpose of our study is to investigate the relationship between the behavior of these fashion communities and personality characteristics of the community features. For our data analysis, our study used 302 men and women, aged from their 20's and their 40's. The study results are as follows: First, some features, such as interaction, entertainment, promotion, information, and system technique, were drawn as the factors of the online fashion communities. Second, we could divide the community behavioral types into three different groups: buyer, maven, and onlooker groups. Third, all three groups showed different community characteristics. The primary concern for the buyer group was promotion while the mavens and the on-lookers were most interested in information. Fourth, they also showed different demographic characteristics in terms of gender, age, duration of membership, on-line time per visit and number of visits per week. These results show that a new strategy is necessary for online fashion communities to differentiate themselves and their marketing to consumers and their community behavioral types.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.523-533
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• 2012

Website reputation is a key criteria for searches related to fashion product information and purchases. The greater the reputation of a website, then the greater the sense of community among its members; in addition, a stronger positive attitude towards the products influence subsequent purchases or WOM intention. This study reveals the influence website reputation and a sense of community for the WOM effect in regards to fashion products according to the type of the online shopping mall. The findings of this study are as follows. First, an increased website reputation produces a higher sense of community and perceived usefulness for WOM. The effect of the WOM was greater as the perceived usefulness of WOM increased. Second, the perceived usefulness of WOM had the greatest effect on the WOM effect. The reputation of a website had only an indirect effect on the WOM effect through the sense of community and the perceived usefulness of WOM. Third, the comprehensive mall had a greater reputation, but the WOM effect was greater with the fashion specialty mall. About the influence on the WOM effect, in the comprehensive mall the sense of community was more powerful than reputation of the website. In the fashion specialty mall the reputation of the website was more powerful than the sense of community.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.45 no.10
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• pp.21-31
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to clarify the factors that characterize the fashion brand online communities that have a high participation rate among high school students, and to determine the impact of those factors on the high school students' commitment to the community, especially in relation to their demographics. The study was implemented through a descriptive survey method using an online questionnaire. The sample consisted of 301 members of online fashion brand communities operated on the Daum portal site. The data were analyzed by frequency, factor analysis, and regression analysis. The results are as follows: (1) Factor analysis revealed that the characteristics of a fashion brand online community are associated with three factors ; compensation/interest, interactivity, and information. (2) Regression analysis showed that the more compensation/interest, opportunity for interaction, and information the community provides, the more likely high school student members are to show a higher level of commitment to the community. (3) There was no difference in the effect of community attribute factors on the high school student members' commitment to the community according to gender. The group of students majoring in human and liberal education was the most influenced by the attributes of fashion brand online communities. The interactivity factor had a greater impact on the group of students majoring in art and physical education than on the other groups. The greater the use of the Internet, the greater the impact of community attributes on commitment. (4) In the process of developing an online community, marketers should fully consider the fact that information factors have the biggest impact on high school students' commitment to the community. Therefore, greater effort should be made to differentiate between community attributes based on high school students' majors and their amount of Internet use in order to motivate commitment to the community and brand loyalty as well.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.82-100
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• 2015

Mobile fashion apps present much opportunity for marketers to engage consumers, however not all apps provide enough functions for their targeted audience. This study aims to determine how mobile fashion apps can be used to build brand community with consumer engagement. Qualitative data on fashion mobile apps were collected from the Apple app store and Android market during the spring and summer of 2015. A total of 110 fashion mobile apps were collected;, 50 apps were identified as apparel brands that either manufacture or sell apparel to consumers, which we categorized as "brand" fashion apps, and the remaining 60 were categorized as "non-brand" fashion apps. The result of the study can be summarized as below. The 60 non-brand fashion apps were grouped into 5 app types: shopping, searching, sharing, organizational, and informational. The main functions are for informational use and shopping needs, since at least half (31 apps) are used for either retrieving information or for shopping. However, in contrast, social networking and location were infrequent and not commonly utilized by these apps. The most common type of non-brand fashion apps available were shopping apps;, many shopping apps enable users to shop from several different websites and save their items into one universal shopping cart so that they only check out once. Most of these apps are informational and help consumers make more informed decisions on purchases;, in addition many offer location services to help consumers find these items in store. While these apps perform several functions, they do not link to social media. The 50 brand apps were grouped into 5 brand types: athletic, casual, fast fashion, luxury, and retailer. These apps were also checked for attributes to determine their functionality. The result shows that the main functions of brand fashion apps are for information (82% of the 50 apps) as well as location searching (72% of 50 apps). Conversely, these apps do not offer any photo sharing, and very few have organizational or community functions. Fashion mobile apps and m-marketing elements: To build brand community, mobile apps can be designed to motivate consumer's engagement with brands. The motivations of fashion mobile apps are useful in developing fashion mobile apps. Entertainment motives can be fulfilled with multimedia attributes, functionality motives are satisfied with organizational and location-based features, information motives with informational service, socialization with community and social network, learning and intellectual stimulation from informational attributes, and trend following through photo sharing. The 8 key attributes of mobile apps can correspond to the 4 m-marketing elements (i.e., Informative content, multimedia, interactions, and product promotions) that are further intertwined with m-branding elements. App Attributes and M-Marketing aim to Build Brand Community;, the eight key attributes can impact on 4 m-branding elements, which further contribute to building brand community by affecting consumers' perceptions of brands preference and advocacy, and their likelihood to be loyal.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.14-25
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• 2018

This study is to understand subculture as a selective amity or an emotional tribe that includes a life style, hobby and leisure of people and seeing it as the tribal solidarity or emotional alliance. Hence, based on the neo-tribalism by Michel Maffesoli who explains a tribe not composing a social vertical structure represented by class, but is composed a horizontal structure of individuals as a member of a society, this study conducted an empirical analysis on domestic minor fashion communities. Research findings show that they have a unique structure unexplained by Maffesoli. Fashion styles, values shared by domestic minor fashion communities are almost entirely based on individual likes and dislikes, escaping from a symbol of resistance to subordination explained by the existing subculture, play a role in enhancing the solidarity inside the community and confirming its identity outside. However, as for shared values within a community, it reveals a new invisible type of subculture intra-inter domestic minor fashion communities. A community showed a closed mind rather than open mind, disregarding or comparing with other communities and preventing their members from participation. A community had strict fashion rules and obvious classes, leading to participatory restriction. In conclusion, domestic minor fashion communities showed the most significant characteristic of a selective vertical structure by individual and community rather than a vertical structure by a society.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.63 no.2
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• pp.1-13
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to examine how the features of network in the Internet fashion community affect the diffusion of fashion information to members in the online community with other variables (informative features, consumer features). Communities that actively exchange fashion information among their members were selected for the social network analysis and hypothesis verification. As a result, we found that a few information activists influenced most of the information receivers in the network features of fashion communities. Also, we found that the informative features (usefulness, reliability), consumer features (NFC, innovation) as well as the network features (connectivity, power), have a significant influence on the diffusion of Internet fashion information which verified the importance of the network features in the study on the Internet.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.65 no.6
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• pp.25-35
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to investigate the characteristics of members and communities that have significant influence in the online fashion community through their word-of-mouth activities. In order to identify the influence and the diffusion of word-of-mouth in fashion community, the study selected one online fashion community. Then, the study sorted the online posts and comments made on fashion information and put them into the matrix form to perform social network analysis. The result of the analysis is as follows: First, the fashion community network used in the study has many active members that relay information very quickly. Average time for information diffusion is very short, taking only one or two days in most cases. Second, the influence of word-of-mouth is led by key information produced from only a few members. The number of influential members account for less than 20% of the total number of community members, which indicate high level of degree centrality. The diffusion of word-of-mouth is led by even fewer members, which represent high level of betweenness centrality, compared to the case of degree centrality. Third, component characteristic shares similar information with about 70% of all members being linked to maximize information influence and diffusion. Fourth, a node with high degree centrality and betweenness centrality shares similar interests, presenting strain effect to particular information. Specially, members with high betweenness centrality show similar interests with members of high degree centrality. The members with high betweenness centrality also help expansion of related information by actively commenting on posts. The result of this research emphasizes the necessity of creation and management of network to efficiently convey fashion information by identifying key members with high level of information influence and diffusion to enhance the outcome of online word-of-mouth.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.87-106
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• 2006

Importance of on-line community has been increased and also on-line community has been used as an important marketing tool. Fashion companies also considered that on-line community provides opportunities to develop customer relationship and to improve customer loyalty. The purpose of this study is 1) to identify the characteristics of fashion on-line community, 2) to investigate the differences of factors affecting brand loyalty among fashion lifestyle groups. For data collection, on-line survey was conducted for fashion on-line community members in Daum portal site and total 404 subjects were used for this study. Factor analysis, cluster analysis, and regression analysis were used for data analysis. The results of this study were as follow: first, characteristics of fashion on-line community were classified as three factors: 'interactivity', 'information provision' and 'interest provision'. Second, the impact of fashion on-line community characteristics on brand loyalty were found to be significantly different among lifestyle groups. The results from this empirical study provide basic information for strategic planning about fashion on-line community by analyzing characteristics of on-line community users.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.63 no.2
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• pp.110-124
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• 2013

The spread of internet media is accelerating companies to create their own on-line brand community as one of their marketing communication tools because of the advantages in terms of cost-saving and raising their brand loyalty. The purpose of this study was to examine how the consumer's activities in the customer self-driven on line fashion brand community ultimately affect building a structural relationship between brand attitude and brand loyalty. In order to conduct this study, on-line field survey was conducted including a series of filtering questions measuring respondent's level of the community participation. SPSS 18.0 and AMOS 18.0 were used for the structure equation modeling. The result of empirical analysis showed that the attachment and the loyalty of online community have significant influences on brand attitude and brand loyalty. Also, brand attitude partly played a role as a mediating variable in the path to influence brand loyalty. Lastly, the mediating effects of brand attitude may depend on participation level of these online fashion brand community relationships.