• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.15 no.10
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• pp.193-199
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• 2017

The objective of this research is to investigate how consumers react differently to financial and social risk/return, referred to as an 'asymmetric effect'. A lab-based experiment using a counterfeit but real-branded product examined the robustness of the statement that priming the interdependent versus independent self can result in differences in financial and social risk taking behavior in the context of counterfeit product purchase choice. Three hundred fifty-eight participants took part in the experiment. They were primed with different self-construal and evaluated purchase intention to the counterfeit product. As predicted, when evaluate in the context of loss claim of counterfeit product, risks were more activated, however, there was an asymmetric effect that self-construal priming had on financial and social risks. Interdependence primed participants were more likely to take a financial risk thus perform more purchase intention of counterfeit product and less likely to take a social risk than their independence primed counterparts, which led to lower purchase intention. The results of this research shed light on the various directions of future studies on the responses toward counterfeit product.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.279-297
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• 2015

The present study examined whether individuals would respond differently, as a function of cultural self-orientations, when their requests were rejected. Also examined was whether individuals with different cultural self-orientations would predict differently how their interaction partner would respond when they rejected his or her request. Furthermore, it was investigated whether experimentally induced perspective-taking would influence responses to rejection and predictions of responses to rejection. It was found that responses to rejection as well as predictions of responses to rejection varied as a function of individual's independent self-orientation and perspective-taking. However, no significant effects were found with regard to interdependent self-orientation. Based on these results, the implications that cultural self-orientations have for request rejection and social behavior in general are discussed, and future directions are suggested.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.95-119
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• 2010

Although there have been many studies regarding the inconsistency between consumers' attitudes and behavior, prior research has almost exclusively focused on the relationship between the attitude before behavior and the initial behavior. Relatively little research has been conducted on consumer satisfaction after purchase and post-purchase behavior. This research proposed that the relationship between satisfaction and post-purchase behavior is moderated by consumers' psychological characteristics such as need for cognitive closure(NCC) and temporal self-construal(SC). The need for cognitive closure refers to individuals' desire for a firm answer to a question and an aversion toward ambiguity. We assumed the need for cognitive closure as a major moderating variable because it is judged that the requirement for cognition clearly varies between when a consumer repurchases the same product and seeks a new alternative. Individuals who tend to end cognition due to time constraints or inappropriate conditions may display considerable cognitive impatience or impulsivity and has a higher probability in repurchasing the same product than a consumer without such limitations. They would avoid further consideration for new alternatives and the likelihood of the repurchase for prior alternative would increase. As hypothesized, significant moderating effect of the NCC was confirmed. This result gives a significant implication for a corporate to establish effective marketing strategies. For a corporate or product brand that has been occupying the market after entering the market earlier, it would be effective to maintain need for cognitive closure high in the existing consumers and thereby preventing the consumers from being interested in the new alternatives. On the other hand, new brands that have just entered the market need to lower the potential consumers' need for cognitive closure so that the consumers can be interested in new alternatives. Along with need for cognitive closure, temporal self-construal also turned out to moderate the satisfaction-repurchase. temporal SC reflects the extent to which individuals view themselves either as an individuated entity or in relation to others. Consumers under a temporarily independent SC would repurchase former alternative again according to their prior satisfaction and evaluation. In contrast, consumers in temporal interdependent SC tended to switch to a new alternative because they value interpersonal relationships above anything else and have a tendency to rely heavily on in-group opinions. When they are confronted with additional opinions, it is highly probable that he/she will choose a new product as an alternative. By proving the impact that temporal self-construal has on repurchasing behavior, this study is providing the marketers with new standards for establishing successful promotional strategies. For example, if the buyer and the user is the same for a product, it would be effective for the seller to convince the consumer to make decision subjectively by encouraging temporal independent self-construal. On the contrary, in the case where the purchase is made by an individual but the product is consumed by a group of people. For example, a housewife is more likely to choose the products or brands that her husband or children prefer rather than the ones that she likes by herself. In that case, emphasizing how the whole family can be satisfied and happy about the product would be effective for promoting repurchase.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.61 no.10
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• pp.89-103
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effects of dominant brand, the quality variation among brands in the extension product category and the self-construals on consumer's attitude about extension products. The experimental design consist of three-way complex factors and 226 subjects participated for the study. The results showed that when there was fashion brand extension, whether or not there was an existing dominant brand in the extension product category, the quality variation among brands in the extension product category and the types of self-construals had a significant interaction effect on their favorableness and intention to purchase the extension products. Regardless of an existing dominant brand however, the group who had an interdependent self-construal showed higher favorableness and intention to purchase the extension products when the quality variation among brands in the extension product category was lower than when it was high, whereas the group who had an independent self-construal showed no significant difference of the favorableness and intention to purchase the extension products.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.149-172
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• 2009

Prior research has investigated different effects of brand performance information such as premium price information and market share information on brand equity components - quality perception and brand preference. It was shown that the differential effects of brand performance information could depend on product-related variables like product category concept and quality variation in the product category. In this study, we conducted an experiment to find out how personal characteristics such as self-construal, price perception and brand commitment could influence the effects of different types of brand performance information. The results show that individuals who have independent self-construal, favorable price perception and emotional commitment with the brand develop more favorable evaluation of the premium price performance information resulting in more positive evaluations of the brand. However, individuals who have interdependent self-construal, unfavorable price perception and cognitive commitment with the brand develop more favorable evaluation of the market share performance information resulting in more positive evaluations of the brand. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of this study and its limitations, along with future research interests.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.171-197
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• 2023

The traditional Korean society has been classified as an Eastern collectivist culture, but in the flow of globalization and digitalization along with the post-Cold War era of the 1970s, Western individualistic culture and values quickly permeated the Korean younger generation. Since rapid changes occurred within a short period of time, there may be differences in cultural self-construal between generations living in the same era. Due to this, psychological problems related to emotional expression and suppression may appear differently depending on generations. Therefore, in the current study, 1,000 Korean adult men and women from their 20s to 60s were investigated for their level of independent and interdependent self-construal, alexithymia, ambivalence over emotional expression(AEE) and emotional suppression(ES). Then the relationship between the variables(self-construal and alexithymia,) and the mediating process of AEE and ES were examined. The generation of participants were divided into the industrialization cohort (birth year < 1970) and the digitalization cohort (birth year starting from 1970). Using the PROCESS macro(Hayes, 2022), we tested a serial mediation model of AEE and ES between the relative independent self-construal(RIS) and alexithymia. The results indicate that the level of alexithymia increases by the serial increase of AEE and ES when RIS decreases. Next, we examined a moderation effect of generatione on the mediation process of AEE and ES, and found that generation moderates the relationship between ES and alexithymia. That is, the effect of ES on alexithymia is significant for the digitalization cohort, while it is not significant for the industrialization cohort. The current results imply that emotion regulation strategies of Koreans have been differently developed according to prevailing cultural values in each generation, and that the negative influence of emotion suppression could be different according to the cultural background of each generation.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.133-173
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• 2013

Consumers empty perfectly safe to intake perishable foods everyday if they are older than what prints on expiration date. The variation in expiration dating is freshness labeling represented in various terms such as sell by, package, best before, and so on. Regardless of the terms used and meanings are attached, consumers tend to conceive of freshness labeling on food as end of its shelf-life. Consequently, the food waste becomes a big issue for businesses in food sector. In an effort to demonstrate flexibility on this, KFDA(Korea Food & Drug Administration) introduced "best before" date in domestic market place to reduce food waste, based on the food safety test conducted by KCA(Korea Consumer Agency 2009). The results indicated freshness labeling on food should not be considered as the end of its life. Current study examined the underlying mechanisms(i.e. risk perception, self-construals, and indecisiveness) that influence consumers' intention on prolonged consumption of food beyond its stamped date when the KCA test results are shown to them. In addition, the moderating effect of regulatory focus is tested in the causal relationships between underlying mechanisms and different groups of prolonged consumption intention. Study participants are divided into three groups of prolonged consumption intention: no-change, moderate-change, and wide-change. The group with moderate-change in intention being as our point of reference, logistic regression analyses are conducted on 276 sample population. The results indicated that consumers with high source credibility risk are likely to show wide-change in intention on prolonged consumption while physical risk did not show significance. The consumers with independent self-construal are likely to show no-change in intention on prolonged consumption while interdependent self-construal did not show significance. Indecisiveness showed association a group with wide-change in intention on prolonged consumption. The moderating effect of regulatory focus showed valid results in most situations; the promotion-focused consumers showed wide-change in intention, while prevention-focused consumers showed no-change in intention. Furthermore, the moderating effect of promotion-focus showed a dominant position over the causal effect of indecisiveness in which decisive consumers(i.e. no-change in intention); if they are promotion-focused they tend show for the wide-change in intention instead. It is important to note that for those promotion-focused consumers(or situations), promotion-related arguments are more effective, while for those prevention-focused consumers(or situations) prevention- related arguments are more effective means of persuasion.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.177-203
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• 2014

It is well known that personality and situation which person possess have an impact on the relationships between stress coping and psychological wellbeing. Although most of studies on cultural self-construal have used the concept of individual/collectivism (independent/interdependent) scale, a part of research showed that it was not similar results when the concepts were used with Korean samples. We applied new scale, subjective-objective self, to our study. Two hundred eighty three participants (M = 21.66) participated in the present research. We found that persons with higher subjective self used more problem solving and seeking help, and less denial coping methods. Next, the higher subjective self influenced happiness and interpersonal relationship satisfaction. Finally, the coping methods of problem solving and seeking help influenced more happiness and interpersonal relationship satisfaction among people with higher objective self than did among people with higher subjective self. The implication for study were discussed.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.1-25
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• 2010

Motion pictures are so typical experience goods that consumers tend to look for more credible information. Hence, movie audiences consider movie viewers' reviews more important than the information provided by the film distributor. Recently many portal sites allow consumers to post their reviews and opinions so that other people check the number of consumer reviews and scores before going to the theater. There are a few previous researches studying the electronic word of mouth(eWOM) effect in the movie industry. They found that the volume of eWOM influenced the revenue of the movie significantly but the valence of eWOM did not affect it much (Liu 2006). The goal of our research is also to investigate the eWOM effects in general. But our research is different from the previous studies in several aspects. First, we study the eWOM effect in Korean movie industry. In other words, we would like to check whether we can generalize the results of the previous research across countries. The similar econometric models are applied to Korean movie data that include 746,282 consumer reviews on 439 movies. Our results show that both the valence(RATING) and the volume(LNMSG) of the eWOM influence weekly movie revenues. This result is different from the previous research findings that the volume only influences the revenue. We conjectured that the difference of self construal between Asian and American culture may explain this difference (Kitayama 1991). Asians including Koreans have more interdependent self construal than American, so that they are easily affected by other people's thought and suggestion. Hence, the valence of the eWOM affects Koreans' choice of the movie. Second, we find the critical defect of the previous eWOM models and, hence, attempt to correct it. The previous eWOM model assumes that the volume of eWOM (LNMSG) is an independent variable affecting the movie revenue (LNREV). However, the revenue can influence the volume of the eWOM. We think that treating the volume of eWOM as an independent variable a priori is too restrictive. In order to remedy this problem, we employed a simultaneous equation in which the movie revenue and the volume of the eWOM can affect each other. That is, our eWOM model assumes that the revenue (LNREV) and the volume of eWOM (LNMSG) have endogenous relationship where they influence each other. The results from this simultaneous equation model showed that the movie revenue and the eWOM volume interact each other. The movie revenue influences the eWOM volume for the entire 8 weeks. The reverse effect is more complex. Both the volume and the valence of eWOM affect the revenue in the first week, but only the volume affect the revenue for the rest of the weeks. In the first week, consumers may be curious about the movie and look for various kinds of information they can trust, so that they use the both the quantity and quality of consumer reviews. But from the second week, the quality of the eWOM only affects the movie revenue, implying that the review ratings are more important than the number of reviews. Third, our results show that the ratings by professional critics (CRATING) had negative effect to the weekly movie revenue (LNREV). Professional critics often give low ratings to the blockbuster movies that do not have much cinematic quality. Experienced audiences who watch the movie for fun do not trust the professionals' ratings and, hence, tend to go for the low-rated movies by them. In summary, applied to the Korean movie ratings data and employing a simultaneous model, our results are different from the previous eWOM studies: 1) Koreans (or Asians) care about the others' evaluation quality more than quantity, 2) The volume of eWOM is not the cause but the result of the revenue, 3) Professional reviews can give the negative effect to the movie revenue.