• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.54-67
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• 2020

Purpose: This study examined the relationship between job stress, attributes of health functional food (HFF) selection, and consumption values for information technology (IT) workers, and analyzed the factors influencing the selection of HFF to improve health by making the right choice of HFFs. Methods: Three hundred forty IT workers in Gyeonggi area participated in the study. The participants were divided into low or high job stress group. The differences in participants' general characteristics, attributes of HFF selection, and HFF consumption values were investigated, and the mediating effects of HFF consumption values on the relationship between job stress levels and the HFF selection attributes were analyzed. Results: Job stress levels were high in those IT workers with a length of service < 5 years (p = 0.013). The group with lower job stress levels had a higher tendency to consider the ingredients contained in HFF products (p < 0.001), and their efficacy (p = 0.047). They also showed greater emotional value for a sense of security from consuming HFFs to stay healthy (p = 0.047). The group with higher job stress levels had greater epistemic value in that their choice of HFFs differentiated them from the other workers (p = 0.036). Higher job stress was associated with less consideration of the intrinsic attributes such as ingredients and efficacy of the HFF selection attributes (p = -0.113), emotional value of the HFF consumption values (p = -0.136), and the functional value such as practicality, price, and safety (p = -0.134). The job stress level influenced the intrinsic attributes through the functional and emotional values, demonstrating that the functional and emotional values had appropriate mediating effects on the relationship between job stress levels and intrinsic attributes. Conclusion: Education needs to be provided for workers to relieve job stress and improve the functional and emotional values, which contributes to choosing the appropriate HFFs.

• The Korean Journal of Food & Health Convergence
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.1-8
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• 2024

The global nutraceuticals market continues to grow due to rising income levels, increasing life expectancy, and a growing interest in personal health. Especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, the market for nutraceuticals has expanded rapidly with positive perceptions driven by increased attention to immune management for disease prevention. However, there is still a lack of research on the relationship between nutraceuticals and consumer behavior. This study aims to provide new insights into the dietary supplement market and help establish marketing strategies by analyzing consumer behavior toward dietary supplements in the post-COVID-19 era, focusing on Generation MZ. An online survey was conducted among consumers who have purchased dietary supplement products to test the hypotheses. The collected data were analyzed for validity and reliability using SPSS and AMOS programs. The results showed that the taste, price, brand, and design of dietary supplements significantly positively affect the satisfaction of MZ consumers. This study provides an in-depth understanding of the mechanisms of consumer behavior toward dietary supplements in the post-COVID-19 era, focusing on Generation MZ. By offering insights into consumers' health concerns and consumption behaviors, this study provides valuable perspectives on the future development of the market and helps companies develop effective strategies to meet consumer needs.

• Journal of the Korea Fashion and Costume Design Association
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.117-128
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• 2017

This study confirmed the types of shopping information sources during travel abroad, and developed a profile of tourists in terms of demographics, travel, and shopping behavior. Shopping information sources and characteristics of shopping products were identified first. Thereafter, travelers were segmented by their information-seeking behavior. An online survey method was used to get data from Korean vacationers in their 20s-50s, while factor analysis, cluster analysis, ${\chi}^2$ test and ANOVA were applied to analyze data. The results were as follows. First, the shopping information sources of overseas tourists were composed of four factors including sources from travel agents/media, information from travel books and local sources, and word-of-mouth sources. Also, four factors in product types and four product attributes were identified. Second, tourists were clustered into two groups, active and passive shopping information seekers, based on shopping source behavior. Third, two groups differed in terms of demographics, showing an older age and higher income for active shopping source seekers. Active shopping information users tended to join package trips with family members, and they were more satisfied with the trip. With regard to shopping, active shopping source seekers spent more money for shopping and preferred all kinds of shopping goods with an emphasis on travel shopping. In conclusion, shopping information sources seemed to be a meaningful tool for segmenting tourists. Rich, older, family tourists would be an major target market for local retailers.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.48-58
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• 2017

Thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs), a unique class of polymers, combine the processing ease of thermoplastics with the advanced properties of thermoset rubbers. TPEs can be remelted several times without any significant loss of properties, and can be molded into complex shapes using conventional processing equipment. Due to their characteristics, TPEs are ideal for use in a variety of applications in the automotive field. Although the TPE market of the Republic of Korea is currently at its niche, the increasing manufacturing push from major companies is expected to open up multiple opportunities for these products in the automotive sector. This manuscript highlights a detailed technological trend of the global automotive thermoplastic elastomers market.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.59-80
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• 2008

Recently, e-sports are growing with potentiality as a new industry with conspicuous profit model. But studies that dealing with e-sports are not enough. Hence, proposes of this paper are both to establish basic model that is for the design of e-sport marketing strategy and to contribute toward future studies which are related to e-sports. Recently, the researches to explain sports-sponsorship through the identification theory have been discovered. Many researches say that somewhat proper identification is a requirement for most sponsors to improve the their images which is essential to sponsorship activity. Consequently, the research for sponsorship associated with identification in the e-sports, not in the physical sports is the core sector of this study. We extracted the variables from online's major characteristics and existing sport sponsorship researches. First, because e-sports mean the tournaments or leagues in the use of online game, the main event of the game is likely to call it online game. Online media's attributes are distinguished from those of offline. Especially, interactivity, anonymity, and expandibility as a e-sport game attributes are able to be mentioned. So, these inherent online attributes are examined on the relationship with flow. Second, in physical sports games, Fisher(1998) revealed that team similarity and team attractivity were positively related to team identification. Wann(1996) said that the result of former game influenced the evaluation of the next game, then in turn has an effect on the identification of team supporters. Considering these results in the e-sports side, e-sports gamer' attractivity, similarity, and match result seem to be important precedent variables of the identification with a gamer. So, these e-sport gamer attributes are examined on the relationship with both flow and identification with a gamer. Csikszentmihalyi(1988) defined the term flow as feeling status for him to be making current positive experience optimally. Hoffman and Novak(1996) also said that if a user experienced the flow he would visit a website without any reward. Therefore flow might be positively associated with user's identification with a gamer. And, Swanson(2003) disclosed that team identification influenced the positive results of sponsorship, which included attitude toward sponsors, sponsor patronage, and satisfaction with sponsors. That is, identification with a gamer expect to be connected with corporation identification significantly. According to the above, we can design the following research model. All variables used in this study(interactivity, anonymity, expandibility, attractivity, similarity, match result, flow, identification with a gamer, and identification with a sponsor) definitely were defined operationally underlying precedent researches. Sample collection was carried out to the person who has an experience to have enjoyed e-sports during June 2006. Much portion of samples is men because much more men than women enjoy e-sports in general. Two-step approach was used to test the hypotheses. First, confirmatory factor analysis was committed to guarantee the validity and reliability of variables. The results showed that all variables had not only intensive and discriminant validity, but also reliability. Then, research model was examined with fully structural equation using LISREL 8.3 version. The fitness of the suggested model mostly was at the acceptable level. Shortly speaking about the results, first of all, in e-sports game attributes, only interactivity which is called a basic feature in online situation affected flow positively. Secondly, in e-sports gamer's attributes, similarity with a gamer and match result influenced flow positively, but there was no significant effect in the relationship between the attractivity of a gamer and flow. And as expected, similarity had an effect on identification with a gamer significantly. But unexpectedly attractivity and match result did not influence identification with a gamer significantly. Just the same as the fact verified in the many precedent researches, flow greatly influenced identification with a gamer, and identification with a gamer continually had an influence on the identification with a sponsor significantly. There are some implications in these results. If the sponsor of e-sports supports the pro-game player who absolutely should have the superior ability to others and is similar to the user enjoying e-sports, many amateur gamers will feel much of the flow and identification with a pro-gamer, and then after all, feel the identification with a sponsor. Such identification with a sponsor leads people enjoying e-sports to have purchasing intention for products produced by the sponsor and to make a positive word-of-mouth for those products or the sponsor. For the future studies, we recommend a few ideas. Based on the results of this study, it is necessary to find new variables relating to the e-sports, which is not mentioned in this study. For this work to be possible, qualitative research seems to be needed to consider the inherent e-sport attributes. Finally, to generalize the results related to e-sports, a wide range of generations not a specific generation should be researched.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.48-62
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• 2016

Consumers have come to demand high quality, affordable prices, and innovative product designs of the outdoor wear market due to their well-being and leisure oriented lifestyle. A new system of business in outdoor wear has emerged in the process through which corporations have endeavored to satisfy such consumer needs. Outdoor wear brands have utilized social network services (SNS) such as Facebook and Twitter as means of marketing and have built close relations with consumers based on communication through these media. Recently, explosively escalating SNS data are referred to as social big data, and now that every consumer online is a commentator, reviewer, and publisher, the outdoor wear market and all of its brands have to stop talking and start listening to how they are perceived. Therefore, this study employs Social $Metrics^{TM}$, a social big data analysis solution by Daumsoft, Inc., to verify changes in the allusions related to outdoor wear market found on SNS. This study aims to identify changes in consumer perceptions of outdoor wear based on changes in outdoor wear search words and trends in positive and negative public opinion found in SNS social big data. In addition, products of interest, the major brands mentioned, the attributes taken into consideration during purchases of products, and consumers' psychology were categorized and analyzed by means of keywords related to outdoor wear brands found on SNS. The results of this study will provide fundamental resources for outdoor wear brands' market entry and brand strategy implementation in the future.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.98 no.5
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• pp.548-557
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• 2009

For centuries, forests have been a key component of rural livelihood. They are important both socially and economically in Nepal. Firewood and fodder are the basic forest products that are extracted daily or weekly basis in most of the rural areas in Nepal. In this study, a field survey of 100 households was conducted to examine the degree of forest dependency and forest resource availability, households' livelihood strategy and their relationship with forest dependency in Chitwan, Nepal. A household' response indexes were constructed, Gini coefficient, Head Count Poverty Index (HCI) and Poverty Gap Index (PGI) were calculated and one way ANOVA test was also performed for data analysis. Data revealed that 82/81% of all households were constantly used forest for firewood and fodder collection respectively while 42% of households were used forest or forest fringe for grazing. The Forest Product Availability Indexes (FPAI) showed a sharp decline of forest resources from 0.781 to 0.308 for a 20-yr time horizon while timber wood was noticeably lowered than the other products. Yet, about 33% of households were below the poverty threshold line with 0.0945 PGI. Income distribution among the household showed a lower Gini coefficient 0.25 than 0.37 of landholdings size. However, mean income was significantly varies with F-statistics=246.348 at P=0.05 between income groups (rich, medium and poor). The extraction of firewood, fodder and other forest products were significantly different between the income group with F-statistics=16.480, 19.930, 29.956 at P=0.05 respectively. Similarly, landholdings size and education were also significantly different between the income groups with F-statistics=4.333, 5.981 at P=0.05 respectively. These findings suggested that income status of households was the major indicator of forest dependency while poor and medium groups were highly dependent on the forests for firewood, fodder and other products. Forest dependency still remains high and the availability of forest products that can be extracted from the remaining forestlands is decreasing. The high dependency of households on forest coupled with other socioeconomic attributes like education, poverty, small landholders and so on were possibly caused the forest degradation in Chitwan.Therefore, policy must be directed towards the poor livelihood supporting agenda that may enhance the financial conditions of rural households while it could reduce the degree of forest dependency inspired with other income generating activities in due course.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.97-106
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• 2016

Purpose - Social commerce is a certain way of how people buy some products together with others through the internet sites with mutual interactions among customers with the benefits of SNS when buying some products. At present, China market has some problems due to its rapid growing. However, empirical research or academic approach to social commerce has not been made enough. So, it is important for Chinese social market to develop and enlarge the customers with stability under the reliability and satisfaction. Also it is important for them to have repurchase intention. Nowadays, it is necessary to find the factors on customer satisfaction and trust, whereas consumers' dissatisfaction and unreliability are increasing on social commerce recently. In addition, researches on social commerce have been actively pursued by a variety of domestic and foreign scholars. However, researches on social commerce and Chinese market are short of, and they have some limitations because of the rapid growth of the market even though it is the early stage. The current situation requires researches on consumers' repurchase intention for continuing growth in the future according to the growth of Chinese social commerce. Research design, data, and methodology - The literature and the empirical studies are combined in order to achieve the purpose of the study. Deriving social commerce features and consumer properties as factors affecting the repurchase intention through the literature, and these factors have modeled a series of assumptions about the impact on satisfaction and trust, and have established hypotheses to verify them. The survey which is conducted to test the hypothesis and questionnaires are derived based on the variables discussed in the previous study. Appropriate measures were developed and tested on 227 respondents in China with a cross-sectional questionnaire survey. The path relationships of the research model were analyzed by SPSS 23.0 and Amos 23.0. Results - Research results about social commerce characteristics and factors affecting the repurchase intention are presented to Chinese market companies that adopt business models and consumer characteristics. In addition, this study focuses on the characteristics of social commerce, from two-dimensional characteristics of the consumer satisfaction, trust and the impact on the repurchase. Therefore, social commerce features and consumer properties based on the results of this study may lead the strategic implications that may increase the repurchase intention. Conclusions - The classification reviewing the previous findings related to social commerce and social commerce features affects social commerce repurchase (price discount, interactivity) and consumer characteristics (impulsivity, innovation, collectivism). It affects repurchase on factors and analyzes empirically. The empirical results identify major characteristics (social commerce characteristics, attributes) that affect the repurchase intention, and give the practical implications as well as the business strategies that are able to enhance social commerce repurchase consumers. Social commerce is a certain way of how people buy some products together with others through the internet sites with mutual interactions among customers with the benefits of SNS when buying some products.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.11 no.10
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• pp.217-233
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• 2011

In this study, we have examined how the potential users of IT convergence product use the external information sources for purchasing decision focusing on a case of smartphone. Although the specifications and price of IT convergence products, such as smartphone, tablet pc, and smart TV, are considered as major criteria for purchasing decision, the competitiveness of these factors have disappeared as many companies launch similar products in the market. External information sources play a significant role to differentiate the alternatives by offering value-added experience information. The effect of external information sources becomes stronger for experience and high-involvement product whose performance can be evaluated through only users' direct experience. In this study, we categorized the external information sources for smartphone into five; company ads, personal network, expert group, consumers, and media. Through an empirical study with potential smartphone users, we verified how these external information sources affect users' purchasing decision in the perspective of the perceived attributes of information source, quality of information, and individual's characteristics based on self-regulatory theory.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.59-69
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• 2010

Green or an environmental consciousness has been a major issue for businesses and government offices, as well as consumers, worldwide. In response to this movement, the Korean government announced, in the early 2000s, the era of "Green Growth" as a way to encourage green-related business activities. The Korean fashion industry, in various levels of involvement, presents diverse eco-friendly products as a part of the green movement. These apparel products include organic products and recycled clothing. For these companies to be successful, they need information about who are the consumers who consider green issues (e.g., environmental sustainability) as part of their personal values when making a decision for product purchase, use, and disposal. These consumers can be considered as eco-sumers. Previous studies have examined consumers' purchase intention for or with eco-friendly products. In addition, studies have examined influential factors used to identify the eco-sumers or green consumers. However, limited attention was paid to eco-sumers' disposal or recycling behavior of clothes in comparison with their green product purchases. Clothing disposal behaviors are ways that consumer can get rid of unused clothing and in clue temporarily lending the item or permanently eliminating the item by "handing down" (e.g., giving it to a younger sibling), donating, exchanging, selling, or simply throwing it away. Accordingly, examining purchasing behaviors of eco-friendly fashion items in conjunction with clothing disposal behaviors should improve understanding of a consumer's clothing consumption behavior from the environmental perspective. The purpose of this exploratory study is to provide descriptive information about Korean eco-sumers who have ecologically-favorable lifestyles and behaviors when buying and disposing of clothes. The objectives of this study are to (a) categorize Koreans on the basis of clothing disposal behaviors; (b) investigate the differences in demographics, lifestyles, and clothing consumption values among segments; and (c) compare the purchase intention of eco-friendly fashion items and influential factors among segments. A self-administered questionnaire was developed based on previous studies. The questionnaire included 10 items of clothing disposal behavior, 22 items of LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) characteristics, and 19 items of consumption values, measured by five-point Likert-type scales. In addition, the purchase intention of two eco-friendly fashion items and 11 attributes of each item were measured by seven-point Likert type scales. Two polyester fleece pullovers, made from fabric created from recycled bottles with the PET identification code, were selected from one Korean brand and one US imported brand among outdoor sportswear brands. A brief description of each product with a color picture was provided in the survey. Demographic variables (i.e., gender, age, marital status, education level, income, occupation) were also included. The data were collected through a professional web survey agency during May 2009. A total of 600 final usable questionnaires were analyzed. The age of respondents ranged from 20 to 49 years old with a mean age of 34 years. Fifty percent of the respondents were males and about 58% were married, and 62% reported having earned university degrees. Principal components factor analysis with varimax rotation was used to identify the underlying dimensions of the clothing disposal behavior scale, and three factors were generated (i.e., reselling behavior, donating behavior, non-recycling behavior). To categorize the respondents on the basis of clothing disposal behaviors, k-mean cluster analysis was used, and three segments were obtained. These consumer segments were labeled as 'Resale Group', 'Donation Group', and 'Non-Recycling Group.' The classification results indicated approximately 98 percent of the original cases were correctly classified. With respect to demographic characteristics among the three segments, significant differences were found in gender, marital status, occupation, and age. LOHAS characteristics were reduced into the following five factors: self-satisfaction, family orientation, health concern, environmental concern, and voluntary service. Significant differences were found in the LOHAS factors among the three clusters. Resale Group and Donation Group showed a similar predisposition to LOHAS issues while the Non-Recycling Group presented the lowest mean scores on the LOHAS factors compared to the other segments. The Resale and Donation Groups described themselves as enjoying or being satisfied with their lives and spending spare-time with family. In addition, these two groups cared about health and organic foods, and tried to conserve energy and resources. Principal components factor analysis generated clothing consumption values into the following three factors: personal values, social value, and practical value. The ANOVA test with the factors showed differences primarily between the Resale Group and the other two groups. The Resale Group was more concerned about personal value and social value than the other segments. In contrast, the Non-Recycling Group presented the higher level of social value than did Donation Group. In a comparison of the intention to purchase eco-friendly products, the Resale Group showed the highest mean score on intent to purchase Product A. On the other hand, the Donation Group presented the highest intention to purchase for Product B among segments. In addition, the mean scores indicated that the Korean product (Product B) was more preferable for purchase than the U.S. product (Product A). Stepwise regression analysis was used to identify the influence of product attributes on the purchase intention of eco product. With respect to Product A, design, price and contribution to environmental preservation were significant to predict purchase intention for the Resale Group, while price and compatibility with my image factors were significant for the Donation Group. For the Non-Recycling Group, design, price compatibility with the factors of my image, participation to eco campaign, and contribution to environmental preservation were significant. Price appropriateness was significant for each of the three clusters. With respect to Product B, design, price and compatibility with my image factors were important, but different attributes were associated significantly with purchase intention for each of the three groups. The influence of LOHAS characteristics and clothing consumption values on intention to purchase Products A and B were also examined. The LOHAS factor of health concern and the personal value factor were significant in the relationships with the purchase intention; however, the explanatory powers were low in the three segments. Findings showed that each group as classified by clothing disposal behaviors showed differences in the attributes of a product, personal values, and the LOHAS characteristics that influenced their purchase intention of eco-friendly products. Findings would enable organizations to understand eco-friendly behavior and to design appropriate strategic decisions to appeal eco-sumers.