• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.131-157
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• 2012

Despite the voluminous research on switching barriers, the notion that they can generate negative responses has not been investigated. Further, a critical question is what determines the strength of such negative responses. To address this question, the classic theory of psychological reactance is briefly reviewed, and the idea of switching barrier is advanced. This study attempts to suggest a model on the negative effects of switching- frustrated situation, based on the studies on psychological reactance. According to psychological reactance theory(Brehm 1966), whenever a freedom is threatened or removed, individuals are motivated, at least temporarily, to restore their freedom. For example, if individuals think they are free to engage in behaviors .v, y, or z, then threatening their freedom to engage in x would cause psychological reactance. This reactance could be reduced by an increase in the perceived attractiveness of engaging in, the threatened behavior(Kivetz 2005). This investigation seeks to extend existing switching barrier research in three important ways. First, while the past research has emphasized only positive role of switching barrier, this study address negative role of it by applying psychological reactance theory. Second, to find negative results of switching barrier, I suggest negative psychological response including regret to the past choice, resentment to the present provider, and strong desire to the alternative provider. Third, I suggest the perceived severity of the switching barriers, the attractiveness of the alternative as switching-frustrated situation which can lead to negative results. And, in addition to these relationships, I added moderated effects of perceived justice for better explanation. So this study includes the following hypotheses. H1-1 ~ H1-3: The attractiveness of the alternative has a positive effect regret to the past choice (h1-1), resentment to the present provider (h1-2), and strong desire to the alternative provider (h1-3). H2-1 ~ H2-3 : The perceived severity of the switching barrier has a positive effect regret to the past choice (h2-1), resentment to the present provider (h2-2), and strong desire to the alternative provider (h2-3). H3-1 ~ H3-3 : The positive relationships between the attractiveness of the alternative and consumer' negative responses will be stronger at low level of perceived justice than at high level of perceived justice. H4-1 ~ H4-3 : The positive relationships between the perceived severity of the switching barrier and consumer' negative responses will be stronger at low level of perceived justice than at high level of perceived justice. Survey research is employed to test hypotheses involving perceived severity of the switching barrier(Hess 2008), attractiveness of the alternative(Anderson and Narus 1990; Ohanian 1990),regret(Glovich and Medvec 1995), resentment, strong desire(Alcohol Urge Questionaire: Bohn et al. 1995), perceived justice(Bies and Moag 1986; Clemmer 1993; Lind and Tyler 1998). Previous researches, such as reactance theory, emotion and service failure, have been referenced to measure constructs. All items were measured on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree". We collected data involving various service field, and used 249 respondents to analyze these data using the moderated regression. The results of our analysis suggest, as expected, that the perceived severity of the switching barrier had positive effects on regret to the past choice(b = .197, p< .01), resentment to the present provider(b = .214, p< .01), and strong desire to the alternative provider(b = .254, p< .001). And the attractiveness of the alternative had positive effects on regret to the past choice(b = .353, p<.001), resentment to the present provider(b = .174, p< .01), and strong desire to the alternative provider(b = .265, p< .001). However, our findings indicate perceived justice partly moderates relationship between switching-frustrated situation and psychological negative response. The study has brought to light a number of insights between switching barriers and consumer' negative responses that have been subject to little prior research. In particular, this study adds to the existing understanding of the psychological responses to switching barriers in switching- frustrated situation. This research therefore has significance to marketers for strategic marketing programs, particularly in terms of customer retention and switching barrier strategies. Since consumers could exhibit negative responses to switching barrier, companies would be able to lose their customer when they thoughtlessly use switching barrier for remaining customer. Although the study has these contributions, there are several limitations including unsupported hypotheses and research method. So, we need to make up for these limitations in the future researches.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.141-173
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• 2007

The study examines how the environmental factors of store influence service brand personality and repurchase intention in the service environment. The service industry has been experiencing the intensified competition with the industry's continuous growth and the influence from rapid technological advancement. Under the circumstances, it has become ever more important for the brand competitiveness to be distinctively recognized against competition. A brand needs to be distinguished and differentiated from competing companies because they are all engaged in the similar environment of the service industry. The differentiation of brand achievement has become increasingly important to highlight certain brand functions to include emotional, self-expressive, and symbolic functions since the importance of such functions has been further emphasized in promoting consumption activities. That is the recent role of brand personality that has been emphasized in the service industry. In other words, customers now freely and actively express their personalities or egos in consumption activities, taking an important role in construction of a brand asset. Hence, the study suggests that it is necessary to disperse the recognition and acknowledgement that the maintenance of the existing customers contributes more to boost repurchase intention when it is compared to the efforts to create new customers, particularly in the service industry. Meanwhile, the store itself can offer a unique environment that may influence the consumer's purchase decision. Consumers interact with store environments in the process of,virtually, all household purchase they make (Sarel 1981). Thus, store environments may encourage customers to purchase. The roles that store environments play are to provide informational cues to customers about the store and goods and communicate messages to stimulate consumers' emotions. The store environments differentiate the store from competing stores and build a unique service brand personality. However, the existing studies related to brand in the service industry mostly concentrated on the relationship between the quality of service and customer satisfaction, and they are mostly generalized while the connective studies focused on brand personality. Such approaches show limitations and are insufficient to investigate on the relationship between store environment and brand personality in the service industry. Accordingly, the study intends to identify the level of contribution to the establishment of brand personality made by the store's physical environments that influence on the specific brand characteristics depending on the type of service. The study also intends to identify what kind of relationships with brand personality exists with brand personality while being influenced by store environments. In addition, the study intends to make meaningful suggestions to better direct marketing efforts by identifying whether a brand personality makes a positive influence to induce an intention for repurchase. For this study, the service industry is classified into four categories based on to the characteristics of service: experimental-emotional service, emotional -credible service, credible-functional service, and functional-experimental service. The type of business with the most frequent customer contact is determined for each service type and the enterprise with the highest brand value in each service sector based on the report made by the Korea Management Association. They are designated as the representative of each category. The selected representatives are a fast-food store (experimental-emotional service), a cinema house (emotional-credible service), a bank (credible-functional service), and discount store (functional-experimental service). The survey was conducted for the four selected brands to represent each service category among consumers who are experienced users of the designated stores in Seoul Metropolitan City and Gyeonggi province via written questionnaires in order to verify the suggested assumptions in the study. In particular, the survey adopted 15 scales, which represent each characteristic factor, among the 42 unique characteristics developed by Jennifer Aaker(1997) to assess the brand personality of each service brand. SPSS for Windows Release 12.0 and LISREL were used in the analysis of data verification. The methodology of the structural equation model was used for the study and the pivotal findings are as follows. 1) The environmental factors ware classified as design factors, ambient factors, and social factors. Therefore, the validity of measurement scale of Baker et al. (1994) was proved. 2) The service brand personalities were subdivided as sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, and ruggedness, which makes the use of the brand personality scales by Jennifer Aaker(1997) appropriate in the service industry as well. 3) One-way ANOVA analysis on the scales of store environment and service brand personality showed that there exist statistically significant differences in each service category. For example, the social factors were highest in discount stores, while the ambient factors and design factors were highest in fast-food stores. The discount stores were highest in the sincerity and excitement, while the highest point for banks was in the competence and ruggedness, and the highest point for fast-food stores was in the sophistication, The consumers will make a different respond to the physical environment of stores and service brand personality that are inherent to the corresponding service interface. Hence, the customers will make a different decision-making when dealing with different service categories. In this aspect, the relationships of variables in the proposed hypothesis appear to work in a different way depending on the exposed service category. 4) The store environment factors influenced on service brand personalities differently by category of service. The factors of store's physical environment are transferred to a brand and were verified to strengthen service brand personalities. In particular, the level of influence on the service brand personality by physical environment differs depending on service category or dimension, which indicates that there is a need to apply a different style of management to a different service category or dimension. It signifies that there needs to be a brand strategy established in order to positively influence the relationship with consumers by utilizing an appropriate brand personality factor depending on different characteristics by service category or dimension. 5) The service brand personalities influenced on the repurchase intention. Especially, the largest influence was made in the sophistication dimension of service brand personality scale; the unique and characteristically appropriate arrangement of physical environment will make customers stay in the service environment for a long time and will lead to give a positive influence on the repurchase intention. 6) The store environment factors influenced on the repurchase intention. Particularly, the largest influence was made on the social factors of store environment. The most intriguing finding is that the service factor among all other environment factors gives the biggest influence to the repurchase intention in most of all service types except fast-food stores. Such result indicates that the customers pay attention to how much the employees try to provide a quality service when they make an evaluation on the service brand. At the same time, it also indicates that the personal factor is directly transmitted to the construction of brand personality. The employees' attitude and behavior are the determinants to establish a service brand personality in the process of enhancing service interface. Hence, there should be a reinforced search for a method to efficiently manage the service staff who has a direct contact with customers in order to make an affirmative improvement of the customers' brand evaluation at the service interface. The findings suggest several managerial implications. 1) Results from the empirical study indicated that store environment factors have a strong positive impact on a service brand personality. To increase customers' repurchase intention of a service brand, the management is required to effectively manage store environment factors and create a friendly brand personality based on the corresponding service environment. 2) Mangers and researchers must understand and recognize that the store environment elements are important marketing tools, and that brand personality influences on consumers' repurchase intention. Based on such result of the study, a service brand could be utilized as an efficient measure to achieve a differentiation by enforcing the elements that are most influential among all other store environments for each service category. Therefore, brand personality established involving various store environments will further reinforce the relationship with customers through the elevated brand identification of which utilization to induce repurchase decision can be used as an entry barrier. 3) The study identified the store environment as a component of service brand personality for the store's effective communication with consumers. For this, all communication channels should be maintained with consistency and an integrated marketing communication should be executed to efficiently approach to a larger number of customers. Mangers and researchers must find strategies for aligning decisions about store environment elements with the retailers' marketing and store personality objectives. All ambient, design, and social factors need to be orchestrated so that consumers can take an appropriate store personality. In this study, the induced results from the previous studies were extended to the service industry so as to identify the customers' decision making process that leads to repurchase intention and a result similar to those of the previous studies. The findings suggested several theoretical and managerial implications. However, the situation that only one service brand served as the subject of analysis for each service category, and the situation that correlations among store environment elements were not identified, as well as the problem of representation in selection of samples should be considered and supplemented in the future when further studies are conducted. In addition, various antecedents and consequences of brand personality must be looked at in the aspect of the service environment for further research.

• Magazine of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.2913-2924
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• 1973

This study was to investigate the drying mechanism of stratified soil by investigating 'effects of the upper soil on moisture loss of the lower soil and vice versa' and at the same time by examining how the drying progressed in the stratified soils with bare surface and with vegetated surface respectively. There were six plots of the stratified soils with bare surface($A_1- A_6$ plot) and the same other six plots($B_1- B_5$ plot), with vegetated surface(white clover). These six plots were made by permutating two kinds of soils from three kinds of soils; clay loam(CL). Sandy loam(SL). Sand(s). Each layer was leveled by saturating sufficient water. Depth of each plot was 40cm by making each layer 20cm deep and its area. $90{\times}90(cm^2)$. The cell was put at the point of the central and mid-depth of the each layer in the each plot in order to measure the soil moisture by using OHMMETER. soil moisture tester, and movement of soil water from out sides was cut off by putting the vinyl on the four sides. The results obtained were as follow; 1. Drying progressed from the surface layer to the lower layer regardless of plots. There was a tendency thet drying of the upper soil was faster than that of the lower soil and drying of the plot with vegetated surface was also faster than that of the plot with bare surface. 2. Soil moisture was recovered at approximately the field capacity or moisture equivalent by infiltration in the course of drying, when there was a rainfall. 3. Effects of soil texture of the lower soil on dryness of the upper soil in the stratified soil were explained as follows; a) When the lower soil was S and the upper, CL or SL, dryness of the upper soils overlying the lower soil of S was much faster than that overlying the lower soil of SL or CL, because sandy soil, having the small field capacity value and playing a part of the layer cutting off to some extent capillary water supply. Drying of SL was remarkably faster than that of CL in the upper soil. b) When the lower soil was SL and the upper S or CL, drying of the upper soil was the slowest because of the lower SL, having a comparatively large field capacity value. Drying of CL tended to be faster than that of S in the upper soil. c) When the lower soil was CL and the upper S or SL, drying of the upper soil was relatively fast because of the lower CL, having the largest field capacity value but the slowest capillary conductivity. Drying of SL tended to be faster than that of S in the upper soil. 4. According to a change in soil moisture content of the upper soil and the lower soil during a day there was a tendency that soil moisture contents of CL and SL in the upper soil were decreased to its minimum value but that of S increased to its maximum value, during 3 hours between 12.00 and 15.00. There was another tendency that soil moisture contents of CL, SL and S in the lower soil were all slightly decreased by temperature rising and those in a cloudy day were smaller than those in a clear day. 5. The ratio of the accumulated soil moisture consumption to the accumulated guage evaporation in the plot with vegetated surface was generally larger than that in the plot with bare surface. The ratio tended to decrease in the course of time, and also there was a tendency that it mainly depended on the texture of the upper soil at the first period and the texture of the lower soil at the last period. 6. A change in the ratio of the accumulated soil moisture consumption was larger in the lower soil of SL than in the lower soil of S. when the upper soil was CL and the lower, SL and S. The ratio showed the biggest figure among any other plots, and the ratio in the lower soil plot of CL indicated sligtly bigger than that in the lower soil plot of S, when the upper soil was SL and the lower, CL and S. The ratio showed less figure than that of two cases above mentioned, when the upper soil was S and the lower CL and SL and that in the lower soil plot of CL indicated a less ratio than that in the lower soil plot of SL. As a result of this experiments, the various soil layers wero arranged in the following order with regard to the ratio of the accumulated soil moisture consumption: SL/CL>SL/S>CL/SL>CL/S$\fallingdotseq$S/SL>S/CL.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.3
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• pp.1-40
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• 1965

To measure variations in some of the important agronomic characteristics of rice varieties under shifting of seedling dates, this study has been carried out at the Paddy Crop Division of Crop Experiment Station(then Agricultural Experiment Station) in Suwon for the period of three years 1958 to 1960. The varieties used in this study were Kwansan, Suwon ＃82, Mojo, Paltal and Chokwang, which have the different agronomic characteristics such as earliness and plant type. Seeds of each variety were sown at 14 different dates in 10-day interval starting on March 2. The seedlings were grown on seed bed for 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 and 80 days, respectively. The results of this study are as follows: A. Heading dates. 1. As the seeding date was delayed, the heading dates was almost proportionally delayed. The degree of delay was higher in early varieties and lower in late varieties and the longer the seedling stage, the more delayed the heading date. 2. Number of days to heading was proportionally lessened as seeding was delayed in all the varieties but the magnitude varied depending upon variety. In other words, the required period for heading in case of late planting was much shortened in late variety compared with early one. Within a variety, the number of days to heading was less shortened as the seedling stage was prolonged. Early variety reached earlier than late variety to the marginal date for the maximum shortening of days to heading and the longer the seeding stage, the limitted date came earlier. There was a certain limit in seeding date for shortening of days to heading as seeding was delayed, and days to heading were rather prolonged due to cold weather when seeded later than that date. 3. In linear regression equation, Y=a+bx obtained from the seeding dates and the number of days to heading, the coefficient b(shortening rate of days to heading) was closely correlated with the average number of days to heading. That is, the period from seeding to heading was more shortened in late variety than early one as seeding was delayed. 4. To the extent that the seedling stage is not so long and there is a linear relationship between delay of seeding and shortening of days to heading, it might be possible to predict heading date of a rice variety to be sown any date by using the linear regression obtained from variation of heading dates under the various seeding dates of the same variety. 5. It was found out that there was a close correlation between the numbers of days to heading in ordinary culture and the other ones. When a rice variety was planted during the period from the late part of March to the middle of June and the seedling ages were within 30 to 50 days, it could be possible to estimate heading date of the variety under late or early culture with the related data of ordinary culture. B. Maturing date. 6. Within (he marginal date for maturation of rice variety, maturing date was proportionally delayed as heading was delayed. Of course, the degree of delay depended upon varieties and seedling ages. The average air temperature (Y) during the ripening period of rice variety was getting lower as the heading date. (X) was delayed. Though there was a difference among varieties, in general, a linear regression equation(y=25.53-0.182X) could be obtained as far as heading date were within August 1 to September 13. 7. Depending upon earliness of a rice variety, the average air temperature during the ripening period were greatly different. Early variety underwent under 28$^{\circ}C$ in maximum while late variety matured under as low as 22$^{\circ}C$. 8. There was a highly significant correlation between the average air temperature (X) during the ripening period, and number of day (Y) for the maturation. And the relationship could be expressed as y=82.30-1.55X. When the average air temperature during the period was within the range of 18$^{\circ}C$ to 28$^{\circ}C$, the ripening period was shortened by 1.55 days with increase of 1$^{\circ}C$. Considering varieties, Kwansan was the highest in shortening the maturing period by 2.24 days and Suwon ＃82 was the lowest showing 0.78 days. It is certain that ripening of rice variety is accelerated at Suwon as the average air temperature increases within the range of 18$^{\circ}C$ to 28$^{\circ}C$. 9. Between number of days to heading (X) related to seeding dates and the accumulated average air temperature (Y) during the ripening period, a positive correlation was obtained. However, there was a little difference in the accumulated average air temperature during the ripening period even seeding dates were shifted to a certain extent. C. Culm- and ear-lengths. 10. In general all the varieties didn't show much variation in their culm-lengths in case of relatively early seeding but they trended to decrease the lengths as seeding was delayed. The magnitude of decreasing varied from young seedlings to old ones. Young seedlings which were seeded during May 21 to June 10 didn't decrease their culm-lengths, while seedlings old as 80 days decreased the length though under ordinary culture. 11. Variation in ear-length of rice varieties show the same trend as the culm-length subjected to the different seeding dates. When rice seedlings aged from 30 to 40 days, the ear-length remained constant but rice plants older than 40 days obviously decreased their ear-lengths. D. Number of panicles per hill. 12. The number of panicles per hill decreased up to a certain dates as seeding was delayed and then again increased the panicles due to the development of numerous tillers at the upper internodes. The seeding date to reach to the least number of panicles of rice variety depended upon the seedling ages. Thirty- to 40-day seedlings which were seeded during May 31 to June 10 developed the lowest number of panicles and 70- to 80-day seedlings sown for the period from April 11 to April 21 reached already to the minimum number of panicles. E. Number of rachillae. 13. To a certain seeding date, the number of rachillae didn't show any variation due to delay of seeding but it decreased remarkably when seeded later than the marginal date. 14. Variation in number of rachillae depended upon seedling ages. For example, 30- to 40-day old seedlings which, were originally seeded after May 31 started to decrease the rachillae. On the other hand, 80-day old seedlings which, were seeded on May 1 showed a tendency to decrease rachillae and the rice plant sown on May 31 could develop narrowly 3 or 4 panicles. F. Defective grain and 1.000-grain weights. 15. Under delay of the seeding dates, weight of the defective grains gradually increased till a certain date and then suddenly increased. These relationships could be expressed with two different linear regressions. 16. If it was assumed that the marginal date for ripening was the cross point of these two lines, the date seemed. closely related with seedling ages. The date was June 10- in 30- to 40-day old seedlings but that of 70- to 80-day old seedlings was May 1. Accordingly, the marginal date for ripening was getting earlier as the seedling stage was prolonged. 17. The 1.000-grain weight in ordinary culture was the heaviest and it decreased in both early and late cultures. G. Straw and rough rice weights. 18. Regardless of earliness of variety, rice plants under early culture which were seeded before March 22 or April 1 did not show much variation in straw weight due to seedling ages but in ordinary culture it gradually decreased and the degree was became greater in late culture. 19. Relationship between seeding dates (X) and grain weight related to varieties and seedling ages, could be expressed as a parabola analogous to a line (Y=77.28-7.44X$_1$-1.00lX$_2$). That is, grain yield didn't vary in early culture but it started to decrease when seeded later than a certain date, as seeding was delayed. The variation was much greater in cases of late planting and prolongation of seedling age. 20. Generally speaking, the relationship between grain yield (Y) and number of days to heading (X) was described with linear regression. However, the early varieties were the highest yielders within the range of 60 to 110, days to heading but the late variety greatly decreased its yield since it grows normally only under late culture. The grain yield, on the whole, didn't increase as number of days to heading exceeded more than 140 days.