• Title/Summary/Keyword: Multi-Variable Regression Method

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Analysis of Empirical Multiple Linear Regression Models for the Production of PM2.5 Concentrations (PM2.5농도 산출을 위한 경험적 다중선형 모델 분석)

  • Choo, Gyo-Hwang;Lee, Kyu-Tae;Jeong, Myeong-Jae
    • Journal of the Korean earth science society
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    • v.38 no.4
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    • pp.283-292
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    • 2017
  • In this study, the empirical models were established to estimate the concentrations of surface-level $PM_{2.5}$ over Seoul, Korea from 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2013. We used six different multiple linear regression models with aerosol optical thickness (AOT), ${\AA}ngstr{\ddot{o}}m$ exponents (AE) data from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard Terra and Aqua satellites, meteorological data, and planetary boundary layer depth (PBLD) data. The results showed that $M_6$ was the best empirical model and AOT, AE, relative humidity (RH), wind speed, wind direction, PBLD, and air temperature data were used as input data. Statistical analysis showed that the result between the observed $PM_{2.5}$ and the estimated $PM_{2.5}$ concentrations using $M_6$ model were correlations (R=0.62) and root square mean error ($RMSE=10.70{\mu}gm^{-3}$). In addition, our study show that the relation strongly depends on the seasons due to seasonal observation characteristics of AOT, with a relatively better correlation in spring (R=0.66) and autumntime (R=0.75) than summer and wintertime (R was about 0.38 and 0.56). These results were due to cloud contamination of summertime and the influence of snow/ice surface of wintertime, compared with those of other seasons. Therefore, the empirical multiple linear regression model used in this study showed that the AOT data retrieved from the satellite was important a dominant variable and we will need to use additional weather variables to improve the results of $PM_{2.5}$. Also, the result calculated for $PM_{2.5}$ using empirical multi linear regression model will be useful as a method to enable monitoring of atmospheric environment from satellite and ground meteorological data.

The Effect of Social Network on Information Sharing in Franchise System (프랜차이즈시스템의 사회연결망 특성이 정보공유에 미치는 영향)

  • Yun, Han-Sung;Bae, Sang-Wook;Noh, Jung-Koo
    • Journal of Distribution Research
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    • v.16 no.2
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    • pp.95-118
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    • 2011
  • The purpose of this study is as follows. First, we investigate empirically the effects of social network properties such as social network density and centrality of a franchisee on its information sharing with various subjects such as the franchisor and other franchisees in the franchise system. Second, we examine exploratively if tie strength between a franchisee and its franchisor plays a moderating role on the relationship between social network properties and information sharing. The study model was established as shown in

    . We gathered 200 data from franchisees in Busan through a questionnaire survey and used 189 data for our purpose. To improve the quality of data, we selected respondents from the franchisees' owners or managers that had contacted often with their franchisor and other franchisees in the franchise system. Our data analysis began with reliability analysis, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, on the multi-item measures of social network density, social network centrality, tie strength, information sharing and control variables such as shared goals and ownership to assess the reliability and validity of those measures. The results were shown that the presented values satisfied the general criteria for reliability and validity. We tested our hypotheses using a hierarchical multiple regression analysis in four steps. Model 1 regressed the dependent variable(information sharing) only on control variables(shared goals, ownership). Model 2 added main effect variables(social network density, social network centrality) in Model 1. Model 3 added a moderating variable(tie strength) in Model 2. Finally, Model 4 added interaction terms between the main variables and the moderating variable in Model 3. We used a mean-centering method for the main variables and the moderating variable to minimize the multicollinearity problem due to the interaction terms in Model 4. Two important empirical findings emerge from this study. In other words, the effects of social network properties and tie strength on a franchisee's information sharing depend on subject types such as the franchisor and other franchisees in franchise system. First, social network centrality, tie strength, the interaction between social network density and tie strength and the interaction between social network centrality and tie strength all affect significantly a franchisee's information sharing with its franchisor. By the way, the interaction between social network centrality and tie strength has a negative effect on its information sharing while the interaction of social network density and tie strength has a positive effect on its information sharing. Second, both social network centrality affects significantly and directly a franchisee's information sharing with other franchisees in the franchise system. However, there does not exist the moderating role of tie strength in the second case. Finally, we suggest the implications of our findings and some avenues for future research.

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A Study on the Prediction Model of Stock Price Index Trend based on GA-MSVM that Simultaneously Optimizes Feature and Instance Selection (입력변수 및 학습사례 선정을 동시에 최적화하는 GA-MSVM 기반 주가지수 추세 예측 모형에 관한 연구)

  • Lee, Jong-sik;Ahn, Hyunchul
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.23 no.4
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    • pp.147-168
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    • 2017
  • There have been many studies on accurate stock market forecasting in academia for a long time, and now there are also various forecasting models using various techniques. Recently, many attempts have been made to predict the stock index using various machine learning methods including Deep Learning. Although the fundamental analysis and the technical analysis method are used for the analysis of the traditional stock investment transaction, the technical analysis method is more useful for the application of the short-term transaction prediction or statistical and mathematical techniques. Most of the studies that have been conducted using these technical indicators have studied the model of predicting stock prices by binary classification - rising or falling - of stock market fluctuations in the future market (usually next trading day). However, it is also true that this binary classification has many unfavorable aspects in predicting trends, identifying trading signals, or signaling portfolio rebalancing. In this study, we try to predict the stock index by expanding the stock index trend (upward trend, boxed, downward trend) to the multiple classification system in the existing binary index method. In order to solve this multi-classification problem, a technique such as Multinomial Logistic Regression Analysis (MLOGIT), Multiple Discriminant Analysis (MDA) or Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) we propose an optimization model using Genetic Algorithm as a wrapper for improving the performance of this model using Multi-classification Support Vector Machines (MSVM), which has proved to be superior in prediction performance. In particular, the proposed model named GA-MSVM is designed to maximize model performance by optimizing not only the kernel function parameters of MSVM, but also the optimal selection of input variables (feature selection) as well as instance selection. In order to verify the performance of the proposed model, we applied the proposed method to the real data. The results show that the proposed method is more effective than the conventional multivariate SVM, which has been known to show the best prediction performance up to now, as well as existing artificial intelligence / data mining techniques such as MDA, MLOGIT, CBR, and it is confirmed that the prediction performance is better than this. Especially, it has been confirmed that the 'instance selection' plays a very important role in predicting the stock index trend, and it is confirmed that the improvement effect of the model is more important than other factors. To verify the usefulness of GA-MSVM, we applied it to Korea's real KOSPI200 stock index trend forecast. Our research is primarily aimed at predicting trend segments to capture signal acquisition or short-term trend transition points. The experimental data set includes technical indicators such as the price and volatility index (2004 ~ 2017) and macroeconomic data (interest rate, exchange rate, S&P 500, etc.) of KOSPI200 stock index in Korea. Using a variety of statistical methods including one-way ANOVA and stepwise MDA, 15 indicators were selected as candidate independent variables. The dependent variable, trend classification, was classified into three states: 1 (upward trend), 0 (boxed), and -1 (downward trend). 70% of the total data for each class was used for training and the remaining 30% was used for verifying. To verify the performance of the proposed model, several comparative model experiments such as MDA, MLOGIT, CBR, ANN and MSVM were conducted. MSVM has adopted the One-Against-One (OAO) approach, which is known as the most accurate approach among the various MSVM approaches. Although there are some limitations, the final experimental results demonstrate that the proposed model, GA-MSVM, performs at a significantly higher level than all comparative models.

A Study on the Financial Strength of Households on House Investment Demand (가계 재무건전성이 주택투자수요에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구)

  • Rho, Sang-Youn;Yoon, Bo-Hyun;Choi, Young-Min
    • Journal of Distribution Science
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    • v.12 no.4
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    • pp.31-39
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    • 2014
  • Purpose - This study investigates the following two issues. First, we attempt to find the important determinants of housing investment and to identify their significance rank using survey panel data. Recently, the expansion of global uncertainty in the real estate market has directly and indirectly influenced the Korean housing market; households demonstrate a sensitive reaction to changes in that market. Therefore, this study aims to draw conclusions from understanding how the impact of financial strength of the household is related to house investment. Second, we attempt to verify the effectiveness of diverse indices of financial strength such as DTI, LTV, and PIR as measures to monitor the housing market. In the continuous housing market recession after the global crisis, the government places top priority on residence stability. However, the government still imposes forceful restraints on indices of financial strength. We believe this study verifies the utility of these regulations when used in the housing market. Research design, data, and methodology - The data source for this study is the "National Survey of Tax and Benefit" from 2007 (1st) to 2011 (5th) by the Korea Institute of Public Finance. Based on this survey data, we use panel data of 3,838 households that have been surveyed continuously for 5 years. We sort the base variables according to relevance of house investment criteria using the decision tree model (DTM), which is the standard decision-making model for data-mining techniques. The DTM method is known as a powerful methodology to identify contributory variables for predictive power. In addition, we analyze how important explanatory variables and the financial strength index of households affect housing investment with the binary logistic multi-regressive model. Based on the analyses, we conclude that the financial strength index has a significant role in house investment demand. Results - The results of this research are as follows: 1) The determinants of housing investment are age, consumption expenditures, income, total assets, rent deposit, housing price, habits satisfaction, housing scale, number of household members, and debt related to housing. 2) The impact power of these determinants has changed more or less annually due to economic situations and housing market conditions. The level of consumption expenditure and income are the main determinants before 2009; however, the determinants of housing investment changed to indices of the financial strength of households, i.e., DTI, LTV, and PIR, after 2009. 3) Most of all, since 2009, housing loans has been a more important variable than the level of consumption in making housing market decisions. Conclusions - The results of this research show that sound financing of households has a stronger effect on housing investment than reduced consumption expenditures. At the same time, the key indices that must be monitored by the government under economic emergency conditions differ from those requiring monitoring under normal market conditions; therefore, political indices to encourage and promote the housing market must be divided based on market conditions.

Correlation between Mix Proportion and Mechanical Characteristics of Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete (강섬유 보강 콘크리트의 배합비와 역학적 특성 사이의 관계 추정)

  • Choi, Hyun-Ki;Bae, Baek-Il;Koo, Hae-Shik
    • Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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    • v.27 no.4
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    • pp.331-341
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    • 2015
  • The main purpose of this study is reducing the cost and effort for characterization of tensile strength of fiber reinforced concrete, in order to use in structural design. For this purpose, in this study, test for fiber reinforced concrete was carried out. Because fiber reinforced concrete is consisted of diverse material, it is hard to define the correlation between mix proportions and strength. Therefore, compressive strength test and tensile strength test were carried out for the range of smaller than 100 MPa of compressive strength and 0.25~1% of steel fiber volume fraction. as a results of test, two types of tensile strength were highly affected by compressive strength of concrete. However, increase rate of tensile strength was decreased with increase of compressive strength. Increase rate of tensile strength was decreased with increase of fiber volume fraction. Database was constructed using previous research data. Because estimation equations for tensile strength of fiber reinforced concrete should be multiple variable function, linear regression is hard to apply. Therefore, in this study, we decided to use the ANN(Artificial Neural Network). ANN was constructed using multiple layer perceptron architecture. Sigmoid function was used as transfer function and back propagation training method was used. As a results of prediction using artificial neural network, predicted values of test data and previous research which was randomly selected were well agreed with each other. And the main effective parameters are water-cement ratio and fiber volume fraction.

Relationship between Characteristics of Lengthy Hospital Stay Patients, Knowledge of Transfer Needs and Their Willingness to Transfer - Strategies for the Effective Transfer of Lengthy Hospital Stay Patients - (장기재원환자의 특성 및 전원 인지도와 전원 의향과의 관계 - 장기재원환자의 효율적 전원을 위한 전략 제시 -)

  • Kang, Eun Sook;Tark, Kwan-Chul;Lee, Taewha;Kim, In Sook
    • Quality Improvement in Health Care
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    • v.9 no.2
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    • pp.116-133
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    • 2002
  • Background : It is very common in Korea to take care of non-acute patients in an acute setting, due to the lack of long-term facilities. Long term hospitalization increase medical expenses and decreases the bed utilization, which can affect the urgent and emergent admissions, and eventually jeopardize the hospital financially. In this study, strategies for effective transfers to the lower levels of care, and to decrease the length of stay were presented by surveying and analyzing the patient's knowledge of the transfer needs, and the willingness to transfer those whose hospital length of stay was more than 30days. Method : The survey is subject to a group of 251 patients who have been hospitalized over 30 days in a general hospital in Seoul. Excluding those that were in the Intensive Care Unit and psychiatric ward, 214 in-patients were used as participants. They were surveyed from April 9, 2002 to April 17, 2002. One hundred and thirty seven out of 214 were responded which made the response rate 64%. Data were analyzed by SAS and SPSS. Result : Multi-variable Logistic Regression Analysis showed a significant effect in medical expenses, knowledge of referral system and the information of the receiving hospital. The financial burden in medical expenses made the patient 10.7 times more willing to be transferred, knowledge of the referral system made them 5 times more willing to be transferred, and the information of receiving hospital makes 6.5 times more willing to be transferred. Reasons for willing to be transferred to a lower level of care were the phase of physical therapy, the distance from home, the attending physician's advice and being unable to be treated as an out patient. Reasons for refusing to be transferred were the following. The attending physician's competency, not being ready to be discharged, not trusting the receiving hospital's competency due to the lack of information, or never hearing about the referring system by the attending physician. Conclusion : Based on this, strategies for the effective transfer to the lower levels of care were suggested. It is desirable for the attending physician to be actively involved by making an effort to explain the transfer need, and referring to the Healthcare Coordinating Center, which can help the patient make the right decision. Nationwide networking for the referral system is the another key factor that may need to be suggested as an alternative to decrease the medical expenses. Collaborating with the Home Health Agency for the early discharge planning and the Social Service Department for financial aid are also needed. It is recommended that the hospital should expedite the transfer process by prioritizing the cost and the information as medical expenses, knowledge of referring system and the information of the receiving hospital, are the most important factors to the willingness to transfer to a lower level of care.

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Doubly-robust Q-estimation in observational studies with high-dimensional covariates (고차원 관측자료에서의 Q-학습 모형에 대한 이중강건성 연구)

  • Lee, Hyobeen;Kim, Yeji;Cho, Hyungjun;Choi, Sangbum
    • The Korean Journal of Applied Statistics
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    • v.34 no.3
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    • pp.309-327
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    • 2021
  • Dynamic treatment regimes (DTRs) are decision-making rules designed to provide personalized treatment to individuals in multi-stage randomized trials. Unlike classical methods, in which all individuals are prescribed the same type of treatment, DTRs prescribe patient-tailored treatments which take into account individual characteristics that may change over time. The Q-learning method, one of regression-based algorithms to figure out optimal treatment rules, becomes more popular as it can be easily implemented. However, the performance of the Q-learning algorithm heavily relies on the correct specification of the Q-function for response, especially in observational studies. In this article, we examine a number of double-robust weighted least-squares estimating methods for Q-learning in high-dimensional settings, where treatment models for propensity score and penalization for sparse estimation are also investigated. We further consider flexible ensemble machine learning methods for the treatment model to achieve double-robustness, so that optimal decision rule can be correctly estimated as long as at least one of the outcome model or treatment model is correct. Extensive simulation studies show that the proposed methods work well with practical sample sizes. The practical utility of the proposed methods is proven with real data example.

Factors Affecting Use Satisfaction of Medical Institutions on Korean Society Adaptation of the Multicultural Families' Woman (다문화 가정 여성의 한국 사회 적응도가 의료기관 이용과정 만족도에 미치는 영향)

  • Choi, Sung-Suk;Yun, Hyun-Kyuong;Choi, Gyu-Yil
    • Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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    • v.13 no.12
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    • pp.5875-5881
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    • 2012
  • Research objectives: This research is focused on the multicultural families based on the existing studies. The problems that the women of the multicultural families experience in this society were studied, in relation to the adaptability to Korea by identifying the elements related to the use of and satisfaction level towards medical institutions. As such, this research is expected to be used as a data that can help to provide quality medical service to the women of the multicultural families. Research method: 188 women of the multicultural families were targeted to carry out research by conducting interview and by leveraging translated survey questionnaire. Then, SPSS 18.0 program was used to conduct statistical analysis. As for the analysis methods, frequency analysis, technical statistics, ANOVA and multiple regression analysis method were used. The results of the research were as follows. First, for the satisfaction level towards medical institutions for each class following each nation, Vietnam manifested highest satisfaction level when it comes to the public sanitation clinic, followed by the Philippines and China in the order listed. Meanwhile, Japan manifested the lowest satisfaction level. In case of the Asian medicine hospital, Japan manifested the highest satisfaction level contrary to the public sanitation clinic, followed by Philippines and China in the order listed. Meanwhile, Vietnam manifested the lowest satisfaction level. Second, 'satisfaction level towards nationality, education level, income, degree of adaptation and access to the medical institutions via transportation,' degree of adaptation towards the Korean society was manifested as an influential variable. As the degree of adaptation towards the Korean society increased, satisfaction level towards the degree of access to the medical institutions via transportation was proven to be high. Third, 'Nationality, education, income, hospital administration to help adapt the level of satisfaction' income if the first 1,5 million to 2,0 million won that low satisfaction than from 1 million to 1,5 million won and Higher of Korean society to adapt was higher Hospital Administrationon the level of satisfaction Conclusion: Nationality, education level, income, degree of adaptation towards the Korean society affect satisfaction level towards medical institutions. To increase the elements that increase the satisfaction level towards the medical institutions, multi-dimensional approach by each nationality, education level and income is required. In particular, it would be considered necessary to increase the level of adaptability to Korea.

The Causes of Conflict and the Effect of Control Mechanisms on Conflict Resolution between Manufacturer and Supplier (제조-공급자간 갈등 원인과 거래조정 방식의 갈등관리 효과)

  • Rhee, Jin Hwa
    • Journal of Distribution Research
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    • v.17 no.4
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    • pp.55-80
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    • 2012
  • I. Introduction Developing the relationships between companies is very important issue to ensure a competitive advantage in today's business environment (Bleeke & Ernst 1991; Mohr & Spekman 1994; Powell 1990). Partnerships between companies are based on having same goals, pursuing mutual understanding, and having a professional level of interdependence. By having such a partnerships and cooperative efforts between companies, they will achieve efficiency and effectiveness of their business (Mohr and Spekman, 1994). However, it is difficult to expect these ideal results only in the B2B corporate transaction. According to agency theory which is the well-accepted theory in various fields of business strategy, organization, and marketing, the two independent companies have fundamentally different corporate purposes. Also there is a higher chance of developing opportunism and conflict due to natures of human(organization), such as self-interest, bounded rationality, risk aversion, and environment factor as imbalance of information (Eisenhardt 1989). That is, especially partnerships between principal(or buyer) and agent(or supplier) of companies within supply chain, the business contract itself will not provide competitive advantage. But managing partnership between companies is the key to success. Therefore, managing partnership between manufacturer and supplier, and finding causes of conflict are essential to improve B2B performance. In conclusion, based on prior researches and Agency theory, this study will clarify how business hazards cause conflicts on supply chain and then identify how developed conflicts have been managed by two control mechanisms. II. Research model III. Method In order to validate our research model, this study gathered questionnaires from small and medium sized enterprises(SMEs). In Korea, SMEs mean the firms whose employee is under 300 and capital is under 8 billion won(about 7.2 million dollar). We asked the manufacturer's perception about the relationship with the biggest supplier, and our key informants are denied to a person responsible for buying(ex)CEO, executives, managers of purchasing department, and so on). In detail, we contact by telephone to our initial sample(about 1,200 firms) and introduce our research motivation and send our questionnaires by e-mail, mail, and direct survey. Finally we received 361 data and eliminate 32 inappropriate questionnaires. We use 329 manufactures' data on analysis. The purpose of this study is to identify the anticipant role of business hazard (environmental dynamism, asset specificity) and investigate the moderating effect of control mechanism(formal control, social control) on conflict-performance relationship. To find out moderating effect of control methods, we need to compare the regression weight between low versus. high group(about level of exercised control methods). Therefore we choose the structural equation modeling method that is proper to do multi-group analysis. The data analysis is performed by AMOS 17.0 software, and model fits are good statically (CMIN/DF=1.982, p<.000, CFI=.936, IFI=.937, RMSEA=.056). IV. Result V. Discussion Results show that the higher environmental dynamism and asset specificity(on particular supplier) buyer(manufacturer) has, the more B2B conflict exists. And this conflict affect relationship quality and financial outcomes negatively. In addition, social control and formal control could weaken the negative effect of conflict on relationship quality significantly. However, unlikely to assure conflict resolution effect of control mechanisms on relationship quality, financial outcomes are changed by neither social control nor formal control. We could explain this results with the characteristics of our sample, SMEs(Small and Medium sized Enterprises). Financial outcomes of these SMEs(manufacturer or principal) are affected by their customer(usually major company) more easily than their supplier(or agent). And, in recent few years, most of companies have suffered from financial problems because of global economic recession. It means that it is hard to evaluate the contribution of supplier(agent). Therefore we also support the suggestion of Gladstein(1984), Poppo & Zenger(2002) that relational performance variable can capture the focal outcomes of relationship(exchange) better than financial performance variable. This study has some implications that it tests the sources of conflict and investigates the effect of resolution methods of B2B conflict empirically. And, especially, it finds out the significant moderating effect of formal control which past B2B management studies have ignored in Korea.

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Relationship Between Usage Needs Satisfaction and Commitment to Apparel Brand Communities: Moderator Effect of Apparel Brand Image (의류 브랜드 커뮤니티의 이용욕구 충족과 커뮤니티 몰입의 관계: 의류 브랜드 이미지의 조절효과)

  • Hong, Hee-Sook;Ryu, Sung-Min;Moon, Chul-Woo
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.17 no.4
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    • pp.51-89
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    • 2007
  • INTRODUCTION Due to the high broadband internet penetration rate and its group-oriented culture, various types of online communities operate in Korea. This study use 'Uses and Gratification Approach, and argue that members' usage-needs satisfaction with brand community is an important factor for promoting community commitment. Based on previous studies identifying the effect of brand image on consumers' responses to various marketing stimuli, this study hypothesizes that brand image can be a moderate variable affecting the relationship between usage-needs satisfaction with brand community and members' commitment to brand community. This study analyzes the influence of usage-needs satisfaction on brand community commitment and how apparel brand image affects the relationships between usage-needs satisfactions and community commitments. The hypotheses of this study are proposed as follows. H1-3: The usage-needs satisfaction of apparel brand community (interest, transaction, relationship needs) influences emotional (H1), continuous (H2), and normative (H3) commitments to apparel brand communities. H4-6: Apparel brand image has a moderating effect on the relationship between usage-needs satisfaction and emotional (H4), continuous (H5), and normative (H6) commitments to apparel brand communities. METHODS Brand communities founded by non-company affiliates were excluded and emphasis was placed instead on communities created by apparel brand companies. Among casual apparel brands registered in 6 Korean portal sites in August 2003, a total of 9 casual apparel brand online communities were chosen, depending on the level of community activity and apparel brand image. Data from 317 community members were analyzed by exploratory factor analysis, moderated regression analysis, ANOVA, and scheffe test. Among 317 respondents answered an online html-type questionnaire, 80.5% were between 16 to 25 years old. There were a total of 150 respondents from apparel brand communities(n=3) recording higher-than-average brand image scores (Mean > 3.75) and a total of 162 respondents from apparel brand communities(n=6) recording lower-than-average brand image scores(Mean < 3.75). In this study, brand community commitment was measured by a 5-point Likert scale: emotional, continuous and normative commitment. The degree of usage-needs satisfaction (interest, transaction, relationship needs) was measured on a 5-point Likert scale. The level of brand image was measured by a 5-point Likert scale: strength, favorability, and uniqueness of brand associations. RESULTS In the results of exploratory factor analysis, the three usage-needs satisfactions with brand community were classified as interest, transaction, and relationship needs. Brand community commitment was also divided into the multi-dimensional factors: emotional, continuous, and normative commitments. The regression analysis (using a stepwise method) was used to test the influence of 3 independent variables (interest-needs satisfaction, transaction-needs, and relationship-needs satisfactions) on the 3 dependent variables (emotional, continuous and normative commitments). The three types of usage-needs satisfactions are positively associated with the three types of commitments to apparel brand communities. Therefore, hypothesis 1, 2, and 3 were significantly supported. Moderating effects of apparel brand image on the relationship between usage-needs satisfaction and brand community commitments were tested by moderated regression analysis. The statistics result showed that the influence of transaction-needs on emotional commitment was significantly moderated by apparel brand image. In addition, apparel brand image had moderating effects on the relationship between relationship-needs satisfaction and emotional, continuous and normative commitments to apparel brand communities. However, there were not significant moderate effects of apparel brand image on the relationships between interest-needs satisfaction and 3 types of commitments (emotional, continuous and normative commitments) to apparel brand communities. In addition, the influences of transaction-needs satisfaction on 2 types of commitments (continuous and normative commitments) were not significantly moderated by apparel brand image. Therefore, hypothesis 4, 5 and 6 were partially supported. To explain the moderating effects of apparel brand image, four cross-tabulated groups were made by averages of usage-needs satisfaction (interest-needs satisfaction avg. M=3.09, transaction-needs satisfaction avg. M=3.46, relationship-needs satisfaction M=1.62) and the average apparel brand image (M=3.75). The average scores of commitments in each classified group are presented in Tables and Figures. There were significant differences among four groups. As can be seen from the results of scheffe test on the tables, emotional commitment in community group with high brand image was higher than one in community group with low brand image when transaction-needs satisfaction was high. However, when transaction-needs satisfaction was low, there was not any difference between the community group with high brand image and community group with low brand image regarding emotional commitment to apparel brand communities. It means that emotional commitment didn't increase significantly without high satisfaction of transaction-needs, despite the high apparel brand image. In addition, when apparel brand image was low, increase in transaction-needs did not lead to the increase in emotional commitment. Therefore, the significant relationship between transaction-needs satisfaction and emotional commitment was found in only brand communities with high apparel brand image, and the moderating effect of apparel brand image on this relationship between two variables was found in the communities with high satisfaction of transaction-needs only. Statistics results showed that the level of emotional commitment is related to the satisfaction level of transaction-needs, while overall response is related to the level of apparel brand image. We also found that the role of apparel brand image as a moderating factor was limited by the level of transaction-needs satisfaction. In addition, relationship-needs satisfaction brought significant increase in emotional commitment in both community groups (high and low levels of brand image), and the effect of apparel brand image on emotional commitment was significant in both community groups (high and low levels of relationship-needs satisfaction). Especially, the effect of brand image was greater when the level of relationship-needs satisfaction was high. in contrast, increase in emotional commitment responding to increase in relationship-needs satisfaction was greater when apparel brand image is high. The significant influences of relationship-needs satisfaction on community commitments (continuous and normative commitments) were found regardless of apparel brand image(in both community groups with low and high brand image). However, the effects of apparel brand image on continuous and normative commitments were found in only community group with high satisfaction level of relationship-needs. In the case of communities with low satisfaction levels of relationship needs, apparel brand image marginally increases continuous and normative commitments. Therefore, we could not find the moderating effect of apparel brand image on the relationship between relationship-needs satisfaction and continuous and normative commitments in community groups with low satisfaction levels of relationship needs, CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS From the results of this study, we draw several conclusions; First, the increases in usage-needs satisfactions through apparel brand communities result in the increases in commitments to apparel brand communities, wheres the degrees of such relationship depends on the level of apparel brand image. That is, apparel brand image is a moderating factor strengthening the relationship between usage-needs satisfaction and commitment to apparel brand communities. In addition, the effect of apparel brand image differs, depending on the level and types of community usage-needs satisfactions. Therefore, marketers of apparel brand companies must determine the appropriate usage-needs, depending on the type of commitment they wish to increase and the level of their apparel brand image, to promote member's commitments to apparel brand communities. Especially, relationship-needs satisfaction was very important factor for increasing emotional, continuous and normative commitments to communities. However the level of relationship-needs satisfaction was lower than interest-needs and transaction-needs. satisfaction. According to previous study on apparel brand communities, relationship-need satisfaction was strongly related to member's intention of participation in their communities. Therefore, marketers need to develope various strategies in order to increase the relationship- needs as well as interest and transaction needs. In addition, despite continuous commitment was higher than emotional and normative commitments, all types of commitments to apparel brand communities had scores lower than 3.0 that was mid point in 5-point scale. A Korean study reported that the level of members' commitment to apparel brand community influenced customers' identification with a brand and brand purchasing behavior. Therefore, marketers should try to increase members' usage-needs satisfaction and apparel brand image as the necessary conditions for bringing about community commitments. Second, marketers should understand that they should keep in mind that increasing the level of community usage needs (transaction and relationship) is most effective in raising commitment when the level of apparel brand image is high, and that increasing usage needs (transaction needs) satisfaction in communities with low brand image might not be as effective as anticipated. Therefore, apparel companies with desirable brand image such as luxury designer goods firms need to create formal online brand communities (as opposed to informal communities with rudimentary online contents) to satisfy transaction and relationship needs systematically. It will create brand equity through consumers' increased emotional, continuous and normative commitments. Even though apparel brand is very famous, emotional commitment to apparel brand communities cannot be easily increased without transaction-needs satisfaction. Therefore famous fashion brand companies should focus on developing various marketing strategies to increase transaction-needs satisfaction.

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