• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.65-88
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• 2008

Since the implementation of economic reforms in 1978, the Chinese economy grows rapidly at an average annul growth rate of 9% over the post two decades. Franchising has been widely recognized as an important source of entrepreneurial activity. Trust is important in that it facilitates relational exchanges by permits partners to transcend short-run inequities or risks to concentrate on long-term profits or gains. In the relationship between the franchisors and franchisees, trust has been described as an important source of competitive advantage. However, little research has been done on the factors affecting trust in Chinese franchisor-franchisee relationships. The purpose of this study is to investigate what factors affect the trust in the franchise system in China, and to provide guidelines and insights to franchisors which enter Chinese market. In this study, according to Morgan and Hunt (1994), trust is defined as the extending when one party has confidence in an exchange partner's reliability and integrity. We offered a conceptual model of the empirical study. The model shows that the factors affecting the trust include franchisor's supports, communication, satisfaction with previous outcome and conflict. We also suggested the franchisor's supports and communication like to enhance the franchisee's satisfaction with previous outcome, and the franchisor's supports, communication and he franchisee's satisfaction with previous outcome tend to decrease conflict. Before the formal study, a pretest involving exploratory interviews with owners from three franchisees was conducted to make sure the questionnaire was relevant and clear to the respondents. The data were collected using trained interviewers to carry out personal interviews with the aid of an unidentified, muti-page, structured questionnaire. The respondents comprised of owners, managers, and owner managers of franchisee-owned food service franchises located in Beijing, China. Even though a total of 256 potential franchises were initially contacted, the finally usable sample consisted of 125 respondents. As expected, the sampling method was successful in soliciting respondents with waried personal and firm characteristics. Self-administrated questionnaires were used for all measures. And established scales were used to measure the latent constructs in this study. The measures tapped the franchisees' perceptions of the relationship with the referent franchisor. Five-point Likert-type scales ranging from "strongly disagree" (=1) to "strongly agree" (=7) were used throughout the constructs (trust, eight items; support, five items; communication, four items; satisfaction, six items; conflict, three items). The reliability measurements traditionally employed, such as the Cronbach's alpha, were used. All the reliabilities were greater than.80. The proposed measurement model was estimated using SPSS 12.0 and AMOS 5.0 analysis package. We conducted A series of exploratory factor analyses and confirmatory factor analyses to assess the convergent validity, discriminant validity, and reliability. The results indicate reasonable overall fits between the model and the observed data. The overall fit of measurement model were $X^2$= 159.699, p=0.004, d.f. = 116, GFI =.879, NFI =.898, CFI =.969, IFI =.970, TLI =.959, RMR =.058. The results demonstrated that the data reasonably fitted the model. We also examined construct reliability and reliability and average variance extracted (AVE). The construct reliability of each construct was greater than.80 and the AVE of each construct was greater than.50. According to the analysis of Structure Equation Modeling (SEM), the results of path model indicated an adequate fit of the model: $X^2$= 142.126, p = 0.044, d.f. = 115, GFI =.892, NFI =.909, CFI =.981, IFI =.981, TLI =.974, RMR =.057. As hypothesized, the results showed that it is strategically important to establish trust in a franchise system, and the franchisor's supports, communication and satisfaction with previous outcome tend to reinforce franchisee's trust. The results also showed trust seems to decrease as the experience of conflict episodes increases. And we also noticed that franchisor's supports and communication tend to enhance the franchisee's satisfaction with previous outcome, and communication tend to decrease conflict. If the trust between the franchisor and franchisee can be established in a franchise system, franchising offers many benefits and reduces many costs. To manage a mutual trust of relationship with their franchisees, franchisor's should provide support effectively to their franchisees. Effective assistant services have direct effect on franchisees' satisfaction with previous outcome and trust in franchisor. Especially, franchise sales process, orientation, and training in the start-up period are key elements for success of the franchise system. Franchisor's support is an accumulated separate satisfaction evaluation with different kind of service provided by the franchisor. And providing support definitely can improve the trustworthy image of the franchisor. In the franchise system, conflicts of interests and exertions of different power sources are very common. The experience of conflict episodes seems to negatively relate to trust. Therefore, it is important to reduce the negative side of the relationship conflicts. Communication actually plays a broader role in reducing conflict and establish mutual trust in franchisor-franchisee relationship. And effective communication between franchisors and franchisees can improve franchisees' satisfaction toward the franchise system. As the diversification of Chinese markets, both franchisors and franchisees must keep the relevant, timely, and reliable communication. And it is very important to improve the quality of communication. Satisfaction with precious outcomes seems to positively relate to trust. Franchisors and franchisees that are highly satisfied with the previous outcomes that flow from their relationship will perceive their partner as advancing their goal achievement. Therefore, it is necessary for both franchisor and their franchisees to make the welfare of partner with effort. Little literature has focused on what factors affect the trust between franchisors and their franchisees in China. This study developed the hypotheses regarding the factors affecting trust in the transaction relationship. The results of data analysis supported the hypotheses strongly. There are certain limitations in this study. First, we may point out that some other factors missed in this study could be significantly important. Second, the context of this study, food service industry, limits its potential generalizability for all franchise systems. More studies in different categories of franchise system are needed to broaden its generalizability. Third, the model was tested empirically in a sample in Beijing, more empirical tests of the proposed model in other Chinese areas are needed. Finally, the analysis in this study was solely based on the perception of franchisees and the opinions of franchisors were not included.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.89-111
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• 2008

Due to the development of digital technology, studies regarding smart wear integrating daily life have rapidly increased. However, consumer research about perception and attitude toward smart clothing hardly could find. The purpose of this study was to identify innovative characteristics and perceived risk of smart clothing and to analyze the influences of theses factors on product attitudes and intention to adopt. Specifically, five hypotheses were established. H1: Perceived attributes of smart clothing except for complexity would have positive relations to product attitude or purchase intention, while complexity would be opposite. H2: Product attitude would have positive relation to purchase intention. H3: Product attitude would have a mediating effect between perceived attributes and purchase intention. H4: Perceived risks of smart clothing would have negative relations to perceived attributes except for complexity, and positive relations to complexity. H5: Product attitude would have a mediating effect between perceived risks and purchase intention. A self-administered questionnaire was developed based on previous studies. After pretest, the data were collected during September, 2006, from university students in Korea who were relatively sensitive to innovative products. A total of 300 final useful questionnaire were analyzed by SPSS 13.0 program. About 60.3% were male with the mean age of 21.3 years old. About 59.3% reported that they were aware of smart clothing, but only 9 respondents purchased it. The mean of attitudes toward smart clothing and purchase intention was 2.96 (SD=.56) and 2.63 (SD=.65) respectively. Factor analysis using principal components with varimax rotation was conducted to identify perceived attribute and perceived risk dimensions. Perceived attributes of smart wear were categorized into relative advantage (including compatibility), observability (including triability), and complexity. Perceived risks were identified into physical/performance risk, social psychological risk, time loss risk, and economic risk. Regression analysis was conducted to test five hypotheses. Relative advantage and observability were significant predictors of product attitude (adj $R^2$=.223) and purchase intention (adj $R^2$=.221). Complexity showed negative influence on product attitude. Product attitude presented significant relation to purchase intention (adj $R^2$=.692) and partial mediating effect between perceived attributes and purchase intention (adj $R^2$=.698). Therefore hypothesis one to three were accepted. In order to test hypothesis four, four dimensions of perceived risk and demographic variables (age, gender, monthly household income, awareness of smart clothing, and purchase experience) were entered as independent variables in the regression models. Social psychological risk, economic risk, and gender (female) were significant to predict relative advantage (adj $R^2$=.276). When perceived observability was a dependent variable, social psychological risk, time loss risk, physical/performance risk, and age (younger) were significant in order (adj $R^2$=.144). However, physical/performance risk was positively related to observability. The more Koreans seemed to be observable of smart clothing, the more increased the probability of physical harm or performance problems received. Complexity was predicted by product awareness, social psychological risk, economic risk, and purchase experience in order (adj $R^2$=.114). Product awareness was negatively related to complexity, meaning high level of product awareness would reduce complexity of smart clothing. However, purchase experience presented positive relation with complexity. It appears that consumers can perceive high level of complexity when they are actually consuming smart clothing in real life. Risk variables were positively related with complexity. That is, in order to decrease complexity, it is also necessary to consider minimizing anxiety factors about social psychological wound or loss of money. Thus, hypothesis 4 was partially accepted. Finally, in testing hypothesis 5, social psychological risk and economic risk were significant predictors for product attitude (adj $R^2$=.122) and purchase intention (adj $R^2$=.099) respectively. When attitude variable was included with risk variables as independent variables in the regression model to predict purchase intention, only attitude variable was significant (adj $R^2$=.691). Thus attitude variable presented full mediating effect between perceived risks and purchase intention, and hypothesis 5 was accepted. Findings would provide guidelines for fashion and electronic businesses who aim to create and strengthen positive attitude toward smart clothing. Marketers need to consider not only functional feature of smart clothing, but also practical and aesthetic attributes, since appropriateness for social norm or self image would reduce uncertainty of psychological or social risk, which increase relative advantage of smart clothing. Actually social psychological risk was significantly associated to relative advantage. Economic risk is negatively associated with product attitudes as well as purchase intention, suggesting that smart-wear developers have to reflect on price ranges of potential adopters. It will be effective to utilize the findings associated with complexity when marketers in US plan communication strategy.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.433-444
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• 2018

Purpose: This study examined the status and needs of school-based nutritional education programs for reducing sugars intake in elementary schools. Methods: A total of 230 elementary nutrition teachers participated in this study through an online survey in July 2017. Results: Approximately one-third of the schools conducted nutrition education on reducing sugars intake as a main topic. The most frequent educated grade and education period were $4^{th}$ and $3^{rd}$ grade, and once a year. Most of the nutrition teachers answered that nutrition education related to reducing sugars intake for children was necessary. The nutrition teachers answered that first graders were the recipients in most need of nutrition education for reducing sugars but, realistically, third graders were the most suitable for nutrition education. The appropriate education topics were limited to the lower grades, such as sugars consumption related health problems, foods containing high sugars, and behaviors to reduce sugars intake; however, a wider variety of topics were selected for the upper grades. The experiment was considered to be an effective educational method for both the lower and upper grades. The most appropriate nutrition education media appeared to be a mock-up in the lower grades, and an experiment kit in the upper grades. Games and videos were highly considered to be effective media to educate students in reducing sugars consumption by voluntary participation in free time in the classroom in both the lower and upper grades. Conclusion: Nutrition education programs focusing on sugars intake reduction were conducted in some elementary schools, but the training time was short and the types of activities were limited. The perception and demand for nutrition education was very high. Therefore, the development and dissemination of elementary school-based nutritional education programs for sugars intake reduction is urgently needed. Moreover, to develop an effective nutrition education program, the education environment and demand in the field should be fully considered.

• Archives of design research
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.31-45
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• 1998

Human beings receive experiences and education in viewing and manipulating objects since birth, These experiences in forms and colours influence signifrcantty the formation of the person's humanity, sensibility and constituOOn until he becomes an adult. Considering that all objects coexist through space and time with human beings from birth to an adulthood, we can imagine how these things shape a person, Human beings' perception of form and colour might be different according to the person's living environment, experiences, education, age and job, However, when we see there are certain kinds of form and colour of that most people favor, we can understand that human beings have a certain inherent feelings about forms and colours, Let's suppose a man faces an object that dosen't correspond with his basic feelings about form and colour, He would avoid that object at least unconsoousty, All of his acts dealing with form and colour probably satisfy a desire for beauty which can be required from certain proper forms and colours, By revealing the feelings about forms and colours that human beings originally have, this study is going to explore what kinds of form and colour have what kinds of psychological and physical influences on human beings. Another purpose of this study is to be a theory suggesting more profitable and effective forms and colours psychologically and physically to the consumer. this study demonstrates that the basic feelings about forms and colours which human beings possess are different according to the individual's psychology and the body's condition. It also establishes the reality of the principle of how human psychology and the body change according to the surrounding environment. Finally, it will be appropriate for the suggested theory from this study to be used as fundamental material in deciding the forms and colours used in the design field in the future in that these forms and colours are more profitable and efftient.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.88-117
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• 1990

The purposes of this study are to delineate a profile of the state of a stroke patient's adaptation at 3 months after hospitalization and to explore the relationship between the level of adaptation and the variables which influence the adaptation of hemiplegic patients. To these ends, theoretical framework was derived basically from the stress adaptation model. The basic assumption underlying the level of adaptation is influenced by the presenting focal, contextual and residual stimuli. This group of stimuli is further operationalized and represented by a perception of stress. which is the perceived effect of the disability and by the mediating variables such as sociodemographic factors as an external conditioning variables and perceived social support and hardiness personality characteristics as an internal intervening variables. The dependent varibales in this study is the level of physical, psychological and social adaptation and is hypothesized to be a function of the interaction between 3 sets of variables namely, the perceived disability effect, external conditioning variables and internal intevening varibles. A total of fourty three subjects from 3 general hospitals in Seoul were observed and interviewed with the aid of 7 structured instruments. The data were collected twice on each subject : first at the pre-discharge period arid at 3 months post-discharge from hospital for the second time. The study was carried out for the period from February to August, 1988. The instruments used for the study include 4 existing scales and 3 scales developed by the researcher for this study. They are : 1) The ADL dependency scale and the scale of the clinical physical functions for the assessment of physical adaptation. 2) the SDS(self report of depression) to measure the level of psychological adaptation. 3) The scale for the amount of social activities for the measurement of the level of social adaptation. 4) The scale for the perceived effect of disability for the measurement of the focal stimuli. 5) The health related hardiness scale and the perceived interpersonal support self evaluation list(ISEL) for the measurement of the hardiness personality character and the perceived social support. The data obtained were analyzed using percentage, oneway ANOVA, Pearson coefficients correlation and stepwise multiple regression. The findings provide valuable information about the present level of physical adaptation at 3 months after discharge. The patient revealed a decreased ADL dependency and lowered limitation of physical function as compared with pre - discharge state. Psycholcgically, the average degree of depression at follow up was within normal range of depression. Socially, the amount of social activities was very low. The one way ANOVA and the correlational analysis revealed the relationship between the 3 sets of variables and the adaptation level as follows : 1) The perceived disability effect was related to the degree of the depression and the amount of social activities but was not related to the physical adaptation. 2) Among the sociodemographic variables, sex and education were related to the difference of ADL dependency and the change of physical function. These factors indicate that women more than men and educated more than the less educated were found more independent. The education was also related to the degree of depression suggesting that the higher the educational level, the more well adapted the patients were both physically and psychologically. Age, marital status and job state were not found to be related to the patient's adaptation level. 3) Among the internal intervening variables, the health related hardiness characteristic was related to the differences of ADL dependency, physical functions and the social activities, indicating that the higher the hardiness character the higher the level of physical and social adaptation. 4) The perceived social support, another internal intervening variable, was related to the degree of depression and the social activities. This data suggest that the higher the perception of social support, the better adapted the patients were psychogically and socially. In summarizing the results of the correlational analysis, the level of physical adaptation was influenced by sex, the years of education and the hardiness character. The level of psychological adaptation was influenced by the years of education, the perceived disability effect and the perceived social support. And the level of social adaptation was influenced by the perceived disability effect, the hardiness character and the perceived social support. The stepwise multiple regression analysis shows findings as follows : 1) The most important factor to explain the difference of ADL dependency was sex, indicating females were more independent than males. 2) The most important factor to explain the difference of physical function and the degree of depression was the patient's education level. 3) The strongest explaining factor for the amount of social activities was perceived self esteem(one of the subconcepts of perceived social support). Thus the most important factors influencing the level of adaptation were found to be sex, education, the hardiness character and self esteem. From the above findings, the significance of this study can be delineated as follows : 1) Corroboration of the assumed relationship between the various variables and the adaptation level as suggested in the conceptual model. 2) Support for the feasibility of the cognitive approach for nursing intervention such as hardness character training, counselling and teaching for self-care in the chronic patients.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.61-74
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• 1983

The proportion of people who contacted pulmonary T.B. in Korea has drastically decreased as a result of the incessant effort of the Korean government which adopted a policy of“drive out T.B.”as its foremost health policy. However, the proportion still remains relatively high com-pared with that of developed countries. This study attempts to find some means for guiding and educating college students who have T.B. in their health care by (1) first determining the effect if their self-concept and health beliefs on their behavior in regard to their disease and (2) then predicting the level of compliance of the new patients to the treatment suggested by the health specialist, before the commencement of the treatment. The subjects of this study consisted of 88 mald and female students at Y University who were diagnosed as minimal pulmonary T.B. patients and registered at the health clinic of Y University during the period between September 1, 1981 and March 31, 1953. Data were collected from them by means of questionnaire and interview. The instruments used for this study were (1) a part of Junghoon Choi's“Perceptual Orientation ,Scale”for measuring self-perception of patients and (2) Rosenberg's questionnaire for measuring patients' evaluation of self-esteem, and (3) an instrument for measuring patients' health beliefs which was developed by this researcher utilizing information available from references. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, chisquare test, Pearson correlation coefficient and t-test. The findings were as follows: 3. Test of hypotheses 1) Hypothesis 1: Patients with high self-concept will be high in health beliefs. For testing this hypothesis a calculation of Pearson correlation coefficient (r) between the patients' self-concept and their health beliefs was carried out. The result of this test was -. 0756 which was not significant at α=.05 and hence hypothesis 1 was not supported. 2) Hypothesis 2: Patients with a high self-concept will tend to be high in compliance with the suggested treatment. Again a Pearson correlaton coefficient was calculated between the two variaibles in the hypothesis. The calculated coefficient r was .1558 which was not significant at α=.05. Hence hypothesis 2 was rejected. 3) Hypothesis 3: Patients with high susceptibility will have a high compliance level. The correlation coefficient between the two variables was -.1975, which was significant at α=.05 but due to the negative sign hypothesis 3 could not be accepted. 4) Hypothesis 4: Patients who take their disease seriously will have a higher compliance level. The calculated correlation coefficient between the variables in this hypothesis was .1642 which was not significant at α=.05 and hence hypothesis 4 was rejected. 5) Hypothesis 5: Patients with a high sense of the benefit of treatment will have a high level of compliance. The computed correlation coefficient was .3129 which was significant at α=.05 and hence hypothesis 5 was acepted. 2. Findings from the correlation analysis were as follows: 1) Patients' susceptibility and their compliance to treatment was negatively correlated (r= -. 1975) which was significant at α= .05. This implies that as the patients' level of susceptibility increases their compliance level decreases. 2) Patients' susceptibility and their self-concept were negatively correlated (r= -. 1790) which was again singnificant at α=.05. The implication of this is that as the patients’self concept increases their susceptibility to disease decreases. 3) Patients' self-concept and their sense of benefit derieved from the treatment was positively correlated (r=.1970) which was significant at α=.05. That is, patients with a high self-concept perceived a great sense of benefit from the treatment. To summarize, patients who are low in susceptibility have a high level of compliance and self-concept.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.227-237
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• 2020

Microclimatic data were measured, and the human thermal sensation was analyzed at 10 local climate zones based on the major land cover classification to investigate the thermal environment of urban areas during summer nighttime. From the results, the green infrastructure areas (GNIAs) showed an average air temperature of 1.6℃ and up to 2.4℃ lower air temperature than the gray infrastructure areas (GYIAs), and the GNIAs showed an average relative humidity of 9.0% and up to 15.0% higher relative humidity. The wind speed of the GNIAs and GYIAs had minimal difference and showed no significance at all locations, except for the forest location, which had the lowest wind speed owing to the influence of trees. The local winds and the surface roughness, which was determined based on the heights of buildings and trees, appeared to be the main factors that influenced wind speed. At the mean radiant temperature, the forest location showed the maximum value, owing to the influence of trees. Except at the forest location, the GNIAs showed an average decrease of 5.5℃ compared to GYIAs. The main factor that influenced the mean radiant temperature was the sky view factor. In the analysis of the human thermal sensation, the GNIAs showed a "neutral" thermal perception level that was neither hot nor cold, and the GYIAs showed a "slightly warm" level, which was a level higher than those of the GNIAs. The GNIAs showed a 3.2℃ decrease compared to the GYIAs, except at the highest forest location, which indicated a half-level improvement in the human thermal environment.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.43 no.10
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• pp.1594-1606
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• 2014

The purpose of this study was to examine safety accidents related to school foodservice, working and operating environments of school foodservice, status and awareness of safety education, educational needs, and information on qualitative improvement of school foodservice. The subjects in this study were 234 cooks in charge of cooking at elementary and secondary schools in Chungbuk. A survey was conducted from July 30 to August 8, 2012, and among 202 questionnaires gathered, 194 completed questionnaires were analyzed. Statistical analyses were performed on data utilizing the SPSS version 19.0. The main results of this study were as follows: 44.3% of workers experienced safety accidents. The most frequent safety accident was 'once' (60.5%), and most safety accidents took place between June and August (31.4%). The time at which most safety accidents happened was between 8 and 11 am. Most safety accidents happened during cooking (52.3%) and while using a soup pot or frying pot (52.4%). The most common accidents were 'burns', 'wrist and arm pain', and 'slips and falls'. Respondents who experienced safety accidents replied that 57.6% of employees dealt with injuries at their own expense, and only 35.3% utilized industrial accident insurance. In terms of the operating environment, the score for 'offering information and application' was highest (3.76 points), whereas that for 'security of budget' was lowest (1.77 points). As for accident education, employees received safety education approximately 3.45 times and 5.10 hours per year. Improving the working environment of school foodservice cooks requires administrative and financial support. Furthermore, educational materials and guidelines based on the working environment and safety accident status of school foodservice cooks are required in order to minimize potential risk factors and control safety accidents in school foodservice.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.245-276
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• 2008

Brand equity is one of the most important concepts in business practice as well as in academic research. Successful brands can allow marketers to gain competitive advantage (Lassar et al.,1995), including the opportunity for successful extensions, resilience against competitors' promotional pressures, and the ability to create barriers to competitive entry (Farquhar, 1989). Branding plays a special role in service firms because strong brands increase trust in intangible products (Berry, 2000), enabling customers to better visualize and understand them. They reduce customers' perceived monetary, social, and safety risks in buying services, which are obstacles to evaluating a service correctly before purchase. Also, a high level of brand equity increases consumer satisfaction, repurchasing intent, and degree of loyalty. Brand equity can be considered as a mixture that includes both financial assets and relationships. Actually, brand equity can be viewed as the value added to the product (Keller, 1993), or the perceived value of the product in consumers' minds. Mahajan et al. (1990) claim that customer-based brand equity can be measured by the level of consumers' perceptions. Several researchers discuss brand equity based on two dimensions: consumer perception and consumer behavior. Aaker (1991) suggests measuring brand equity through price premium, loyalty, perceived quality, and brand associations. Viewing brand equity as the consumer's behavior toward a brand, Keller (1993) proposes similar dimensions: brand awareness and brand knowledge. Thus, past studies tend to identify brand equity as a multidimensional construct consisted of brand loyalty, brand awareness, brand knowledge, customer satisfaction, perceived equity, brand associations, and other proprietary assets (Aaker, 1991, 1996; Blackston, 1995; Cobb-Walgren et al., 1995; Na, 1995). Other studies tend to regard brand equity and other brand assets, such as brand knowledge, brand awareness, brand image, brand loyalty, perceived quality, and so on, as independent but related constructs (Keller, 1993; Kirmani and Zeithaml, 1993). Walters(1978) defined information search as, "A psychological or physical action a consumer takes in order to acquire information about a product or store." But, each consumer has different methods for informationsearch. There are two methods of information search, internal and external search. Internal search is, "Search of information already saved in the memory of the individual consumer"(Engel, Blackwell, 1982) which is, "memory of a previous purchase experience or information from a previous search."(Beales, Mazis, Salop, and Staelin, 1981). External search is "A completely voluntary decision made in order to obtain new information"(Engel & Blackwell, 1982) which is, "Actions of a consumer to acquire necessary information by such methods as intentionally exposing oneself to advertisements, taking to friends or family or visiting a store."(Beales, Mazis, Salop, and Staelin, 1981). There are many sources for consumers' information search including advertisement sources such as the internet, radio, television, newspapers and magazines, information supplied by businesses such as sales people, packaging and in-store information, consumer sources such as family, friends and colleagues, and mass media sources such as consumer protection agencies, government agencies and mass media sources. Understanding consumers' purchasing behavior is a key factor of a firm to attract and retain customers and improving the firm's prospects for survival and growth, and enhancing shareholder's value. Therefore, marketers should understand consumer as individual and market segment. One theory of consumer behavior supports the belief that individuals are rational. Individuals think and move through stages when making a purchase decision. This means that rational thinkers have led to the identification of a consumer buying decision process. This decision process with its different levels of involvement and influencing factors has been widely accepted and is fundamental to the understanding purchase intention represent to what consumers think they will buy. Brand equity is not only companies but also very important asset more than product itself. This paper studies brand equity model and influencing factors including information process such as information searching and information resources in the fashion market in Asia and Europe. Information searching and information resources are influencing brand knowledge that influences consumers purchase decision. Nine research hypotheses are drawn to test the relationships among antecedents of brand equity and purchase intention and relationships among brand knowledge, brand value, brand attitude, and brand loyalty. H1. Information searching influences brand knowledge positively. H2. Information sources influence brand knowledge positively. H3. Brand knowledge influences brand attitude. H4. Brand knowledge influences brand value. H5. Brand attitude influences brand loyalty. H6. Brand attitude influences brand value. H7. Brand loyalty influences purchase intention. H8. Brand value influence purchase intention. H9. There will be the same research model in Asia and Europe. We performed structural equation model analysis in order to test hypotheses suggested in this study. The model fitting index of the research model in Asia was $X^2$=195.19(p=0.0), NFI=0.90, NNFI=0.87, CFI=0.90, GFI=0.90, RMR=0.083, AGFI=0.85, which means the model fitting of the model is good enough. In Europe, it was $X^2$=133.25(p=0.0), NFI=0.81, NNFI=0.85, CFI=0.89, GFI=0.90, RMR=0.073, AGFI=0.85, which means the model fitting of the model is good enough. From the test results, hypotheses were accepted. All of these hypotheses except one are supported. In Europe, information search is not an antecedent of brand knowledge. This means that sales of global fashion brands like jeans in Europe are not expanding as rapidly as in Asian markets such as China, Japan, and South Korea. Young consumers in European countries are not more brand and fashion conscious than their counter partners in Asia. The results have theoretical, practical meaning and contributions. In the fashion jeans industry, relatively few studies examining the viability of cross-national brand equity has been studied. This study provides insight on building global brand equity and suggests information process elements like information search and information resources are working differently in Asia and Europe for fashion jean market.

• Archives of design research
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.63-97
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• 1989

There is nothing more important than the form and function in design, because every design product can be done on the basis of them. Form and Function are already existed before the word of design has been appeared and all the natural and man-made things' basic organization is based on their organic relations. The organic relations is the source of vitality which identifies the subsistance of all the objects and the evolution of living creatures has been changed their appearances by the natural law and order. Design is no exception. Design is a man-made organic thing which is developed its own way according to the purposed aim and given situations. If so, what is the ultimate goal of design. It is without saying that the goal is to make every effort to contribute to the -human beings most desirable life by the designer who is devoting himself to their convenience and well-being. Therefore, the designer can be called the man of rich life practitioner. This word implies a lot of meanings since the essence of design is improving the guality of life by the man-made things which are created by the designer. Also, the things are existed through the relations between form and function, and the things can keep their value when they are answered to the right purpose. In design, thus, it is to be a main concern how to create valuable things and to use them in the right way, and the subject of study is focused on the designer's outlook of value and uk relations between form and function. Christopher Alexander mentioned the importance of form as follows. The ultimate object of design is form. Every design problem begins with an effort to achieve fittness between the form and its context. The form is the solution to the problem: the context defmes the problem. In other words, when we speak of design, the real object of discussion is not form alone, but the ensemble comprising the form and its context. Good fit is a desirable property of this ensemble which relates to some particular division of the ensemble into form and context. Max Bill mainatined how important form is in design. Form represents a self-contained concept, and its embodiment in an object results in that object becoming a work of art. Futhermore, this explains why we use form so freguently in a comparative sense for determining whether one thing is less or more beautiful than another, and why the ideal of absolute beauty is always the standard by which we appraise form, and through form, art itself. Hence form has became synonymous with beauty. On the other hand, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy stated the importance of function as follows. Function means the task an object is designed to fulfill the task instrument is shaping the form. Unfortunately, this principle was not appreciated at the same time but through the endeavors of Frank Lloyd Wright and of the Bauhaus group and its many collegues in Europe, the idea of functionalism became the keynote of the twenites. Functionalism soon became a cheap slogan, however, and its original meaning blurred. It is neccessary to reexamine it in the light of present circumstances. Charles William Eliot expressed his idea on the relations between function and beauty. Beauty often results chiefly from fittness: indeed it is easy to manitain that nothing is fair except what is fit its uses or functions. If the function of the product of a machine be useful and valuable, an the machine be eminently fit for its function, it conspicuously has the beauty of fittness. A locomotive or a steamship has the same sort of beauty, derived from the supreme fittness for its function. As functions vary, so will those beauty..vary. However, it is impossible to study form and function in separate beings. Function can't be existed without form, and without function, form is nothing. In other words, form is a function's container, and function is content in form. It can be said that, therefore, the form and function are indispensable and commensal individuals which have coetemal relations. From the different point of view, sometimes, one is more emphasized than the other, but in this case, the logic is only accepted on the assumption of recognizing the importance of the other's entity. The fact can be proved what Frank Hoyd wright said that form and function are one. In spite of that, the form and function should be considered as independent indivisuals, because they are too important to be treated just as the simple single one. Form and function have flexible properties to the context. In other words, the context plays a role as the barometer to define the form and function, also which implies every meaning of surroun'||'&'||'not;dings. Thus, design is formed under the influence of situations. Situations are dynamic, like the design process itself, in which fixed focus can be cripping. Moreover, situations control over making the good design. Judging from the respect, I defined the good design in my thesis An Analytic Research on Desigh Ethic, "good design is to solve the problem by the most proper way in the situations." Situations are changeable, and so is design. There is no progress without change, but change is not neccessarily progress. It is highly desirable that there changes be beneficial to mankind. Our main problem is to be able to discriminate between that which should be discarded and that which should be kept, built upon, and improved. Form and Function are no exception. The practical function gives birth to the inevitable form and the $$\mu$ti-classified function is delivered to the varieties of form. All of these are depended upon changeable situations. That is precisely the situations of "situation de'||'&'||'not;sign", the concept of moving from the design of things to the design of the circumstances in which things are used. From this point of view, the core of form and function is depended upon how the designer can manage it efficiently in given situations. That is to say that the creativity designer plays an important role to fulfill the purpose. Generally speaking, creativity is the organization of a concept in response to a human need-a solution that is both satisfying and innovative. In order to meet human needs, creative design activities require a special intuitive insight which is set into motion by purposeful imagination. Therefore, creativity is the most essential quality of every designer. In addition, designers share with other creative people a compulsive ingenuity and a passion for imaginative solutions which will meet their criteria for excellence. Ultimately, it is said that the form and function is the matter which belongs to the desire of creative designers who constantly try to bring new thing into being to create new things. In accordance with that the main puppose of this thesis is to catch every meaning of the form and function and to close analyze their relations for the promotion of understanding and devising practical application to gradual progression in design. The thesis is composed of four parts: Introduction, Form, Function and Conclusion. Introduction, the purpose and background of the research are presented. In Chapter I, orgin of form, perception of form, and classification of form are studied. In Chapter II, generation of function, development of function, and diversification of function are considered. Conclusion, some concluding words are mentioned.ioned.