• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.88-103
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• 2017

The rapid growth in the popularity of social media sites has meant that social media has become an important communication channel for brands. Brands create brand pages on social media to cultivate positive and strong relationships with consumers. This study seeks to enhance our understanding of how fashion brand pages in social media foster consumer-brand relationships by exploring the factors that affect the development of consumer-brand relationships. Drawing on the parasocial interaction theory, this study proposes parasocial interaction as a key factor of this process. Specifically, this study proposes four antecedents (vividness, interactivity, social presence, and focused attention) of consumers' parasocial interaction with brand pages, which further affects consumer responses in terms of affective engagement and brand loyalty. An online survey was administered with consumers who have followed and visited at least one fashion brand page via a social networking site (SNS). Structural equation modeling revealed that consumers' perceptions of vividness, interactivity, social presence, and focused attention on a fashion brand page positively affected their feelings towards parasocial interaction with the brand page, which in turn led to their affective engagement with the brand page and consequent brand loyalty. These findings suggest that consumers build relationships of varying degrees with brand pages in a similar manner to that with people, which leads to their development of a positive relationship with the brand. This study concludes with discussions and practical implications.

• The Journal of Information Technology
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.69-86
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• 2004

In this paper, a conceptual framework describing the dynamics of click and mortar businesses is provided. It directs our attention to the many potential sources of synergy that are available to firms that choose to integrate e-commerce with their existing traditional forms of business. It further emphasizes the many actions that firms can take to minimize channel conflicts and help achieve the benefits of synergy. Finally, it describes four categories of synergy-related benefits from the integration of e-commerce with traditional businesses, including potential cost saving, gains due to enhanced differentiation, improved trust, and potential extensions into new markets. The utility of the framework was demonstrated using the case of an electronics retailer that has chosen to tightly integrate its large chain of retail stores with its Web-based electronic store. The framework was also used to develop a series of propositions that can guide future empirical research. The discussion points to the need to develop new types of metrics to better judge the contributions of e-commerce channels, and provides some guidance for future empirical research that can test whether, and under what conditions, integrated click and mortar business models work well. Thus, the purpose of this study is to present the combining physical and virtual presence in e-commerce.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.11
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• pp.47-58
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• 2015

Purpose - This study aims to seek determinants of department store sales commission rates under consignment contracts based on transaction cost theory, the power-dependence view, and the resource-based view. A consignment contract is a unique contract where the retailer, over a given period, takes possession of goods owned by a supplier, promotes the sales of these goods, and receives a profit share from their sales. Under this contract, the supplier owns the goods until they are sold. In department stores in South Korea, over 70% of overall sales comes through consignment contracts. In other words, this is the most popular contract agreement between large retailers and vendors in South Korea. Consignment contracts yield high profits to department stores with minimal sales uncertainty, stock cost, and marketing investment. Many suppliers believe the consignment contract commission rates are too high. However, department stores disagree. They state that the commissions are not high as they generate new value for the suppliers by accumulating up-to-date merchandise and supporting various marketing programs on their behalf. Recently, consignment contracts have been critically examined and scrutinized by politicians, mass media, and the public of Korea. This study further intends to derive implications reflecting both buyer and seller perspectives as well as offer insights to policy makers in making appropriate decisions. Research design, data, and methodology - To verify the proposed research model and test hypotheses, the authors selected 164 suppliers, which currently have relationships with department stores. This study carefully investigated the reliability, content validity, convergent validity, and discriminant validity of the proposed model. The data were analyzed using SPSS 18.0 and AMOS structural equation modeling program Results - For the transaction cost theory and the power-dependence view, the results indicated that product diversity and demand volatility had a positive impact on the sales dependence on a department store. Dependence in turn had a positive effect on the sales commission under the consignment contract. Based on the resource-based view, the department store's marketing capability, the supplier's perception toward merchandising, and supporting activities could enhance the department store's channel leadership in the buyer-seller relationship. Subsequently, the channel leadership had a positive effect on the sales commission. However, product complexity had no relationship with department store dependence. Conclusions - This is the first empirical research that investigates the determinants of sales commissions under consignment contracts in the domestic retail industry. This study reveals several theoretical and practical implications for both marketing scholars and marketers. In terms of theoretical implication, this study integrated and enlarged certain theoretical background, such as transaction cost theory, the power-dependence view, and the resource-based view, to explain the determinants of sales commissions under consignment contracts that include sales revenue. From a business management viewpoint, this research offers useful insights for policy makers by applying two different perspectives, both the manufacturer and the retailer, in terms of the sales commission issue under a consignment contract.

• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.35-46
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• 2022

Purpose: With the rapid changes in the technical development and the trend of consumption trend, the convenience store industry is facing an unprecedented competitive situation in the consumption environment where the boundary between online and offline is broken due to the stagnation of offline distribution channels and the spread of online shopping. The biggest innovation strategy of the major convenience store brands in recent years are introducing the O2O (Online to Offline) platform and presenting new products and services beyond the boundaries of online and offline to transform themselves into Omni Channel stores. The study is designed to analyze the effect of innovativeness of convenience store as a stimulus in O2O platform which customers perceive on store loyalty, the final response to external stimuli, through customer engagement with convenience store brands. Specifically, the innovativeness of convenience stores was divided into types of core activities in corporate marketing and focused on innovations in services, products(proposals), promotions and experiences. Research design, data, and methodology: Various hypotheses have been developed to achieve this research purpose. The data were collected from 1,128 questionnaires the age between 15 and 60 who had experience using retail store apps and delivery apps and were analyzed using SPSS 22.0 and SmartPLS 3.3.7 program. Measurement model analysis was carried out to assess convergent and discriminant validity. Also, common method bias was tested using the values of VIF (variance inflation factor). The hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling with SmartPLS 3.3.7 program. Results: First, service innovation has a positive effect on cognitive engagement. Second, product, promotion and experience innovation have a positive effect on cognitive and affective engagement. Third, cognitive influences affective engagement. Finally, both cognitive and affective engagement affect store loyalty, but affective engagement has a stronger effect on store loyalty than cognitive engagement. Conclusions: All four types of innovation and cognitive engagement have a positive effect on emotional engagement, which has a stronger effect on store loyalty than cognitive engagement. Thus, while innovation can build loyalty through emotional engagement, innovation strategies must be designed and pursued with caution in terms of impact through cognitive engagement may not achieve the planned goals.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.369-381
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• 2011

Ginseng in Korea has not only the big production value but also till a good reputation from overseas in the name of 'Korea Ginseng'. Having spread rapidly nationwide from 2000 year, its production keeps on increasing but its consumption becomes lazy and its price is also falling down because of comsumer's concern about mainly overusing pesticide for ginseng. In order to cope with this problem, the government introduced the GAP certification system to ginseng in 2006 to reflect consumer's needs for food safety. This system will be a good opportunity to promote ginseng consumption dramatically. In this aspect it is very important to know how well this system is established and how ginseng farmers build marketing strategies to draw new wind in the market. This study was carried out to look over the GAP certified ginseng system and show its marketing strategies using 4P's(product, place, promotion and price). The main results are as follows. GAP ginseng system currently has some weaknesses such as lack of systematic certification management and after-service, nonrealistic certification fee and poor linkage from production to consumption. In the marketing mix strategies, product strategy suggests that the most desirable appearance be transplanted ginseng filled with branch roots and 4 to 5 year-ginseng, and it is necessary to choose multi-brand strategy divided for present into for self-sufficiency and family brand strategy by use if its brand enlarges to processed products in the future. In the place strategy, 3 stages like 'producer group' - 'GAP certified facility' - 'sales shop' are based as the physical marketing channel according to traceability, and connected with giant retail market and environment friendly stand, and if its sales volume enlarges, it should be considered the GAP ginseng specialized marketplace which is a type of chain store. In the promotion strategy, the promotion of government level is necessary at first and producer alliances require the promotion targeting at the group of women under 40 with differentiation from price, quality, and safety. In the price strategy, the early stage-high price strategy which sets 20~25% higher for self-sufficiency and 30~35% for present is desirable.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.49-77
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• 2007

The purpose of this study is to examine a relationship between the headquarters and the sales offices of a car manufacturing company by comparing their channel types. It examines how the level of communication and commitment of sales offices on their headquarters differently affects some mediating effects between participation and relationship performance. It also tries to find out what kind of mechanisms are needed in order to improve the relationship. Through the data analysis of a total of 200 sales offices which are directly managed stores and agency stores by a domestic car manufacturing company, the following conclusions were reached: Participation, one of the variables in bureaucratic structuring, influences all dimensions of communication. Also, it has found that communication dimensions influence commitment dimensions differently by the type of channels, and commitment dimensions influence relationship performance by the type of channels. Recently, import car makers are accelerating their moves in the domestic market, and the importance of a customer-oriented retail innovation and a relationship management in an auto manufacturing industry is increasing. This study will give an useful suggestion on how to improve a long term relationship of distributors through an enhancement of communication and commitment.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.145-156
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• 2018

Unlike the past, when distributors distributed games through retail stores, they are now selling digital content, which is based on online distribution channels. This study analyzes the effects of eWOM (electronic Word of Mouth) on sales volume of game sold on Steam, an online digital content distribution channel. Recently, data mining techniques based on Big Data have been studied. In this study, emotion index of eWOM is derived by emotional analysis which is a text mining technique that can analyze the emotion of each review among factors of eWOM. Emotional analysis utilizes Naive Bayes and SVM classifier and calculates the emotion index through the SVM classifier with high accuracy. Regression analysis is performed on the dependent variable, sales variation, using the emotion index, the number of reviews of each game, the size of eWOM, and the user score of each game, which is a rating of eWOM. Regression analysis revealed that the size of the independent variable eWOM and the emotion index of the eWOM were influential on the dependent variable, sales variation. This study suggests the factors of eWOM that affect the sales volume when Korean game companies enter overseas markets based on steam.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.25-38
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• 2011

After the financial crisis, what has been the rapidly growth of large supermarkets, stores, and restaurants linked to concerns that have already reached saturation point, but the new opening large supermarkets is expected to continue into the future. The major supermarkets are continue to grow outward but growth slowed. And that is expected to continue differentiation of the product, acceptance the customer needs, acquiring high margin of sales products. Then the ongoing development of PB brand is to be positioned effective marketing strategy for overcoming the period of slow growth. In addition, big three local supermarkets continue to launch a clothing PB brand, expansion and operation strategy for the situation and based on this study and the success of the domestic large-Mart's PB and PB identifying problem and the need for differentiation and profit for the successful strategy is to discuss in this study. This research looks at the concept of major market's private brand, the strategy, the success example and the prospects, and views the globally rapid-growing private brands, not only having the limited role of distributing the products as retailers, but also having a control of the distribution channel as a manufacturing company. World's major advanced distribution companies, to differentiate their companies' products and increase the profitability, are putting a lot of efforts into private brand products, and there are many good examples that are globalizing, externally expanding, and creating high financial results. In this research, we presented three major domestic discount stores as examples to show that there is a need for a differentiated private brand management strategy in the saturated discount store industry in Korea. Also, we aim to provide a new product strategy for the future that has been saturated with discount stores to the limit, by providing suggestions that private brand products can be used as weapons with the strongest competiveness in the retail industry through pursuing store differentiations from thorough market analysis and product researches, meeting the customers' needs, and obtaining high margins. PB products, particularly clothing design, a thorough market analysis and product development trends and customer needs to reflect the acquisition of High margin differentiated powerful products and sustainable growth through the stores, large supermarkets, congested, a new breakthrough that can give a good opportunity to provide implications discount stores, new product strategy based on ways to limit proposed. This study discount the major three companies studied, the less strain is a generalization. In the future, domestic and local discount store brand PB, SPA brand that the multinational comparative analysis of the value of the PB expansion strategy centered on clothing, additional studies will be needed.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.35-48
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• 2010

Today, the fashion market challenged by a maturing retail market needs a new paradigm in the "evolution of brand" to improve their comparative advantages. An important issue in fashion marketing is lifestyle brand extension with a specific aim to meet consumers' specific needs for their changing lifestyle. For fashion brand extensions into lifestyle product categories, Gen Y and Baby Boomer are emerging as "prospects"-Baby Boomers who are renovating their lifestyle, and generation Y experiencing changes in their life stage-with demands for buying new products. Therefore, it is imperative that apparel companies pay special attention to the consumer cohort for brand extension to create and manage their brand equity in a new product category. The purposes of this study are to (a) evaluate brand equity between parent and extension brands; (b) identify consumers' perceived marketing elements for brand extension; and (c) estimate a structural equation model for examining causative relationship between marketing elements and brand equity for brand extensions in lifestyle product category including home fashion items for the selected two groups (e.g., Gen Y, and Baby boomer). For theoretical frameworks, this study focused on the traditional marketing 4P's mix to identify what marketing element is more importantly related to brand extension equity for this study. It is assumed that comparable marketing capability can be critical to establish "brand extension equity", leads to successfully entering the new categories. Drawing from the relevant literature, this study developed research hypotheses incorporating brand equity factors and marketing elements by focusing on the selected consumers (e.g., Gen Y, Baby Boomer). In the context of brand extension in the lifestyle products, constructs of brand equity consist of brand awareness/association, brand perceptions (e.g., perceived quality, emotional value) and brand resonance adapted from CBBE factors (Keller, 2001). It is postulated that the marketing elements create brand extension equity in terms of brand awareness/association, brand perceptions by the brand extension into lifestyle products, which in turn influence brand resonance. For data collection, the sample was comprised of Korean female consumers in Gen Y and Baby Boomer consumer categories who have a high demand for lifestyle products due to changing their lifecycles. A total of 651 usable questionnaires were obtained from female consumers of Gen Y (n=326) and Baby Boomer (n=325) in South Korea. Structural and measurement models using a correlation matrix was estimated using LISREL 8.8. Findings indicated that perceived marketing elements for brand extension consisted of three factors: price/store image, product, and advertising. In the model of Gen Y consumers, price/store image had a positive effect on brand equity factors (e.g., brand awareness/association, perceived quality), while product had positive effect on emotional value in the brand extensions; and the brand awareness/association was likely to increase the perceived quality and emotional value, leading to brand resonance for brand extensions in the lifestyle products. In the model of Baby Boomer consumers, price/store image had a positive effect on perceived quality, which created brand resonance of brand extension; and product had a positive effect on perceived quality and emotional value, which leads to brand resonance for brand extension in the lifestyle products. However, advertising was negatively related to brand equity for both groups. This study provides an insight for fashion marketers in developing a successful brand extension strategy, leading to a sustainable competitive advantage. This study complements and extends prior works in the brand extension through critical factors of marketing efforts that affect brand extension success. Findings support a synergy effect on leveraging of fashion brand extensions (Aaker and Keller, 1990; Tauber, 1988; Shine et al., 2007; Pitta and Katsanis, 1995) in conjunction with marketing actions for entering into the new product category. Thus, it is recommended that marketers targeting both Gen Y and Baby Boomer can reduce marketing cost for entering the new product category (e.g., home furnishings) by standardized marketing efforts; fashion marketers can (a) offer extension lines with premium ranges of price; (b) place an emphasis on upscale features of store image positioning by a retail channel (e.g., specialty department store) in Korea, and (c) combine apparel with lifestyle product assortments including innovative style and designer’s limited editions. With respect to brand equity, a key to successful brand extension is consumers’ brand awareness or association that ensures brand identity with new product category. It is imperative for marketers to have knowledge of what contributes to more concrete associations in a market entry into new product categories. For fashion brands, a second key of brand extension can be a "luxury" lifestyle approach into new product categories, in that higher price or store image had impact on perceived quality that established brand resonance. More importantly, this study increases the theoretical understanding of brand extension and suggests directions for marketers as they establish marketing program at Gen Y and Baby Boomers.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.29-62
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• 2012

As distribution environment is changing rapidly and competition is more intensive in the channel of distribution, the importance of retailer image and retailer equity is increasing as a different competitive advantages. Also, consumers are not functionally oriented and that their behavior is significantly affected by the symbols such as retailer image which identify retailer in the market place. That is, consumers do not choose products or retailers for their material utilities but consume the symbolic meaning of those products or retailers as expressed in their self images. The concept of self-image congruence has been utilized by marketers and researchers as an aid in better understanding how consumers identify themselves with the brands they buy and the retailer they patronize. Although self-image congruity theory has been tested across many product categories, the theory has not been tested extensively in the retailing. Therefore, this study attempts to investigate the impact of self image congruence between retailer image and self image of consumer on retailer equity such as retailer awareness, retailer association, perceived retailer quality, and retailer loyalty. The purpose of this study is to find out whether retailer-self image congruence can be a new antecedent of retailer equity. In addition, this study tries to examine how four-dimensional retailer equity constructs (retailer awareness, retailer association, perceived retailer quality, and retailer loyalty) affect customers' repatronage intention. For this study, data were gathered by survey and analyzed by structural equation modeling. The sample size in the present study was 254. The reliability of the all seven dimensions was estimated with Cronbach's alpha, composite reliability values and average variance extracted values. We determined whether the measurement model supports the convergent validity and discriminant validity by Exploratory factor analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis. For each pair of constructs, the square root of the average variance extracted values exceeded their correlations, thus supporting the discriminant validity of the constructs. Hypotheses were tested using the AMOS 18.0. As expected, the image congruence hypotheses were supported. The greater the degree of congruence between retailer image and self-image, the more favorable were consumers' retailer evaluations. The all two retailer-self image congruence (actual self-image congruence and ideal self-image congruence) affected customer based retailer equity. This result means that retailer-self image congruence is important cue for customers to estimate retailer equity. In other words, consumers are often more likely to prefer products and retail stores that have images similar to their own self-image. Especially, it appeared that effect for the ideal self-image congruence was consistently larger than the actual self-image congruence on the retailer equity. The results mean that consumers prefer or search for stores that have images compatible with consumer's perception of ideal-self. In addition, this study revealed that customers' estimations toward customer based retailer equity affected the repatronage intention. The results showed that all four dimensions (retailer awareness, retailer association, perceived retailer quality, and retailer loyalty) had positive effect on the repatronage intention. That is, management and investment to improve image congruence between retailer and consumers' self make customers' positive evaluation of retailer equity, and then the positive customer based retailer equity can enhance the repatonage intention. And to conclude, retailer's image management is an important part of successful retailer performance management, and the retailer-self image congruence is an important antecedent of retailer equity. Therefore, it is more important to develop and improve retailer's image similar to consumers' image. Given the pressure to provide increased image congruence, it is not surprising that retailers have made significant investments in enhancing the fit between retailer image and self image of consumer. The enhancing such self-image congruence may allow marketers to target customers who may be influenced by image appeals in advertising.