• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.291-322
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• 2010

Many companies make active use of loyalty programs to improve their customers' loyalty to the company. Loyalty programs are widely used in various industries and sectors, including oil, telecommunications, credit card, department stores, and internet shopping malls; their performance seems to be successful in building a positive relationship with customers. This study emphasizes the role of affiliate programs in creating loyalty, thereby helping companies to maintain their competitive advantage. To objectives of this study are to investigate which antecedent variables(affiliate program benefit, service company characteristic , consumer characteristic) have significant effects on consumer perceived affiliate program satisfaction and to examine whether these factors have differences between Korean and Japanese consumers. The useful results will provide marketing strategy for marketers of service companies. The results also show that affiliate program is very important in order to maintain relationship with customers in service companies.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.53-62
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• 2002

The purposes of this study were to examine: 1)the dimensions of online store attitude; 2)the differences in the online store attitude by product category and store type; and 3)the effects of online store attitude on store satisfaction and store loyalty. Data were obtained from an online questionnaire survey to 850 online shoppers who were randomly selected from the panel of an online survey agency, and 615 responses were analyzed. Factor analysis extracted 5 dimensions of store attitude including: process and security; service; promotion and presentation; price and quality; and merchandise. MANOVA revealed a significant difference in the price and quality factor by product category and store type. Multiple regression showed that the effects of price and quality, service, and process and security on store satisfaction were significant. Also, price and quality had a significant direct effect on store loyalty which was also affected by store satisfaction.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.5-14
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• 2011

One of the new roles of modern retail stores is to supply consumers with a memorable experience. In Korea, enhancing a store's environment so that customers remember a unique shopping experience is recognized as a sound strategy for strengthening the store's competitiveness. Motivated by this incentive, awareness of the experience-store concept is starting to increase in various categories of the retail industry. However, many experience stores, except in a few cases, have yet to derive a significant profit, explaining why Korean consumers are somewhat unfamiliar with, yet fascinated by, the experience stores that now exist in the country. Consumer satisfaction directly, and indirectly, affects a company's future profit and potential financial gain; customer satisfaction also affects loyalty. Therefore, knowing the significant factors that increase satisfaction and loyalty is essential for any company, in any field, to be able to effectively differentiate itself from the competition. Intrigued by increased competition opportunities, most Korean companies have adopted experience-store marketing strategies. When establishing the most effective processes for increasing sales and achieving a sustainable competitive advantage of a new concept, companies should consider certain factors that influence consumers' ability to accept new concepts and ideas. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is a theory that models how people accept new concepts. TAM proposes the following two factors that influence a person's decisions about how, and when, he or she will use a new product: "perceived usefulness" and "perceived ease of use." Much of the existing research has suggested that a person's character also affects the process for accepting new ideas. Such personal character attributes as individual preferences, self-confidence, and a person's values, traits, and/or skills affect the process for willingly consenting to try something new. It will be meaningful to establish how the TAM theory's components, as well as personal character, affect individuals accepting the experience-store concept. To that end, as it pertains to an experience store, the first goal of the study is to examine the influence of innovative factors (perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use) on satisfaction and loyalty. The second objective is to define the moderate effect of consumers' personal characteristics on the model. The proposed model was tested on 149 respondents who were engaged in leisure sports activities and bought sports outdoor garments and equipment. According to the study's findings, the satisfaction and loyalty of an experience store can be explained by perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, with the study's results demonstrating the stronger of the two factors being "perceived ease of use." The study failed to explain the effects of a person's character on the model. In conclusion, when the companies that operate the experience stores execute their marketing and promotion strategies, they should stress the stores' "ease of use" product components. Additionally, it can be extrapolated from the study data that since the experience-store idea is still relatively unfamiliar to Korean consumers, most customers are not yet able to evaluate, nor take a position regarding, their respective attitudes toward experience stores.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.1-24
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• 2010

I. Introduction The industry of domestic discount store was reorganized with 2 bigs and 1 middle, and then Home Plus took over Home Ever in 2008. In present, Oct, 2008, E-Mart has 118 outlets, Home Plus 112 outlets, and Lotte Mart 60 stores. With total number of 403 outlets, they are getting closer to a saturation point. We know that the industry of discount store has been getting through the mature stage in retail life cycle. There are many efforts to maintain existing customers rather than to get new customers. These competitions in this industry lead firms to acknowledge 'store loyalty' to be the first strategic tool for their sustainable competitiveness. In other words, the strategic goal of discount store is to boost up the repurchase rate of customers throughout increasing store loyalty. If owners of retail shops can figure out main factors for store loyalty, they can easily make more efficient and effective retail strategies which bring about more sales and profits. In this practical sense, there are many papers which are focusing on the antecedents of store loyalty. Many researchers have been inspecting causal relationships between antecedents and store loyalty; store characteristics, store image, atmosphere in store, sales promotion in store, service quality, customer characteristics, crowding, switching cost, trust, satisfaction, commitment, etc., In recent times, many academic researchers and practitioners have been interested in 'dual path model for service loyalty'. There are two paths in store loyalty. First path has an emphasis on symbolic and emotional dimension of service brand, and second path focuses on quality of product and service. We will call the former an extrinsic path and call the latter an intrinsic path. This means that consumers' cognitive path for store loyalty is not single but dual. Existing studies for dual path model are as follows; First, in extrinsic path, some papers in domestic settings show that there is 'store personality-identification-loyalty' path. Second, service quality has an effect on loyalty, which is a behavioral variable, in the mediation of customer satisfaction. But, it's very difficult to find out an empirical paper applied to domestic discount store based on this mediating model. The domestic research for store loyalty concentrates on not only intrinsic path but also extrinsic path. Relatively, an attention for intrinsic path is scarce. And then, we acknowledge that there should be a need for integrating extrinsic and intrinsic path. Also, in terms of retail industry, this study is meaningful because retailers want to achieve their competitiveness by using store loyalty. And so, the purpose of this paper is to integrate and complement two existing paths into one specific model, dual path model. This model includes both intrinsic and extrinsic path for store loyalty. With this research, we would expect to understand the full process of forming customers' store loyalty which had not been clearly explained. In other words, we propose the dual path model for discount store loyalty which has been originated from store personality and service quality. This model is composed of extrinsic path, discount store personality$\rightarrow$store identification$\rightarrow$store loyalty, and intrinsic path, service quality of discount store$\rightarrow$customer satisfaction$\rightarrow$store loyalty. II. Research Model Dual path model integrates intrinsic path and extrinsic path into one specific model. Intrinsic path put an emphasis on quality characteristics and extrinsic path focuses on brand characteristics. Intrinsic path is based on information processing perspective, and extrinsic path emphasizes symbolic and emotional dimension of brand. This model is composed of extrinsic path, discount store personality$\rightarrow$store identification$\rightarrow$store loyalty, and intrinsic path, service quality of discount store$\rightarrow$customer satisfaction$\rightarrow$store loyalty. Hypotheses are as follows; Hypothesis 1: Service quality perceived by customers in discount store has an positive effect on customer satisfaction Hypothesis 2: Store personality perceived by customers in discount store has an positive effect on store identification Hypothesis 3: Customer satisfaction in discount store has an positive effect on store loyalty. Hypothesis 4: Store identification has an positive effect on store loyalty. III. Results and Implications We examined consumers who patronize discount stores for samples of this study. With the structural equation model(SEM) analysis, we empirically tested the validity and fitness of the dual path model for store loyalty in discount stores. As results, the fitness indices of this model were well fitted to data obtained. In an intrinsic path, service quality(SQ) is positively related to customer satisfaction(CS), customer satisfaction(CS) has very significantly positive effect on store loyalty(SL). Also, in an extrinsic path, the store personality(SP) is positively related to store identification(SI), it shows significant effect on store loyalty. Table 1 shows the results as follows; There are some theoretical and practical implications. First, Many studies on discount store loyalty have been executed from various perspectives. But there has been no integrative view on this issue. And so, this research was theoretically designed to integrate various and controversial arguments into one systematic model. We empirically tested dual path model forming store loyalty, and brought up a systematic and integrative framework for future studies. We want to expect creative and aggressive research activities. Second, a few established papers are focused on the relationship between antecedents and store loyalty; store characteristics, atmosphere, sales promotion in store, service quality, trust, commitment, etc., There has been some limits in understanding thoroughly the formation process of store loyalty with a singular path, intrinsic or extrinsic. Beyond these limits in single path, we could propose the new path for store loyalty. This is meaningful. Third, discount store firms make and execute marketing strategies for increasing store loyalty. This research provides real practitioners with reference framework needed for actual strategy formation. Because this paper shows integrated and systematic path for store loyalty. A special feature of this study is to represent 6 sub dimensions of service quality in intrinsic path and 4 sub dimensions of store personality in extrinsic path. Marketers can make more analytic marketing planning with concrete sub dimensions of service quality and store personality. When marketers of discount stores make strategic planning like MPR, Ads, campaign, sales promotion, they can use many items which are more competitive than competitors.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.69-88
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• 2022

Omni-channel enables businesses to provide a seamless customer experience by organically integrating data from multiple channels. Customers have increasingly used mobile applications to place orders and make payments in offline stores. In such context, this study investigated the effects of customer experiences on brand loyalty via offline and mobile channels. Additionally, it examined the role of habit in establishing brand loyalty in a daily service environment. This study confirmed the importance of functional, human, and mechanical cues on perceived value in the offline channel. Additionally, differences in the influence of customer experiences via offline and mobile channels on brand loyalty were examined at based on the age and gender. The research model was empirically validated using survey data collected from 365 customers who visit coffee chains via mobile applications. The analysis results found that both perceived value of offline stores and loyalty to mobile applications have a significant effect on brand loyalty. Habit plays another critical role in enhancing brand loyalty. The findings of this study help service providers better understanding of the formation mechanism of brand loyalty in the context of omni channel and will be able to develop more effective marketing and operations strategies.

• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.13-22
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• 2022

Purpose: Brand hearsay refers to information that can be acquired from advertisement, media publicity, and word-of-mouth prior to experiencing products or services of brands. Previous information about brands obtained through brand hearsay affects consumer behavior in choosing brands. Moreover, brand hearsay is an effective communication method in promoting brands to consumers. Thus, bakery franchises need to improve strengths and differentiate characteristics of their brand, thereby attracting more consumers. Therefore, this study investigates relationships the effect of brand hearsay on consumers' brand attitude and brand loyalty in the context of franchised bakery brands. Research design, data, and methodology: A research model was proposed to examine structural relationships between brand hearsay (advertising, publicity, word-of-mouth), brand attitude, and brand loyalty. An online survey was conducted to consumers who had an experience of visiting a franchise bakery. A total of 513 responses were used for data analysis. SPSS 22.0 was used for analyzing general demographics, and SmartPLS 4.0 was used to test validity and reliability of the proposed model. Result: Among attributes of brand hearsay, advertisement and word-of-mouth had positively significant effects on brand attitude, but no significant effect was found between publicity and attitude. Advertisement had a positively significant impact on brand loyalty, while publicity had a negative effect on brand loyalty opposite to hypothesis. Moreover, brand attitude had a statistically significant effect on brand loyalty. Conclusions: In the context of franchise bakeries, brand hearsay contents may change consumers' attitude toward brands but does not increase brand loyalty. Though media publicity does not affect consumers' attitude toward brands, it may decrease brand loyalty when consumers are too exposed to it. In addition, it is necessary to enhance brand attitude to increase brand loyalty of customers. This study provides bakery franchisors and franchisees information about which type of brand hearsay (e.g., advertisement, word-of-mouth, media, publicity) is effective in enhancing brand attitudes and loyalty of consumers. Further studies may include other variables (e.g., trust) in addition to attitude and loyalty, or compare findings based on brand characteristics (e.g., low-to-medium/high prices, store size).

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.407-418
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• 2004

A study of the comparison of customers' satisfaction and loyalty at McDonald's two types of outlets is presented. The objective of this study is to test correlation among selection attributes, customer satisfaction and loyalty of customers patronizing two types of Mcdonald's restaurants - stand alone and co-branded, as Mcdonald's is known to be actively participating in co-branding with discount stores such as E-Mart. In order to measure customer loyalty, benchmark scores from customers showing extreme satisfaction are compared to the mean scores of total sample customers at each outlet. Meeting or exceeding benchmarking scores does not automatically bring in and create loyal customers but in doing so will certainly help build up strong customer relationship which will create additional loyalty. Marketers should be well aware that statistically significant difference do exist between these two groups of customers and should take into consideration these findings in opening up new outlets or renovating existing outlets.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.37-46
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• 2017

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that cause consumers to frequently visit large - Super Store and goods for large - scale retailers using Super Store. Research design, data, and methodology - The purpose of this study is to present the empirical analysis of 53 adult males and females living in the Mokpo area on the relationship between perceived level of satisfaction and loyalty of the large - scale marts. The results were analyzed. The statistical data of the questionnaire were verified by the SPSS. Results - In the empirical analysis of this study, four variables were found to be the main loyalty factors, which were found to affect the satisfaction of Super Store and the decision to return again. Therefore, in this study, the quality of goods, price, diversity, and image were analyzed as loyalty factors, and it was analyzed as factors influencing satisfaction. It was confirmed that loyalty factors were important. In particular, consumers' perception of behaviors such as local specialties and community service that can be distinctly differentiated from other distribution agencies was very low. Conclusions - It is necessary to construct a comprehensive systematic system to analyze the detailed factors influencing the satisfaction and loyalty of users of Mokpo ticket consumers and to systematically manage and evaluate them. In order to raise awareness of consumer loyalty factors, consumer satisfaction and loyalty survey should be regularly conducted. Consumers should look for ways to improve them and develop improvement plans. The various direct and indirect services provided by Super Store to consumers include price, quality, assortment, customer service, accessibility, and feelings for large marts. However, since the services provided by the Super Store are different from those of the consumers, the loyalty factors for the different factors can be different. Therefore, in order to differentiate them from traditional markets or other distribution centers, it It should be used as a weapon of competition. In this study, it is generally recognized that the services provided by Super Store are very simple and inexpensive, so that consumers are not aware of the difference of particular stores.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.487-500
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• 2017

This study examines the attributes of cosmetic stores that Chinese tourists considered when purchasing cosmetics in Korea and the effect of the evaluation of attributes in regards to satisfaction and brand loyalty based upon brand experience. The survey was performed from January 1-14 in 2014 through a Chinese professional online survey channel-www.sojump.com. A total of 338 data from female and male respondents who visited Korea and purchased Korea brand's cosmetics were analyzed by SPSS and AMOS. The results were as follows. Frist, cosmetic store attributes were composed of three factors such as physical environment and salespersons, price and promotion, service. Second, all the factors had a positive influence on brand experience. Among them, the influence of physical environment and salespersons were the highest. Third, brand experience influenced satisfaction and satisfaction also had positive influence on brand loyalty. The results above indicate that providing various experiences that appeal to customers is as important as improving product quality when maintaining long-term customer relationships and loyalty.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.27-51
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• 2006

This study is to understand the existing relation-marketing based on a result that social-relationship in market can effect on customer's action with expanding the seller-purchaser relationship, and understanding purchaser-purchaser relationship in the community. The result of this study could be summarized as below: First, the customer-sales person friendly relationship effects respectively on customer satisfaction and loyalty. Second, friendly relationship of customers effects on customer satisfaction and loyalty. Third, customers' satisfaction and trust increases customers loyalty. Considering that they could cause others to re-buy, friendly word of mouth, recommendations, we should know improving customers loyalty about a company(department store) is very important. This study presents not only customers and sales clerks relationship but also developing customer-customer relationship is important as well. From the viewpoint, this study gives the following strategic tactics to companies. First, customer's relationship with sales clerk is not able to be built in a short time unlike discount or gifts. Second, relationship around customers effects on loyalty of the department store, over the relationship of simple customer-sales clerk. Finally, companies, to make a relationship like fabric, should escape a two-level channel, a company to a customer, then recognize a three-level channel, a company to a friendly customer to a neutral or a unfriendly customer. That means a business should use the positive to make the negative or the neutral change their behavior to it.