• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.32 no.10
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• pp.1497-1508
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• 2008

The objective of this study is to identify the types of relationship quality of department store fashion consumers. This study also aims to look at if consumers form different type of relationship quality with various relation partners. In this study, qualitative research was conducted on 25 female consumers to come to a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of fashion consumers' diverse loyal relationships. Fashion consumer's relationship quality consisted of 'self attachment', 'symbolic', 'trust', 'intimacy', 'compensational bind', and 'habitual alternative'. 6 relationship quality dimensions were distinguished according to each dimension's emotional involvement level and conscious activeness level of consumers. While self attachment was classified as emotional and active relationship quality, compensational bind and habitual alternative were typical relationship quality types of fashion store loyalty such as department store loyalty, thus classified as inertial and cognitive relationship quality type. This study might provide a useful direction to apparel brands and retailers in finding out which relationship quality type is more effective for differentiated marketing strategies.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.85-94
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• 2015

Purpose - This study attempts to examine the impacts of consumers' perceived service convenience of retailers on various service performance metrics such as service quality and customer satisfaction. It also tries to investigate differences in the importance of service convenience dimensions on service performance between a department store and a general super market. Research design, data, and methodology - The four hypotheses in this study were proposed and tested. Two hypotheses were on the causal relationships between service convenience dimensions and service performances (service quality and customer satisfaction). The other two hypotheses were on comparisons for the effects of convenience dimensions on service quality and customer satisfaction between department stores and general super markets. To test the hypotheses, three department store chains (Hyundai, Lotte, and Shinsegae department Store) and three general super markets (E-mart, Homeplus, and Lotte mart) were involved. Overall, 510 usable responses were used. The data were analyzed using regression analysis. Results - The results largely support the hypothesized relationships of the proposed model. The results show that access convenience, transaction convenience, benefit convenience, and post-benefit convenience have positive influences on service quality, whereas decision convenience, access convenience, transaction convenience, benefit convenience, and post-benefit convenience have positive effects on customer satisfaction. Furthermore, the results show that there are differences between department stores and general super markets in the effects of benefit convenience and post-benefit convenience on service quality as well as the effects of transaction convenience and post-benefit convenience on customer satisfaction. Conclusions - The concept of service convenience is important in retail environments but little is known about this topic in retail literature. Specially, while service convenience dimensions have different impacts on service performance in distinct retail environments, there has been little investigation or comparison between retail types as regards service convenience. This study is the first to test the differences between distinct retail types (department stores and general super markets) on the service convenience-service performance links. Managerially, the findings of this study suggest that the service convenience management of retailers is an important part of successful service performance management. Because it is most important that both department stores and general super markets enhance benefit convenience to improve service performance, managers of both store types need to invest their resources to reduce consumers' perceived time and effort expenditures to experience the retailer's core benefits. Therefore, the results of this study suggest that retail stores should spend human and financial resources to enhance customer perceptions of service convenience, while also considering what constitutes the service outcome in the consumer's mind. Furthermore, the findings suggest that managers need to use different service convenience management tactics in department stores and general super markets. Specifically, managers in general super markets should pay more attention to benefit convenience and transaction convenience to achieve better service performance whereas managers in department stores should concentrate on post-benefit convenience to create customers' positive evaluation.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.59-78
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• 2018

With the advent of the various device types and marketing communication, customer's search and purchase behavior have become more complex and segmented. However, extant research on multichannel marketing effects of the purchase funnel has not reflected the specific features of device User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX). In this study, we analyzed the marketing channel effects of multi-device shoppers using a unique click stream dataset from global online retailers. We examined device types that activate online shopping and compared the differences between marketing channels that promote visits. In addition, we estimated the direct and indirect effects on visits and purchase revenue through customer's accumulated experience and channel conversions. The findings indicate that the same customer selects a different marketing channel according to the device selection. These results can help retailers gain a better understanding of customers' decision-making process in multi-marketing channel environment and devise the optimal strategy taking into account various device types. Our empirical analyses yield business implications based on the significant results from global big data analytics and contribute academically meaningful theoretical framework using an economic model. We also provide strategic insights attributed to the practical value of an online marketing manager.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.15-27
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• 2011

Although a huge number of academic researchers have paid considerable attention to exploring both the degree to which store image influences retailer brand customers and how to develop store personality, they have overlooked the contemporary retail context in which retailers have developed many different types of retailer brands, that is, price-oriented or quality-oriented retailer brands. Rather than focusing on the latter, much literature has looked at the former. Accordingly, even though there are many articles related to store image, a few authors have shown their interest in identifying the extent to which store personality affects customers purchasing retailer brands at lower prices. As a result, their efforts have been to illustrate the relationship between store image and consumer behaviours buying retailer brands. In that multiple retailers over the world such as E-Mart, Lotte-Mart, Tesco Korea and Tesco UK have actively introduced not only the quality-focused retailer brands that quality is better than, or equal to national brands, and prices are slightly higher than, or equal to them, but also price-focused retailer brands, academicians should make an effort to investigate how store image affects customers purchasing a quality-oriented retailer brand, comparing with previous research results. That is why the authors illustrate the extent to which store personality components influence retailer brand customers, including particularly quality-oriented retailer brand customers through an empirical research. By adopting a questionnaire method as a research technique to illuminate the relationship between store image components and retailer brand customers, research validity increases and further, data gathered through a field survey are analysed through a few statistic analysis methods, in order to minimise statistical deviations. Compared with the prior research concentrated on price-focused retailer brands, the authors have significantly shed light on customer behaviours purchasing retailer brand products with higher quality. When it comes to store personality components, the research suggests the following five items: merchandise attributes, services, physical facilities, promotions, and institutional image, considering the subcomponents mentioned by the previous research. Proposing the conceptual research model which those elements are differently hypothesised, according to retailer brand types: PR (Price-oriented Retailer brand) and QR (Quality-oriented Retailer brand), the research is proceeded. Through empirical research, the authors found that amongst the five items, only promotion influenced retailer brand customers in the Korean retailing marketplace, unlike other countries explored by many researchers, such as UK. Although much literature emphasises that those elements are closely related to retailer brand buying proneness, it is completely not fit to the Korean market. Also, research findings provide new insights into the degree of store image effects on retailer brand customers for academiciansand practitioners. Whether the retailer brand development program that a retailer has carried simultaneously both price-focused and quality-focused retailer brand types is practically profitable should be explored in the future.

• The Journal of Fisheries Business Administration
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.59-78
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• 2010

This paper tries to apply the asymmetrical price transmission(APT) behavior observed in the agricultural industry to supply chains of the domestic fishery industry by a statistical manner. The fore mentioned asymmetrical price transmission refers to when price movements in the later stage of the supply chain do not move in a normal or symmetrical manner corresponding to price movements in the earlier stage of the supply chain. Therefore, when the earlier stage price increase and the later stage price increases to a larger degree, it is called positive(+) asymmetry and the opposite behavior is called negative(-) asymmetry. The study examines the data from domestic producers of three fresh fish types, hairtail, mackerel, and cuttlefish, and tries to examine the price asymmetry between the producer or farm, wholesaler, and retail prices via an APT test utilizing unit root, cointegration, and error correction model. The study found, hairtail wholesale and retail pricing bas a negative asymmetric relationship while mackerel has a negative asymmetric pricing relationship at the producer and retail levels of the supply chain. In the case of cuttlefish, all levels of the supply chain showed negative asymmetrical behavior in the supply chain price transmission, meaning the earlier stage price changes are more rapidly and greatly inputted in the later stage of the supply chain pricing. We believe that the reason why the analysis results show negative price asymmetry is due to the uniqueness of fishery products having an important variable such as freshness. If price increases are greater and quicker than price decreases, then consumer demand, which is sensitive to price increases will decrease and subsequently result in the increase of inventory levels, reducing profits for retailers. Also, frozen hairtail, mackerel, and cuttlefish will act as substitute goods to fresh fishery products. Therefore, fresh fishery products have a high demand of price elasticity. When prices increase, demand quickly decreases. Therefore the profit of wholesalers and retailers to decrease, I think this is the main reason of APT in the supply chain of Korea' s fisheries industry.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.129-142
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• 2023

As the demand for ready-to-eat foods continues to grow, concerns about the sodium in processed foods are also growing. In this study, a survey was conducted on the perception of low-sodium products and diffusion plans according to the type of employee (manufacturer, retailer, distributor). Of the 191 responses collected, 189 valid responses (98.9%) were analyzed. The results showed that the employees were aware of the health contribution of a low-sodium diet, labeling for low-sodium, and the promotion of low-sodium food to increase its consumption. Furthermore, retailers recognized the positive contribution of low-sodium products in terms of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) management. The use of sodium substitutes was preferred as the best way to reduce sodium in ready-to-eat foods. With regard to sodium reduction in ready-to-eat foods, we found that the technical factors involved were clustered by the type of business. Specifically, distributors showed a similar performance but had a lower perception of importance than retailers. Manufacturers had a lower perception of both importance and performance. In this study, we collected perceptions from employees who were working at food companies, which differed from previous research. We sought to examine the differences in the perception of sodium reduction and consumption of ready-to-eat foods across various types of employment. Furthermore, we provided specific approaches to reduce perception gaps and enhance understanding among employees.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.15 no.sup1
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• pp.94-109
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• 2021

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has dramatically changed nearly every aspect of our lives. Although Dietary lifestyle includes attitudes and behaviors to meet their most basic needs, but few studies have examined the pattern of changes in dietary lifestyle driven by COVID-19. This study explores changes in dietary attitudes and behaviors among Korean consumers after COVID-19. SUBJECTS/METHODS: An online survey was conducted with 549 Korean adults aged 20 and older to identify general demographics and changes in dietary attitudes and behaviors. Data were collected from Oct 12 to Oct 18, 2020. Frequency, percentage, and mean values were calculated and a K-means cluster analysis was performed to categorize consumers based on the 5S of dietary attitudes (i.e., savor-oriented, safety-oriented, sustainability-oriented, saving-oriented, and socializing-oriented). RESULTS: Findings indicate consumers considered safety, health, and freshness to be most important when choosing groceries and prepared meal such as home meal replacement and delivery food. Among the types of services, a large proportion of consumers increased their delivery and take-out services. Regarding retail channels, the increase in the use of online retailers was remarkable compared to offline retailers. Finally, consumers were classified into four segments based on changes in dietary attitudes: "most influenced," "seeking safety and sustainability," "abstaining from savor and socializing," and "least influenced." Each type of consumer exhibited statistically significant differences by sex, age, household composition, presence of disease, and perceived risk of COVID-19. CONCLUSIONS: This exploratory study provides initial insights for future research by identifying various aspects of dietary attitudes and behaviors among Korean consumers after COVID-19.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.193-209
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• 2011

The fast expansion of super supermarket(SSM) in Korean retail industries has attracted serious social attentions and some types of regulations to slow down its growth are prepared. However, the regulations are hardly justified because they attempt to establish entry barriers which are not recommendable economic policy. Accordingly, the regulations should be justified at least on the basis of social and political causes. The study interprets the social and political causes as the effects of entry of SSM on trading ares where SSM is located. The study is distinguished from the past studies which focused only on intertype and intratype competition between retailers Another goal of the study is to complement the weakness of past studies and provide additional information to settle the issues. More closely, the study investigates the relationships between the changes in sales of convenience stores, which may be a surrogate measure of the viability of a local economy, and the changes in the composition of business types within 500m radius of a SSM. Further, the study investigates the effects of the establishment of SSM and the retail sales index on the sales of convenience stores. The study analyzed the panel data and adopts Swamy's random coefficient models. The results show that the effects of the establishment of SSM on the sales of convenience stores are not statistically significant. The relationship between the change in the portion of restaurants among the local business and the change in the sales of convenience stores is positive. On the other hand the relationship between the change in the portion of retailers in the composition of local businesses and the change in the sales of convenience stores is negative. In conclusion, even though any negative effects of the establishments of SSM on local economies are expected, as long as other types business especially restaurant businesses fill the space left by retailers, the net effect on the local economy may not be signification or even positive.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.25-34
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• 2024

This study investigates consumer awareness and concerns regarding apparel sizing in the realm of online shopping. A survey was conducted with 450 women aged 18-59 who had engaged in online clothing purchases within the past year. It was observed that consumers shop for clothes online an average of 1.6 times per month, with those under 50 shopping more frequently. The importance of size is higher when buying pants than jackets, especially in online shopping compared to offline purchases. Key references guiding online shopping decisions encompassed product sizing codes, customer reviews, and garment dimensions, which were notably favored by consumers with significant concerns. Respondents opted for Korean-style sizing codes for jackets but chose inch-sizing codes for pants. While awareness of height and weight remains high, knowledge of specific body measurements crucial for clothing size design is lacking, suggesting inadequate communication of size information. Respondents prioritized specific areas for jacket and pants fit, yet the lack of comprehensive self-measurements beyond height and weight might present challenges in determining fit based solely on product dimensions. To address this issue, online retailers should display essential garment dimensions and visually suggest clothing sizes according to various body types. These findings provide valuable insights for online retailers to effectively present size information and lay a foundational framework for consumer size education.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.49-68
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• 2012

When a channel is vertically separated, there can be inefficiencies, double marginalization. Channel coordination to amend this inefficiency has been an important issue in marketing and economics. Channel coordination deals with maximization of joint profit and achieving proper profit sharing among participants. In this paper, a manufacturer and heterogeneous multiple retailers with exclusive territory are assumed, and channel coordination with two-part tariff is considered. When multiple heterogeneous retailers are assumed, profit sharing can be an issue even though the tariffs based on marginal cost can maximize joint profit. In case of multiple heterogeneous retailers, the manufacturer earns the same profit (fixed fee) from each retailer. This means that a large retailer occupies all the gaps of channel profit between small and large markets. Then, the manufacturer, which generally plays the role of Stackelberg leader, will consider increasing fixed price or marginal price to earn more profit from large retailer. Those reactions can sacrifice maximization of joint profit by making small retailer withdraw or by changing the sales quantities. In this paper, to maximize joint profit and achieve proper profit sharing, two kinds of optional tariffs are considered. The first is an optional two-part tariff based on marginal cost and the second is an optional modified two-part tariff in which marginal prices are higher than the manufacturer's marginal cost. In both types of optional tariffs, maximization of joint profit in each market can be achieved. Moreover, optional tariffs alleviate the problem of profit sharing. Optional tariffs can provide a manufacturer more profit from a large retailer when profit from a small retailer is given. However, the analysis shows that the maximum share of manufacturer from a large retailer is restricted by the condition for self-selection. In case of optional two-part tariffs based on marginal cost, if the gap between demands is large, the maximum share of the manufacturer is sufficient to achieve proper profit sharing. If the gap between demands is not sufficiently large, the manufacturer cannot earn sufficient share from increased profit. An optional modified two-part tariff where marginal price is more than marginal cost of manufacturer is considered because of this scenario. The marginal price above the marginal cost may additionally control the distribution of the increased profit. However, the analysis shows that a manufacturer's maximum profit from a large retailer with given profit from a small retailer is the same as or lower than the maximum profit when optional two-part tariffs based on marginal cost are applied. Therefore, it can be concluded that the optional modified tariffs do not have additional contribution to profit sharing relative to the tariffs based on marginal cost. Although this paper does not cover all kinds of optional tariffs that are different from tariffs based on marginal cost, it shows the advantage of optional tariffs based on marginal cost and has important theoretical implications. The result of this paper also gives guide for channel coordination. Optional two-part tariff based on marginal cost can increase efficiency in channel coordination.