• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.1-26
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• 2015

In the 21^st century, green consumer behavior, playing one of the core roles of sustainability, is still an important issue to green-related stakeholders. Because one of the major objectives of green-consumer research is an improvement of behaviors aligned with greening, this paper revisited socio-demographic variables and shed light on segmenting and profiling green consumers based on their connectedness between socio-demographic variables and green behaviors. Using correlations, factor analysis, analysis of variance, k-means cluster analysis and χ²-tests, this paper shows that socio-demographic variables differentially impact green-consumer behaviors. In order to profile green consumers, this paper additionally attempts to segment green-consumer groups. The results also coincide with former findings that socio-demographic variables relate significantly with segmented green-consumer group behaviors. General findings are summarized as: 1) older people used green practices more strongly than younger people, 2) females demonstrated better energy-saving and recycling practices compared to males, 3) marital status also significantly influenced green-related behaviors, 4) subjective social class had a significant influence on green-related behaviors, 5) education level and income, however, weakly influenced or showed no impact on green-related behaviors, and 6) a green consumer was classified as an 'active green consumer,' 'utilitarian green consumer,' or 'inactivated green consumer.' The utilitarian green consumer group distinctively behaved more strongly in energy-saving and recycling practices compared to the inactivated green consumer group, whereas active green consumers behaved more strongly on the whole, when compared to those in the inactivated green consumer group.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.1-14
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• 2022

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to explore the application of Augmented Reality (AR) technology to enhance interactivity and decision making via technology-enabled experience particularly, in the context of COVID-19. This study investigated effects of perceived utilitarian value, hedonic value, social value, and perceived risk on customer satisfaction with AR technology that are rarely examined in previous studies. Research design, data and methodology: Online survey data was used in the study. This study applied factor analysis and regression analysis to test the hypotheses and employed ANOVA and mediation effect analysis to explore additional findings. Results: The results suggested that customers' perceived usefulness, arousal, social preference, innovativeness, financial risk, and performance risk have statistically significant effect on customer satisfaction. Conclusions: The findings of the study provided managerial and policy implications to develop and advertise the introduction of AR technology with the emphasis on the practical and utilitarian benefits of the technology. The result of this study highlighted the importance of customer relationship management by providing advanced services to customers through AR technology. This study contributes to technology-enabled CRM literature by providing the empirical result to verify the assumption that AR technology can be an effective tool of firms' CRM strategy

• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.77-87
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• 2024

Purpose: South Korea is one of the markets where diverse and innovative cuisines are being tried. Therefore, the expectations for Michelin star restaurants in South Korea are high. The expected value of a Michelin star restaurant consists of both hedonic and utilitarian aspects of the dining experience. These consumer expectations affect visit intention. Research design, data, and methodology: The survey period was from October 10, 2023 to October 18, 2023, and 302 copies were used for hypothesis verification. Result: Hedonic expected value was found to have a significant positive influence on short-term and long-term visit intention, but had no significant effect on mid-term visit intention. Utilitarian expected value was found to have a significant positive influence on short-term and mid-term visit intention, but did not appear to have a significant effect on long-term visit intentions. Short-term visit intention was found to have a significant positive influence on mid-term visit intention, and mid-term visit intention was found to have a significant positive influence on long-term visit intention. Conclusions: The theoretical implications are restaurants need to utilize third-party certification, such as the Michelin Guide. The practical implication is that Michelin star restaurants should provide expected value to increase short-term visit intention.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.115-130
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• 2011

Many online stores bring features that can build trust in their customers. More so, the number of products or content services on online stores has been increasing rapidly. Hence, personalization on online stores is considered to be an important technology to companies and customers. Recommender systems that provide favorable products and customer product reviews to users are the most commonly used features in this purpose. There are many studies to that investigated the relationship between social presence as an antecedent of trust and provision of recommender systems or customer product reviews. Many online stores have made efforts to increase perceived social presence of their customers through customer reviews, recommender systems, and analyzing associations among products. Primarily because social presence can increase customer trust or reuse intention for online stores. However, there were few studies that investigated the interactions between recommendation type, product type and provision of customer product reviews on social presence. Therefore, one of the purposes of this study is to identify the effects of personalized recommender systems and compare the role of customer reviews with product types. This study performed an experiment to see these interactions. Experimental web pages were developed with $2{\times}2$ factorial setting based on how to provide social presence to users with customer reviews and two product types such as hedonic and utilitarian. The hedonic type was a ringtone chosen from Nate.com while the utilitarian was a TOEIC study aid book selected from Yes24.com. To conduct the experiment, web based experiments were conducted for the participants who have been shopping on the online stores. Participants were a total of 240 and 30% of the participants had the chance of getting the presents. We found out that social presence increased for hedonic products when personalized recommendations were given compared to non.personalized recommendations. Although providing customer reviews for two product types did not significantly increase social presence, provision of customer product reviews for hedonic (ringtone) increased perceived social presence. Otherwise, provision of customer product reviews could not increase social presence when the systems recommend utilitarian products (TOEIC study.aid books). Therefore, it appears that the effects of increasing perceived social presence with customer reviews have a difference for product types. In short, the role of customer reviews could be different based on which product types were considered by customers when they are making a decision related to purchasing on the online stores. Additionally, there were no differences for increasing perceived social presence when providing customer reviews. Our participants might have focused on how recommendations had been provided and what products were recommended because our developed systems were providing recommendations after participants rating their preferences. Thus, the effects of customer reviews could appear more clearly if our participants had actual purchase opportunity for the recommendations. Personalized recommender systems can increase social presence of customers more than nonpersonalized recommender systems by using user preference. Online stores could find out how they can increase perceived social presence and satisfaction of their customers when customers want to find the proper products with recommender systems and customer reviews. In addition, the role of customer reviews of the personalized recommendations can be different based on types of the recommended products. Even if this study conducted two product types such as hedonic and utilitarian, the results revealed that customer reviews for hedonic increased social presence of customers more than customer reviews for utilitarian. Thus, online stores need to consider the role of providing customer reviews with highly personalized information based on their product types when they develop the personalized recommender systems.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.98-109
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• 2010

Research on the construction, measurement, and management of brand equity has been extensive since David A. Aaker(1991) and Kevin Lane Keller(1993) first advanced the concept. Recently, much attention has been devoted to the components of brand equity: brand awareness, perceived quality, brand image, and brand loyalty. This study explores the relationships among these components, focusing particularly on the moderating role of product type (utilitarian vs. hedonic) in their causal relationships. A model to study the relationship among components of brand equity, particularly the moderating role of product type, is featured in Figure 1. The hypotheses of the study are proposed as follows: that consumers' brand awareness has a positive influence on brand loyalty and brand image; that consumers' perceived quality has a positive influence on brand loyalty and brand image; that consumers' brand image influences brand loyalty positively; and that relationships among components of brand equity will be moderated by product type. That is, in the case of utilitarian products, the impact of perceived quality on brand loyalty will be relatively stronger, whereas with hedonic products the impact of brand image on brand loyalty will be relatively stronger. To determine the products for the study, a pre-test of 58 college students in the Seoul metropolitan area was conducted based on the product type scale. As a result, computers were selected as the utilitarian product and blue jeans became the hedonic product. For each product type, two brands were selected: Samsung and HP for computers, and Levis and Nix for blue jeans. In the main study, 237 college students in the metropolitan area were surveyed to measure their brand awareness, perceived quality, brand image, and brand loyalty toward the selected two brands of each product type. The subjects were divided into two groups: one group (121 subjects) for computers, the other (116 subjects) for blue jeans. The survey questionnaires for the study included four parts: five questions on brand awareness and four questions each on perceived quality, brand image, and brand loyalty. All questions were to be answered using 7-point Likert scales. The data collected by the survey were processed to assess reliability and validity, and the causal relationships were analyzed to verify the hypotheses using the AMOS 7 program, a tool for analyzing structural equation modeling. A confirmatory factor analysis assessed the appropriateness of the measurement model, and the fit indices denoted that the model was satisfactory. The relationships among the components of brand equity were also analyzed using AMOS 7. The fit indices of the structural model denoted that it was also satisfactory. The paths in the structural model as will be seen in Figure 2 show that perceived quality affects brand image positively, but that brand awareness does not affect brand image. Moreover, it shows that brand awareness, perceived quality, and brand image are positively related with brand loyalty, and that this relationship is moderated by product type. In the case of utilitarian products, perceived quality has relatively more influence on brand loyalty. Conversely, in the case of hedonic products, brand image has relatively more influence on brand loyalty. The results of this empirical study contribute toward the advancement of our understanding of the relationships among the components of brand equity and expand the theoretical underpinnings for brand equity measurement. It also helps further our understanding of the effect of product type on customer-based brand equity. In a marketing management practice perspective, these results may provide managerial implications for building and maintaining brand equity effectively.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.137-164
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• 2011

In the past, retailers secured customer loyalty by offering convenient locations, unique assortments of goods, better services than competitors, and good credit policy. All this has changed. Goods assortments among stores have become more alike as national-brand manufacturers place their goods in more and more retail stores. Service differentiation also has eroded. Many department stores have trimmed services, and many discount stores have increased theirs. Customers have become smarter shoppers. They don't pay more for identical brands, especially when service differences have diminished. In the face of increased competition from discount storess and specialty stores, department stores are waging a comeback war. Growth of intertype competition, competition between store-based and non-store-based retailing and growing investment in technology are changing the way consumers shop and retailers sell. Different types of stores-discount stores, catalog showrooms, department stores-all compete for the same consumers by carrying the same type of merchandise. The biggest winners are retailers that have helped shoppers to be economically cautious, simplified their increasingly busy and complicated lives, and provided an emotional connection. The growth of e-retailers has forced traditional brick-and-mortar retailers to respond. Basically brick-and-mortar retailers utilize their natural advantages, such as products that shoppers can actually see, touch, and test, real-life customer service, and no delivery lag time for small-sized purchases. They also provide a shopping experience as a strong differentiator. They are adopting practices as calling each shopper a "guest". The store atmosphere should match the basic motivations of the shopper. If target consumers are more likely to be in a task-oriented and functional mindset, then a simpler, more restrained in-store environment may be better. Consistent with this reasoning, some retailers of experiential products are creating in-store entertainment to attract customers who want fun and excitement. The retail experience must deliver value to turn a one-time visitor into a loyal customer. Retailers need a tool that measures the full range of components that define experience-based value. This study uses an experiential value scale(EVS) developed by Mathwick, Malhotra and Rigdon(2001) which reflects the benefits derived from perceptions of playfulness, aesthetics, customer "return on investment" and service excellence. EVS is useful to predict differences in shopping preferences and patronage behavior of customers. EVS consists of items measuring efficiency, economic value, visual appeal, entertainment value, service excellence, escapism, and intrinsic enjoyment, which are subscales of experiencial value. Efficiency, economic value, service excellence are linked to the utilitarian shopping value. And visual appeal, entertainment value, escapism and intrinsic enjoyment are linked to hedonic shopping value. It has been found that consumers value hedonic experiences activated from escapism and attractiveness of shopping environment as much as the product quality, price, and the convenient location. As a result, many department stores, discount stores, and other retailers are introducing differential marketing strategy based on emotional/hedonic values. Many researches suggest that consumers go shopping not only for buying products but also for various shopping experiences. In other words, they seek the practical, rational value as well as social, recreational values in the shopping process(Babin et al, 1994; Bloch et al, 1994). Retailers may enhance buyer's loyalty to store by providing excellent emotional/hedonic value such as the excitement from shopping, not just the practical value of buying good products efficiently. We investigate the effect of perceived shopping values on the emotional experience and store loyalty based on the EVS(Experiential Value Scales) developed by Holbrook(1994), Mathwick, Malhotra and Rigdon(2001). This study assumes that the relative effect of shopping value dimensions on the responses of shoppers will differ according to types of stores and analyzes the moderating effect of store type(department store VS. discount store) on the causal relationship between shopping value dimensions and store loyalty. Emprical results show that utilitarian values of shopping experience and hedonic value of shipping experience give the positive effect on the emotional response of consumers and store loyalty. We also found the moderating effect of store types. The effect of utilitarian shopping values on the attitude toward discount store is higher than the effect of utilitarian shopping values on the attitude toword department store. And the effect of hedonic shopping value on the emotional response to discount store is higher than on the emotional response to department store. The empirical results reflect on the recent trend that discount stores try to fulfill the hedonic needs of consumers as well as utilitarian needs(i.e, low price) that discount stores traditionally have focused on

• Culinary science and hospitality research
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.302-318
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• 2016

The purpose of this study was to verify the effects of benefit sought of food products on SNS-WOM information characteristics, purchase intention, and SNS-WOM with regards to food products. In addition, the mediating role of SNS-WOM information characteristics was also examined. A survey was conducted from March 10th to 30th using an SNS based convenience sampling method. A total of 350 responses were collected, of which 326 were used for analysis, after excluding responses containing missing data. Multiple regression and hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to verify the hypotheses. The results from this study are as follows. First, it was found that diversity and utilitarian benefits of food products had a greater effect on consensus of SNS than the symbolic and experimental benefits. However, symbolic and experimental benefits of food products had a greater effect on neutrality of SNS than the diversity and utilitarian benefits. Second, only consensus of SNS-WOM information characteristics significantly impacted purchase intention of food products. Third, consensus of SNS-WOM information characteristics had a greater effect on SNS-WOM intention of food products than the neutrality of SNS-WOM information characteristics. Fourth, SNS-WOM information characteristics were found to mediate the relationship between benefit sought and purchase intention of food products. Fifth, SNS-WOM information characteristics were found to mediate the relationship between benefit sought and SNS-WOM intention of food products.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.123-133
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• 2016

Purpose - Understanding how service convenience drives shopping performance is imperative for retailers such as department and large discount stores. Retailers have to enhance shopping productivity by reducing the costs of shopping, as convenience triggers customers' perceived shopping value, leading to customer satisfaction, and ultimately patronage behavior. Consumers, generally considering time as a scarce resource, are more sensitive to the time costs of tasks in regard to shopping trip, differently from forming perceptions of convenience in time orientation. Therefore, this study attempts to examine the moderating effects of consumers' time orientation on the relationships among service convenience of retailers and shopping performances such as shopping value and service performances. Research design, data, and methodology - The department and discount store chains were chosen as the point of analysis in this study. Data were collected from a survey of real-life consumers and all respondents were screened to ensure only those who had visited in the department and discount store chains within past six month prior to the day of data collection. Out of 600 self-reported surveys that were distributed, a total of 530 responses were returned and after excluding 20 incomplete responses, the final sample size was 510. The three hypotheses were proposed and tested in this study. The one hypothesis was on the moderating effects of time orientation for the effects of service convenience on shopping value (hedonic and utilitarian shopping value). The other two hypotheses were on the comparisons between high and low time-oriented customers with the effects in shopping value from service performance. Hierarchical moderated regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses. Results - The results suggest that the effect of service convenience on utilitarian shopping value and the positive effect of utilitarian shopping value on customer satisfaction are greater in low time orientation than high time orientation customers. Conversely, when customers are highly oriented toward time, the effects of hedonic shopping value on customer satisfaction and revisit intention are greater than for customers who are lowly oriented toward time. Conclusions - This study has two-fold significance. First, this study contributes to the consumer behavior and services marketing literature by incorporating customers' time orientation into the service convenience-shopping performance. Although the effect of service convenience on shopping performance might differ from customers' perceptions concerning shopping, there has been little investigation or comparison between customers' perception on time. This study is a first attempt to consider how the effects of service convenience on shopping value and service performance vary with differing levels of customers' time orientation. This study advances prior studies by showing that the service convenience-shopping value and service convenience-service performance relationships vary across different combinations of the customer's time orientation. The findings of this study suggest that the retailers need to enhance the experiential aspects of the stores for their high time-oriented customers. Conversely, for the low time-oriented customers, the retailers should boost the visual distinctiveness and ease of store navigation.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.41-60
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of salesperson's adaptive selling tactics on consumers who purchase Small and Medium Enterprises' product with the help of salespeople in the store. Specifically, we examine whether salesperson's adaptive selling tactics affect consumers hedonic shopping value and utilitarian shopping value. Furthermore, we try to figure out the effect of shopping value on the salesperson relationship commitment and consumer product satisfaction. The subjects of this study have surveyed the consumers with experience in purchasing SME's products through salespeople in the Gyeongnam area. As data process, SPSS 21.0 was used as the analysis tool and AMOS 21.0 was used to analyze the structural equation model. The implications of these findings are as follows. First, the salesperson's role has a positive effect on the consumer's product satisfaction. Second, it can be suggested that the salesperson's adaptive selling tactics are an important variable affecting the consumer's shopping value. Third, the results on the consumers who have hedonic shopping value have a strong positive influence rather than the consumers who have the utilitarian shopping value. The adaptive selling tactics of the salesperson should be encouraged to increase sales performance. In order to generate more performance in a competitive market environment, it is necessary to continuously strive to increase contact between the salesperson and the consumer in order to improve the quality of the relationship.

• Asian Journal of Business Environment
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.13-20
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• 2011

This study is conducted to verify existing differences in consumer attitude according to distributor type and PB product type. Pre-test was conducted for this study in order to select the distributor and to classify the product type, FGI was conducted with 10 graduate students of K university in Kyong-gi. This study survey housewives, office workers, and university students excluding the participants in the pre-test. In the final analysis, research hypothesis is verified through the data of 280 answers in Korea. This research is conducted with a factor design of 3 types of distributors -department store, discount store, convenience store-and 2 types of product -utilitarian product, hedonic product. To verify the hypotheses, ANOVA is carried out. Reliability test of each measurement variables, Cronbach α coefficient is used. For each analysis, SPSS Windows 15.0 statistical program is used. The findings suggest that First, according to the size and characteristics, distributors are classified into department stores, discount stores, and convenience stores and it is verified whether if there are differences in consumers' attitude (product attitude, brand attitude and purchase intention) by the effect of different distributors. Results showed that product attitude is statistically significant. Second, product type is classified by two categories according to whether the product seeks for practicality or emotional pleasure - Utilitarian product and Hedonic product. In this context, the result after verifying whether if there is difference in the attitudes -product attitude, brand attitude, and purchase intention - in accordance with the product types is shown that utilitarian products makes bigger difference compared to hedonic products. Third, it is confirmed that there is interaction effect between product attitude and purchase intention according to the distributer type and product type. However, we find that in terms of brand attitude, there is no interaction effect. The implications of this research is as the following. First, we propose the need of PB product development and marketing strategy, which considers the product types in accordance with the scale and features of each distributor. Second, PB products should break away from the simplicity of standardized products and consider the different features of distributors. Distributors will be in need of a strategy to build a compelling brand that can differentiate itself from other distributors. This will contribute to the improvement in reliability and formation of product value.