• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.143-164
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• 2010

Although word-of-mouth (WOM) has been regarded as one of the very important topics in consumer research, its effects on other aspects of consumer behavior have been scarcely investigated in the context of health-care service industry. The WOM literature also suggests that it is essential for medical care service organizations in fierce competition to adopt WOM communication as a competitive weapon so as to be able to stay ahead of competition. The goal of this research was set to empirically study various relationships between antecedent variables, WOM acceptance, and purchase of medical care services. Specifically, drawing on the WOM literature, eight antecedents to WOM acceptance were selected first. Based on the relevant literature, seven sets of hypotheses on the relationships among antecedents to WOM, WOM acceptance, purchase intention and purchase of medical services were developed. Data were collected via an on-line survey. A total of 571 out of 600 responses turned out to be usable. The major findings of this study can be summarized as follows: First, 6 out of 8 antecedent variables to WOM acceptance were found to be positively affect WOM acceptance. However, the effects of (1) "newness of technology" pertaining to medical care service characteristics and (2) "involvement in health", one of receiver characteristics, were found to be insignificant. Second, most moderating effects on the relationship between purchase and purchase intention of medical care services were found to be insignificant with one exception. That is, elapse of time was found to be a marginally significant moderator on the relationship between purchase and purchase intention of medical care services. Third, it was found that the higher the WOM acceptance, the higher the purchase intention of medical care services. Finally, the effect of WOM acceptance was found to be particularly strong when WOM contents were perceived as useful and positive. Overall, it seems essential for hospitals to actively adopt WOM communication as a competitive marketing tool if they plan to improve their business performance. In this respect, the current study may serve to improve the business performance of hospitals by way of providing theoretical and empirical evidence on the effects of WOM communication variables on WOM acceptance and medical care service purchase.

• Journal of Korea Game Society
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.101-114
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• 2015

A recent online game is growing with the combined action of content as well as operating services. However, in previous studies, with a lot of focus on content characteristics of game than the game operating service quality studies have been carried out. This study targeted research online sports games, operating service quality and content characteristics of the game are analyzed effects of word-of-mouth and continued usage intention by applying Expectation Confirmation Model. as a result, it has found that as a result, it has found that sense of reality turned out to be a major variable affecting the content of the game even expectation confirmation. Directly and indirectly, it was confirmed that the role of empathy affect to expectation confirmation and satisfaction.

• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.107-135
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• 2017

Purpose Along with the growth of smart phones and social networking service (SNS), social commerce continues to expand. Although online reviews have become an important source of the information that consumers use to make purchasing decisions, theoretical development and empirical testing in this area are still limited. Thus, there is a need to develop further understanding about the influence of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM). Drawing upon the heuristic - systematic model (HSM) which is one of the dual-process theories, this study develops a research model that explains key factors influencing consumers' eWOM credibility. Furthermore, this study verifies that consumer's eWOM credibility is a key determinant of eWOM and purchase intentions. Design/methodology/approach The proposed model is empirically tested with 493 users who have experience in WeChat-based social commerce. The structural equation model (SEM) analysis is used to evaluate the research model and hypotheses. Findings The major findings are as follows. First, argument quality of eWOM (a systematic factor) has a positive effect on eWOM credibility. Second, source credibility and recommendation consistency of eWOM (heuristic factors) are positively associated with eWOM credibility. Finally, purchase and eWOM intentions greatly depend on eWOM credibility. These results confirm the effectiveness of HSM in explaining eWOM mechanisms in SNS-based social commerce. The details of findings and implications are presented.

• (The) Korean Journal of Advertising
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.51-80
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• 2018

This study aims to investigate how the storytelling elements of brand webtoon has influence on developing brand webtoon users' parasocial interaction relationship and their attitude towards brand webtoon contents and word of mouth intention. The results of this study shows that parasocial interaction is strongly influenced by the sub-dimensions of digital storytelling components of brand webtoon (i.e., relevance, trustworthiness, clarity). More specifically, respondents who perceive that the given message of digital storytelling in brand webtoons is relevant to the brand, is trustworthy, and is clear to understand show a higher degree of parasocial interaction with the webtoon content and in turn, it has a strong positive influence on the attitude towards the brand webtoon. In sum, this study not only provides a theoretical foundation to understand how consumers develop parasocial interaction with brand webtoons in terms of the brand webtoon's digital storytelling, but this study has implications for practitioners who are interested in using a brand webtoon for marketing.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.8 no.10
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• pp.180-188
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• 2008

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impacts of e-service quality factors on customer satisfaction and behavior intention. This study also aims to examine the relationship between the variables of web site service quality variables (reliability, information, design, communication, entertainment, convenience), the customer satisfaction with web site, relationship intention and word of mouth intention. As the results, the study found that factors of web site service quality variables has a positive impact on customer satisfaction. And customer satisfaction also has a positive impact on relationship intention and word of mouth intention. At the same time, it was found that customer satisfaction had an effect on relationship intention through the mediation of word of mouth intention indirectly as well as directly. According to those results, marketing managers should develop different service strategies.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.16 no.7
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• pp.91-99
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• 2016

This study explores the effects of advertising's interactivity on consumers' attitude, brand awareness, intention of word-of-mouth and purchase intention through a comparison between high interactive advertising and low interactive advertising. Experiment was carried out with two factorial design using high and low interactive advertising messages and two different countries. The respondents were 120 Korean and 120 Two hundreds forty valid questionnaires were collected. According to the research results, the brand awareness and attitude of high interactive advertising is much higher than the low one to the consumers of Korean and Chinese. The consumers of Korean and Chinese who were exposed to high interactive advertising have high intention to word-of-mouth in high interactive advertising. Korean and Chinese consumers also have high intention to purchase when they watch the high interactive advertising. Between two countries, Chinese consumers have higher intention to purchase than Korean consumers.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.600-616
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• 2016

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of power blog self-presentation and on-line shopping mall reviews on the word of mouth (WOM) effect and apparel purchasing behavior. Consumers living in Seoul and Gyeonggi received questionnaires. There were 303 usable forms that could be analyzed by descriptive statistics, factor analysis, Cronbach's alpha, and regression analysis. The results were as follows: There was a significant effect of power blog self-presentation such as interactivity, media effect, and business intention on information acceptance through WOM. Power blog self-presentation, such as interactivity and business intention, affect information delivery by WOM significantly. There was a significant effect of review consideration, such as agreement, usefulness, enjoyment, and purity, on information acceptance of WOM. Reviews describing enjoyment, purity, and usefulness affect information delivery of WOM significantly. Business intention, media effect, and purity directly affect apparel-purchasing behavior, and affect the WOM effect as a mediator variable and then purchasing behavior. Whereas, interactivity, overstatement, and enjoyment affect the WOM effect as a mediator variable, and then affect overall purchasing behavior. Therefore, fashion firms consider active interaction with power blog visitors and promote the way of enjoying with fun through review of apparel on-line shopping mall when they try to implement viral marketing with WOM effect.

• Korean Association of Arts Management
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• no.54
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• pp.59-93
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• 2020

The development of digital technology has made consumers more knowledgeable about products than ever before. In this regard, experts have defined consumers in the digital age as knowledge seekers and pointed out that they are proficient in acquiring and sharing product knowledge prior to purchase. For service goods such as musicals, product prior knowledge executes strong effect due to such characteristics as intangibility, inseparabilit y,and heterogeneity. Prior studies in the field of performing arts, including musicals, have revealed that the prior knowledge of the audience has a positive effect on the satisfaction of the audience and WOM(word-of-mouth) intention. However, studies in the marketing field argue that consumers' high prior knowledge may have a negative impact on customer satisfaction and product evaluation depending on conditions, as they are more likely to compare, review, and expect products more closely. Therefore, in this study, we tried to identify under what conditions the musical prior knowledge enhances audience satisfaction and WOM intention. According to the results of previous studies, a mediating effect model was established in which the musical prior knowledge enhances the WOM intention through the mediation of the audience satisfaction. Then, Transportation was introduced as a mediation variable and it was verified whether the level changed the audience satisfaction and WOM intention. The reason for the introduction of the transportation construct reflects the results of previous research that the story is important component of musical. The results showed that the musical prior knowledge has a significant effect on WOM intention through the mediation of audience satisfaction. The moderating effect of transport was also significant on the relationship between musical prior knowledge and audience satisfaction. Lastly, through moderated-mediation analysis, it was confirmed that transportation moderates the mediating effect that prior knowledge affects on the WOM intention through audience satisfaction. Based on the results, we demonstrated that a musical story is fairly important to satisfy audiences with high prior knowledge. This study could contribute to the related filed in that it introduced the transportation construct for the first time, thereby broadening the understanding of the musical audiences in the era of smart consumers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.59 no.6
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• pp.1-15
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• 2009

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of the cause marketing on fashion brand credibility, purchase and words of mouth ("WOM") intentions. This study adopted a survey method with the questionnaire. Data were collected from respondents who were graduated from higher than elementary school students. The data were analyzed by using statistic methods such as frequency analysis, factor analysis, reliability test and structural equation modelling. The results of the data analysis of this study are as follows; firstly, brand familiarity and customer attitude have a directly positive effect on the credibility, purchase and WOM intentions. Fashion business companies should work up the ways of communications with the customers besides cause marketing for the brand familiarity. It is necessary for customers to be known about how the fashion business companies participate in cause marketing to enhance the value of positive brand attitude. Secondly, while the brand familiarity on the credibility, purchase and WOM intentions are effective to female customers, the brand attitude is effective to male customers. Thirdly, even though it was showed that the credibility of fashion brands have no significant effects on purchase and WOM intention, it is due to its own nature of fashion business and it is founded in preceding research that high-involved fashion products may have different results in comparison with the practical products.

• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.171-187
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• 2011

Due to the vitalization of the smart phones, mobile revolution has been started. The mobile revolution has elevated SNS service, which was once considered as just one of many communication tools, to the single most important communication method as well as diffusion of social commerce. Yet, there has not been an adequate study of the roles of SNS in the domestic social commerce market, which has gotten a lot of spotlights. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of various characteristics of social commerce that it has an impact on the purchase intension as well as the moderating effects of SNS. For these purposes, this study has drawn up the characteristics of social commerce in cost cutting, impulse buy, social influence, decision support, word of mouth effect and etc. to prove the interaction effect of SNS. The regression analysis showed that the characteristics of all the social commerce are related to the dependent variable. As a result of drawing up the interaction effect of SNS, it has shown that the cost cutting and word of mouth have significant influence in the social commerce diffusion as the usage of SNS increased. In conclusion, the main implication of this study is to provide the basic grounds for social commerce business strategy as it investigated the characteristics of SNS and its relation.