• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.23
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• pp.3-38
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• 2004

On-line game business has emerged as the most lucrative entertainment industry, with over 4 million players in China, with more than 45% of the market dominated by Korean on-line games. While the interactive entertainment market continues to expand, with many new Korean on-line game publishers entering the market, relatively little is known about which factors influence online game players' behavioral intentions (i.e., intention to play, brand-identity, word of mouth, flow, etc.) in this area. It appears that in this extremely attractive and growing services segment, academics, as well as practitioners, would benefit from investigating the relationships among the players' intention to play, social norms, word of mouth, flow, and the impacts of several other key game-related constructs. A conceptual framework is proposed and a simultaneous equation model is developed. This paper develops the exploratory LISREL model for identifying the factors affecting the players' intention to play for on-line games. Based on data collected from on-line questionnaire survey in China, the validity of the model has been tested and interesting conclusions have been developed concerning the relationships between the game-related constructs. It is hoped that this result might provide the useful guidelines for developing the successful on-line game contents. With better understanding of the players' behavioral intentions, Korean on-line game developers should be able to penetrate the China market with sustainable advantage over their competition.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.113-145
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• 2008

Marketing for the distribution industry is making an ongoing progress in the changes of customers, the competitive environment, and the internal marketing environment. Integrated marketing communication activities are required for the enhancement of efficiency in the market.oriented activities. In this study, IMC is defined as "a notion that a market oriented business integrated marketing communication means, conducting and evaluating marketing activities with consistent messages in order to communicate with customers based on databases." In this study, an IMC planning model for the improvement of marketing efficiency in the distribution industry was derived from a pilot study. This model may be broken down into the following phases: IMC goals setting, situational analysis (customer analysis, competition analysis and company analysis), customer data analysis, contact management, budgeting, the establishment of an IMC strategy, the IMC mix and execution, an evaluation system, and feedback. In consideration of the characteristics of the distribution industry, this study was accompanied by a vocational study on IMC means employed by, in particular, department stores and other distributors such as: advertising, sales promotion, sales promotion advertising, direct marketing, public relations, personal selling, the Internet, mobile, visual merchandising, words of mouth. In addition, this study also covered the correlation among variables such as IMC activities of distributors, the process of forming customer's brand attitudes, brand loyalty and repurchase intention. This research would enhance the utilization of IMC. The analysis on customer's brand attitudes toward the IMC activities of distributors requires the simultaneous consideration of how they are linked to purchase as well as their attitudes toward both distributors and stores. The formation of brand loyalty and repurchase intention is related to the integration of marketing communication and the maintenance of consistency in contents, which requires integrated brand communication (IBC) strategies. IBC is a concept of using IMC means to manage the brand in a continuing and consistent manner and measuring their effect, which is a process to establish enterprise.level brand identity and maximize brand loyalty and repurchase intention by integrating IMC means. For an empirical analysis in this study, an online questionnaire survey was conducted among those department store customers from 20's to 50's who reside either in the Seoul and Gyeonggi areas and have made purchase at department stores. In this study, the research model consisted of four theoretical variables: IMC activities, IMC attitudes, brand loyalty, and repurchase intention, on which variables a pilot study was conducted. A number of hypotheses were constructed on the relations between IMC activities and IMC attitudes, between IMC attitudes and repurchase intention, and between brand loyalty and repurchase intention. The test of the hypotheses may be summarized as follows: Firstly, the test of the hypothesis concerning the relation between IMC attitudes and IMC activities - advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing, public relations, personal selling, the Web, mobile, visual merchandising, and word of mouth - indicates that advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing, public relations, personal selling, mobile, visual merchandising, and word of mouth have significant impact on IMC activities. In addition to the result similar to those of previous studies that such marketing communication means as word of mouth, advertising, personal selling and sales promotion, in particular, play very important roles, a notable finding of this study is that visual merchandising performed by department stores is shown to have very significant impact on IMC activities. On a separate note, it is also noteworthy that Internet marketing activities engaged by department stores are not shown to have significant impact on IMC attitudes. Secondly, the test of the hypothesis on the relation between IMC attitudes and brand loyalty attests that IMC attitudes for the distribution industry significantly affect brand loyalty. Thirdly, the test of the hypothesis concerning the relation between IMC attitudes and repurchase intention confirms that IMC attitudes for the distribution industry significantly affect repurchase intention. Fourthly, the test of the hypothesis concerning the relation between brand loyalty and repurchase intention indicates that brand loyalty significantly affect repurchase intention. A comprehensive view of these findings points to the conclusion that the IMC activities for the distribution industry do affect IMC attitudes, brand loyalty, and repurchase intention.

• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.47-68
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to investigate two components of commitment(affective commitment and calculative commitment) and relational equity on loyalty. In addition, The authors analyzed the moderating effect of length of relationship on the effects of commitments and relational equity on switching intention. Major findings can be summarized as follows. It was found that affective commitment made a negative impact on switching intentions and a positive impact on w-o-m. Calculative commitment had no effect on switching intention and w-o-m while it made a negative effect on w-o-m in handset side only. Relational equity appears to bolster a negative effect on switching intention and a positive effect on w-o-m. Also length of relationship seems to moderate the effect of relational equity on switching intention.

• 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 the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.64 no.3
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• pp.13-31
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• 2014

This study attempts to analyze relational structures among service failure-related variables after the moderation of fairness in the beauty service industry with the following purposes: First, it aims to review and investigate service failure & service recovery strategies, non-switching intentions after recovery, revisit intention, the intent to provide word-of-mouth recommendations and previous studies on service failure and recovery in the beauty service industry. Second, it targets the analysis of the role of fairness as a variable that moderates relations between service recovery strategies and post-recovery satisfaction in the beauty service industry. For this, the following research method was used: This study has investigated the effect of service failure and its recovery strategies (behavioral recovery strategy, psychological recovery strategy, monetary recovery strategy) on customer satisfaction for beauty service users and used the Structural Equation Model (SEM) to further analyze and verify the effect of the satisfaction on post-satisfaction behavior (non-switching intention, repurchase intention and the intent to provide word-of-mouth recommendations). The SEM was divided into a measurement model and structural model to determine if the model is appropriate and estimate the parameters of the path coefficient. In addition, this study examined to see if fairness (procedural fairness, distributive fairness and interactive fairness) works as a moderating variable while the service recovery efforts affect customer satisfaction. Then, the role of service recovery strategies, targeted to satisfy the customers who were dissatisfied because of service failure, were investigated. In addition, its effect on post-satisfaction behavior was analyzed from the structural aspect, and the moderating role was examined as well. Then, the role of the service recovery strategy, which can be used to satisfy dissatisfied customers, was examined, and the effect of the satisfaction on customer behavior was analyzed from a structural perspective. In addition, the moderating role of fairness was tested. As a result, this study is significant in that it helps service providers formulate service recovery-related strategies.

• 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.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.1-30
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of self-image congruity and alternative attractiveness on commitment and store loyalty when customers purchase clothes in a department store. A survey was conducted for this study and 530 answer sheets were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results are as follows: First, self-image congruity has a significant positive effect on affective commitment and continuance commitment. Second, alternative attractiveness has no significant effect on affective and continuance commitment. Third, both affective commitment and continuance commitment have a significant effect on behavior intentions such as repurchase intention, word-of-mouth, and willing to pay more. Fourth, affective commitment has a stronger effect on word-of-mouth intention and willing to pay more than does continuance commitment. Finally, continuance commitment has a stronger effect on repurchase intention than does affective commitment.

• (The) Korean Journal of Advertising
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.7-42
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• 2014

This study is designed to examine the effects of information source's social distance on message attitude and online word-of-mouth intention (e-WOM). It also examined the moderation effects of blatant persuasive intention of message, the normative interpersonal influences, and the informative interpersonal influences on the relationship between social distance and advertising effectiveness. This study employed an experiment: 2(far/near social distance far/near) ${\times}2$(high/low blatant persuasive intention of message) ${\times}$(high/low normative interpersonal influences) ${\times}2$(high/low informative interpersonal influences). The results of this study are as follows. First, closer social distance led to more positive message attitude and higher online word-of-mouth intention. Second, when blatant persuasive intention of message is low, the effects of social distance on message attitude and WOM intention were more noticeable while those effects were less significant for high blatant persuasive intention of message. Third, there were no interaction effects of social distance and normative interpersonal influences on advertising effectiveness. Fourth, the effects of social distance on message attitude and WOM intention were more significant for high informative interpersonal influences than for low informative interpersonal influences. Implications of study findings are provided for strategic use of corporate Facebook page to generate positive consumer responses.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.69-78
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• 2017

Purpose - As recently social contributions of firms are positioned as key strategic actions, it is demanding to review the effects of social contributions on overall corporate management. The research aims to effects of social contributions on social values and word of mouth in firm level and product level. Further roles of consumer identification with firm and product eco-friendliness are also analyzed. Research design, data, and methodology - The paper conducted a survey in which two scenarios are used for manipulating the degree of corporate social contributions. The survey sample consist of 165 undergraduate and graduate students in a university, located in Seoul. For analyzing data, analysis of variance is applied, in conjunction with analysis of moderating effects, through version 23 of SPSS statistical package. Results - In the firm level, social contributions by firms have a positive effect on social values of firms. Consumer identification showed a moderating role in the effect. Social value of the firm with passive social contribution perceived by respondents with a high degree of identification was higher than social value of the firm with active social contribution perceived by respondents with a low degree of identification. Corporate social value has positive effect on word-of-mouth of firms. In the product level, social contributions by firms has a positive effect on social values of product. Product eco-friendliness showed a moderating role in the effect. For eco-friendly product, social values are higher in the firm with active social contributions than in the firm with passive social contributions. However, for non eco-friendly product, the difference in social values between the two firms does not exist. Product social values has positive effect on intention for WOM of products. WOM of eco-friendly products with low social value showed no difference with WOM of non eco-friendly products with high social value. Conclusions - These results imply that firms should enhance consumer identification with firm in making social contributions for optimizing corporate social value and enhancing word-of-mouth(WOM). Managerial implications of the results suggest it would be more effective to improve social value of product by active social contributions for increasing word-of-mouth(WOM) of product.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.159-180
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• 2012

The objectives of this study are to identify significant antecedents of trust and satisfaction and to examine the relationship between trust and satisfaction and interrelationship between trust, satisfaction, loyalty, relationship retention and intention of words of mouth based on buyers of Chinese internet shopping mall. The questionnaire was collected by personal interview. A total of 448 completed questionnaires were collected. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to test the validity of the measurement model, and the structural model also was analyzed to examine the associations hypothesized in the research model. This study uses AMOS program to investigate the research model. Results in this paper indicate that the antecedents of trust and satisfaction have three dimensions, namely communicational, traditional and relational factors. All these three functions are positively related to trust and satisfaction. Also the results show that trust and satisfaction are positively related to loyalty, relationship retention and intention of words of mouth. Finally, this study suggests the implications of these findings and offers directions for future research.