• International Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.57-75
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• 2001

Since the Korean economic crisis in 1997, consumers are selecting goods that are more economical and more reasonably priced. Markets for wealthy people, however, have seldom been influenced by economic conditions. Consequently, 'noble marketing' is a new term that marketers should become acquainted with (Kim, 1998). The continuously expanding 'noble market' that generates high profit for marketers needs to be explored, especially the men's wear market. This study adopted a qualitative method (i.e., in-depth interview) with 16 male consumers each. These men who spent more than 3,600,000 won on apparel goods in 2000 and each man had purchased at least one item-suit, jacket, trousers, or coat-from a list of high-priced brands that were selected by the researcher. Findings imply that material or functional benefit of the high-priced apparel were not a critical determinant for choosing the brand. Rather, a socially well-established image for the brand name, especially in terms of psychological/symbolic appeal, played a more important role. This finding supported previous studies. Therefore, for high-priced men s wear, the role of promotion, including advertising or word of mouth, is critical; the image that advertisers should promote is one that characterizes the clothing, and ultimately the wearers, as dignified, legitimate, traditional, and upper class.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.63-73
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• 2015

Purpose - Satisfaction with service is evaluated according to customers' subjective judgment. The expected value of customer service and its evaluations depend on the customers' position. The customer recognizes two different forms of service levels. One is satisfaction and the other is dissatisfaction. Customers who are satisfied want to receive the service in future. However, those dissatisfied try to change the service. The service provider tries to improve the service. There are two different service cycles. One is the successful cycle and the other is the failure cycle. This study aimed to empirically determine the effects of the justice and authenticity of service recovery on customer behavioral intention through an integrated approach to cognitive justice and psychological authenticity. Research design, data, and methodology - Based on a literature review, justice of service recovery was categorized into three types: distributive, procedural, and interactive. Then, authenticity was added to obtain four independent variables, along with recovery satisfaction as a parameter. Behavioral intention, as an outcome variable, was divided into the repurchase intention and positive word-of-mouth. The model and hypotheses were created and measurement items were developed. A questionnaire survey of items concerning the service recovery experience at family restaurants was conducted on college students and residents in Gwangju from September 30 to October 31, 2013. A total of 400 copies of the questionnaire were sent out and 385 were returned. Respondents answered questions about the importance of, and satisfaction with service recovery on a 5-point Likert scale. Excluding 174 copies without service failure experiences and 7 inappropriate copies, 204 copies were analyzed using SPSS 21.0 for Windows and AMOS 20.0 to determine the reliability and validity of measurements. The hypotheses were tested through a goodness-of-fit analysis. Results - First, distributive justice positively affected recovery satisfaction. Second, procedural and interactive justice had no impact. Third, authenticity positively affected recovery satisfaction. Fourth, distributive justice had relatively stronger effects on recovery satisfaction than authenticity. Fifth, recovery satisfaction significantly affected repurchase intention and positive word-of-mouth and it proved effective in mediation. Finally, additional analysis was performed for descriptive statistics of the principal variables by various demographic characteristics and significant differences were found in gender, occupation, and so on. Conclusions - This study has academic significance as the fairness and authenticity of service recovery were investigated to reveal the effects on behavior. The findings could be applied to a wide range of service recovery strategies. However, there are some limitations. First, data was collected only from the residents of Gwangju and most respondents were aged 20-30. Future studies should target a wide range of areas and age groups. Second, because the questionnaire used in this study targets only convenience family restaurants, the results of this study cannot be generalized to all services companies. Future research should be done on a wide range of industries such as hotels, airlines, and hospitals, and perform a comparison between sectors.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.71-81
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• 2013

Purpose - The TOEIC test has been leading the change in the quality and the globalization of companies for about last 30 years. The TOEIC test is taken by about two million people each year and is used as a criterion to select new employees in companies or government offices, for performance ratings, and for overseas posting selections. Universities also use TOEIC test in various ways. Since the TOEIC test is used for the selection of new students for admission, transferring extra credits, scholarships, graduation certification, and admission of international students studying abroad, many universities all over the country provide students with TOEIC study lectures through their own language institutes. Despite the fact, there has been no research on the service quality or even the current situation of these institutes. Thus, this study aims to evaluate the factors that impact TOEIC lecture service quality and analyzes the effect of the expectation related to the education service quality and the result of education on intentional behavior. Research design, data, methodology - Data was collected by administering a survey to current TOEIC students from different university language institutes. The survey questionnaire comprised of a five-point Likert scale. The demographic analysis was conducted using the frequency analysis method and the factor analysis was conducted to verify the validity of questionnaire over any variable. The reliability analysis was conducted to verify the reliability of the results. Besides, multiple regression analysis, regression analysis, and mediated effect verification were also conducted. For education service quality, four different independent variables such as reliability, response, conviction, and sympathy were considered using the SERVQUAL survey model. Based on the research models, the study hypotheses below were formulated in order to recognize an effect relationship between the variables. The four hypotheses are, "the hypothesis on education service quality and TOEIC study result expectation," "the hypothesis on education service quality and behavioral intention," "the hypothesis on study result expectation and behavioral intention," and "the hypothesis on study result expectation and mediated effect." Results - The results are as follows. First, the factors like response, conviction, and sympathy have a positive influence on TOEIC study result expectations. Second, the TOEIC study result expectation has a positive influence on the factors of behavioral intention such as re-sign up, positive word-of-mouth, "loyalty towards school." Third, it was verified that the mediated effect on behavioral intention was influenced by education service quality at university foreign language institute, while the study result expectation has only a partial mediated effect. Conclusions - The implications of this study are summarized as follows: First, it suggests a new research model for the effect of the expectation related to the education service quality and the result of education in the university language institutes on the behavioral intention. Second, it has established a relationship between the education service quality and study result expectation by verifying the mediated effect on them.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.79-108
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• 2007

In this study, we measured customers' perception of organization citizenship behaviors of employees which are known as the important factor for improving performance of companies, and examined the path relationship among related variables such as service quality, customer satisfaction, trust, and positive word of mouth. Although there have been many studies of OCB in the marketing field, the majority of these studies measured employee's OCB from the organization's perspective. This study has extended the prior studies by measuring employee's OCB from the customer's perspective. Customers of beauty salons and public houses were researched such that OCB may be applied to more various customer contact situations. The result is as follows. First, employees's OCB had a direct effect on perceived service quality and trust, and had an indirect effect on customer satisfaction. It means that customers evaluate the service quality of employees and trust frontline employees when they observed employees helping other organizational members, orientated customer facilitation beyond the regulated role and showed positive attitudes for their organization. As a result, customers feel more satisfied. Secondly, OCB had an indirect effect on positive word of mouth through mediation of service quality, satisfaction, and trust. Finally, consumer facilitation had the largest effect on consumer attitude among three dimensions of OCB-consumer facilitation, organization involvement, and sportsmanship. We understood the relationship between frontline employee's OCB and customer attitudes, and the necessity of multidimensional approach in measuring employee's OCB from the customer's perspective.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.453-459
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• 2017

This study was conducted to review the usage behavior of mobile social network games that are attracting attention as a new growth engine in the game market. To that end, a survey was conducted on 250 male and female university students. The result of the study showed that first, the relationship formation motivation and seeking fun during leisure times in association with mobile social network games had a positive effect on game attitudes. Second, the relationship formation motivation had a positive effect on the continuous use intention. Third, the relationship formation motivation and the fun-seeking motivation had a positive effect on word-of-mouth recommendation, while the relationship formation motivation and advertisement recommendation motivation had a positive effect on the intention to recommendation online formats. Fourth, the attitude towards mobile social network games had a positive effect on the continuous use intention. Lastly, the attitude towards mobile social network games had a positive effect on only the intention to recommendation through word-of-mouth. This study is expected to provide useful and basic data for the development of quality game content that will cater to users' needs.

• Korean Security Journal
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• no.29
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• pp.35-57
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• 2011

While demands on private securities have been increase, expectations on the service quality as compensation for the investment expensive is also rising. However, private security services are in situations of not satisfying various customer's needs owing to insufficient special manpower, capital, and skills in spite of expected high-quality services toward customers. Therefore, this study aims to find out the causality between private security enterprises and relationship characteristics, purchasing behaviors of customers, and then searching for a marketing strategy that can provide best services to the enterprises that are confronting to limitless competitive systems by grasping customer's needs and necessities. For achieving this goal, the study objected to shop employees using private security enterprises after diving Cheonan City of South Chungcheong Province into South, East and East, West, and then collected 236 persons by using the convenience sampling. Regarding to research tools, this study used questionnaire having been recomposed based on previous researches home and abroad, and frequency analysis, reliability analysis, factor analysis, correlation analysis, and regression analysis were carried out data was treated by treatments by using SPSS version 18.0 statistic package for treating the data. Through above research methods and procedures, results could be gotten same as followings. First, correlations between private security enterprise's relationship characteristics and purchasing behaviors showed positive (+) relations, and the latter was increased as much as relationship characteristics were high. Second, as the result of analyzing correlations between private security enterprise's relationship characteristics and purchasing behaviors, reputation, physical features, and communication affected influences to word of mouth activities. Third, reputation and communication affected to repeated purchasing behaviors as the result of analyzing private security's relationship characteristics and repeat purchasing behaviors.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.45-52
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• 2015

Purpose - Augmented reality (AR) content used in mobile media today can accommodate a wide variety of contextual information. This indicates that making people experience a sense of presence and flow is a very significant factor in augmented reality content. Flow represents a rich immersion potential as representing the progress of emotion and the means to facilitate the operation of the smart phone. Therefore, users will have friendly relational continuance behavior with products and brands that supply this experience. Based on that, the purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships among smart phone AR application traits, presence, flow experience, and relational continuance behavior. First, AR application traits are defined as three categories sensory immersion, navigation, and manipulation, based on preceding studies. This study then examines the influence of AR application traits on the presence and flow experience and looks into the relation among presence, flow experience, and relational continuance behavior. This analysis suggests more detailed and concentrated strategic implications. Research design, data, and methodology - A research model is designed to examine the relation among AR application traits, presence, flow experience, and relational continued behavior. For data collection, questionnaire surveys were composed of multi-items for each component and the direct interview method was used for the interviews. To collect the data, after running the smart phone AR applications, the consumer behaviors of the respondents were generally determined. The questionnaire surveys were conducted for one month, October 2014. A total of 300 questionnaires were distributed with 278 questionnaires used for analysis, excluding the unanswered and insincere questionnaires. The data were analyzed using SPSS ver. 20.0 and LISREL ver. 8.51. Results - The following results are found: First, AR application traits have a significantly positive effect on presence with sensory immersion, navigation, and manipulation all having a significantly positive effect. Second, sensory immersion and manipulation among the AR application traits have a significantly positive effect on flow. However, navigation did not have a significantly positive effect on flow. Third, presence has a significantly positive effect on flow and has a significantly positive effect on relational continuance behavior. Moreover, flow also has a significantly positive effect on relational continuance behavior. This behavior tends to be formed since brands want to encourage relational continuance behavior and positive emotions with the brands being used. Relational continuance behavior accompanies repeat purchasing, positive word-of-mouth and recommendation activities, and forms of trust with the brand. Conclusions - The research results showed that smart phone AR traits had significantly positive effect on presence, flow, and relational continuance behavior. Based on this, smart phone AR application providers should establish an aggressive marketing strategy to accommodate more realistic problems in order to positively influence user behavior. Additionally, the marketers should make efforts to provide fun or convenience in the AR application operation process of the user.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.49-65
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• 2014

Word of Mouth (WOM) is a behavior used by consumers to transfer or communicate their product or service experience to other consumers. Due to the popularity of social media such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and online communities, electronic WOM (e-WOM) has become important to the success of products or services. As a result, most enterprises pay close attention to e-WOM for their products or services. This is especially important for movies, as these are experiential products. This paper aims to identify the network factors of an online movie community that impact box office revenue using social network analysis. In addition to traditional WOM factors (volume and valence of WOM), network centrality measures of the online community are included as influential factors in box office revenue. Based on previous research results, we develop five hypotheses on the relationships between potential influential factors (WOM volume, WOM valence, degree centrality, betweenness centrality, closeness centrality) and box office revenue. The first hypothesis is that the accumulated volume of WOM in online product communities is positively related to the total revenue of movies. The second hypothesis is that the accumulated valence of WOM in online product communities is positively related to the total revenue of movies. The third hypothesis is that the average of degree centralities of reviewers in online product communities is positively related to the total revenue of movies. The fourth hypothesis is that the average of betweenness centralities of reviewers in online product communities is positively related to the total revenue of movies. The fifth hypothesis is that the average of betweenness centralities of reviewers in online product communities is positively related to the total revenue of movies. To verify our research model, we collect movie review data from the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), which is a representative online movie community, and movie revenue data from the Box-Office-Mojo website. The movies in this analysis include weekly top-10 movies from September 1, 2012, to September 1, 2013, with in total. We collect movie metadata such as screening periods and user ratings; and community data in IMDb including reviewer identification, review content, review times, responder identification, reply content, reply times, and reply relationships. For the same period, the revenue data from Box-Office-Mojo is collected on a weekly basis. Movie community networks are constructed based on reply relationships between reviewers. Using a social network analysis tool, NodeXL, we calculate the averages of three centralities including degree, betweenness, and closeness centrality for each movie. Correlation analysis of focal variables and the dependent variable (final revenue) shows that three centrality measures are highly correlated, prompting us to perform multiple regressions separately with each centrality measure. Consistent with previous research results, our regression analysis results show that the volume and valence of WOM are positively related to the final box office revenue of movies. Moreover, the averages of betweenness centralities from initial community networks impact the final movie revenues. However, both of the averages of degree centralities and closeness centralities do not influence final movie performance. Based on the regression results, three hypotheses, 1, 2, and 4, are accepted, and two hypotheses, 3 and 5, are rejected. This study tries to link the network structure of e-WOM on online product communities with the product's performance. Based on the analysis of a real online movie community, the results show that online community network structures can work as a predictor of movie performance. The results show that the betweenness centralities of the reviewer community are critical for the prediction of movie performance. However, degree centralities and closeness centralities do not influence movie performance. As future research topics, similar analyses are required for other product categories such as electronic goods and online content to generalize the study results.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.61-72
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• 2020

Purpose: Usage of leisure-sport social media would lengthen and strengthen the effects of positive event experiences on WOM behavior. This study is to examine the extent to which leisure sport social media use has the moderating potential to enhance the direction of the relationship between post-event emotions and event WOM behavior. Research design, data and methodology: A running event located in a major metropolitan area in the southeastern United States was selected. Participants of the running events completed the survey. Descriptive analysis and correlations between primary variables of interest were conducted. To examine interactions within the context of moderated regression, a hierarchical regression analysis was employed. Results: The results confirmed direct effects of a sense of achievement and event satisfaction on event WOM intention, supporting H 1 and H2. In specific, result revealed that the amount of time spending on social media for running content moderated the effect of a sense of achievement on event WOM intention, supporting H3, however, H4 was rejected. Conclusions: There are managerial implications of these results, particularly which pertain to how organizers may be able to use perceived benefits (i.e., a sense of achievement and satisfaction) and social media to increase positive WOM intention.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.655-665
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• 2009

The purpose of this study is to find out the Korean fashion brand purchasing behavior of Chinese woman college students who would be the one of major customers in Chinese market along with their preferences of Korean wave and fashion leadership. The data was collected from 379 Chinese female college students on Qingdao, China. The results based on the data analysis were as follows. 1. The students's preferences for Korean wave about Korean drama, popular song, films were relatively high. 2. Chinese female college students's evaluation of Korean fashion brand was high, especially, for the fashion trend, design/style, color, cutting and sewing, fitting, and material. However, they valued that its price was expensive. 3. The fashion leadership was classified as fashion innovation or fashion opinion leadership. 9.0% of the respondents were fashion dual leaders who were fashion innovator and fashion opinion leader. 4. The higher family income of the respondents was the better fashion leadership, preferences for Korean wave, perceived quality and attitude toward Korean fashion brand. The results showed that promotion strategy focused on keeping the Korean wave through drama, films, and popular song. And the development of high fashion brand and the word of mouth marketing through fashion dual leader were also needed in order to make inroads into China market.