• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.27 no.9_10
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• pp.1081-1092
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• 2003

The purpose of this study was to identify the current situation of textiles and apparel firms in the overseas markets and to examine the relationship between firms' characteristic(i.e., sales volume) and international marketing strategies. A random sample of 311 textiles and apparel firms were selected. The survey design method was used to test conceptual framework. Adjusted response rate was 33.4%(n=115). Descriptive analysis (i.e., frequency, percent) and $\chi$$^2$-test were used for data analysis. About the current situation of textiles and apparel firms in the overseas markets, the motivation for international market entry was highly found to expand their operation from domestic to international market, and most firms were found to be involved with OEMs(Original Equipment Manufacturers) as an entry mode for international market. China and US market were the most popular market among Korean textiles and apparel firms. Product differentiation strategy, pricing strategy based on manufacturing cost and buyer's offering price, place strategy using foreign buyers and participating a few international exhibition were frequently used among Korean textiles and apparel firms for international marketing. Among textile firms, sales volume was related to product strategies(product development), price strategy(buyer's offer) and place strategy(channel). Among apparel firms, product strategy(product labeling), price strategy(price satisfaction). The findings of this can be used when Korean textiles and apparel firms do strategic planning and evaluate the international marketing strategies. Also information and results of this study may assist policy makers to develop better ideas and strategies for textiles and apparel industry.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.26 no.7
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• pp.958-969
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• 2002

No one doubts that textile and apparel industries have contributed to economic miracles of the export-led growth in Korea. However, by the turning of 1990′s, these sectors have encountered many problems such as decreasing of domestic production and exports mainly due to wage rise and shortage. Therefore, foreign direct investment to the low labor cost countries has been enlarged for a way of improving its competitiveness and increasing exports. However, no intensive study has been made exploring current investments and future directions. This study focuses Vietnam as one of the promising overseas investment countries. The purposes of this study are to analyze current investment status of Korean textiles and apparel firms in Vietnam, to explore merits and problems Vietnam has, and to present useful implications and strategies for Korean textiles and apparel companies. Analysis of current secondary data suggests that Korean apparel industry, rather than textiles industry, have invested more in Vietnam, mostly in southern Ho Chi Minh City. Investments of Korean apparel and textile firms have shown steady increase from 1990 but have turned to a decrease from 1995. Findings suggested that Vietnam has merits for attracting foreign investment since it provides relatively cheap labor and outstanding skillful hands suitable for apparel and textiles industries. In addition, because of EU quota increase and the trade agreement between Vietnam and USA it is likely for firms in Vietnam to increase exports to EU and USA Rapid expansion of domestic apparel market and "Korean trend (Han Rue)" in Vietnam resulted from successful star marketing of Korean firms are another merits Vietnam has to the Korean fm. However, regulations of central government, low efficiency of bureaucratic and stiff administrative process, difficulty of making decision in case of joint venture, lack of social overhead capital, high factory construction costs, weak construction condition, and the excessive competition among investment enterprises have found to be problems. Based on pros and cons of investment to Vietnam, marketing strategies, practical implications and future directions were suggested.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.15 no.3 s.68
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• pp.461-471
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• 2007

Many Korean apparel firms have been adopting the global sourcing to enhance their competitive advantages. The purposes of this study were to identify the current status of global sourcing adopted by Korean apparel firms and to provide useful information for the other apparel firms planning the global sourcing. The questionnaire survey was conducted to 65 Korean apparel firms. The firms selected for this study were women's, men's, unisex casual wear manufacturers which made their products at offshore factories. The results show that about half of them started global sourcing before 2000. Unisex casual wear firms were already doing the global sourcing very actively and women's wear firms were followers. The major benefit of the global sourcing was the cost reduction. The firms that had made inroads into the global market find much satisfaction in global sourcing. These early adopters expected their sourcing countries as a future consumer market. The threatening elements of the global sourcing were the difficulties of quality control and labor cost rising. Cost and technical ability were considered importantly in selecting the global sourcing partners. The firms started the global sorucing before 2000 were greatly depended on offshore production. They concerned for the problems related to the global sourcing.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.634-643
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• 2009

The aim of this study was investigating the consumers' and apparel firm worker's awareness and reliability of the environmental friendly textile materials. The subjects of the questionnaire survey were general consumers(n=235) and workers at Korean apparel firms(n=236). The questionnaire was developed to measure the awareness and reliability on nine environmental friendly textile materials. The results showed that general consumers had a higher reliability on the function of the environmental friendly materials but had a lower awareness than the workers at the apparel firms. Women and subjects, who experienced in purchasing the environmental friendly products, had higher awareness and reliability of the environmental friendly textile materials than others. The workers at apparel firms had higher awareness of the environmental friendly textile materials than the general consumers, but the reliability on the function of the materials was relatively low. The reliability and awareness differed by the firms' major products and their jobs. The workers at the children's clothing firms and sportswear firms had higher level of awareness about the environmental friendly textile than the workers at the casual-wear firms. The workers' awareness on environmental friendly textile materials was differentiated by their jobs. The product developers and material buyers had higher awareness on the environmental friendly textiles compare to the workers of the sales or marketing division. These results imply that promoting environmental friendly textile material to the sales person is needed in order to increase the sales volume of the products.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.27 no.9_10
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• pp.1124-1133
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• 2003

The purpose of this study was to investigate relationships among partnership variables and sourcing performance. Partnership variables were included as: contract conditions, information sharing, communication, conflict, job understanding, monitoring, culture understanding, trust and commitment. Sourcing performance included perceived benefits and sourcing satisfaction. The survey research design was employed with the structured questionnaire. A sample of 104 Korean apparel firms' managers participated in this survey. Apparel firms selected for this study were casual, sports, children's wear firms doing actively international sourcing. For the data analysis, descriptive statistics (i.e., frequency, percent), factor analysis, correlation, and multiple regression analysis were used. Information sharing and job understanding were positively related with trust. That is to say, the better information sharing and the better job understanding apparel firms had higher scores of trust than others. Contract conditions, communication, conflict, and culture understanding were known as predictions of commitment to international outsourcing. The more trust firms had with their vendors, the more commitment the firms had in the international sourcing. This result showed that trust is the essential factor of commitment. Trust and commitment were significantly related with outsourcing performance (i.e., perceived benefits, satisfaction of the international sourcing). Partnership information of international sourcing assembled in the review of literature and the results from this empirical study may assist the domestic apparel firms to make better decision in the adoption process of international sourcing.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.15 no.3 s.39
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• pp.251-262
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• 1991

The roles of fashion merchandisers (merchandise managers) in women's apparel industry and their perceptions of the job requirements as a fashion merchandiser were investigated to understand present fashion merchandising activities in the industry and suggest desirable roles of fashion merchandiser for further development of the industry. The research questionnaires were administered to fashion merchandisers working in the ten national brand women's apparel firms. The results of the study were as follows . 1. Annual sales volumes of most surveyed firms were more than five billions won and eight out of ten surveyed firms have fashion merchandisers in their firms. 2. Fashion merchandisers worked at a specific brand merchandising division sales and operations division or merchandise planning division. A fashion merchandiser generally supervised one brand. 3. Fashion merchandiser's work experience ranged from four to fifteen years showing a great deal of experience in the apparel industry. Their majors at university were mostly business and few majored in clothing and textiles, or textiles. 4. In general, the role of fashion merchandiser was a management specialist who was responsible for identifying target markets analyzing fashion trends, planning of the merchandise development budget planning, manufacturing planning, selling, advertising and sales promotion and distributing the merchandise. At some firms fashion merchandi-sers were not responsible for advertising, display, and receiving the orders. 5. Surveyed fashion merchandisers perceived the desirable fashion merchandiser's role as a management specialist conducting overall business activities in the areas of merchandise planning, manufacturing, selling and distribution. They also mentioned the following personal characteristics such as vision leadership, and persuasion as desirable characteri-stics for those who aspire to a career in fashion merchandising. 6. Surveyed fashion merchandisers emphasized relevant and realistic experiences in fashion merchandising education. Several ways were suggested to help the educator keep in touch with business and bring reality to students. They are . field work, bringing professionals into the classroom to speak to the students, emphasizing clothing and textiles education including merchandising area, and establishing a Department of Fashion Merchandising.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.751-762
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• 2002

Korean apparel industry is facing critical moment due to shortage of labor, wage increases and intensive competition among domestic manufactures. In addition, international production has been shifting to China and the other low-wage countries from established locations such as Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Global sourcing has been received considerable attention since firms can enhance their competitive advantage as well as comparative advantage by coordinating their sourcing activities global]y. This studs regarded global sourcing as one of the strategic tools to achieve competitive advantage of Korean apparel firms, and explored the current status by literature reviews and series of in-depth interviews with managers of korean apparel firms. The findings of this study were as follows: 1) Due to geographical advantage, China was the most favored nation for outsourcing for domestic markers. However, exporting firms preferred Latin America (including Mexico) to take advantage of duties, quotas and geographical proximity to the US market. 2) In selecting the global sourcing country, productivity, technical ability, local government regulation, and culture were considered important. 3) Most Korean apparel firms sources production globally, and followed by raw materials and trims. 4) Cost and quality were the most important factors in deciding subcontractors, and experience, productivity, equipment and finances were the next concerns. Academic implications and future directions were suggested based on findings.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.30 no.6 s.154
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• pp.829-839
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• 2006

Sustainable development is generally defined as an approach that 'meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs' (World Commission on Environment and Development: WCED, 1987, p. 43). The sustainable development is a holistic concept that encompasses three aspects: environmental protection, economic development, and social contribution. From the sustainable development perspective, environmental management must consider contributions to other economic and social aspects. In this sense, it differs from narrowed environmental management which focuses on only environmental impacts, and a well-being concept in Korea that mainly appeals to health. Recently, leading apparel firms, such as Nike, Otto, and Marks & Spencer, are increasingly adopting the environmental management to achieve the future competitive advantage. The environmental management can be achieved through integrated supply chain management. Despite of flowing importance of environmental supply chain management in practice, academic attention to this area has been seriously lacking. This study regards the environmental management by the sustainable development perspective as a solution for Korean apparel firms to solve their current sluggish growth. The purpose of this study was to provide Korean apparel firms with guidelines toward the environmental management based on extensive literature reviews and case studies. The paper started with two important research frameworks, the sustainable development and the environmental supply chain. Within the frameworks, the leading cases of the environmental management of Korean and foreign apparel firms were analyzed. Both macroscopic and microscopic applications of the environmental supply chain management for Korean apparel firms were suggested based on the analyses.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.705-714
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• 2003

Recent Studies have shown evidence of a positive relationship between market orientation and performance. However, some scholars have suggested that customer satisfaction, salespeople's job satisfaction, and product quality etc. could moderate this relationship. According to the increase of market oriented efforts of apparel firms and importance of the salespeople's role, this study focuses on the effect of market orientation on performance of apparel firms through the salespeople's job satisfaction and customer satisfaction. It is found that market orientation has a positive effect on the salespeople's job satisfaction and customer satisfaction. The salesperson's job satisfaction was found to influence on the performance through the customer satisfaction. The customer satisfaction has strong influence on the performance directly. Market orientation appears to provide a unifying focus for the efforts of salespeople within the organization, thereby leading to customer satisfaction and superior performance.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2003

The purpose of this study is to examine the components of market orientation of apparel firms and to examine the influence of market orientation, and salesperson's job performance on the salesperson's job satisfaction. Data were obtained from 547 shop-masters working at L' Department Stores in Seoul and Bundang. Statistics used for data analysis were frequency, factor analysis, cronbach's and multiple regression analysis. The results can be summarized as follows: (1) The market orientation of apparel firms is composed of three factors: information generation, information dissemination, and the responsiveness to market information. (2) Market orientation was found to have a positive effect on salespeople's job satisfaction. (3) salespeople's job performance was found to have a positive effect on salespeople's job satisfaction.