• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.162-171
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• 2010

This study aims to discuss what changes Korean clothing companies and manufacturers have undergone with production facilities moving abroad due to offshore outsourcing and examine what conditions the clothing manufacturers are facing and how the clothing companies recognize those manufacturers. For these purposes, in-depth interviews were conducted with 24 firms with annual production capacity of more than 200,000 pieces among clothing brands for the domestic market, clothing exporters and promotion agencies. Those interviewed firms were the companies who were found to produce more than 200,000 pieces of clothing per year, and the interview-based survey was conducted from December 18, 2008 to January 30, 2009. The key findings from this study are as follows; first, a high percentage of interviewed firms were producing only a small number of items in Korea with a large part of their production line transferred abroad or outsourcing all of their production abroad only with their headquarters in Korea. Second, many were employing contractors rather than their own factories. Third, when asked about the wage levels of clothing manufacturers, many of the clothing companies gave responses such as: 'They are just our contractor, so we respect their decision,' 'We don't know because it's none of our business,' or 'We don't know at all.' Fourth, when asked about the work environment of clothing manufacturers, the clothing companies gave responses such as: 'We know in part,' 'To our knowledge, they conform to the Labor Standards Law,' or 'We don't know at all.' Fifth, the production line of clothing manufacturers featured straight-line systems, specialization, pairing and compounding/mixing. Sixth, it was found that clothing companies had interest in mass customization but their preparations were not satisfactory.

• International Journal of Costume and Fashion
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.68-77
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• 2005

In contemporary advertising market, one of main trends is to speak surrealistic visual language which provides 'enjoyable spectacles'. Specially, in the beginning of 21st century, there discovered more and more exhibitions and discourses about surrealism reinterpreted from the viewpoint of postmodernism. Surrealism as a creative style of expression based upon free association, has been a great inspiration for fashion ads for commercial communication as well as fashion design since its origin. However, there has been ignored the idea of analyzing surrealistic image expressed in fashion ads in spite of their flood. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to grasp its cultural meaning through analyzing aesthetic characteristics of surrealistic image expressed in fashion ads. It will provide a better understanding of surrealistic image in fashion ads reflecting popular taste and preference directly as popular visual culture, focusing on post modern context. A case study of surrealistic fashion ads limits to TV or print commercials and digital ads as image ads stimulating visual expressions. The Results can be summarized as follows. Surrealism is an avant garde style which deconstructs the established meaning system as well as the existing formalistic order and then put them together in the frame of 'dream' and 'unconsciousness'. Defamiliarization questioning the whole edifice of representation can be adapted to. By means of paradox and metaphor, unfamiliar new visual world can be represented. The plastic characteristics of surrealistic image in fashion ads are founded as surrealistic styling of time and space, distortion of object by methods of automatism, depaysement, parody and trompe-l'oeil which bring about the deconstruction of gestalt. Aesthetic values of surrealistic fashion ads appear as dualistic representation, allegoric symbolism, fantastic romanticism. Ultimately they lead to marvelous. mysterious, humorous visual effects. Foster reinterpreted these effects of surrealism from Freud's 'Uncanny Concept'. 'Uncanny' means the phenomenon recurring to familiar being defamiliarized by repression. Surrealistic fashion ads strengthen this shocking effect more and more dramatically in company with our post modern needs for fantastic adventure and thrilling spectacle. It can be thought that surrealistic fashion ads reflects uncanny as an alternative which can relieve us of our stress and anxiety and which realize our potential desire in contemporary post industrial stage.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.16 no.8
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• pp.69-77
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• 2018

Purpose - With growing competition in the service distribution industry, the importance of managing customer complaints has increased. If firms handle customer complaints effectively, they can strengthen customer loyalty and repurchase intention. Many studies have focused on customers expressing complaints, yet research on silent customers is scant. This study focuses on two types of complainers and non-complainers. In other words, this study is to examine the value of voice complaint intention and no-action intention. This study also investigates how perceptual and relational factors affect complaint intention. Research design, data, and methodology - This study was carried out using the survey with undergraduate students who have faced a service failure in a retail store(fast foods, electronics, apparel). And if such complaint were to occur again, respondents were asked about any possible action they would take. 300 questionnaires were distributed and a total of 279 respondents provided complete and usable data. The sample consisted of 158 males(56.6%) and 121 females(43.4%). The structural equation modeling analysis was used for the hypothesis test. Results - The results are as follows. First, attitude toward complaining, likelihood of successful complaint, and ease of complaint were positively related to voice complaint intention. Second, attitude toward complaining, likelihood of successful complaint, and ease of complaint were negatively related to no-action intention. Third, commitment was positively related to voice complaint intention but didn't have a significant negative impact on no action. Forth, voice complaint behavior reduced switching intention and no-action intention enhanced switching intention. Conclusions - The findings of this study confirm the value of complaint behavior and show voice complaint intention and no-action intention should be managed differently. Voice complaint intention is evaluated positively because it reflects customers' concerns about the company, while no-action intention is evaluated negatively. Attitude toward complaing is the most effective in increasing voice complaint intention and likelihood of successful complaint is a major factor in reducing no-action intention. Also, in explaining switching intention, voice complaint intention plays a more important role than no-action intention.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.317-325
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• 2006

The purposes of this study are to examine clothing businesses which are using dress forms and grasp the problems in apparel manufacturing process, to verify the size and shape of the dress forms for uniformity, to ascertain the uniformity between the dress forms being sold today and the somatotype of the target consumers. The following results were obtained. First, most of the clothing businesses used the existing dress forms in the company. The dress forms didn't reflect the somatotype of the current consumers. And the users satisfaction was below the average. Second, the size and shape of the dress forms being sold today had lack of uniformity between themselves. Third, the dress forms didn't reflect the shape characteristics as well as the size of the target consumers. Consequently, The dress forms need to have the following. First, It is necessary that the dress forms have various functions in a dress form in the future. Second, to get high satisfaction of clothing fit, we need to build up the data base of the consumers somatotype. The data base have to consist of not only circumference but also width, thickness, angle of the current consumers. Last, the further studies of the dress forms need to meet the clothing businesses demand.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.259-270
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• 2008

The convenience and flexibility due to the spread of Internet allowed consumers to easily participate in marketing activity. Consumers want to participate in designing, manufacturing, delivering of products and service by expressing their opinions to the companies because they want to buy customized goods where their requirements are incorporated. We can expect that, through this interactive process of customization between consumers and companies, strong relationship quality may be built as a result of the interaction. The main purpose of this study is to examine the influence of consumer perception of customization on relationship quality in the e-business context. To accomplish this purpose, I reviewed the concept of customization, identified the perceptive factors of customization in e-business context (i.e., perception of participation level, assessment of flexibility), and examined the type of customization. Whether customization type generates varying degrees of perception of customization and relationship quality is revealed. As a result, collaborative product/service customization generated the highest relationship quality. Assembled product customization that was built based only on predicted consumer needs without any interaction between consumer and company showed a low level of relationship quality. And this type had no significant difference from standardized products. In short, there is a strong need for e-business companies to interact with consumers to improve relationship quality.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.12 no.9
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• pp.3815-3826
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• 2011

TThis study was undertaken to make trial costumes of ball jointed dolls for promoting the beauty of Korean cultural product with historical research of upper class ladie's costume from late Goryeo to early Joseon, the very unknown period in the Korean costume history. The ladies' costume from late Goryeo to early Joseon are characterized by their full silhouette, fusion with clothings of Yuan and Ming, revival of early Goryeo styles, well-developed weaving skill of ramie, a showy costume from Buddhist civilization. After investigation of researcher with literature, painting, and relics in 13-14C, 8 clothing items were outsourced totally. Items were formed as a set concept, but consumer can choose each costume as an single item and can make varied mix also. Dart, small ties, and thick fabrics were used in doll costumes partly because ball jointed doll's body has different characteristics from that of human beings. Developing research of manufacturing company's system for ready-made product remains to be considered in the future.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.4-14
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• 2010

Collaboration strategies entail information sharing and other varied forms of cooperation that are mutually beneficial to the company and stakeholder groups. This study addresses the specific types of collaboration used in the fashion industry while also examining strategies that have been most successful for fashion companies and perceived benefits of collaboration from the customer perspective. In the present study we define fashion companies and brands as collaborators and their partners or stakeholders as collaboratees. We define collaboration as a cooperative relationship where more than two companies, brands or individuals provide customers with beneficial outcomes utilizing their own competitive advantages on an equal basis. Collaboration strategies entail information sharing and other varied forms of cooperation that are mutually beneficial to the company and stakeholder groups. Through collaboration, fashion companies have pursued both tangible differentiation, such as design and technology applications, and intangible differentiation such as emotional and psychological benefits to customers. As a result, collaboration within the fashion industry has become an important, value creating concept. This qualitative study utilized case studies and in-depth interview methodologies to examine customers' attitudes concerning collaboration in the fashion industry. A total of 173 collaboration cases were identified in Korean and international markets from 1998 through December 2008, focusing on fashion companies. Cases were collected from documented data including websites and industry data bases and top ranked portal search sites such as: Rankey.com; Naver, Daum, and Nate; and representative fashion information websites, Samsungdesignnet and Firstviewkorea. Cases were collected between November 2008 and February 2009. Cases were selected for the analysis where one or more partners were associated with the production of fashion products (excluding textile production), retail fashion products, or designer services. Additional collaboration case information was obtained from news articles, periodicals, internet portal sites and fashion information sites as conducted in prior studies (Jeong and Kim 2008; Park and Park 2004; Yoon 2005). In total, 173 cases were selected for analysis that clearly exhibited the benefits and outcomes of collaboration efforts and strategies between fashion companies and stakeholders. Findings show that the overall results show that for both partners (collaborator and collaboratee) participating in collaboration, that the major benefits are reduction of costs and risks by sharing resource such as design power, image, costs, technology and targets, and creation of synergy. Regarding types of collaboration outcomes, product/design was most important (55%), followed by promotion (21%), price (20%), and place (4%). This result shows that collaboration plays an important role in giving life to products and designs, particularly in the fashion industry which seeks for creative and newness. To be successful in collaboration efforts, results of the depth interviews in this study confirm that fashion companies should have a clear objective on why they are doing the collaboration. After setting the objective, they should select collaboratees that match their brand image and target market, make quality co-products that have definite concepts and differentiating factors, and also pay attention to increasing brand awareness. Based on depth interviews with customers, customer benefits were categorized into six factors: pursuit for individual character; pursuit for brand; pursuit for scarcity; pursuit for fashion; pursuit for economic efficiency; and pursuit for sociality. Customers also placed more importance on image, reputation, and trust of brands regarding the cases shown in the interviews. They also commented that strong branding should come first before other marketing strategies. However, success factors recognized by experts and customers in this study showed different results by subcategories. Thus, target customers and target market should be studied from various dimensions to develop appropriate strategies for successful collaboration.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.77-110
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• 2017

Recently, the diversification and individualization of consumption patterns through the web and mobile devices based on the Internet have been rapid. As this happens, the efficient operation of the offline store, which is a traditional distribution channel, has become more important. In order to raise both the sales and profits of stores, stores need to supply and sell the most attractive products to consumers in a timely manner. However, there is a lack of research on which SKUs, out of many products, can increase sales probability and reduce inventory costs. In particular, if a company sells products through multiple in-store stores across multiple locations, it would be helpful to increase sales and profitability of stores if SKUs appealing to customers are recommended. In this study, the recommender system (recommender system such as collaborative filtering and hybrid filtering), which has been used for personalization recommendation, is suggested by SKU recommendation method of a store unit of a distribution company that handles a homogeneous brand through a plurality of sales stores by country and region. We calculated the similarity of each store by using the purchase data of each store's handling items, filtering the collaboration according to the sales history of each store by each SKU, and finally recommending the individual SKU to the store. In addition, the store is classified into four clusters through PCA (Principal Component Analysis) and cluster analysis (Clustering) using the store profile data. The recommendation system is implemented by the hybrid filtering method that applies the collaborative filtering in each cluster and measured the performance of both methods based on actual sales data. Most of the existing recommendation systems have been studied by recommending items such as movies and music to the users. In practice, industrial applications have also become popular. In the meantime, there has been little research on recommending SKUs for each store by applying these recommendation systems, which have been mainly dealt with in the field of personalization services, to the store units of distributors handling similar brands. If the recommendation method of the existing recommendation methodology was 'the individual field', this study expanded the scope of the store beyond the individual domain through a plurality of sales stores by country and region and dealt with the store unit of the distribution company handling the same brand SKU while suggesting a recommendation method. In addition, if the existing recommendation system is limited to online, it is recommended to apply the data mining technique to develop an algorithm suitable for expanding to the store area rather than expanding the utilization range offline and analyzing based on the existing individual. The significance of the results of this study is that the personalization recommendation algorithm is applied to a plurality of sales outlets handling the same brand. A meaningful result is derived and a concrete methodology that can be constructed and used as a system for actual companies is proposed. It is also meaningful that this is the first attempt to expand the research area of the academic field related to the existing recommendation system, which was focused on the personalization domain, to a sales store of a company handling the same brand. From 05 to 03 in 2014, the number of stores' sales volume of the top 100 SKUs are limited to 52 SKUs by collaborative filtering and the hybrid filtering method SKU recommended. We compared the performance of the two recommendation methods by totaling the sales results. The reason for comparing the two recommendation methods is that the recommendation method of this study is defined as the reference model in which offline collaborative filtering is applied to demonstrate higher performance than the existing recommendation method. The results of this model are compared with the Hybrid filtering method, which is a model that reflects the characteristics of the offline store view. The proposed method showed a higher performance than the existing recommendation method. The proposed method was proved by using actual sales data of large Korean apparel companies. In this study, we propose a method to extend the recommendation system of the individual level to the group level and to efficiently approach it. In addition to the theoretical framework, which is of great value.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.32 no.12
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• pp.1903-1914
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to propose an efficient and feasible global market entry strategy for the Korean apparel industry by analyzing the Italian fashion industry. In particular, the study investigated the role of foreign exhibitions and showrooms supported and organized by Italian fashion organizations. The methodology for this study was to analyze industrial reports, review previous studies and conduct in-depth interviews with 23 industry experts in Italy, Korea and LA. The results indicated that the most prominent factor in the Italian fashion industry was the fashion cluster, which is a strong and organic network of diverse fashion related areas No matter the size of the enterprise, firms can get practical, prompt and efficient support from diverse associations. The network operated by the associations provides strong support to each firm by organizing collections and exhibitions, and providing promotional activities. Showrooms and agents are another supportive "gate keeper", directly related to an enterprise's sales. However, Korean fashion firms did not have enough information or knowledge for foreign exhibitions, nor did they make aggressive promotional efforts in the global market. Despite the many fashion-related associations exist in Korea, their programs are too focused on visible accomplishments and are too oriented on "big company" and "big voice", rather than many "small firms". In conclusion, the Korean fashion industry-particularly the fashion industry in Seoul-has strong potential to become the center of the global fashion market in the future. However, the fashion support system that can act as the channel to promote firms and to meet global buyers needs to be supplemented. To feasibly create this system, government or industry associations should develop a strong and generous support system and network, and they must recognize the need for small firms to exist.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.25-38
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• 2011

After the financial crisis, what has been the rapidly growth of large supermarkets, stores, and restaurants linked to concerns that have already reached saturation point, but the new opening large supermarkets is expected to continue into the future. The major supermarkets are continue to grow outward but growth slowed. And that is expected to continue differentiation of the product, acceptance the customer needs, acquiring high margin of sales products. Then the ongoing development of PB brand is to be positioned effective marketing strategy for overcoming the period of slow growth. In addition, big three local supermarkets continue to launch a clothing PB brand, expansion and operation strategy for the situation and based on this study and the success of the domestic large-Mart's PB and PB identifying problem and the need for differentiation and profit for the successful strategy is to discuss in this study. This research looks at the concept of major market's private brand, the strategy, the success example and the prospects, and views the globally rapid-growing private brands, not only having the limited role of distributing the products as retailers, but also having a control of the distribution channel as a manufacturing company. World's major advanced distribution companies, to differentiate their companies' products and increase the profitability, are putting a lot of efforts into private brand products, and there are many good examples that are globalizing, externally expanding, and creating high financial results. In this research, we presented three major domestic discount stores as examples to show that there is a need for a differentiated private brand management strategy in the saturated discount store industry in Korea. Also, we aim to provide a new product strategy for the future that has been saturated with discount stores to the limit, by providing suggestions that private brand products can be used as weapons with the strongest competiveness in the retail industry through pursuing store differentiations from thorough market analysis and product researches, meeting the customers' needs, and obtaining high margins. PB products, particularly clothing design, a thorough market analysis and product development trends and customer needs to reflect the acquisition of High margin differentiated powerful products and sustainable growth through the stores, large supermarkets, congested, a new breakthrough that can give a good opportunity to provide implications discount stores, new product strategy based on ways to limit proposed. This study discount the major three companies studied, the less strain is a generalization. In the future, domestic and local discount store brand PB, SPA brand that the multinational comparative analysis of the value of the PB expansion strategy centered on clothing, additional studies will be needed.