• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.335-348
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• 2000

This study examines changes in economy status of retailers with self-employed and introduce a re-education program for enhancing their market competition supported by KeiMyung University and the city of Daeku. There are more than 80 participants for this program, mostly employed in small business in such as supermarket, apparel industry, conventional type of market and so on. The questionnaires were administered to all participants and analyzed the level of satisfaction for categories included in survey to evaluate the program. The results of study leads us to suggest the ways how those small business families can survive in furture and give the motives to develop new marketing strategies.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.14 no.3 s.62
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• pp.353-365
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• 2006

Modern consumers seek various pleasure and fun through shopping. Retailing are offering apparel products with entertainment services to customers such as movie theaters, restaurants and so on. The purposes of this study was investigate the effect of entertainment service on impulse buying behavior. Data were obtained from shoppers (N=684) randomly selected department stores and shopping malls located in Seoul and Busan. They were analyzed by factor analysis, t-test and cross analysis. The results showed that entertainment service users showed likely to be more recreational orientation, to be more pleasure, and better mood in retailing environment than entertainment service non-users. That is entertainment service users were more likely to buy impulsively during shopping than entertainment service non-users. Implication and future research directions discussed.

• International Journal of Costume and Fashion
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.1-14
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• 2012

To date most of the research concerning e-service quality in the context of online apparel settings has had a female or a generalized for gender and age focus. To expand the scope of understanding of online consumers, this study focuses on the key dimensions of e-service quality which affect male Generation Y consumers' e-satisfaction which in turn may affect their e-loyalty. A convenience sample of male college students was recruited from a Korean university. The findings of this study showed that privacy, personalization, efficiency, and website design were the key dimensions that have significant positive relationships with e-satisfaction. The positive relationship between e-satisfaction and e-loyalty was also confirmed. Managerial implications and suggestions for further research are further discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.34 no.7
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• pp.1087-1099
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• 2010

This study explores the retail environment factors of the changes mentioned in the "Factors and Directions of the Change of the Apparel Retail Structure in Korea" (Part I) to understand the changes in apparel retail institutions. This study was done through a literature research method and the results are as follows. First, changing consumer needs and trends require extensive new products, a method to manufacture diverse products according to the market demand, and the necessity to manufacture based on trends in demand. This limits the role of mass production, which brought about more flexible manufacturing modes, scaled down manufacturing factories, promoted more cooperative subcontract relationships, and increased global sourcing which uses other companies at the most appropriate global venue. How to organize and use cooperative networks that benefit companies is the key to global competitiveness in the new era and the information technology developed around retail shops plays a key role. Consequently, the management of consumers and their information becomes critical and retail distribution functions become a key corporate function. In addition, it is difficult for small shops to introduce effective new technologies that encourage the growth of large companies. Second, apparel companies that use to benefit from scale merits based on the previous mass production system are now becoming effective by using economies of scale through mass retailing while shops are enlarging their sizes as a way to survive. On the other hand, inexpensive clothes become even more inexpensive while expensive ones become even more expensive, promoting polarization and diverse price ranges that widen consumer options.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.30 no.9_10 s.157
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• pp.1333-1343
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• 2006

Consumers seek the pleasure, fun and satisfaction in shopping. Retailing environments of apparel products are rapidly changing than ever before. One of there changes are offered apparel products with entertainment service, such as theaters, restaurants and so on. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of entertainment service, shopping orientation and emotion on impulse buying behavior in department stores an shopping malls. A self-administrated questionaire was developed based on the results of previous researches and pre-test. Data were obtained from shoppers(N=684) randomly selected in department stores and shopping malls located in Seoul and Busan. Data were analyzed by factor analysis, t-test, cross analysis, and path analysis. The results showed that; impulse buying behavior was directly or indirectly affected by shopping orientation in both of two store types. In department stores, consumers were affected to make a good mood by entertainment service while, in the shopping malls, consumers were influenced directly by entertainment service to be a good mood and to purchase impulsively apparel products. Therefore, the impulse buying behavior was influenced differently by entertainment service in store types. From the retailer's perspective, they give insights into the development of strategies utilized to marketing planning of entertainment service in each store types.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.57 no.2 s.111
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• pp.69-85
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• 2007

Despite the recovery of consumer expenditure and retailing in the Korean economy after 2001, the domestic apparel industry has been aggravated by negative growth in both productivity and production. The purpose of the stud? is to diagnose the develop competitive of the Korean apparel industry and derive implications for this after estimating the efficiency of the Korean apparel companies with Data Envelopment Analysis. Data Envelopment Analysis(DEA) is a methodology based in non-parametric analysis and linear programming. It was developed for measuring the relative efficiency of a set of firms that use inputs to produce outputs. Data used fer input and output variables in the analysis are drawn from financial statement recorded by the Korean Financial Supervisory Service. The initial input data comprise the number fo the employees, fixed assets, general management and selling expenses, and cost of sales. The initial outputs are the operating profit and the gross margin. To summary the results, the efficiencies of the Korean apparel companies has increased yearly in spite of being overabundance of investment in Labour and Capital. According to correlation between input and output variables, the Korean apparel industry has been revamping gradually from labor intensive industries to the capital. The companies need to reduce costs in the results from the number of employees, fixed asset and cost of sales to transform into an efficiently enterprise. The companies owning or obtaining a brand had bitter establish an outsourcing strategic in production, while OEM corporations are called far setting up a manufactory in domestic or abroad. Although the paper is derived some implications with production efficiencies, the relation between apparel companies and brand power, consumption level of consumer, and social trend is remained on a limitation to the study. The next research necessitates a topic with Fashion industry or examining the correlation between brand value, social propensity and profit margin.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.323-334
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• 2020

This study analyzed the effects of consumers' characteristic variables on information search and purchase decisions in a decision-making process that validated the path model in purchasing apparel products. In constructing a structural equation model using AMOS 19.0., the variables including enjoyment pursuit, price pursuit, product involvement and product risk were selected as consumers' characteristic variables affecting the stage of information search. A questionnaire was distributed to consumers over 20 years old who purchased apparel products using offline and online channels within one year; consequently, we were able to analyze 468 effective data. The results were as follows. First, the path model of this research proved to be the appropriate model explaining the effects of consumers' characteristic variables on the stage of purchase decision-making. Second, enjoyment pursuit had a significant positive influence on offline information search; in addition, price pursuit and product risk affected the online information search significantly. Product involvement affected online information search as well as offline information search. Third, the offline information search affected offline purchase and online information search affected online purchase. However, consumer's channel switching behavior between the stage of information search and the stage of purchase decision was not proven. The findings suggest that companies need to develop distribution strategies according to consumers' characteristic factors that effect consumer's purchase decision-making.

• Fashion, Industry and Education
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.47-59
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• 2016

This research is concerned with comparing fluctuation in the Korean and the US economies in order to ascertain the degree to which the former is influenced by changes in the latter. The aim of this research is to explore business cycles, to examine consumer expenditure in Korea and the US, and to discover the relationships between business fluctuation indexes and overall expenditure. Statistical data from the national statistics of Korea and the US during period from 1990 to 2015 were used. The instrument included a measure of GDP, unemployment rates, GDP deflator rate (inflation rates), and household income and expenditure. For the average annual household expenditures, food, apparel and transportation expenditure data were compared across the two countries. Data were collected separately from different (though comparable) sources and were analyzed using relatively straight forward statistical techniques. It was found that Korean and the US consumers' income and expenditure were greatly affected by economic fluctuations. Total expenditure and the expenditures for food and transportation were much influenced by business fluctuation in the US, whereas, the expenditures for apparel were much influenced by business fluctuation in Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.826-840
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• 1996

With rapid changes in social and marketing environments, catalog retailing emerges as a new method of selling clothes in Korea. In catalog shopping, in-store and multi·store search behavior are omitted saving consumers time and effort. On the other hand, consumers may lose recreational enjoyment of shopping when they purchase clothes through catalog. In this study, consumers perception of shopping cost and recreational shopping orientation were tested as consumer characteristic intervening catalog shopping behavior. The concept of shopping cost was derived from Darian(1987)'s analysis of cost and benefit of store shopping and in-home shopping. A national sample of 700 adult women was surveyed and 477 questionnaires were returned and used for statistical analysis. Nine shopping cost perception variables were found to have significant positive relationships with the purchase intention of apparel through catalog. As a result of confirmatory factor analysis, two factors of shopping cost were found; perception of lack of shopping time and perception of store search effort. Causal modeling of LISREL analysis showed that percetion of lack of shopping time was strongly related with patronizing intention of catalog shopping. Since catalog shopping exclude enjoyment of store shopping activity, it can be logically inferred that recreational store shoppers have less chance of being catalog shoppers. However, the result of LISREL analysis showed that there were no negative relationship between recreational shopping orientation and catalog shopping intention. This suggests that consumers might experience enjoyment of shopping through catalog when properly presented.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.57-63
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• 2009

With an exponential increase in electronic commerce (e-commerce), marketers are attempting to gain a competitive advantage by emphasizing service quality and post interaction service aspects, which leads to customer satisfaction or behavioral consequence. Particularly for apparel, service quality is one of the key determinants in encouraging customer e-loyalty, and hence the success of apparel retailing in the context of electronic commerce. Therefore, this study explores e-service quality (E-SERVQUAL) factors and their unique effects on e-loyalty for apparel online shopping based on Parasuraman et al' s (2005) framework. Specific objectives of this study are to identify underlying dimension of E-SERVQUAL, and analyze a structural model for examining the effect of E-SERVQUAL on e-loyalty for online apparel shopping. For the theoretical framework of service quality in the context of online shopping, literatures on traditional and electronic service quality factors were comparatively reviewed, and two aspects of core and recovery services were identified. This study hypothesized that E-SERVQUAL has an effect on e-loyalty; customer satisfaction has a positive effect on e-service loyalty for apparel online shopping; and customer satisfaction mediates in the effect of E-SERVQUAL on e-loyalty for apparel online shopping. A self-administered questionnaire was developed based on literatures. A total of 252 usable questionnaires were obtained from online consumers who had purchase experience with online shopping for apparel products and reside in standard metropolitan areas, in the United States. Factor analysis (e.g., exploratory, confirmatory) was conducted to assess the validity and reliability and the structural equation model including measurement and structural models was estimated via LISREL 8.8 program. Findings showed that the E-SERVQUAL of shopping websites for apparel consisted of five factors: Compensation, Fulfillment, Efficiency, System Availability, and Responsiveness. This supports Parasuraman (2005)'s E-S-QUAL encompassing two aspects of core service (e.g., fulfillment, efficiency, system availability) and recovery related service (e.g., compensation, responsiveness) in the context of apparel shopping online. In the structural equation model, there are five exogenous latent variables for e-SERVQUAL factors; and two endogenous latent variables (e.g., customer satisfaction, e-loyalty). For the measurement model, the factor loadings for each respective construct were statistically significant and were greater than .60 and internal consistency reliabilities ranged from .85 to .88. In the estimated structural model of the e-SERVEQUAL factors, the system availability was found to have direct and positive effect on e-loyalty, whereas efficiency had a negative effect on e-loyalty for apparel online shopping. However, fulfillment was not a significant predictor for explaining consequences of E-SERVQUAL for apparel online shopping. This finding implies that perceived service quality of system available was likely to increase customer satisfaction for apparel online shopping. However, it was not supported that e-loyalty was determined by service quality, because service quality has an indirect effect on e-loyalty (i.e., repurchase intention) by mediating effect of value or satisfaction in the context of online shopping for apparel. In addition, both compensation and responsiveness were found to have a significant impact on customer satisfaction, which influenced e-loyalty for apparel online shopping. Thus, there was significant indirect effect of compensation and responsiveness on e-loyalty. This suggests that the recovery-specific service factors play an important role in maximizing customer satisfaction levels and then maintaining customer loyalty to the online shopping site for apparel. The findings have both managerial and research implications. Fashion marketers can establish long-term relationship with their customers based on continuously measuring customer perceptions for recovery-related service quality, such as quick responses to problem and returns, and compensation for customers' problem after their purchases. In order to maintain e-loyalty, recovery services play an important role in the first choice websites for consumers to purchase clothing. Given that online consumers may shop anywhere, a marketing strategy for improving competitive advantages is to provide better service quality, maximize satisfaction, and turn to creating customers' e-loyalty for apparel online shopping. From a researcher's perspective, there are some limitations of this research that should be considered when interpreting its findings. For future research, findings provide a basis for the further study of this important topic along both theoretical and empirical dimensions. Based on the findings, more comprehensive models for predicting E-SERVQUAL's consequences can be developed and tested. For global fashion marketing, this study can expand to a cross-cultural approach into e-service quality for apparel by including multinational samples.