• Asia Marketing Journal
• /
• v.15 no.4
• /
• pp.33-49
• /
• 2014

Environmental concern has been an important issue for a few decades, and the extent of consumer demand for eco-friendly consumption has been increased. This study seeks to investigate consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) a premium for eco-friendly cosmetics. This study evaluates how much more a consumer is willing to pay for eco-friendly cosmetics and examines significant factors influencing consumers' WTP for eco-friendly cosmetics. Consumers' WTP is measured using four different ecofriendly cosmetics: low-priced skin care cosmetics, low-priced makeup cosmetics, high-priced skin care cosmetics, and high-priced makeup cosmetics. This study uses the contingent valuation method (CVM) to estimate consumer's WTP for eco-friendly cosmetics. Survey questions were designed using both dichotomous choice and payment card method of CVM. Through face to face interviews and on-line surveys, the data were collected from women between 20 and 49 years old residing in Seoul and Kyeonggi area, Korea, in May 2010. A total of 226 questionnaires (132 from interviews and 94 from on-line) were included for the analytical sample in this study. The data were analyzed using descriptive analysis, T-test and Log-Logit analysis. The findings are as follows: First, the WTP measured by dichotomous choice method was estimated using the Log-Logit analysis. The results showed that the estimated WTP for low-priced skin care cosmetics was 19,152 won, which was 27.7% higher than the reference price, 15,000 won. For low-priced makeup cosmetics, the estimated WTP was 18,524 won, and its green premium was 21.0%. The estimated WTP for high-priced skin care cosmetics was 59,128 won, which was 18.3% higher than the reference price, 50,000 won. For high-priced makeup cosmetics was 57,666 won, and its green premium was 15.3%. Second, the WTP measure by payment card method was estimated using descriptive analysis. The results showed that the respondents were willing to pay 17,955 won for low-priced skin care cosmetics, which was 19.7% higher than the reference price, 15,000 won and 17,595 won for low-priced makeup cosmetics, which was 17.3% higher than the reference price. For high-priced skin care cosmetics, the average WTP was 56,950 won which was 13.9% higher than the reference price, 50,000 won. For high-priced makeup cosmetics, the average WTP was 55,650 won, which was 11.3% higher than the reference price. Overall, the WTP was higher in order of low-priced skin care, low-priced makeup, high-priced skin care, and high-priced makeup. It means that consumers decide degree of premium based on the price and the attributes of eco-friendly products. Third, the findings showed that age, monthly income, and having children or not were statistically significant factors that influenced consumers' willingness to pay for eco-friendly cosmetics. Other explanatory variables such as education, marital status, job, purchase experience of eco-friendly products, and environmental concerns did not show any statistical significance. The major contribution of this study is the investigation of the value of green attributes of the products by using CVM. Unlike most previous researches, this research used two methods of CVM, the dichotomous choice and the payment card, so it enhanced the reliability of research. According to this study, consumers showed price sensitivity when they pay green premium. These findings can be used as useful information to establish marketing strategies for green cosmetics.

• Journal of Information Technology Services
• /
• v.22 no.5
• /
• pp.31-49
• /
• 2023

Due to the outbreak of the COVID-19, self-service technology is widely used in Korea, and demand for disposable cups is increasing significantly. Waste and recycling of disposable cups have become a social concern for Koreans and Korea implemented the "Disposable Cup Deposit Systems" again in December 2022. Whether the emergence of this system can change the way people behave in environmental protection is a question to be examined in this study. Companies participating in the disposable cup deposit system are hoping that customers will actively recover cups through self-service in the process of collecting disposable cups. The government, along with businesses, transfers recovery work to customers through self-service technologies and schemes. Due to the increase in Shadow Work and the strengthening of consumer environmental protection consciousness, this paper focuses on how unmanned service types such as self-service technology can affect people's environmental protection behavior. An empirical analysis with 477 samples examined how the characteristics of shadow work, perceived efficacy, environmental awareness, and ecological guilt affect user's environmental protection behavior. Perceived efficacy that acts as a mediator and ecological guilt that plays as a moderator are investigated. Although there have been many studies on the effects of shadow work on customer behavioral intentions before, it has been very rare to study the effects of shadow work perceived by people on environmental behavioral intentions from an environmental protection perspective. This study shows that the higher the perceived efficacy of consumers, the more people prefer self-service technology and the stronger the environmental protection behavior. Also, consumers' ecological guilt significantly moderates the relationship between environmental consciousness and eco-friendly behavior. It is expected that companies and governments will be able to understand the impact of shadow work on consumers' environmental protection behavior and further promote environmental protection by appropriate policies and marketing strategies.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
• /
• v.50 no.1
• /
• pp.54-65
• /
• 2024

Background: There is growing international recognition of the need for improvements to national chemical management systems for hazardous chemicals. The European Union has recently introduced the concept of 'essential uses' as a new approach to the management hazardous chemicals by limiting their uses. Objectives: This paper examines the concept of essential uses in chemical management and how to apply it through a case study of essential use. This approach is distinct from the current chemical management system, but seeks to improve its potential benefits by effectively restricting or gradually decreasing the use of hazardous substances. Methods: The concept of essential uses was introduced by reviewing the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, Cousins's three essentiality categories applied to PFAS, restriction options assessed in the PFAS restriction proposal under REACH, and the California Safer Consumer Products regulations prioritizing 6PPD in motor vehicle tires. Based on these essential uses concepts for PFAS and 6PPD, uses of benzene were classified in accordance with the essential uses approach for products using benzene in South Korea. Results: The essential use concept is able to manage the restriction and authorization of substances of concern through essential uses and non-essential uses and the feasible substitution of uses and substances. Conclusions: If the concept and methodology of essential uses are clearly established, they can be expected to shift the national chemical management paradigm from regulating substances to limiting uses under the existing substance management system.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
• /
• v.12
• /
• pp.587-613
• /
• 1999

Environmental problems such as global climate change, depletion, ocean and air pollution, and resource degradation-compounded by an expanding world population-respect no border and threaten the health, prosperity and jobs of all mankind. Our efforts to promote democracy, free trade, and stability in the world will fall short unless people have a livable environment. We have an enormous stake in the management of the world's resources. By increasing demand for timber, natural gas, coal and consumer's goods have destroyed the grounds for living. Greenhouse gas emissions anywhere in the world have threatened coastal communities, and then changed the Earth's climate system. The burning of coal, oil, and other fossil fuels is increasing substantially the concentration of heat-trapping gasses such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide in our air. The earth's temperature and sea levels are rising as a result. Since 1972 there has been a marked growth in the number and scope of environmental treaties. In particular, after the 1992 Rio Conference, international legal instruments became more concentrated on addressing environment within the context of sustainable development and incorporated a number of new concepts and innovative approaches. A preliminary analysis of recent conventions and in particular those associated with the Rio Conference indicates various ideas, concepts and principles which have come to the fore including sustainable development, equity, common concern of humankind, common but differentiated responsibilities and global partnership. However, international trade also has an environmental impact which must be minimized or countered. Positive measures are to be preferred to achieve environmental goals, but where trade provisions are necessary, they should be appropriately used within environmental conventions to facilitate the reduction and limitation of the negative impacts of trade and to enhance the complementarity of the multilateral trade regime with the imperatives of environmental protection, in the interests of environmental protection and sustainable development generally. The international community has to recognize and endorse this need to achieve complementarity between trade and environment issues.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.12 no.4
• /
• pp.433-441
• /
• 2002

There has been an increasing public concern about environmental safety and human health of field crops while customer consumes more and more field crops, to which overdose and residual chemicals were applied. As a solution for the problems, construction of sustainable agroecosystem is spreading out to pursuit the economic value of agricultural management as well as to meet environment concern. Public has extended their understanding on the preservation of environment and safeness of agricultural products, and governmental policy toward sustainable agriculture drives rapid increase of the production of sustainable agricultural products. Under this circumstances, it is time to encourage more consumption and to activate market system for the sustainable agricultural products. This study was initiated to diagnose the problems and future direction of domestic sustainable agriculture by analyzing the overall opinions of consumer on the sustainable agriculture. The results are as follows: The pursuit of low input management is a prerequisite to creat high valued agricultural products, and serious consideration should be taken to produce clean crops using natural products. Consummers are willing to pay 10∼50% more prices if the products get certified by official eco-label programs. It is believed that practice of sustainable agriculture using biopesticide and natural pesticide would accelerate the rapid extension of this pro-environmental agricultural management. To activate production and consumption of sustainable agricultural products correct informations on safety should be addressed to customer, and confidence has to be brought about from customer. This could be done by obtaining various and efficient distribution route, product competency for quality, upgraded sales strategy, maximum utilization of certificate system, and practice of recall system, so on.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
• /
• v.20 no.3
• /
• pp.249-261
• /
• 2010

As consumers' concern for the environment has continued to increase, many firms have actively engaged in environmental marketing to achieve their objectives. However, consumers' high concerns about the environment are not always reflected in their purchasing behavior. This indicates the need for an in-depth understanding of the development of green consumption within the individual's belief system. In consideration of psychological approaches, a large body of research has examined the factors underlying ecologically conscious "green" consumer behavior and the interrelationships of these factors. However, most previous studies have concentrated on Western countries. Using a sample of Korean consumers, this study attempts to understand the basis of Korean green consumerism and find universal values that are cross-culturally important in guiding consumers' environmental attitudes and behaviors. To this end, this study relates Schwartz's 10 universal values (Schwartz 1992) to environmental behaviors in a hierarchical model of value-attitude-behavior. With reference to the value-attitude-behavior framework, the conceptual model developed for the study explains what motivations can be manifested in Korean consumers' environmental attitudes, and subsequently how the attitudes affect their green choices. Using the pattern of relationships among values that can be related to environmentalism, the first hypothesis holds that there would be particular relationships between motivational value types and environmental attitudes. Hypothesis 2 assumes that environmental attitudes predict environmental behaviors. On the basis of the claim that favorable attitudes toward the environment may be expressed in many different behaviors, the assumption is that consumers' favorable attitudes toward the environment would be linked to a variety of environmental behaviors because people with high environmental attitudes can be more interested in and knowledgeable about environmental actions. Consistent with H2, H3 hypothesizes that there would be a positive relationship between different types of environmental behavior. A total of 564 university students participated in the study. The sample included 308 men, 254 women, and two participants who did not indicate their gender. The average age of the participants was 22.5 years, with a range of 19 to 39. Regarding majors, special efforts were made to draw the participants from different departments of the university. Data were collected by a survey administered via self-completion questionnaires., which assessed the participants' value priorities, environmental attitudes, and behaviors. Path analysis conducted to test the proposed model found the overall fit to be ${\chi}^2$=72.01 (p=0.00), GFI=0.983, CFI=0.982, NFI=0.970, RMR=0.070, and REMSEA=0.050. Thus, most of the fit measures indicated a good fit of the model with the data, and a hierarchical relationship from values to environmental attitudes to environmental non-purchasing behavior to environmental purchasing behavior was confirmed. An assessment of all the predicted paths by path coefficients led to several major hypothesized effects being confirmed. Out of the ten value types, universalism and power were significantly but conversely related to environmental attitudes. In line with the other studies, these findings confirm that environmental attitudes are an important factor in leading to a variety of green behaviors. Finally, significant relationships were found between environmental purchasing and non-purchasing behaviors. The path analysis supported the idea that universalism values provide a motivation for Korean consumers' greenness and indirectly promote environmental acts through favorable attitudes toward the environment. Participants with high environmental attitudes were found to actively engage in diverse forms of green consumer behavior. This research provides an opportunity to examine cross-cultural differences with respect to values leading to environmentalism, and, further, to verify previous findings. The study also examined the attitude-behavior relationship with respect to three distinct types of environmental behaviors. The different strengths of paths between green attitudes and behaviors suggest that researchers should consider the specificity of behavior explained as an effort to improve the low attitude-behavior correlation. Finally, the findings here illustrate that with increased environmental concerns among people, they come to include more such behaviors in their green portfolios.

• Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.20 no.2
• /
• pp.127-132
• /
• 2015

Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) are persistent environmental pollutants, extremely stable, and possibly adversely affect human health. They are widely used in many industries and consumer goods, including sunscreen products. These substances are stable chemicals made of long carbon chains, having both lipid- and water-repellent qualities. The research objectives are (1) to find the most effective method for the preparation of semi-liquid samples by comparing solid phase extraction (SPE) and centrifugation after Pressurized liquid extraction (PLE), and (2) to determine the contamination levels of PFOS and PFOA in waterproof sunscreen samples. All sunscreen samples were analyzed by liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Sunscreen samples were purchased from domestic and international brands sold in Thailand. Special chemical properties were considered for the selection of samples, e.g., those found in waterproof, sweat resistant, water resistant, and non-stick products. Considering the factors of physical properties, e.g., operation time, chemical consumption, and recovery percentage for selecting methods to develop, the centrifugation method using 2 mL of extracted sample with the conditions of 12,000 rpm and $5^{\circ}C$ for 1 hour after PLE was chosen. The highest concentrations of PFOS and PFOA were detected at 0.0671 ng/g and 21.0644 ng/g, respectively. Even though present concentrations are found at ng/g levels, the daily use of sunscreen products is normally several grams. Therefore, a risk assessment of PFOS and PFOA contamination in sunscreen products is an important concern, and more attention needs to be paid to the long-term effects on human health.

• Hwankyungkyoyuk
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.115-124
• /
• 2002

The purpose of this research is to analyze the contents related to environmental education(EE) in the elementary school textbooks for the following areas: well-balanced EE, and development of EE curriculum/teachers' guide in elementary school level. For the purpose of this analysis, elementary school teachers, education administrators and EE specialists were involved. Eleven content areas of EE, namely: natural environment, artificial environment, population, industrialization, natural resources, pollution, environmental conservation, environment sanitation, environment ethics, environmentally sound and sustainable development(ESSD), and daily li(e as a consumer, were analyzed. The results of the analysis are as follows: 1. There are total 1,140 contents related to EE in the elementary school textbooks of 7th Korea National Curriculum. 2. The textbooks of grade 6 contain the most number of EE contents, while the least number is in the textbooks of grade 3. 3. The subject that includes EE contents equally in its textbooks is social studies, and the subjects that relate a lot to EE are Korean language, science, and social studies respectively. 4. The content areas that are included a lot in textbooks are' natural environment', 'pollution', and' environmental conservation' respectively, while the contents of 'population','industrialization', 'ESSD' are included to a lesser degree. The content area most frequently mentioned in the textbooks is 'pollution', and the number of the contents are increasing along with the grade level. 5. Generally, the content areas of 'population', 'industrialization', and 'natural resources' are reflected in the textbooks to a lesser degree than others. 'Industrialization' is not included in the textbooks of grade 2, while 'population' is not included in ones of grade 4. According to the result, more concern about balanced EE in content areas is needed at the elementary school level. Similar studies tot K and secondary school levels are needed. The developmental study of EE guide book and teacher training for teaching EE using the book are also recommended.

• Journal of Korea Trade
• /
• v.27 no.4
• /
• pp.77-100
• /
• 2023

Purpose - Using the Model of Goal-Directed Behavior (MGB), this study identifies the critical factors that influence consumer intention to purchase an electric vehicle (EV). This study also provides differentiated policy implications to the Korean and Chinese governments and EV-related companies for the expansion of the EV market in both countries by comparing consumers' perceptions of EV purchase intentions. Design/methodology - Our extended MGB model adds to the standard model consideration of financial incentives, perceived risks, and environmental concerns. An online survey was conducted of Korean and Chinese consumers. Based on the collected responses, all tested hypotheses were verified using PLS-SEM (Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling). Differences in the path analysis results between Korea and China were compared and verified using Henseler's MGA (multi-group analysis), the parametric test, and the Welch-Satterthwaite test. Findings - The most critical factor that influences the intent to purchase an EV in consumers from both countries is personal desire. PBC and SN were identified as the critical factors that respectively increase personal desire in Korea and China. In addition, in Korea, among the three factors EC, FIP, and PR, environmental concerns were found to have the most significant impact on attitudes and purchase intention. In contrast, in China, economic factors (specifically financial incentives) had greater importance than environmental issues. Originality/value - This study has academic contributions in that it presents a new research model that includes financial incentive policies, environmental concerns, and perceived risk variables based on the MGB to explore consumers' purchase intentions. This study can also make a practical contribution in that it provides some meaningful implications to the governments and EV-related companies of both countries based on the differences in the analysis results of the Korean and Chinese markets.

• Food Science and Preservation
• /
• v.16 no.6
• /
• pp.999-1007
• /
• 2009

We investigated consumer perception of and concern for food safety. The subjects of this study were 275 urban housewives aged more than 20years. The results showed that vegetables and fruit showed the highest purchase frequency of 29.2%, and meat was the highest with 17.2% in the food which feel concerned about safety. Respondents observed that 'domestic food was safer than imported food' (3.92 on a 5 point scale) and 'I always feel concerned about food safety' (3.37). The study also showed that respondents were aware of environmental hormones (3.57), natural toxins (3.51), mad cow disease (3.48), and avian influenza (3.43), in that order. Finally, respondents were deeply concerned about mad cow disease (4.43), heavy metals in food (4.05), environmental hormones (4.02), food poisoning bacteria (3.96), avian influenza (3.87), agrichemical residues (3.86), and food additives (3.84), in that order.