• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.61-101
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• 2014

This study investigates when and how disagreements in online customer ratings prompt more favorable product evaluations. Among the three metrics of volume, valence, and variance that feature in the research on online customer ratings, volume and valence have exhibited consistently positive patterns in their effects on product sales or evaluations (e.g., Dellarocas, Zhang, and Awad 2007; Liu 2006). Ratings variance, or the degree of disagreement among reviewers, however, has shown rather mixed results, with some studies reporting positive effects on product sales (e.g., Clement, Proppe, and Rott 2007) while others finding negative effects on product evaluations (e.g., Zhu and Zhang 2010). This study aims to resolve these contradictory findings by introducing preference heterogeneity as a possible moderator and causal attribution as a mediator to account for the moderating effect. The main proposition of this study is that when preference heterogeneity is perceived as high, a disagreement in ratings is attributed more to reviewers' different preferences than to unreliable product quality, which in turn prompts better quality evaluations of a product. Because disagreements mostly result from differences in reviewers' tastes or the low reliability of a product's quality (Mizerski 1982; Sen and Lerman 2007), a greater level of attribution to reviewer tastes can mitigate the negative effect of disagreement on product evaluations. Specifically, if consumers infer that reviewers' heterogeneous preferences result in subjectively different experiences and thereby highly diverse ratings, they would not disregard the overall quality of a product. However, if consumers infer that reviewers' preferences are quite homogeneous and thus the low reliability of the product quality contributes to such disagreements, they would discount the overall product quality. Therefore, consumers would respond more favorably to disagreements in ratings when preference heterogeneity is perceived as high rather than low. This study furthermore extends this prediction to the various levels of average ratings. The heuristicsystematic processing model so far indicates that the engagement in effortful systematic processing occurs only when sufficient motivation is present (Hann et al. 2007; Maheswaran and Chaiken 1991; Martin and Davies 1998). One of the key factors affecting this motivation is the aspiration level of the decision maker. Only under conditions that meet or exceed his aspiration level does he tend to engage in systematic processing (Patzelt and Shepherd 2008; Stephanous and Sage 1987). Therefore, systematic causal attribution processing regarding ratings variance is likely more activated when the average rating is high enough to meet the aspiration level than when it is too low to meet it. Considering that the interaction between ratings variance and preference heterogeneity occurs through the mediation of causal attribution, this greater activation of causal attribution in high versus low average ratings would lead to more pronounced interaction between ratings variance and preference heterogeneity in high versus low average ratings. Overall, this study proposes that the interaction between ratings variance and preference heterogeneity is more pronounced when the average rating is high as compared to when it is low. Two laboratory studies lend support to these predictions. Study 1 reveals that participants exposed to a high-preference heterogeneity book title (i.e., a novel) attributed disagreement in ratings more to reviewers' tastes, and thereby more favorably evaluated books with such ratings, compared to those exposed to a low-preference heterogeneity title (i.e., an English listening practice book). Study 2 then extended these findings to the various levels of average ratings and found that this greater preference for disagreement options under high preference heterogeneity is more pronounced when the average rating is high compared to when it is low. This study makes an important theoretical contribution to the online customer ratings literature by showing that preference heterogeneity serves as a key moderator of the effect of ratings variance on product evaluations and that causal attribution acts as a mediator of this moderation effect. A more comprehensive picture of the interplay among ratings variance, preference heterogeneity, and average ratings is also provided by revealing that the interaction between ratings variance and preference heterogeneity varies as a function of the average rating. In addition, this work provides some significant managerial implications for marketers in terms of how they manage word of mouth. Because a lack of consensus creates some uncertainty and anxiety over the given information, consumers experience a psychological burden regarding their choice of a product when ratings show disagreement. The results of this study offer a way to address this problem. By explicitly clarifying that there are many more differences in tastes among reviewers than expected, marketers can allow consumers to speculate that differing tastes of reviewers rather than an uncertain or poor product quality contribute to such conflicts in ratings. Thus, when fierce disagreements are observed in the WOM arena, marketers are advised to communicate to consumers that diverse, rather than uniform, tastes govern reviews and evaluations of products.

• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.1-34
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• 2006

The purpose of this study Is to develop empirically validated instrument for business model. The previous researches related to business model were almost taxonomies. And the focus of those researches were the classification by the degree of integration and innovation the origin, and the main source of revenue etc. In the emerging fields such as IT, e-commerce, and e-business, it tends to overlook methodological issue in its substantive relationships and also measurement. Business model is taken an interest in recent years. However, as the non-establishment of construct on business model has made no empirical study, this, study tries to develop an empirical validated instrument that identifies the dimensions of business model by uncovering meaningful group or categories. For this, the outlined domain of business model are defined as an organizational level that competes in the industry through the literature reviews. And the traits such as process integration, value chain reconstruction, strategic alliance with another business model, specialty in a certain wet sustainability of essential capabilities, differentiation, convertibility, customer orientation, revenue stream, newness, innovation leadership: and vision sharing are identified in those respective domains, and then the traits are classified into five dimensions such as interlinkageableness, valueness, functionalness, preemptiveness, and goalness by their characteristics. Generating items are continued on the basis of operationalization. Confirmatory factor analysis is performed in order to develop validated instrument with LISREL measurement model. Finally the instrument is developed through the previous procedure. The implication of this study is the first empirical effort to assess business model. The resulting instrument can be used with dependent variables in the future study related to business model. And the establishment of construct of business model is able to make a basis to rise an additional issue consequently. In the practical side, the instrument also can be employed as an assessment framework that can assess whether the expected value success or not. The instrument with the measurement can be used on competitor's business model, In. When an investment into a i-m with a specific business model, these instrument developed can be presented as the basic framework of assessment.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.617-627
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• 2020

This study investigates the apparel sizing communication presented in online retail websites focusing on women's ready-to-wear tailored jackets and to analyze the meaning of these information as the actual product size guide factor. A total of 34 retail websites were selected based on the highest growth fashion companies list and the best fashion brands list. We collected size information in two types: size specifications including sizing code, body measurements, garment measurements, and size references including customized size guide tools, size information in customer reviews, model size information, and others. Most websites prefer to present garment measurements rather than body measurements that are recommended notations under Korean standards and related regulations. In addition, there was the absence of consistency in presenting measurements list and terms that can confuse consumers in size communication. This study found that the stature measurement was a key factor in size reference despite that it did not represent a proper garment size. The obsolete Korean numbering sizing code such as '55 and '66 was still used in many ways such as idiomatic expressions for body shape. It also implied that we can take advantage of the old sizing code for accessible size information. The finding of this study gives an in-depth diagnosis of current online sizing information problems and suggests useful basic data for developing online apparel size standards and marketing strategies.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.14 no.12
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• pp.950-958
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• 2014

According to the rapid spreading of smart phone, the use of social network service(SNS) is also increasing rapidly. Social network service(SNS) which plays an important role in customer relationship management and brand management is becoming more important. This study aims to find out if differences exist in the perceptions of service quality and the consumer behaviors between Korean and Chinese consumers using SNS. In order to achieve the objectives of the study, the literatures of service quality and consumer behavior theory is reviewed. And based on the literature reviews, dimensions related to service quality and consumer behavior are derived and T-test is used to identify the differences. According to the analysis, significant differences exist in the perceptions of service quality and consumer behaviors between Korean and Chinese consumers using SNS. The results not only provide theoretical evidences for further SNS study but also provide practical evidences for companies in their overseas expansion.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.153-164
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• 2013

Business model innovation creates differentiated value to customers by transforming various elements of doing business. Rather than focusing singularly on either the external or internal environment, the business model innovation aims to identify the optimal combination of internal resources, competence, and the external factors, such as customer's needs and new opportunity. However, due to lack of clear definition of business model innovation, and inability to generate company's core business model, business model innovation has been difficult for companies to lead next growth. This paper reviews existing definitions of business model innovation and explore existing types of business model innovation and timing of business model innovation through two case studies. Concept of business model innovation which we identify, is composed of value proposition, value creation through value chains and networks, and profit model innovation. Finally, we demonstrates that already successful businesses can also create new values through business model innovation and adaptive advantage, even in a rapidly changing market environment.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.439-448
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• 2018

This thesis intends to suggest a new wedding dress pattern through researches on history and changes of wedding dress, researches on silhouette and details and analyses of existing basic patterns. In this study, to develop torso patterns of top dresses selected as preferred designs through literature reviews and company surveys, dress form sizes suitable for standard sizes were selected and study basic patterns were made using draping techniques. The study finds characteristics of body type dimension that is changed when wearing brassiere (hereinafter, 'bra') for wedding dress through customer surveys for development of basic patterns of wedding dress. That is, wearing wedding bra was used for the purpose of increasing the bust size and we will evaluate later whether this increase helps completeness of aesthetic impression through wearing evaluation. As the result, it was found out that top torso pattern wearing wedding bra made wearers feel more comfortable and in the aspect of aesthetic impression, it provided impacts on women's beautiful silhouettes. The effects of whether a bra is used or not on changes in patterns were reviewed through the degree of polymerization of finished patterns. When a bra for dresses was worn, the waist front length increased by1.7cm, the bust circumference increased by 2.1cm, and the amount of dart increased by 1.5cm in the patterns. A new torso pattern for top dresses, which will solve problems evaluated in each of the above from the aspect of composition of pattern by a method through analysis of existing basic patterns and multi-dimensional cut patterns wearing wedding bra, will be suggested.

• The Journal of the Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.239-244
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• 2015

We can build regular relationships with customers by integrating SNS (Social Networking Service) and internet shopping mall functions. For example of direct dealing of agricultural products, consumers can find news of regular sellers (seeding, farming, harvesting and new products) in the timeline at their SNS home. Then, they can purchase the necessary products by one click motion. The sellers provide news and discount information for building regular customers. Besides these SNS personal connection building, our system provides shopping mall functions to consumer's SNS home pages with auto classified catalog of products. Then, consumes easily find necessary products and these purchase may lead to regular relationships with sellers. Consumers may redistribute recommendations and reviews and it enables direct communications between consumers who are unknown to each other.

• Journal of KIISE
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• v.43 no.9
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• pp.1008-1014
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• 2016

Data such as Twitter, Facebook, and customer reviews belong to the informal document group, whereas, newspapers that have grammar correction step belong to the formal document group. Finding consistent rules or patterns in informal documents is difficult, as compared to formal documents. Hence, there is a need for additional approaches to improve informal document analysis. In this study, we classified Twitter data, a representative informal document, into ten categories. To improve performance, we revised and expanded features based on LDA(Latent Dirichlet allocation) word distribution. Using LDA top-ranked words, the other words were separated or bundled, and the feature set was thus expanded repeatedly. Finally, we conducted document classification with the expanded features. Experimental results indicated that the proposed method improved the micro-averaged F1-score of 7.11%p, as compared to the results before the feature expansion step.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.24 no.8
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• pp.39-62
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• 2020

Purpose - Korean exports account for a vast proportion of Korean GDP, and large volumes of Korean products are sold in the United States. Identifying and characterizing actual and potential product hazards related to Korean products is critical to safeguard Korean export trade, as severe quality issues can impair Korea's reputation and reduce global consumer confidence in Korean products. In this study, we develop country-of-origin-based product risk analysis methods for social media with a specific focus on Korean-labeled products, for the purpose of safeguarding Korean export trade. Design/methodology - We employed two social media datasets containing consumer-generated product reviews. Sentiment analysis is a popular text mining technique used to quantify the type and amount of emotion that is expressed in the text. It is a useful tool for gathering customer opinions regarding products. Findings - We document and discuss the specific potential risks found in Korean-labeled products and explain their implications for safeguarding Korean export trade. Finally, we analyze the false positive matches that arise from the established dictionaries that were used for risk discovery and utilize these classification errors to suggest opportunities for the future refinement of the associated automated text analytic methods. Originality/value - Various studies have used online feedback from social media to analyze product defects. However, none of them links their findings to trade promotion and the protection of a specific country's exports. Therefore, it is important to fill this research gap, which could help to safeguard export trade in Korea.

• Journal of Practical Agriculture & Fisheries Research
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.21-43
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• 2015

Korean floricultural industry has grown under the full backing of government, as it placed itself as the main export item since 2000s. Despite its high-speed growth after the domestic production scale of trillion won, the floricultural industry lost its pace after 2005, due to the market-opening of agricultural product and global economic depression. Although the national income is growing and the level of civilized living is following, spending on flowers is faltering. As of such circumstances, necessity for analyzing flower consumption trend and behavior has came out, along with the calls for expansion plan of flower consumption, under the basis of result analysis on consumer reports. The result of the research contains the trend/consumption behavior analysis on domestic and foreign flower industry to boost floricultural industry, along with reviews on various studies of the developmental process of domestic and foreign cut-flowers/pot-plants consumption trend. Also this study has reached to the various recognition of people toward flower, through a public survey. Through such results, this study would like to propose the measures for diffusion of flower-consumption culture, achieving the improvement of life-quality of public along. First, efforts on reviewing the customer accessibility is essential to create flower- culture and the consumption. Second, to eliminate the obstacles that prevents flowers from public's daily life is essential. Third is the effective public-relations on flowers. To create consuming culture and to adhere the positive images, it is essential to research and systematically organize categories of color, scent, and elements of flower and utilize them. Last proposal is the organization of flower-concerned personnels and the leading groups. The change is affected by the economical, social environment, along with the emotions of consumers. Therefore the necessity for the leading group to be the control-tower of such changes are very clear.