• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.15 no.12
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• pp.21-30
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• 2017

Purpose - This research approaches to the new niche market of medical tourism to investigate how factors of cultural similarity influence the international distribution management. This study also estimates the interaction effects of distribution channel on the relationships of facility attributes and customers' destination choice behavior. Research design, data, and methodology - We collected the sample of 881 potential customers from the more economically developed regions in China. Regression analysis is used to confirm the relationships in the research model. Results - The result shows that cultural similarity plays an important moderating role in the relationships of facility attributes and destination choice intention. For instance, power distance and masculinity interact with the distribution facility characteristics of medical quality and reputation to influence customers' selection of the destination country. Individualism, powder distance, and masculinity play moderating roles when social environment affects destination choice intention. Especially, all the elements of cultural similarity moderate the relationships between travel cost and destination choice intention. This research also proves that depending on distribution channel, determinants of distribution facility are the critical predictors of intention to select the medical service outside of China. Conclusions - The study enables managers to develop the more effective strategies reflecting the interaction effects of cultural similarity and distribution channel on customers' decision-making process.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.47-55
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• 1997

A vacation destination was conceptualized to be chosen through a three-stage process consisting of an early consideration set formation, a late consideration set formation, and a final selection stage. Choice criteria were defined as an individual's belief toward the relationships between perceived attributes, expected outcomes, and the destination. And these criteria were assumed to be divided into benefit-related dimension and perceived risk-related dimension. Through two pilot surveys, 13 items which have 4 factors were identified. used on 4 factor structures, the benefit-related dimension was identified to be consisted of three sub-dimensions, "historic/cultural", "escaped" and "naturalness". A longitudinal panel survey was used to test the differences of the importance of choice dimensions through the choice process. The importance of benefit-related dimension was decreased through the choice process as hypothesized except "naturalness" factor. And as hypothesized, the importance of perceived risk-related dimension was increased.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.75-95
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• 2006

This study attempted to determine the influence of organizational structure on the novelty preference for corporate meeting destination choice. The three dimensions of structure incorporated were formalization, centralization and complexity. A total of 75 corporate meeting planners drawn from public listed services organizations were involved. The main method of data collection was questionnaire survey and multiple regression analysis was employed as the main statistical technique. The results revealed that both formalization and centralization were negatively correlated with novelty preference while complexity was positively correlated. However, only complexity contributed significantly to the prediction of novelty preference for corporate meeting destination choice. The main implication of this study is pertaining to the segmentation and targeting of the corporate meeting market. This study helped in bridging the gap between tourism marketing and organizational research. It also contributed by developing the measurement for novelty preference from the context of experiential marketing.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.128-143
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• 1991

To understand and predict destination choice behavior for urban parks, two hypotheses, which are based on extended Fishbein model, were proposed and tested in Kwangju. Data was analyzed by the citizens of Kwangju and by target markets segmented by demographic variables. Analysis by the citizens of Kwangju showed that postulated hypotheses are true. However, they were partially thru in the other cases : it was a general tendency that suggested model applied well in the high-involvement product. Among the demographic variables, sex was the most useful to understand park choice behavior. Park management directions were suggested, and several future research implications were discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.302-308
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• 2009

This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of intercity rail passengers' and travel patterns based on the 2001 Seoul-Busan rail passengers' Travel Survey. Results representing personal characteristics such as age and income seem to affect on destination the income was not seen to be a critical effect on destination choice. The variables such as travel time, transfer status, and date for travel seem to be and recreation activity. However, the destination choice would be relationship between Seoul and all four destination cities. The insights gained of an activity-based rail travel demand model.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.68-82
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• 2016

Destination choice analysis is an important issue of transportation demand research. The current study analyses the influential factors for university students' trip destination choice. The university students differ from other population groups in many aspects. The study is concerned with shopping, leisure and amusement purposes of trips, other than obligatory trips such as going to school. University students' daily life differs from those of employees and middle and high school students in the sense that a lot of flexible activities are mixed with fixed activities such as work and school attending. A multinomial logit analysis investigates the significance of the impact of a set of variables including residential location, gender and income of the university student. The results show that these variables affect the destination choice of shopping, leisure and amusement. The analysis also provides interesting interpretation of the relationships of the variables with the location choices, which are particularly relevant to the university students.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.9 no.8
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• pp.7-16
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• 2018

Purpose - The effect of regional culture has been acknowledged for decades. However, very little research takes it as an important issue in the medical tourism service decision process. This study focuses on regional culture to identify customers' preference for medical tourism in the international environment. It is proposed that regional culture may work as an critical moderator in the international medical tourism destination choice process. Especially, the destination attributes may vary according to regional culture. Research design, data, and methodology - By the questionnaire survey, the sample is collected from 2,041 potential Chinese residents in different regions of China. Regression analysis is constructed to test the effect of regional culture on Chinese customers' destination preference. Results - Results imply that regional culture plays a critical moderating role in the destination choice process. Results also indicate that destination attributes including medicine and travel characteristics are the important predictors of destination preference. Conclusions - This study provides the fundamental base to use regional culture as a descriptive variable for segmentation when establishing an effective marketing strategy. Furthermore, this research suggests that different strategies relied on destination attributes should be made to attract more Chinese customers for the development of medical tourism industry.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.35-42
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• 1989

The multinomial logit model has been applied for various choice problems. Among others, the joint destination mode choice, the mode choice and the route choice are the three major modeling topics for korean transportation planners. This paper examines with real world data (the Olympic road and its competing two major arterials) the usefulness of a Logit route choice model. Quites surpisingly, it is found that the multinomial route choice behavioral model calibrated for this study based on (0,1) individula data base can not provide a good estimate for O-D trips less than 6㎞. 400data points and 3case studies might not be sufficient for a sound conclusion. It is, however, believed from a series of similar studies conducted by the authors that the route choice behavior is more sensitive (more demand elastic with respect to travel time changes) than the mode choice and the shorter trip, the more sensitive. The travel time parameters for destination choice models are usually smalle than the travel time parameters for mode choice models and these parameters (for mode choice models) turn our smaller than the travel time parameters for route choice models from this study. Table 2 in this paper shows parameter changes for three different markets and Table 3 shows the modeling errors when the estimated individual probabilities are aggregated into a route level.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.14 no.7
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• pp.21-31
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• 2016

Purpose - With globalization, medical tourism has developed as a new industry, which attracts practitioners and academics to have more interest in researches on customers' behavior. This research was to investigate empirically WOM effects on the intention of Chinese customers when they select an international medical tourism destination. Interestingly, WOM effects on their choice and decision process may vary by the extent of their severity of illness. Research design, data, and methodology - The data was collected from 1,747 potential Chinese residents in main districts of China. Moderated regression analysis was used to estimate WOM effects on Chinese customers' choice intention. Results - Results imply that WOM determinants of tie strength, credibility, and vividness do interact with medical tourism information and affect customers' intention for health care abroad. Results also reveal that the severity of illness plays a critical moderating role in customers' decision process. Conclusions - WOM and the severity of illness are important moderators for Chinese customers to make a decision for medical tourism. It provides some implications for service organizations for developing and implementing marketing strategies in international health care markets.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.67-76
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• 2018

Purpose - With the worldwide aging problem and the development of globalization, customers prefer to seek affordable medical services with the higher quality overseas. This new trend has urged some destination countries to improve their services for the more competitive advantages over other countries. Literature research indicate that medical quality and cost may be the key factors influencing global patients' decisions. In the international environment, however, medical tourism destinations are selected due to cultural similarity between the hosting country and the customers' own country. The more similarity perceived between the two countries leads foreign patients to choose the considering country as the destination for medical tourism. However, little research has been conducted on this topic. Thus, we empirically investigate how cultural similarity influences Chinese medical customers' choice of the destinations. We also consider the factors related to medical competency and travel attribute which might affect customers' decisions along with some moderating roles of disease types. Research design, data, and methodology - We proposed a research model in order to confirm the relations among different variables of cultural similarity, medical competency, travel attractiveness, disease types, and destination choice. The questionnaire survey is processed in the more economically developed regions of China such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Jiangsu. Conditional logit regression is applied to analyze the data of 881. Results - Results indicate that cultural similarity is the important predictor of Chinese customers' decision to select a medical country. However, the effects of cultural similarity vary according to the disease types. We also find that medical competency and travel attractiveness influence their decisions with the moderating role of disease types. Conclusions - Cultural similarity is the important factor that influences Chinese potential medical tourists' decisions to select a destination. Marketing managers should consider the effects of cultural similarity when developing strategies for attracting Chinese medical tourists. Since medical competency and travel attractiveness are still the critical key elements for them to evaluate the destination countries, it is necessary to continuously improve medical service quality and facilities. The results also recommend that medical managers should sharpen their marketing strategies by segmenting Chinese potential customers in terms of disease types.