• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.101-116
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• 2014

In the year 2013, Warren Buffett was named one of the most influential people of the year by TIME magazine. When people are exposed to such news, they show strong interest in who the influential people are and how those people became so successful. Likewise, people show strong attachment to other prominent figures as well. This social phenomenon indicates that people perceive well-known persona like business leaders, TV stars or sports stars etc. as human brands of intangible assets. As the role of these human brands is becoming more important, people tend to develop stronger attachment toward them. Another notable modern social phenomenon is people's pursuit of life-satisfaction and social well-being. People desire to increase their quality of life by having quality time with family and friends, and also by building attachment towards celebrities, sports stars, and so on. The main objective of this study is to examine how attachment toward human brands affects quality of life. While existing studies on human brands examined antecedents of attachment, e.g., some needs fulfillment such as A-R-C needs (autonomy, relatedness and competence needs) fulfillment, this study focuses on the outcome variables of attachment, e.g., how attachment toward human brands affects stress relief and life satisfaction through self-efficacy. Based on previous research, we divided human brands into two types: heroes and celebrities. Heroes are defined as people who have considerable and lasting importance on both societal and individual levels, and celebrities are defined as people who are well-known but have little or no short-term impact on society and individual levels. This study focuses on how attachment toward each type of human brands, celebrities and heroes, affects the quality of life or well-being. This study focuses on three important outcome variables; stress relief, life satisfaction, and self-efficacy, (three variables) which have been recently gaining importance, especially in the domain of positive psychology. Major findings from the present study show that although celebrities draw attachment from people by providing fun and entertainment or providing stress relief, they have weak influences on the wellbeing or efficacy of individuals at a deeper level. In contrast, attachment toward heroes helps people live better by providing meaning and positively influencing life satisfaction through self-efficacy (Frankl 1997). These results are consistent with the main tenet of 'positive psychology' which seeks "to find and nurture genius and talent and to make normal life more fulfilling" (Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi 2000). Considering the fact that certain celebrities are perceived as heroes to some, we can conclude that celebrities can become heroes if they provide meaning and value to the lives of people. This study contributes to the research stream of human brands since the most current leading research (e.g., Thomson 2006) indicated the need to look at the resulting effect of attachment on life satisfaction through self-efficacy. Another important contribution is that we empirically documented the different effects of celebrities and heroes. As expected, this study shows that heroes more deeply influence the lives of individuals in the long term while celebrities do so rather shallowly in the short term. The issues of the influence of heroes on the individuals' lives need to be further investigated in relation with the perspective of positive psychology.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.1-33
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• 2009

This research investigates the effect of brand-self identification on brand attachment and brand commitment focusing on luxury brand. Another purpose of this study is to examine how the relationships among brand identification, brand attachment and brand committment are moderated by consumers' regulatory focus. Structural Equation Modeling using 214 questionnaires was conducted to test hypothesized model. The results reveal that perceived luxury brand personality including excitement, competence, and sophistication influences brand-self identification positively, which in turn has a signifiant positive effect on the brand attachment. It is also found that consumers' emotional attachment to luxury brands has a positive influence on the luxury brand commitment while the effect of the brand-self identification on the brand commitment is not signifiant. This finding strongly supports that brand attachment and brand commitment are distinct construct, which confirms the results of the previous studies. In addition, the results show that consumers-luxury brands relationships are moderated by consumers' regulatory focus. This finding explains that prevention-focused individuals who have interdependent self-view respond to the loss caused by relationship break more sensitively compared to the promotion-focused consumers. Finally, based on the findings of this study, theoretical contribution and managerial implications are discussed.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.175-190
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• 2009

This study examines the influence of scale economy, technology, financing capability and market competition on economic performance by value chain in Korean solar energy companies, using the multiple logistic regression analysis. The current profit ratio is analyzed to have been positively affected by financing capability, while negatively by market competition. The scale economy and technology are analyzed to have no statistical significance on the economic performance. The current profit ratio for companies creating higher value in the sourcing process is negatively affected by technology while positively by financial capability. The one in the manufacturing process is affected positively by technology and financing capability, and the one in the marketing process is affected positively by financing capability while negatively by market competition. The implications of this study are as follows: Korean solar energy industry is recommended i) to establish the specific innovation system for technology development, ii) to set up advanced financial system, iii) to carry out the fractal system, the manufacturing system through the network of the firms owning core competence per value chain.

• Journal of the Korea Fashion and Costume Design Association
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.83-92
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• 2010

The current design paradigm shift which has been in progress around the world would be a good opportunity for Korea, which has led the age of information, to build design competence and gain international competitiveness. In addition, it would be a good idea for colleges as well as firms to develop a new educational system and create academia-industry-research synergy. This paper researches the market KU project promoted by Design Venture KU which has been established by the College of Artand Design of Konkuk University as a part of differentiation strategy. The methods to improve the competitiveness of Korean fashion design by uniting college creativity and market practicality are as follows: First, for convergence of creativity and practicality, it is necessary to come up with a systematic design-based educational system. In other words, the undergraduate program needs to gradually expand courses by focusing on creativity instead of functions while the graduate program should be able to develop design pattern, textile and marketing products and secure the market to gain competitiveness as a business incubator. Second, the working-level engineers as well as professors will be encouraged to participate in special lectures or seminars and take necessary lessons. In addition, academia-industry cooperation courses will be further strengthened. It is also important to actively participate in an official contest or exhibition and receive a prize. Third, to elicit creativity from students, it is necessary to help them think in a flexible and experimental way with voluntary and interesting programs. As mentioned above, it is expected that 'Market KU Project' would help students build expertise by offering them a chance to experience the real world and become the world's leading designers in Korean fashion design.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.41-57
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• 2017

Purpose - With the growth of the duty free shop field and an increase in the executive interest in it, it becomes necessary to examine if PBZ (1988) SERVQUAL could be applied to duty free shop service reflecting on this increased interest and the importance of marketing strategy alternative managing multinational customers. Therefore, the present research focused on the comparison of Korean and Chinese consumers. We examined how service quality would affect relationship quality and customer loyalty. Research design, data, and methodology - Surveys were distributed to 235 Korean and 220 Chinese consumers who have visited a Korean duty free shop. We analyzed frequency analysis, mean difference analysis, and reliability analysis, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation model analysis, and multi-group analysis. Results - First, perceived tangibles, responsiveness, empathy, assurance, price benefits, product diversity, and IT convenience of duty free shop service all appeared to be positive effect on customer satisfaction; at the same time, only tangibles, responsiveness, empathy, assurance, and price benefits positively affected customer trust. Secondly, customer satisfaction and trust that are the components of the relationship quality appeared to be positive effect on customer loyalty. Thirdly, customers' satisfaction was found to play a full mediating role effect among all of the service quality factors with customer loyalty; however, customer trust was found to have the mediating effects only with tangibles, empathy, assurance, and price benefits. Fourthly, we found a difference between how service quality influences relationship quality and how service quality influences customer loyalty as a function of different nationality. As a result, it appeared that price benefits and IT convenience affected customer satisfaction more among Koreans than among Chinese. Finally, it appeared that customer satisfaction and trust affected customer loyalty more among Chinese than among Koreans. Conclusions - The results of this study contribute to the theoretical knowledge, but also provide strategic alternatives to enhance differentiation, international competence of enterprises led by duty free shop and service quality improvement and customer loyalty of enterprises are drawn as a foundation for constructing international customer relationship in future global era.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.13 no.8
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• pp.334-347
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• 2013

This study aimed to develop positioning strategies through the preparation of a positioning map by introducing brand personality to online shopping malls. Such a study will be able to furnish useful information for establishing differentiated marketing strategies in the online shopping mall market, which has faced fierce competition. For research subjects, the study was aimed at students who were attending S college in the Busan region. The results of an empirical analysis are as follows. The brand personality of online shopping malls were deduced to be the following factors: "competence refinement", "vitality", "intimateness", and "reliability". Then the study prepared a positioning map with these assessment attributes. As a result, there were mutually significant differences among competitive shopping malls in the positioning of consumers. The most differentiated attributes in the perception of the entire group were discovered to be "intimateness" and "vitality", whereas the least differentiated attribute was found to be "reliability". In addition, also in terms of the preference and ideal points for online shopping malls in accordance with brand personality between the entire group and segmented groups, there were mutually significant differences.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.9 no.11
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• pp.348-362
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• 2009

It is a tentative study on the influence of the consumers' motivation of charity impulse on their loyalty who donate to non-profit organizations. Based on the self-determination theory, this thesis paper analyzed the motivation of charity impulse on non-profit organizations which is the main factor influencing the donation loyalty with consumer-nonprofit identification as parametric variables. According to this study, it seems that the charity impulse caused by the concepts of autonomy of the self-determination theory has negative influence on consumer-nonprofit identification, donation loyalty. But relation-competence has positive influence to nonprofit organizations. Considering without any studies on donators' motivation of charity impulse from the aspect of psychology to non-profit organizations, as the very initial exploratory study, this study is conducted to analyze the possible factors to influence customers' motivation of chanty impulse on the basis of the self-determination theory so that it has a vital significance, which can furnish fundamental data to charitable organizations to carry out effective marketing strategies to guarantee the source of the money collection.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.157-169
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of voluntary purchasing motives on insurance consumer satisfaction. The purpose of this study is to investigate the direct and indirect effects of insurance consumption satisfaction including psychological needs of consumers that induce voluntary purchase motivation based on psychological self-determinism theory. The research hypotheses and models were verified through structural equation analysis using online surveys of 1,225 insurance consumers. As a result of the study, the satisfaction of insurance consumption is increased when purchasing by voluntary purchase motive, in which consumers perceive the necessity of purchasing themselves. The positive perception of insurance consumption autonomy and insurance consumption environment increases the motivation to purchase voluntarily, Respectively. Through this study, it is suggested that excessive marketing of insurance companies and self-confidence of insurance consumers may hinder insurance consumption satisfaction and education of consumption attitudes of financial consumers to raise awareness of autonomous rights and responsibilities of insurance consumers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.36 no.9
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• pp.979-990
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• 2012

This study explores the correlation between personality traits, customer orientation, job satisfaction, and job performance. This study examines the impacts of personality traits and customer orientation on job satisfaction and job performance. Data were collected using a questionnaire survey. A convenience sample was drawn from salespeople working for department stores in Daegu and Pohang between September $1^{st}$ to $7^{th}$ 2011. A total of 337 responses were complete and usable questionnaires. Data were tested through factor analysis, correlation analysis, and regression analysis, using SPSS 12.0. Three main points are shown through this study. First, the correlation of all five factors extracted from salespeople personality traits with customer orientation was statistically significant. Personality traits and customer orientation were partially correlated with job satisfaction or job performance. Second, the regression analysis was conducted to examine the influence of personality traits and customer orientation on job satisfaction; subsequently, only two factors extracted from customer orientation (consideration for customers and customer-centered thinking) were significant predictors of job satisfaction. Third, the result of the regression analysis between personality traits and job performance showed that the most influential predictor of job performance was conscientiousness, followed by likeability, openness and introversion. The most influential factor between customer orientation and job performance was competence in providing product information, followed by consideration for customers, customer-centered thinking, and a reliability-focused response.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.88-97
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• 2018

As the trade among the countries increases, domestic agriculture is facing a crisis. Especially domestic rice industry is suffering from the rice market opening problem and the domestic rice industry itself. As a counter measure against this, despite the promotion of the rice processing food industry, the export of rice processed food has decreased by an average annual rate of 12.3% since 2011 due to the lack of customized export strategy, such as low price competitiveness, insufficient quality and brand management. As a measure, we selected indicators to prioritize establishment of export strategy of rice processed food business and used AHP methodology to draw the weight for each indicators. The selection of export strategy prioritization indicator was based on the marketing mix theory, various previous research reviews and expert consulting. Five higher level indicators and nineteen detailed indicators were derived, and a weighted value of them was analyzed using a professional package. As a result, the relative importance of higher level indicators was 45.5% for product differentiation, 18.4% for management competence, 13.0% for export infrastructure, 12.0% for product pricing, and 11.1% for product distribution. The relative importance of the lower level indicators was 17.3% for product safety, 15.3% for product quality, 9.1% for management expertise, and 7.0% for product brand. This result is expected to be used as export strategy indicators of rice processed food export business.