• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.559-573
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• 2008

Internet apparel businesses are required to provide various kinds of consumer information which includes both product information and customer service information. "New Age Elderly" who become an aged man in 21th century are familiar with internet and other high technological tools from their life time experience with technological development and ready to enjoy the convenience the technology offers. As a preliminary step to develop internet consumer information model for elderly consumers, this study examines the US and Korea apparel e-tailing sites targeting elderly consumers. Ten Korean sites and nine US sites were selected and compared for their provision of consumer information in terms of contents, ease to access, and the completeness of the information. Results of data analysis indicate that elderly market in Korea is not yet clearly defined compared to the US. In Korea, elderly consumer market is considered as a part of middle-aged market, and there was no unique target marketing efforts observed. Korean sites are better than the US's sites in terms of shopping information, while the US sites offer detailed information about the company, and customer service information. In both countries, fashion related information is lacking and failing to satisfy fashion conscious elderly consumers. Managerial implications were discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.156-166
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• 2011

This study investigated the casual jacket design preferences of women aged 50s and 60s and suggested a prototype design for functional clothing. All age groups liked the casual jacket with a length between the waist and hip, a convertible collar, and a single-breasted design. Those in their 50s preferred fitted or semi-fitted casual jackets while those in their 60s preferred semi-fitted casual jackets. Although, there were significant differences between the preferred jacket designs and ready-made brand jacket designs, most brand jacket designs were casual, semi-fitted, middle-hip length, single-breasted, and with stand-rolled or convertible collars. The analysis of the sleeve styles in brand jackets showed that consumers needed designs that are more decorative. Fashion designers for senior citizens need to design elderly clothing that is comfortable, fashionable, functional, and considers a universal design for ease of clothing function. It will also make the senior citizen fashion market more appealing to consumers. To provide jacket designs for senior citizens, we suggested casual jacket designs for embedding a functional device as well as a new jacket design library for women in their 50s and 60s.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.32 no.10
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• pp.1509-1521
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• 2008

The subjects of this study were middle-aged women in their 40s$\sim$50s and older women aged 60 and over who were living in Seoul and Kyonggi-do, Korea. Through studying the participants' responses to the questions regarding the attributes of apparel quality in terms of the levels of satisfaction and importance, the target consumers' demand has been studied. And, they are applied to a QFD Matrix, to find out the relationship between the attributes of product quality and the guidelines of clothing design. For this study, apparel product quality is composed of five parameters: practicality, aesthetics, brand image, ease of care and fit. For the parameters of apparel product quality, the result of this study show that product improvements are needed in fit, aesthetics and practicality(in order of importance). The level of satisfaction(how satisfied consumer feels) was marked higher in brand image than that of importance(how important it is). To review demands for the apparel product attributes of formal suits for middle-aged and older women, the priority of these attributes through QFD Matrix that shows the relationship between the attributes and dress elements emphasized by designers has been examined. Material was the most important design element in designing formal suits. The shape of the pants was the second because the harmony between the jacket and the pants is important in formal suits. These were followed by trim and color tone of the jacket.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.60-72
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• 2018

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine differences in eating-out, dietary life styles, and healthy dietary competencies among middle-aged consumers according to obesity status and gender for implications of consumer education. Methods: Data were drawn from the 2016 Food Consumption Behavior Survey, and 3,022 subjects (mail 1,388; female 1,634) who were middle-aged adults were investigated. Analysis of variance with $Scheff\acute{e}$ test, t-test, $x^2$-test, and factor analysis were performed using SPSS v.24. Results: Males showed less interest in diet than females. For both males and females, higher BMI degrees were associated with higher levels of interest in diet. For frequency, monthly average consumption expenditure, one-time cost for eating out, and drinking frequency, males showed higher levels than females. Especially for the male group, higher obesity status was associated with higher levels of eating out and drinking. Dietary lifestyles of males and females turned out to be very similar. For the male group, normal weight group was more likely to show 'health and high quality pursuit dietary life-style' than the other groups. For females, the normal weight group were more likely to show 'health and high quality pursuit dietary life-style' and 'safety pursuit dietary life-style' than the other groups. The level of 'healthy dietary competence' for females was found to be higher than that for males. For the female group, there were significant differences according to obesity status, and practice was more important than knowledge in determining a healthy dietary life. Conclusion: For dietary life-related education for obese middle-aged consumers, it is important to emphasize less eating-out and drinking and less overeating while eating-out based on the results that eating-out, drinking, and overeating in the obesity group were significantly higher than in the normal group. It is important to focus on the value of dietary life and diverse foods, based on the results that the obesity group was less likely to be have healthy dietary lifestyles and consume less diverse foods than the normal group.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.183-194
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• 2022

This study aims to understand the consumers' negative responses to communication failure of chatbots caused by their imperfections. Specifically, this study examines 1) the relationship among chatbot's communication failure, dissatisfaction, negative behavior (complaint, negative word-of-mouth (nWOM), and inertia); 2) the moderating effect of technostress on the relationship between chatbot's communication failure and dissatisfaction; 3) the differences in the negative responses between the generation MZ and the previous generations. Data were collected via an online survey. First, the participants interacted with the chatbot developed for this survey, to experience the chatbot's communication failure. Thereafter, they responded to a questionnaire. PLS-SEM was conducted using the R software environment to test the hypotheses. This study empirically identified that chatbot's communication failure positively affected dissatisfaction. In addition, the customers who were more dissatisfied with the chatbot's communication failures were more likely to complain than engage in nWOM. Compared to the generation MZ, chatbot's communication failure caused a higher level of dissatisfaction in previous generations. The results suggest that online shopping malls should carefully introduce an improved chatbot service after minimizing its communication failure rate. The chatbot developers of online shopping malls targeting middle-aged and elderly consumers should strive to develop and implement strategies to further alleviate consumers' dissatisfaction in the situation of chatbot's communication failure.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.556-568
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• 2018

In this study, we surveyed the current status and sizing system of the custom dress shirts sold through online shopping, compared with the sizing system of the ready-made dress shirts. We tried to collect the information needed to make the well fitted dress shirts for middle-aged men from this study. The 17 online custom dress shirt brands were selected and the sales type, sales price, design options and size options of each brand were analyzed. The sizing systems of online custom dress shirt brands were compared with the sizing system of the 10 ready made dress shirt brands. The result showed that online custom dress shirts brands offered a variety of design options and size options to meet the consumers' individuality, taste and demand for good fit. In the ready-made brands, all 10 brands were using the same size notation system. In the same size designation, the difference in product size among the ready-made brands showed a tendency to be smaller than the online custom brands. The online custom brands had the different size notation system among brands. The size notation, the number of size designation and the size interval were different for each brand. Also, in the online custom brands, the product size among brands differed from each other in the same size designation. Therefore, the standardized size information and sizing system for middle-aged men that could be used as criteria when making the product size and pattern design in online custom brands were needed.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.15-26
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• 1999

The purpose of the study was to investigate brand images and fashion leaderships of women's wear manufacturers targeting middle-aged women or older women. Thus, this study was to be an exploratory study to investigate clothing behavior of elderly female consumers and search apprel niche-market for them. The questionnaire consists of questions on brand images, fashion leadership, and merchandise assortment. The subjects were to evaluate their brand images and rated on 5 point Likert-type scales of 29 adjectives. The fashion leadership of these brands was evaluated by the degree of fashion trends adopted on 7 aspects including fashion images, silhouettes, fabrics, colors, design details, accessories, and item-coordinations. For the survey, both interview and the subjects were 66 manufacturers which have national brands or designer brands. Among 44 respondents, 30 respondents were designers and the rest of them were merchandiser or shop managers. The SPSS PC+ package was used to calculate frequency, T-test, and cluster analysis. The results from survey of manufacturers targeting middle-aged women or older women are as follow: 1) The brand imges which they pursue are prestigious, practical, and elegance. 2) There were significant differences in brand images, and national brand manufacturers pursue stronger images in prestigious, chic, intelligent, competency, than designer brand manufacturers. 3) 40 brands were divided into two clusters. 36 brands were included in one cluster, and only 4 brand were belong to the other cluster. In this market, the image of feminity was grouped with the image of prestigious, chic, intelligent, competency. 4) In product planning, the adption level of fashion trends in 7 aspects was generally at medium level, but fashion trends were more adopted in fabric, color, and item-coordination.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.11-18
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to investigate the trends of Hanbok pattern research published in journals and theses. We collected 70 articles related to the Hanbok pattern. The articles were divided into 7 chronicles based on publishing year, and analyzed by journal, publishing year, research theme, wearing subject and research pattern. Researches can be categorized into journals, university research paper, and master's theses. After 1981, studies on the pattern of Hanbok have been continuing. Most researches were focused on traditional Hanbok, especially about Jeogori. Research on modernized Hanbok started from Vchronicle(2001~2005), but it has not progressed anymore. According to the analysis on wearing subject, the number of research for female Hanbok was almost three times that of the male. Most researches were performed on adult Hanbok, and subjects were expanded to children, adolescents and middle-aged. The body shape of the wearer did not mentioned on many articles. Pattern researches started from excavated costume, but most researches were about commercial patterns. These researches on the pattern on Hanbok have shown an increasing tendency as the years passed, but researches on modernized Hanbok, including Hanbok pattern development for modern life style should be conducted more actively. In an aging society, as the number of middle-aged consumers increases, pattern research on middle-aged or older people and their various body shapes should be necessary.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fashion and Beauty
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• v.4 no.1 s.7
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• pp.4-11
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• 2006

Masstige goods aimed consumers who want the fame and the emotional contents with reasonable price are presented overall and around the life style, from all the fashion items like bag and apparel to car, electric household, food, sports goods, furniture, toys, pets and performance of art, etc. Masstige casual, essentially different from the passed casuals which emphasized only price strategy, appeals to teenagers and young of twenties with a definite brand concept. Therefore masstige casual might be separated from business casual of a target aged thirties. Established celebrity brands have launched masstige brands matching the popularization of prestige goods. Armani Exchange from Armani, Marc by Marc Jacobs from Louis Vuitton are representative ones. DKNY from Donna Karen, MiuMiu from Prada, Paul smith Pink from Paul Smith can be added. These are relatively inexpensive, however the quality, design and shop's atmosphere are more exclusive than general brands. Consumers are over middle class and have a pride and fidelity to those brands. Leading Masstige trend, new luxury brands put the importance to the quality and aims middle class. To succeed in this field, companies should know exactly what consumers want, considering not only functional aspect but also emotional pleasure. Even though masstige has a weakness in pricing, it has to keep brand's proper benefit. Its price range could be wide to be in great demand but has to have elasticity and not to be expanded too much. Masstige industry should do its best not to damage original brand's identity. Forming family brand, like Armani made Georgic Armani, Emporio Armani and Armani exchange, system of parent brand and sub brands would be recommendable. From the launching time, masstige needs the effects to create a sensation and bring it into vogue and offer emotional value to the consumers.

• International Journal of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.1-9
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• 2022

The influence of information sensitivity during the COVID-19 pandemic on perceived risk and personal preventive behaviors of consumers in China had been investigated. The participants were Chinese individuals experiencing the pandemic as it happened. Participants voluntarily completed an online questionnaire to provide their COVID-19 information sensitivity, their perceived COVID-19 risk, preventive behavior and their respective age. Our study discovered that COVID-19 information sensitivity positively influence perceived risk and preventive behavior. Moreover, young individuals show higher levels of online information sensitivity, which influenced their personal protective behavior when compared to that of middle-aged and elderly participants. Furthermore, Perceived risk significantly affected preventive behaviors. The results of this study may assist the government and marketeers in comprehending information sensitivity which can affect consumers' protective behavior toward reducing COVID-19 infections.