• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.1015-1027
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• 2018

In the retail environment where online-shopping malls are growing, offline store are find it difficult to survive simply by selling their products. As a result, offline retailers are trying to find unique services that are appealing to their customers. In such a market environment, marketing strategies that stimulate the five senses other than the sight can be an alternative. Therefore, this research is aimed at observing the effect of the senses on emotion and purchase intention in a fashion retail context. A two by two experimental design (existence vs non-existence of scent x existence vs. nonexistence of eating chocolate) between subjects was used. A total of 120 participants were randomly assigned to the four situations, and they were asked to complete the questionnaires about emotion and purchase intention. The survey data were statistically analyzed using SPSS 23.0, and results are as follows. After a two-way ANOVA, we observed a statistically significant effect of the scent service on pleasure and purchase intention the sweet offering service on purchase intention. Moreover, when scents service and sweet offering service were provided at the same time, the highest purchase intention was obtained among other services. In addition, we studied the effects of emotions on purchase intentions, and the pleasant emotions resulting from the services have a positive effect of on purchase intentions.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.623-637
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• 2016

This study examined the importance of social capital in facilitating older adults' learning and adaptation of information technology as well as alleviating depressive symptoms. At two senior community centers in South Korea, 144 adults aged 60 and older were recruited to participate in 12 week-long technology classes to learn computers, smart phone, and internet skills. At the baseline interviews were conducted to assess their health status, depression, and online social relationships. Online and offline social capital (bonding vs. bridging) was assessed (Williams, 2006). Four-step Hierarchical Linear Regression analysis was conducted to examine the effects of online social relationship on depression. Findings suggested that depressive symptoms were associated with being widowed, being unemployed, and perceiving poor health status. Adding social capital variables in the final step, older adults who perceived less stressors, greater level of subjective health and high online bonding capitals had less depressive symptoms. Only online social bonding was significant in alleviating depression. This final model explained 48% of the variance. Computer/Internet training for older adults need to consider the significant role bonding social capital can play. The findings of this pilot study provided a preliminary base of knowledge about acceptable community-based interventions for older adults.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.39-63
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• 2012

Previous studies of reward programs have generally focused on designing the best programs for consumers and suggested that consumers' perception of the value of reward programs can vary according to the type of reward program (e.g., hedonic vs. utilitarian and direct vs. indirect) and its timing (e.g., immediate vs. delayed). These studies have typically assumed that consumers' preference for reward programs has a positive effect on brand loyalty. However, Dowling and Uncles (1997) pointed out that this preference does not necessarily foster brand loyalty. In this regard, the present study verifies this assumption by examining the effects of consumers' perception of the value of reward programs on their brand loyalty. Although reward programs are widely used by online shopping malls, most studies have examined the conditions under which consumers are most likely to value loyalty programs in the context of offline shopping. In the context of online shopping, however, consumers' preferences may have little effect on their brand loyalty because they have more opportunities for comparing diverse reward programs offered by many online shopping malls. That is, in online shopping, finding attractive reward programs may require little effort on the part of consumers, who are likely to switch to other online shopping malls. Accordingly, this study empirically examines whether consumers' perception of the value of reward programs influences their brand loyalty in the context of online shopping. Meanwhile, consumers seek utilitarian and/or hedonic value from their online shopping activity(Jones et al., 2006; Barbin et al., 1994). They visit online shopping malls to buy something necessary (utilitarian value) and/or enjoy the process of shopping itself (hedonic value). In this sense, reward programs may reinforce utilitarian as well as hedonic value, and their effect may vary according to the type of reward (utilitarian vs. hedonic). According to Chaudhuri and Holbrook (2001), consumers' perception of the value of a brand can influence their brand loyalty through brand trust and affect. Utilitarian value influences brand loyalty through brand trust, whereas hedonic value influences it through brand affect. This indicates that the effect of this perception on brand trust or affect may be moderated by the type of reward program. Specifically, this perception may have a greater effect on brand trust for utilitarian reward programs than for hedonic ones, whereas the opposite may be true for brand affect. Given the above discussion, the present study is conducted with three objectives in order to provide practical implications for online shopping malls to strategically use reward program for establishing profitable relationship with customers. First, the present study examines whether reward programs can be an effective marketing tool for increasing brand loyalty in the context of online shopping. Second, it investigates the paths through which consumers' perception of the value of reward programs influences their brand loyalty. Third, it analyzes the effects of this perception on brand trust and affect by considering the type of reward program as a moderator. This study suggests and empirically analyzes a new research model for examining how consumers' perception of the value of reward programs influences their brand loyalty in the context of online shopping. The model postulates the following 10 hypotheses about the structural relationships between five constructs: (H1) Consumers' perception of the value of reward programs has a positive effect on their program loyalty; (H2) Program loyalty has a positive effect on brand loyalty; (H3) Consumers' perception of the value of reward programs has a positive effect on their brand trust; (H4) Consumers' perception of the value of reward programs has a positive effect on their brand affect; (H5) Brand trust has a positive effect on program loyalty; (H6) Brand affect has a positive effect on program loyalty; (H7) Brand trust has a positive effect on brand loyalty; (H8) Brand affect has a positive effect on brand loyalty; (H9) Consumers' perception of the value of reward programs is more likely to influence their brand trust for utilitarian reward programs than for hedonic ones; and (H10) Consumers' perception of the value of reward programs is more likely to influence their brand affect for hedonic reward programs than for utilitarian ones. To test the hypotheses, we considered a sample of 220 undergraduate students in Korea (male:113). We randomly assigned these participants to one of two groups based on the type of reward program (utilitarian: transportation card, hedonic: movie ticket). We instructed the participants to imagine that they were offered these reward programs while visiting an online shopping mall. We then asked them to answer some questions about their perception of the value of the reward programs, program loyalty, brand loyalty, brand trust, and brand affect, in that order. We also asked some questions about their demographic backgrounds and then debriefed them. We employed the structural equation modeling (SEM) method with AMOS 18.0. The results provide support for some hypotheses (H1, H3, H4, H7, H8, and H9) while providing no support for others (H2, H5, H6, H10) (see Figure 1). Noteworthy is that the path proposed by previous studies, "value perception → program loyalty → brand loyalty," was not significant in the context of online shopping, whereas this study's proposed path, "value perception → brand trust/brand affect → brand loyalty," was significant. In addition, the results indicate that the type of reward program moderated the relationship between consumers' value perception and brand trust but not the relationship between their value perception and brand affect. These results have some important implications. First, this study is one of the first to examine how consumers' perception of the value of reward programs influences their brand loyalty in the context of online shopping. In particular, the results indicate that the proposed path, "value perception → brand trust/brand affect → brand loyalty," can better explain the effects of reward programs on brand loyalty than existing paths. Furthermore, these results suggest that online shopping malls should place greater emphasis on the type of reward program when devising reward programs. To foster brand loyalty, they should reinforce the type of shopping value that consumers emphasize by providing them with appropriate reward programs. If consumers prefer utilitarian value to hedonic value, then online shopping malls should offer utilitarian reward programs and vice versa.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.391-400
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• 2011

Internet shopping malls for fashion products(e.g., apparel, cosmetics and accessory) may become a major player with a promising future because of its tremendous growth in e-commerce. In addition, the fashion market has been segmented by various types of shopping malls on the internet. For many types of internet shopping malls, literatures give us numerous types, such as general mall, specialty mall, open-market, mall-in-mall, department-mall, brand-mall, and a specialized category mall, etc. Although each mall specializes in different activities, a unified categorization with managerially meaningful implications has not been made. This paper aims to explore criteria of internet shopping malls based on previous research related to shopping mall types for fashion products. The results found that internet shopping malls for fashion products were classified based on physical space, openness of the mall, number of companies, method of profit, specialization of products, number of product categories, and brand products dealt with. Internet shopping mall for fashion products was classified into online malls versus online malls versus offline mall, open mall versus closed mall, single mall versus multi mall, retail-trade mall versus syndicated mall, general mall vs specialize mall, one-product category mall versus multi-product category mall, and brand mall versus non-brand mall. These findings could offer an important contribution in research and practice, and an insight into developing appropriate strategies for effective fashion shopping mall management related products.

• Journal of the Architectural Institute of Korea Structure & Construction
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.63-69
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• 2018

The machine learning model can capture the dynamics of building systems with less inputs than the first principle based simulation model. The training data for developing a machine learning model are usually selected in a heuristic manner. In this study, the authors developed a machine learning model which can describe supply air temperature from an AHU in a real office building. For rational reduction of the training data, the progressive sampling method was used. It is found that even though the progressive sampling requires far less training data (n=60) than the offline regular sampling (n=1,799), the MBEs of both models are similar (2.6% vs. 5.4%). In addition, for the update of the machine learning model, the normalized mutual information (NMI) was applied. If the NMI between the simulation output and the measured data is less than 0.2, the model has to be updated. By the use of the NMI, the model can perform better prediction ($5.4%{\rightarrow}1.3%$).

• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.157-173
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• 2018

Purpose Product characteristics and price value in website have strongly effects on customer satisfaction. Especially, in the online shopping site, the scarcity limits the customer's opportunity to purchase the product. Thus scarcity has been proposed as a important factor that makes the customer highly aware of the merchantability of the product. The scarcity in the web store is used as an important variable to make purchasing decisions of users easier by psychological pressure. In the case of scarce products with price discounts in online commerce, advertising formats that highlight scarcity value in the web commerce market are very effective in enhancing purchase intentions of consumers. Unlike offline stores, the importance of scarcity becomes more important when reflecting the characteristics of online commerce. Therefore, this study intends to confirm the influence of the degree of price discounts and scarcity information presented by Web sites on consumer purchase behavior in Web purchase behavior. Design/methodology/approach This study conducted a web-based experimental study on price sensitivity and price discount. Therefore, we created experimental web-sites that offer two stimuli according to the discount rate. The 200 respondents were randomly assigned. The stimuli were fictitious based on tourism products. The first stimulus presented the price discount(15% discount) with basic explanation about the package of the tourist package. The stimuli assigned to the second group were used for groups with high price discount intensity(65% discount). In this way, the two stimuli clearly distinguished the level of price discount intensity. This paper conducted t-test analysis and structural equation to analyze the experiemental results after confirming the reliability and validity. Findings The results of this study are as follows. The difference in price discount intensity (15% vs 65%) with scarcity showed the mean difference among all the variables. Therefore, this study concluded that there is a significant difference between the price discount of 15% and 65% for the acquisition value and transaction value of users. In particular, consumers' purchase intention is greater and product recommendation intensity is stronger when the price discount is 65%. As a result, the high degree of the price discount intensity with scarcity exerts a greater influence on consumers' purchase intentions. Product scarcity also have a significant impact on perceived value of users. Therefore, purchase intention of customers increases when perceived value increases their profit and pleasure feeling.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.69-98
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• 2009

We investigated what factors motivate gamers to participate in a guild and why they continue to be engaged as members of the guild. We find that, based on the result of focus group interviews with MMORPG gamers, social support and self-esteem factors play important roles. Considering both prior research and the focus group interviews we have conducted, we define social support and character control as independent variables. Character identity, guild identity, and self-esteem are proposed as mediating variables while guild flow and game loyalty as dependent variables. Accordingly, we develop the research model and hypotheses, and verify them empirically. Based on our experiences of playing the WoW game, we proposed a research model and conducted focus-group interviews (FGIs). FGIs involve formulating a hypothesis and then collecting some relevant data. FGIs were conducted face-to-face with students of C University in Korea. We formulated structured interview schedules, and the questions were based on our research variables and personal experiences. The questions for the interviews encompassed the following areas: (a) the demographic characteristics of the focus group; (b) the number of years for which respondents had played online games; (c) the motive for starting a game; (d) the number of game-characters assumed by each gamer; (e) the type of game played; and (f) other issues such as the reasons for involvement in the play, the willingness to reuse the game in case new versions were released, etc. On average, it took two hours to interview each of three groups. A primary set of FGIs was conducted with three groups on the premise that there would be some differences caused by character race (Horde vs. Alliance) or by playable server (Normal vs. Combat). With respect to the manner of playing, we found that guild members shared information, felt a sense of belonging, and played computer games for quite a long time through the guild; however, they did not undergo these experiences when playing alone. Gamers who belonged to a specific guild helped other players without expecting compensation for that, freely shared information about the game, gave away items for free, and more generous with other members who made mistakes. The guild members were aware of the existence other members and experienced a sense of belonging through interactions with, and evaluations from, other players. It was clear that social support was shown within the guild and that it played an important role as a major research variable. Based on the results of the first FGIs, a second set of in-depth FGIs was carried out with a focus on the psychology of the individual within the guild and the social community of the guild. The second set of FGIs also focused on the guild's offline meetings. Gamers, over all, recognize the necessity of joining a community, not only off-line but also online world of the guild. They admit that the guild is important for them to easily and conveniently enjoy playing online computer games. The active behavior and positive attitudes of existing guild members can motivate new members of the guild to adapt themselves to the guild environment. They then adopt the same behaviors and attitudes of established guild members. In this manner, the new members of the guild strengthen the bonds with other gamers while feeling a sense of belonging, and developing social identity, thereby. It was discovered that the interaction among guild members and the social support encouraged new gamers to quickly develop a sense of social identity and increase their self-esteem. The guild seemed to play the role of socializing gamers. Sometimes, even in the real world, the guild members helped one another; therefore, the features of the guild also spilled over to the offline environment. We intend to use self-esteem, which was found through the second set of FGIs, as an important research variable. To collect data, an online survey was designed with a questionnaire to be completed by WoW gamers, who belong to a guild. The survey was registered on the best three domestic game-sites: 'WoW playforum,' 'WoW gamemeca,' and 'Wow invent.' The selected items to be measured in the questionnaire were decided based on prior research and data from FGIs. To verify the content of the questionnaire, we carried out a pilot test with the same participants to point out ambiguous questions as a way to ensure maximum accuracy of the survey result. A total of 244 responses were analyzed from the 250 completed questionnaires. The SEM analysis was used to test goodness-of-fit of the model. As a result, we found important results as follows: First, according to the statistics, social support had statistically significant impacts on character control, character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Second, character control had significant effects on character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Third, character identity shows its clear impact on self-esteem and game loyalty. Fourth, guild identity affected self-esteem, guild flow and game loyalty. Fifth, self-esteem had a positive influence on the guild flow. These days, the number of virtual community is rising along with its significance largely because of the nature of the online games. Accordingly, this study is designed to clarify the psychological relationship between gamers within the guild that has been generally established by gamers to play online games together. This study focuses on the relationships in which social support influences guild flow or game loyalty through character control, character identity, guild identity, and self-esteem, which are present within a guild in the MMORPG game environment. The study results are as follows. First, the effects of social support on character control, character identity, guild identity and self-esteem are proven to be statistically significant. It was found that character control improves character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Among the seven variables, social support, which is derived from FGIs, plays an important role in this study. With the active support of other guild members, gamers can improve their ability to develop good characters and to control them. Second, character identity has a positive effect on self-esteem and game loyalty, while guild identity has a significant effect on self-esteem, guild flow and game loyalty. Self-esteem affects guild flow. It was found that the higher the character and guild identities become, the greater the self-esteem is established. Contrary to the findings of prior research, our study results indicate that the relationship between character identity and guild flow is not significant. Rather, it was found that character identity directly affects game players' loyalty. Even though the character identity had no direct effect on increasing guild flow, it has indirectly affected guild flow through self-esteem. The significant relationship between self-esteem and guild flow indicates that gamers achieve flow, i.e., a feeling of pleasure and excitement through social support. Several important implications of this study should be noted. First, both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to conduct this study. Through FGIs, it was observed that both social support and self-esteem are important variables. Second, because guilds had been rarely studied, this research is expected to play an important role in the online community. Third, according to the result, six hypotheses (H1, H5, H6, H7, H8, and H11) setup based on FGIs, were statistically significant; thus, we can suggest the corresponding relationships among the variables as a guideline for follow-up research. Our research is significant as it has following implications: first, the social support of the guild members is important when establishing character control, character identity, guildidentity and self-esteem. It is also a major variable that affects guild flow and game loyalty. Second, character control when improved by social support shows notable influence on the development of character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Third, character identity and guild identity are major factors to help establish gamers' own self-esteem. Fourth, character identity affects guild flow through self-esteem and game loyalty. The gamers usually express themselves through characters; the higher character identity is, the more loyalty a gamer has. Fifth, guild identity, established within the guild, has clear effects on self-esteem, guild flow and game loyalty. Sixth, qualitative and quantitative methods are employed to conduct this study. Based on the results of focus group interviews and SEM analysis, we find that the social support by guild members and psychological factors are significant in strengthening the flow of guild and loyalty to the game. As such, game developers should provide some extra functions for guild community, through which gamers can play online games in collaboration with one another. Also, we suggest that positive self-esteem which is built up through social support can help gamers achieve higher level of flow and satisfaction, which will consequently contribute to minimizing the possibility for the players to develop negative attitude toward the guild they belong to.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.129-135
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• 2020

This study examined the consumer response of the current O2O service between service types. Previous studies mainly focused on the quality factor of O2O service or Technology Acceptance Model or extended TAM, This study is different from the fact that there are differences in factors that consumers consider important and consumer reactions by service type. It is also significant that we compared between representative food delivery services and car sharing services that are actively used among O2O services. As O2O service is closely related to consumer's life, this study chose three factors that the issue of personal information security and trust of intermediary platform companies, and finally subjective norm based on individuals and groups who are aware of new O2O service. To test hypotheses, data were collected and analyzed for 301 samples, focusing on delivery and car sharing service, As a result, the delivery service among the O2O services was more positive to attitude toward service in the consumer group with lower personal information security, trust in platform, and subjective norm than car sharing service. Based on these results, implications and future research directions were presented.

• Journal of Korean Library and Information Science Society
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.21-48
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• 2021

Today, with countless health information being accessible through online and offline, the public has been able to explore health-related information in various ways. The current study focuses on the information-seeking behavior of the mothers who actively explore information related to the health of their healthy infants (aged between 0 and 3 years). The researcher had conducted in-depth interviews of 24 American, Korean, and Korean immigrant mothers living in the United States, and then analyzed the sequential order of the information sources that they have used to search for the health-related information about their children. The current research highlights that the mothers' information-seeking pathways and searched topics tended to differ in accordance with their child(ren)'s health conditions (e.g., ill vs. healthy). For instance, regarding the information sources used, more diverse health information sources (e.g., public libraries, government health agencies, daycare teachers) were used when their child(ren) was not ill. In addition, when a child was ill, mothers were likely to focus on information about specific diseases or symptoms first, whereas when the child was healthy, they used to explore information on various health topics such as growth and development, nutrition and diets, parenting, and so on. Based on the results, implications for the information professionals are discussed when designing and providing health-related information services to mothers of healthy infants and toddlers.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.19-45
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• 2008

This study is to empirically examine the primary dimensions of visual merchandising (VMD) of internet shopping mall, namely store design, merchandise, and merchandising cues, to be a attractive virtual store to the shoppers. The authors reviewed the literature related to the major components of VMD from the perspective of the AIDA model, which has been mainly applied to the offline store settings. The major purposes of the study are as follows; first, tries to derive the variables related with the components of visual merchandising through reviewing the existing literatures, establish the hypotheses, and test it empirically. Second, examines the relationships between the components of VMD and the attitude toward the VMD, however, putting more emphasis on finding out the component structure of the VMD. VMD needs to be examined with the perspective that an online shopping mall is a virtual self-service or clerkless store, which could reduce the number of employees, help the shoppers search, evaluate and purchase for themselves, and to be explored in terms of the in-store persuasion processes of customers. This study reviewed the literatures related to store design, merchandise, and merchandising cues which might be relevant to the store, product, and promotion respectively. VMD is a total communication tool, and AIDA model could explain the in-store consumer behavior of online shopping. Store design has to do with triggering a consumer attention to the online mall, merchandise with a product related interest, and merchandising cues with promotions such as recommendation and links that induce the desire to pruchase. These three steps might be seen as the processes for purchase actions. The theoretical rationale for the relationship between VMD and AIDA could be found in Tyagi(2005) that the three steps of consumer-oriented merchandising are a store, a product assortment, and placement, in Omar(1999) that three types of interior display are a architectural design display, commodity display, and point-of-sales(POS) display, and in Davies and Ward(2005) that the retail store interior image is related to an atmosphere, merchandise, and in-store promotion. Lee et al(2000) suggested as the web merchandising components a merchandising cues, a shopping metaphor which is an assistant tool for search, a store design, a layout(web design), and a product assortment. The store design which includes differentiation, simplicity and navigation is supposed to be related to the attention to the virtual store. Second, the merchandise dimensions comprising product assortments, visual information and product reputation have to do with the interest in the product offerings. Finally, the merchandising cues that refer to merchandiser(MD)'s recommendation of products and providing the hyperlinks to relevant goods for the shopper is concerned with attempt to induce the desire to purchase. The questionnaire survey was carried out to collect the data about the consumers who would shop at internet shopping malls frequently. To select the subject malls, the mall ranking data announced by a mall rating agency was used to differentiate the most popular and least popular five mall each. The subjects was instructed to answer the questions after navigating the designated mall for five minutes. The 300 questionnaire was distributed to the consumers, 166 samples were used in the final analysis. The empirical testing focused on identifying and confirming the dimensionality of VMD and its subdimensions using a structural equation modeling method. The confirmatory factor analysis for the endogeneous and exogeneous variables was carried out in four parts. The second-order factor analysis was done for a store design, a merchandise, and a merchandising cues, and first-order confirmatory factor analysis for the attitude toward the VMD. The model test results shows that the chi-square value of structural equation is 144.39(d.f 49), significant at 0.01 level which means the proposed model was rejected. But, judging from the ratio of chi-square value vs. degree of freedom, the ratio was 2.94 which smaller than an acceptable level of 3.0, RMR is 0.087 which is higher than a generally acceptable level of 0.08. GFI and AGFI is turned out to be 0.90 and 0.84 respectively. Both NFI and NNFI is 0.94, and CFI 0.95. The major test results are as follows; first, the second-order factor analysis and structural equational modeling reveals that the differentiation, simplicity and ease of identifying current status of the transaction are confirmed to be subdimensions of store design and to be a significant predictors of the dependent variable. This result implies that when designing an online shopping mall, it is necessary to differentiate visually from other malls to improve the effectiveness of the communications of store design. That is, the differentiated store design raise the contrast stimulus to sensory organs to promote the memory of the store and to have a favorable attitude toward the VMD of a store. The results that navigation which means the easiness of identifying current status of shopping affects the attitude to VMD could be interpreted that the navigating processes via the hyperlinks which is characteristics of an internet shopping is a complex and cognitive process and shoppers are likely to lack the sense of overall structure of the store. Consequently, shoppers are likely to be alost amid shopping not knowing where to go. The orientation tool enhance the accessibility of information to raise the perceptive power about the store environment.(Titus & Everett 1995) Second, the primary dimension of merchandise and its subdimensions was confirmed to be unidimensional respectively, have a construct validity, and nomological validity which the VMD dimensions supposed to have a positive correlation with the dependent variable. The subdimensions of product assortment, brand fame and information provision proved to have a positive effect on the attitude toward the VMD. It could be interpreted that the more plentiful the product and brand assortment of the mall is, the more likely the shoppers to favor it. Brand fame and information provision as well affect the VMD attitude, which means that the more famous the brand, the more likely the shoppers would trust and feel familiar with the mall, and the plentifully and visually presented information could have the shopper have a favorable attitude toward the store VMD. Third, it turned out to be that merchandising cue of product recommendation and hyperlinks affect the VMD attitude. This could be interpreted that recommended products could reduce the uncertainty related with the purchase decision, and the hyperlinks to relevant products would help the shopper save the cognitive effort exerted into the information search and gathering, which could lead to a favorable attitude to the VMD. This study tried to sheds some new light on the VMD of online store by reviewing the variables mentioned to be relevant with offline VMD in the existing literatures, and tried to link the VMD components from the perspective of AIDA model. The effect size of the VMD dimensions on the attitude was in the order of the merchandise, the store design and the merchandising cues.It is said that an internet has an unlimited place for display, however, the virtual store is not unlimited since the consumer has a limited amount of cognitive ability to process the external information and internal memory. Particularly, the shoppers are likely to face some difficulties in decision making on account of too many alternative and information overloads. Therefore, the internet shopping mall manager should take into consideration the cost of information search on the part of the consumer, to establish the optimal product placements and search routes. An efficient store composition would be possible by reducing the psychological burdens and cognitive efforts exerted to information search and alternatives evaluation. The store image is in most part determined by the product category and its brand it deals in. The results of this study support this proposition that the merchandise is most important to the VMD attitude than other components, the manager is required to take a strategic approach to VMD. The internet users are getting more accustomed and more knowledgeable about the internet media and more likely to accept the internet as a shopping channel as the period of time during which they use the internet to shop become longer. The web merchandiser should be aware that the product introduction using a moving pictures and a bulletin board become more important in order to present the interactive product information visually and communicate with customers more actively, therefore leading to making the quantity and quality of product information more rich.