• Asia Marketing Journal
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• 제15권4호
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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.

• 유통과학연구
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• 제13권4호
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• pp.55-64
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• 2015

Purpose - Multi-dimensional prices comprise multiple components such as monthly payments and a number of payments rather than a single lump-sum amount. According to previous studies, an increase in the number of price dimensions leads to a massive amount of cognitive stress resulting in incorrect calculation, and deterioration in the consistency of the price judgment. However, an increase only in the level of complexity of calculating multi-dimensional prices does not always result in a corresponding decrease in the accuracy of price evaluation. Since diverse variables could affect consumers' purchase-decision-making process, the results of price evaluation would be different. In this study, an empirical analysis was performed to determine how the accuracy of price evaluation varies depending on the extent of the complexity of price dimensions using product involvement and brand preference as moderating variables. Research design, data, and methodology - A survey was conducted on 260 students, and 252 effective responses were used for analysis. The data was analyzed using t-test, one-way ANOVA, and two-way ANOVA. In this study, six hypotheses were developed to examine the effect of product involvement and brand preference on consumers' evaluation effort of multi-dimensional prices. Results - As the number of price dimensions increased, accuracy of price evaluation appeared to be low in high involvement, as expected. However, it showed no differences in price evaluation effort when the level of complexity of calculating multi-dimensional prices is low. When a small number of price dimensions are presented in both cases of high and low involvement, accuracy of price evaluation is much higher in a weak brand preference. On the contrary, a strong brand preference enhances an accuracy of price evaluation only in case of low involvement when the number of price dimensions is increased. An interaction effect of product involvement and brand preference on consumers' evaluation of multi-dimensional prices did not exist irrespective of the level of complexity of calculating prices being high or low. Conclusions - When the number of price dimensions is small, consumers' effort for price evaluation shows almost no difference without the moderating effect of involvement, and a weak brand preference leads to a higher accuracy of price evaluation in an effort to make the best selection. No interaction effect of product involvement and brand preference was found except for a main effect of brand preference. When a price is composed of multiple dimensions rendering it more difficult to calculate the final price, the effort for price evaluation was expected to decrease only slightly in case of combination of high involvement and strong brand preference. This is because people have a higher purchase intentions and trust for that particular brand. However, the accuracy of price evaluation was much lower in cases of high involvement, and there was no interaction effect between product involvement and brand preference except for a main effect of involvement and brand preference, respectively.

• 산업경영시스템학회지
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• 제36권2호
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• pp.74-80
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• 2013

In this study, a novel and flexible recommender system was developed, based on product taxonomy and usage patterns of users. The proposed system consists of the following four steps : (i) estimation of the product-preference matrix, (ii) construction of the product-preference matrix, (iii) estimation of the popularity and similarity levels for sought-after products, and (iv) recommendation of a products for the user. The product-preference matrix for each user is estimated through a linear combination of clicks, basket placements, and purchase statuses. Then the preference matrix of a particular genre is constructed by computing the ratios of the number of clicks, basket placements, and purchases of a product with respect to the total. The popularity and similarity levels of a user's clicked product are estimated with an entropy index. Based on this information, collaborative and content-based filtering is used to recommend a product to the user. To assess the effectiveness of the proposed approach, an empirical study was conducted by constructing an experimental e-commerce site. Our results clearly showed that the proposed hybrid method is superior to conventional methods.

• 감성과학
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• 제11권3호
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• pp.375-385
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• 2008

본 연구에서는 인간의 제품에 대한 이미지 연상과 관련된 인지 반응 특성을 파악하고, 제품 선호도 및 경험과의 상관관계 분석을 목적으로 하였다. 이를 위하여, 휴대폰과 제안형 제품사진을 실험자극으로 선정하여, 연상되는 감성어휘를 표현하는 실험과 각 제품사진의 선호도를 평가하는 실험을 진행하였다. 실험 결과로부터 두 가지 결론이 도출되었다. 먼저, 사용 경험이 있는 제품에 대한 언어적 지각 반응에서는 비유 언어와 정서적 이미지의 표현을 혼용하며 선호도 수준이 높아짐에 따라 정서적 표현의 적용이 많아진다. 두 번째는, 제품의 비사용 경험은 선호도와 관계없이 인지 대상을 단지 지각적으로 이해하고 자신의 일반적 경험 정보와 유사성을 고려하여 대응시키는 반응을 유발한다.

• 한국IT서비스학회지
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• 제8권2호
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• pp.205-228
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• 2009

This paper examines how online product information changes the customers' purchase intentions from subjectivity-objectivity dichotomy perspective. Quality and Preference are proposed as product evaluation criteria and their marginal changes with product information differentiation are hypothesized. An experimental survey was conducted to 57 subjects and the hypotheses were partially supported through PLS path comparison method. The study contributes to IS research by proposing a simple and effective product evaluation framework and by abstracting the impact of product information from other factors. Finally, we suggest the utilization of product information with the optimization of the cost-benefit structure between information and purchase intention.

• 한국생활과학회지
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• 제18권1호
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• pp.247-257
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of interior color and product volume of clothing shop on consumer's store image and preference for a clothing shop. The research methodology was a survey questionnaire and the subjects were 516 university students in Daejeon, Korea. The measuring instruments were stimuli and self-administrated questionnaire. The stimuli were 7 pictures of clothing shop including interior color and product volume variables, and the self-administrated questionnaire consisted of semantic differential scales for store image, store preference, and subject's demographic attribution. The data were analyzed by t-test, ANOVA, MANOVA, Duncan's multiple range test, based on SPSS program The results were as follows: first, in clothing shop's interior colors affecting store image and preference for clothing shop, white color gave a casual, sophisticated, characteristic, and attractive image to the shops, and brown color gave an elegant, sophisticated image, while black color gave a sophisticated, uncomfortable image, and gray color gave a less positive image to them than other colors. Subjects preferred white, brown, and black color in the order. Second, clothing shop's products volume also affected consumers' store image and preference. Its small volume gave a more sophisticated, elegant image than other volume levels, and subjects preferred small and medium volume of clothing products to their large volume. Third, the effects of shop's interior color and clothes' product volume on store image were different depending on subject's sex. The results revealed that clothing shop's interior color and product volume are important VMD components affecting consumer's store image and preference, and consumer's sex has to be considered to understand the effects of VMD components on clothing shop image.

• 한국의류학회지
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• 제40권3호
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• pp.539-553
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• 2016

This study investigated the influence of consumers' self-construal and self-monitoring on brand product preference by moderating brand visibility. Brand visibility consisted of product typicality and brand salience. The study results showed that respondents preferred products with high product typicality and low brand salience. Respondents with interdependent self-construal and high self-monitoring also showed a higher preference for high product typicality and low brand salience versus respondents with independent self-construal and low self-monitoring. Respondents preferred a product when they recognized a brand name, but brand visibility should be exposed naturally. Based on these results, this study has practical implications for the importance of maintaining brand identity and the appropriacy of brand logo size.

• 패션비즈니스
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• 제22권6호
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• pp.14-24
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• 2018

In this age of information, companies are losing grip of their image. Perhaps this explains the reason why corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become somewhat of a buzzword among established fashion industry leaders-companies seem determined to show stakeholders that they have values, are responsible, and they are driven by more by values than the prospects of financial gain. This study assessed the effect of CSR have in the fashion industry on the corporate image, product preference, and purchase intention in China. Three hundred native residents in China participated in an online survey from 1-12th Jan 2017. The results were as follows: (1) CSR consists of five components; economic responsibility, ethical responsibility, environmental protection, consumer protection, and philanthropic responsibility. (2) Both economic and ethical responsibilities have significant positive effects on corporate image, while perceived CSR does not have significant effect on product preference or purchase intention. (3) Consumers' product preference and perceptions regarding corporate image influence their intention on making a purchase. These findings might operationally assist Korean fashion corporations to identify and address the critical aspects of CSR management which will improve their image as good corporate citizens and foster favorable attitudes toward fashion products from China. Further results and direction of future research were discussed.

• 산업융합연구
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• 제13권3호
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• pp.57-76
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• 2015

The purpose of this paper is to examine the moderate effects of self monitoring and the ways of thinking on the relationships and the moderate effects of brand credibility and brand attachment on the relationships between the negative information about a brand and the customer attitude holistic and analytic on the relationships between the negative information about a brand and customer attitude. To accomplish these purposes, this research divided negative information about a brand into corporate ability and corporate social responsibility. In addition, research also divided product type into functional product and symbolic product. participants are classified as having Low or High self monitoring. and the ways of thinking divided into holistic and analytic on the relationships between the negative information about a brand and customer attitude. The following are the summary of hypothesis test: (1)the consumers with low(high) level of self monitering are more likely to reveal high level of preference for negative information of corporate ability. (2)the consumers with analytic(holistic) ways of thinking are more likely to reveal high level of preference for negative information of corporate ability. (3)the consumers with low(high) level of self monitering are more likely to reveal high level of preference for functional product. (4)the consumers with analytic(holistic) ways of thinking aren't more likely to reveal high level of preference for functional(symbolic) product.

• 한국정보통신학회논문지
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• 제25권3호
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• pp.412-418
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• 2021

본 연구는 스마트폰 제품디자인에서 감성공학 요소가 브랜드 선호도와 충성도에 미치는 영향을 알아보고자 한다. 감성공학 요소를 색상, 성능, 사용성, 가치, 신뢰성으로 나누고, 브랜드 선호도와 충성도의 관련성을 실증 분석하였다. 분석결과 스마트폰 제품디자인에서 감성공학 요소는 브랜드 선호도에 정적 영향을 미치며 영향력이 큰 요소는 성능, 색상 요소로 나타났다. 스마트폰 제품디자인에서 감성공학 요소는 충성도에 정적 영향을 미치며 영향력이 큰 요소는 신뢰성, 성능 요소로 나타났다. 제품디자인에서 브랜드 선호도가 높을수록 충성도에 영향을 크게 미친다. 제품디자인 감성공학 요소 중에서 영향력이 있는 요소를 파악함으로써 소비자들의 특성에 맞는 제품디자인에 관한 접근이 필요하다.