• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.12 no.9
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• pp.95-99
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• 2014

Purpose - This study aims to develop and empirically test a multi-dimensional service convenience scale with the dimensions and measurement items of service convenience perceived by Korean consumers in retail contexts. Research design, data, and methodology - The study adopts the framework suggested by Berry et al. (2002) and conceptualizes service convenience as a second-order reflective construct comprising 31 items. Three department store chains (Hyundai, Lotte, and Shinsegae) and three discount store chains (E-mart, Homeplus, and Lotte Mart) were involved 510 valid responses were used for the empirical testing. Results - The measurement model is acceptable for internal consistency, convergent validity, and discriminant validity. Further, the structural model results show that service convenience is positively related to satisfaction. Results of the rival model comparison indicate that the proposed second-order factor model provides a better fit to the data than both the five-factor and the one-factor model. Conclusions - The multi-dimensional, second-order conceptualization of service convenience is robustly supported. This study provides psychometrically valid scales to measure service convenience in retail contexts as conceptualized by Berry et al. (2002).

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.17 no.9
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• pp.25-33
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• 2019

Purpose - The purpose of the study was to seek to find out what factors having differences between paid membership customers (Costco membership) and general customers in retail industry. Since Costco operates differently from other conventional retailers, which is expected to have a substantial impact on consumers' preference of retail stores. Research design, data, and methodology - The survey conducted covered 1,000 adults in their 30s~50s living in Goyang and Gwangmyeong where Costco runs stores to determine the effects of Costco's local market-entry from consumer perspectives. 500 respondents were surveyed in each region and those working in the retail sector were excluded to ensure the objectivity of the answers. Results - Costco members in Goyang considered the price, bulk purchasing, and membership benefits as important criteria when choosing their retail store. On the other hand, as for Gwangmyeong, the non-member group's prominent characteristic was that they considered accessibility including travel distance and location and in-store amenities including food court services as important criteria for decision-making. Conclusion - Unique business model of Costco shows a statistically significant difference in terms of consumer awareness. the feature of Costco served as an critical criteria for consumers in their purchasing decision. Moreover, Bulk packaging purchases at Costco results in a strong supplementary relationship with neighborhood supermarkets.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.11-16
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• 2016

Purpose - There are numerous theories for retail trade area analysis which are designed to select candidate locations for new stores. In this study, comparative analysis on the characteristics from those of the theories are shown, and the explanation for the power in consumers' store-choice behaviors and their limitations are examined. Also, plans for improving commercial sphere analysis are explored. Research design, data, and methodology - This study is based on literature reviews with normative research methodology. Among many researches regarding the analysis on the location and commercial sphere for launching a new store, researches relying on statistics are excluded in this study since they belong to the marketing research area,. Results - In the Law of retail gravitation, Huff's model multinomial logit model and etc. are mutual complementary mathematical techniques for analyzing commercial spheres and each of them has its own characteristics. These theories rely on the same hypothesis in which consumers are all believed to be behaving rationally under a similar behavioral system. However, the trial in explaining or estimating behavior of choosing a store with only a select size of the population that is objectively estimated by some major properties has limits in its credibility. Conclusion - Research on consumer's spatial behaviors can be fully illustrative and explainable when it has both quantitative approaches such as 'law of retail gravitation', 'logit model' and etc., and qualitative approaches like consumer's 'cognitive structure', 'learning status', 'image formation', 'attitude' and etc.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.13-21
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• 2021

Purpose: The sports leadership theories are crucial in ensuring the success of corporations. This study shall discuss the various leadership theories employed in the sports industry and how they can be incorporated within the retailing sector to enhance the service quality and promote substantial customer value towards all the consumers visiting the retailing stores. Research design, data and methodology: The present researcher gathered textual data on potential solutions for coding of development through web searching method and coded and produced various topics as solution providers. Methods were then established to enhance quality on customer value by the leadership within their businesses, and the researcher subsequently presented the findings. Results: This study provides a total of nine solutions which are helpful systemically for practitioners in the retailer service sector. These numerous solutions can be incorporated within the retail industry through the sports leadership theories employed in the sports industry to help achieve a full and strong customer value. Conclusions: Finally, the present study concludes that the retail industry and management need to ensure that a substantial customer value is built through high-quality services rendered towards the clientele base, employing sports leadership theories such as path-goal, authentic leadership, transformation, situational and leader-member exchange theories.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.119-127
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• 2022

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze the Cost-Effectiveness Analysis (CEA) of wholesale and retail brokerage businesses in Korea. And give managerial implications and contribute to academics. Research design, data and methodology: This research empirically analyzes the relationship between expenses and business performance. As for business performance, this research considered two financial performances; sales and profit. As for antecedent variables, this research measured three cost investment expenses; human resource management (HRM), marketing (MKT) and corporate social responsibility (CSR). This research used frequency analysis, correlation analysis, stepwise regression analysis and curve estimation analysis. Results: The result shows that HRM and CSR positive significant influence on sales yet marketing negatively significant influence on sales. And for profit, HRM and CSR give a positive significant influence. However, marketing's influence was not significant. According to curve estimation analysis, the relation between individual cost and performance, best functional relation was all quadratic functions. Some results show ∩ shape and others show shape. Conclusions: Based on this study result, implications for practical management to Wholesale and Retail Brokerage companies in Korea. And the contribution to academics is expected. Also, based on the limitation of this study, future research is suggested.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.20 no.9
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• pp.109-126
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• 2022

Purpose: The role of salespersons' emotions in effective selling behavior garners attention among scholars and practitioners. Previous studies have investigated the effects of emotional intelligence and emotional labor on sales success separately. However, to understand the whole process, the relationships among salespersons' cognition, emotions, and behaviors should be considered simultaneously. Accordingly, we uniquely examined how salespersons' emotional intelligence (emotional antecedent) and customer orientation (cognitive antecedent) influence their emotional labor (deep acting vs. surface acting), adaptive selling behavior, and the selling results in the retail environment. Research design, data, and methodology: To improve methodological rigor, we used the dyadic approach. We measured 182 salespersons' emotional intelligence, customer orientation, and emotional labor, and 364 customers assessed the salespersons' adaptive selling behavior and selling results in the insurance and duty-free department retailing sectors. Result: The findings suggest that salespersons' customer orientation and emotional intelligence relate to deep-acting of emotional labor, affecting their adaptive selling behavior and relationship quality with customers. Conclusions: As for managerial implications, sales managers may well consider emotional intelligence levels when selecting salespersons in the retail industry. Additionally, practical training programs are required to cultivate customer orientation, emotional intelligence, and deep acting while performing emotional labor.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.121-129
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• 2023

Purpose: Market basket analysis is one of the most frequently used methods in the retail industry today as a technique to discover the product association. It is empirically analyzed how these product associations differ regionally in the case of the United States. Research design, data, and methodology: Based on the purchasing data of consumer panels collected from 49 US states, the association rules for each state was extracted with the corresponding lift values indicating product association. The difference in lift values in 49 states by the association rule was compared and tested for 49 states and for 4 census regions (Northeast, Midwest, South, West). Results: The association rules of 3/4 of the same association rules show positive associations or negative associations depending on the lift values of the states. There were significant differences in the lift values for 49 states, and for 4 census regions. These significant differences in the lift values were found to be related to the distance between states and whether states belong to the same census region. Conclusions: Retail product associations shown by market basket analysis may vary depending on regional distance or regional heterogeneity. It is necessary to pay attention to these points in multi-store environment.

• The Journal of Economics, Marketing and Management
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.45-55
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• 2023

Purpose: As one of the continuous studies on the offline distribution industry, the purpose of this study is to find ways for offline stores to respond to the growth of online shopping by identifying research trends on department stores. Research design, data and methodology: To this end, this study conducted word frequency analysis, word co-occurrence frequency analysis, BERTopic, LDA, and dynamic topic modeling using Python 3.7 on a total of 551 English abstracts searched with the keyword 'department store' in scienceON as of October 10, 2022. Results: The results of word frequency analysis and co-occurrence frequency analysis revealed that research related to department stores frequently focuses on factors such as customers, consumers, products, satisfaction, services, and quality. BERTopic and LDA analyses identified five topics, including 'store image,' with 'shopping information' showing relatively high interest, while 'sales systems' were observed to have relatively lower interest. Conclusions: Based on the results of this study, it was concluded that research related to department stores has so far been conducted in a limited scope, and it is insufficient to provide clues for department stores to secure competitiveness against online platforms. Therefore, it is suggested that additional research be conducted on topics such as the true role of department stores in the retail industry, consumer reinterpretation, customer value and lifetime value, department stores as future retail spaces, ethical management, and transparent ESG management.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.11-26
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• 2024

Purpose: The concept of News-finds-me Perception (NFMP) is gaining increasing scholarly interest due to its wide-ranging findings and implications in digital communications and marketing. From the retail marketing and communication approaches, social media is an effective tool to effectively communicate and persuade customers and stakeholders. Nevertheless, a scarcity of systematic review studies that systematically assemble prior research in the field is recognized. Consequently, this research investigated the Scopus database for articles pertaining to NFMP. Research design, data and methodology: The search was conducted on August 24, 2023, retrieving 46 documents. Following a data-cleaning process, 31 documents remained, providing evidence of the subject area's five-year development. The data was refined with OpenRefine and analyzed with VosViewer. Results: An overview of the subject's expansion is presented, which comprises the most cited documents, authors, organizations, journals, and countries. Furthermore, the investigation examines the influential studies that furnished scientists with essential knowledge and identify the current research trend of the research subject. Conclusions: Based on the results, the study proposes theoretical and practical implications, encouraging academics to further integrate the concept with various communication and marketing theories, as well as the retail marketing context, to gain a better understanding of its complex impacts.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.22 no.7
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• pp.107-117
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• 2024

Purpose: Consumers have become more interested in eating organic food in recent decades because of the effect of merchants' advertising. Eating organic food is also shown to strengthen immunity, especially during the recent COVID-19 pandemic. However, consumers may find it more difficult to choose organic food retailers than to purchase conventional goods. This is because of the uncertainty characterizing the process of selecting organic food retailers, despite the growing rivalry across supermarket chains that sell organic goods. This study explores how consumers' perceived image (social responsibility and ability image) of organic food stores affects consumer loyalty. Research design, data and methodology: The data for the analysis were collected using Macromill Embrain, an online research service agency. The data were analyzed using SPSS 26 and Smart PLS 4.0. Results: Based on structural equation modeling, the findings of the study demonstrate that store image positively impactsstore loyalty, and that the mediator (perceived value) affects the relationship between the two variables. Conclusions: Organic food stores must understand consumers to improve store loyalty. Efforts such as providing a user community that enables joint behavior by sharing experiences among customers or launching campaigns to improve consumers' perceived brand identity can increase store loyalty.