• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.18 no.10
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• pp.121-130
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• 2020

Purpose: In this study we investigate the determinants of private label (PL) purchase intention in South Korea. Private labels are becoming more and more popular in America and European countries. However, there are not enough studies focusing on PL within the South Korean market. Therefore, the present study has been written in order to understand more about consumers' purchase intention of store brand in the South Korean market. Many characteristics and aspects of consumers and brand's behavior have been reviewed in order to bring relevant results. Research design, data and methodology: Data was collected using a quantitative survey of Korea retail store's consumer. We analyzed using multiple regression method to test the hypothesis. We analyzed how and why do consumers have a strong intention to purchase the PL. Results: a) Trust towards retailer influences the PL purchase intention of customers; b) brand awareness has an impact on the PL purchase intention of customers; c) perceived quality has an impact on the PL purchase intention; d) Price-quality relationship influences on the PL purchase intention. However, there is no direct effect of some of the factors of determinant. Conclusion: For private label products in the Korean market, trust in sellers and brand awareness influences the purchase of PL products.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.18 no.10
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• pp.65-75
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• 2020

Purpose: This study aims to examine how to review contents of experiential and utilitarian products (e.g., skincare products) and how to affect review helpfulness by applying natural language processing techniques. Research design, data, and methodology: This study uses 69,633 online reviews generated for the products registered at Amazon.com by 13 Korean cosmetic firms. The authors identify key topics that emerge about consumers' use of skincare products such as skin type and skin trouble, by applying bigram analysis. The review content variables are included in the review helpfulness model, including other important determinants. Results: The estimation results support the positive effect of review extremity and content on the helpfulness. In particular, the reviewer's skin type information was recognized as highly useful when presented together as a basis for high-rated reviews. Moreover, the content related to skin issues positively affects review helpfulness. Conclusions: The positive relationship between extreme reviews and helpfulness of reviews challenges the findings from prior literature. This result implies that an in-depth study of the effect of product types on review helpfulness is needed. Furthermore, a positive effect of review content on helpfulness suggests that applying big data analytics can provide meaningful customer insights in the online retail industry.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.12 no.9
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• pp.73-82
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• 2014

Purpose - This study aims to illustrate the relationship between demographic factors and perceived risk types, supposing that Korean customers tend to postpone buying or hesitate to purchase the new version of hand sets, because of an early buying risk. Research design, data, and methodology - In addition to existing perceived risk types, the authors introduced an early buying risk. In order to measure each variable, also, the study has employed a five-point Liker-scale. To increase research reliability and validity, the research adopted an exploratory factor analysis, a confirmatory factor analysis, and one-way ANOVA. Results - First, there were statistically significant differences between financial risk and the group. Second, there weren't any statistically significant differences between the group means among the four perceived risk types (Performance Risk, Social Risk, Psychological Risk, and Physical Risk) and 4 factors (Gender, Age, Job, and Education). Lastly, job is apparently differentiated from others (Gender, Age, and Education). Conclusions - The authors found that customers regarded an early buying risk as one of the important perceived risk types, when purchasing a hand set.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.17 no.12
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• pp.55-62
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• 2019

Purpose: The number intelligent homecare products are focused on the development of technology, resulting in a lack of realistic environments or requirements for consumers. The purpose of this paper is to define the consumer and context for intelligent homecare products and to develop a usability evaluation scale. Research design, data and methodology: For this study, first, consumer and contexts related to intelligent homecare products were analyzed through literature review. Second, the primary usability evaluation factors were derived for intelligent homecare products by collecting the factors related to usability evaluation and conducting in-depth interviews with experts. Third, the second usability evaluation factors were derived through survey and statistical analysis based on the derived usability evaluation factors. Results: As a result, users of intelligent homecare products were classified as primary users and secondary consumers and six related contexts. The usability evaluation scale was established with four factors - Functionality, Error, Convenience, and Emotion - and 13 items. Conclusions: This study can be the basis for developing and distributing products that meet the consumer environment and requirements related to intelligent homecare products that will contribute to securing the competitiveness of companies and developing the technology and service value of related industries.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.17 no.9
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• pp.47-56
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• 2019

Purpose - A work way of 'face to face' or a work way of 'unmanned' is very meaningful trend in contrast of robot as a worker. This paper explored some cases of unmanned terminal and kiosk which has been quickly adopted to fastfood industry in South Korea and researched whether any inconvenience or trouble exists in the level of 'the poor' and 'the aged' or not at the time of 'touching' screen in unmanned store. Research design, data, and methodology -The authors examined a few previous studies in keywords of AmazonGo, kiosk, digital divide, information gap, deregulation, and analyzed some cases of 'unmanned terminal' defines restrictively as all kinds of unmanned device, terminal and equipment including kiosk regardless of any place and type. Results - Promotion strategy of the unhandy and retailers needs to offer 'expansion of education and learning', readiness for the law aspect, reform of kiosk industry and priority of sufficient budge and politic assistance by government side. Conclusions - This paper presented some strategies of eliminating 'digital divide' both for a 'the poor', 'the aged', and for a retailer, so that the former may easily purchase goods on unmanned terminal, and the latter may easily sell the more goods at unmanned store.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.5-11
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• 2015

Purpose - The purpose of this research is to investigate the influence of social status perception and interest in social issues on the authenticity perceived by consumers of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities of premium brands. Research design, data, and methodology - Behavioral experiments were performed to observe the impact of consumers' social status perception and interest in social issues on their perceived authenticity of CSR motivation related to premium brands and consumer behavior. Results - We found that the possibility of social mobility and the degree of individuals' interest in the environment and CSR enable them to reconsider the authenticity of CSR motivation, thereby having positive effects on purchase intention, willingness to recommend the product, and brand value. This research also showed that proactive customers who seek to move up the social ladder have a stronger interest in social issues such as the environment or CSR. Conclusions - Our research suggests that when conducting a consumer segmentation analysis for the launch of CSR products (products released for CSR), a positive mind-set toward social mobility serves as an effective criterion.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.11 no.7
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• pp.39-45
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• 2013

Purpose - The paper aims at testing the moderating effect of individualism dimension of culture on consumer behavioural intention about bank services in Nigeria. Research design, data, and methodology - A survey was conducted with a sample of five hundred and fifty five bank customers drawn from various retails banks. Using Statistical Package for Social Sciences and Analysis of Moment Structure, combinations of descriptive and inferential statistics were performed. Invariance test and multiple-group analysis were conducted in order to assess the moderating effect. The invariance test was necessary to confirm the equivalence of constructs so that any difference detected thereafter could be related to moderating effect. Results - The results show that individualism has a significant moderating effect on the relationship between technical quality, perceived value and corporate image on the one hand, and behavioural intention on the other. However, individualism does not moderate the association between functional quality and behavioral intention. Conclusions - It is recommended that the bank policy makers should take necessary step to enhance the customer perception of technical quality, perceived value and corporate image with respect the retail bank services.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.20 no.12
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• pp.117-123
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• 2022

Purpose: This study investigates the relationship between earnings forecasts estimated from a cross-sectional earnings forecast model and firm characteristics such as firm size, sales volatility, and earnings volatility. Research design, data and methodology: The association between earnings forecasts and the aforementioned firm characteristics is examined using 214 firm-year observations with analyst following and 848 firm-year observations without analyst following for the period of 2011-2019. I estimate future earnings using a cross-sectional earnings forecast model, and then compare these model-based earnings forecasts with analysts' earnings forecasts in terms of forecast bias and forecast accuracy. The earnings forecast bias and accuracy are regressed on firm size, sales volatility, and earnings volatility. Results: For a sample with analyst following, I find that the model-based earnings forecasts are more accurate as the firm size is larger, whereas the analysts' earnings forecasts are less biased and more accurate as the firm size is larger. However, for a sample without analyst following, I find that the model-based earnings forecasts are more pessimistic and less accurate as firms' past earnings are more volatile. Conclusions: Although model-based earnings forecasts are useful for evaluating firms without analyst following, their accuracy depends on the firms' earnings volatility.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.15-24
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• 2021

Purpose: The research is to find out the perception of consumers for the convenience store (c - store) image in an emerging market, with a sample from Ho Chi Minh City. Research design, data, and methodology: Data were collected using a 24 - item structured questionnaire into six factors, namely: store atmospheric, merchandise, supplementary service, customer convenience, sales personnel, promotion. Five hundred consumers shopped at the different c - stores were collected for a multidimensional scaling technique that creates a perceptual map illustrating of c - store image. Results: The results point out that consumers' perception of a different c - store is different. The trend of c- stores are focusing on the dimensions of the function aspect. The customers also put their attention on the psychological dimension, which, in this case, is customer convenience with a sharp point. Almost all stores are bad on store atmospheric in customer- based. Conclusions: The modern retail store chains need to focus on elements to create a store image positioning and improve the perceptions of the consumers towards the store. Besides, customers not only visit the stores, not due to its convenient location, mass media or shopping experience, but also a strong identity for the store's brand image.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.53-64
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• 2021

Purpose: Even though arranging images of products is a common practice in the online retail context, relatively little attention has been paid to the distance effect among alternatives, that is, how distance among displayed products can impact consumers' responses. Drawing on contagion theory, the primary goal of the current study is to investigate how spatial distance between two products in a product display can influence consumers' perceived similarity. Research design, data and methodology: This study used a 2(spatial distance: close vs. far) experimental design and collected data from undergraduate students in Korea through an online survey using Qualtrics. ANOVA was conducted to test the proposed effect, in which the dependent variables are the perceived similarity of usage occasion/purpose (Study 1) and the indexed differences of perceived brand statuses between two products (Study 2). Results: The results of both experiments indicated that the displayed products were perceived to be more similar to one another when products were presented close together (vs. far). Conclusions: The results help to fill a research gap and provide a better understanding of the role of physical distance in diverse marketing communications. This is especially useful when designing online shopping websites to form perceptions of brand images.