• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.91-105
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• 2001

Wholesale club is one of the fastest expanding retailer formats. Given its key features such as limited assortment and no promotion policy, the current paper provides a theory on why the wholesale clubs charge their members fixed annual fees. In a competitive setting with supermarkets, the proposed model demonstrates that the membership fee is the optimal reaction of wholesale clubs to supermarkets" sales promotion. More specifically, the positive amount of annual fee is only justified under the condition that there exists consumer heterogeneity in consumption rate and when the supermarket exercises price promotion on the product that the wholesale club carries. This paper describes the competition in a stylized fashion and derives the optimal membership fee under a scenario where retail promotion is present. This study is valuable in that it offers a different explanation on wholesale club membership fee than conventional wisdoms such as cost sharing and that it provides insights to the managers who consider no-fee format.

• Journal of Industrial Convergence
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.55-77
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• 2005

Recently the environment which besieges distribution system is changing suddenly. With opening the distribution market together the advanced various nations new multinational discount stores are introduced and the competition from this market is growing in intensity. Like this change is raising the recognition of the enterprises against the strategy importance of the distribution channel. Consequently, from under competing which is deepened from the hazard where the discount point industry exists what, it will not be able to do the customer-oriented management which it sees. To lead a customer satisfaction finally and it is important to put out. As only low price standing sale it will not be able to create a competitive advantage and raising the quality also it is demanded with the diversification of product assortment together. It does a customer loyalty degree further firmly and compared to the long-range strategy is necessary.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.55-67
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• 2015

Despite the well-known predictive power of Dirichlet model on customer loyalty, deviations of share of category requirement (SCR) predicted by Dirichlet model from actual SCR have been repeatedly reported. It has been shown that these deviations can be systematically explained by some factors such as brand's market share, product positioning strategy, purchase volume and retail marketing mix strategies. Presuming that brand equity would be additional sources of these deviations, current study assesses the incremental predictive power of brand equity by using over 4,000 brand-level observations for the consumer packaged goods industry in the U.S. Our model estimations indicate that brands that exhibit higher brand equity enjoy excess loyalty, with the primary driver being volume premium, rather than price premium. Overall, our findings support the notion that idiosyncratic brand properties can explain excess behavioral loyalty, a notion that is in stark contrast with the Dirichlet view of the world: brand equity does not exist.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.409-416
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• 2015

Purpose: This study evaluates a new banana bulk packaging method under the real transport conditions of Sri Lanka. Methods: A field evaluation of optimized 8-mm thick Styrofoam sheets used as the cushioning material was applied. A trial transport was conducted from Thambuttegama to Colombo using a medium-sized open truck, with banana leaves as the control material. Data were recorded at the farmer, transporter, retailer, and consumer stages of the supply chain. Mechanical damage, physiological loss in weight, fruit firmness, total soluble solids, ripeness index, visual quality ratings, and the physical damage index of the bananas were measured at each stage. A cost-benefit analysis was also conducted for both packaging methods. Results: The 8-mm styrofoam sheets significantly reduced (p < 0.05) the mechanical damage from 26.3% to 12.9% compared to the conventional method for long-distance transport, and the physiological loss in weight showed a decrease of 2.88%. The loss of firmness of the fruits followed a simmilar pattern for both methods until reaching the retailer, but at the consumer was significantly higher (p < 0.05) for the control. However, the physical damage index at the retail stage for the control showed symptoms of physical injury, whereas the bananas transported using the cushioning materials exhibited only minor symptoms. Further, the visual quality of the fruits after transport from the farmer to the consumer was preserved, which is one of the main factors affecting consumer preference and retail price. The proposed method increases the profit margin by 51.2% for Embul bananas owing to the reduced postharvest losses. Conclusion: The 8-mm thick Styrofoam sheets reduced the physical damage to the bananas, with the quality parameters maintained at the prefered level. Moreover, profits may be increased.

• The Journal of Fisheries Business Administration
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.9-27
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• 1995

From now on, the direction of fishery products circulation measure should be improved the system to give just the right of free choice of sale route like retail, direct sale, direct dealings and direct shipping only for fishermen to produce them diversifing the function and the role of current fish market in the production to prepare the fishery internationalization, to improve the competitiveness of coastal and off-shore fishery. Practically wholesale market in land and fish market in the production have the different function and role, the organization of wholesale market in land can't substitute the essential function and role which fish market in the production should perform. So far, fisheries cooperatives as a managing subject of fish market in the production have depended on the consignment sales and purchases of fishery products but, from now on, it should be explore the widespread supply way of fishery products by producing value - added fishery products that should bring higher demand from the consumers, producer - consumer direct marketing system through not only consignment sales but also direct sales that common processing and manufacturing system of fishery products under the management of FC has been established. The direction of the idealest structural improvement of fishery production circulation organization is to establish the the position of the fishery retail price leader based on the standard of market in the fisheries production due to existing characteristics of fisheries, accordingly, to harmony the market organization of direct transportation, direct sales and direct dealings form by producer and group of producers with market organization in the fisheries production, and to make the condition to do the appropriate distributive function.

• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.315-339
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• 2013

This study aims to suggest methods to estimate the agriculture related added value created in the agricultural production sector and the up/downstream agribusiness of Chungcheongnam-do by using the transaction table at producer's price, the domestic transaction table, the wholesale-retail profit table and the freight charge table in the input-output tables, and further aims to estimate regional and industrial agriculture related added values created in the agricultural production sector and the agribusiness of Chungcheongnam-do by using the input-output tables of the year 2005. This thesis suggests the consideration of overall and holistic policy regarding public welfare facilities in healthcare, commission sale market places for fishery products, fishery processing factories, processing factories for medicines, cosmetics, feedstuff, and tobacco leaves and the innovative distribution system with regard to wholesale/retail that Chungnam lacks in. It is also proposed to make comprehensive and cohesive policy to enhance growth and competitiveness of agricultural, forestry and fishery industry.

• Journal of the Korean Operations Research and Management Science Society
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.107-120
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• 2011

The increased availability of store brand suppliers now provides retailers with opportunities to create their own lines of vertically differentiated multiple store brands within a product category. As the number of store brands increase, the retailer's shelf space becomes more crowded, which may force the retailer to consider dropping some national brands from its assortment. Despite these trends, the problem of product line design in a vertically differentiated product category has been analyzed mainly from a manufacturer's perspective in the marketing literature and it is not known to what extent the findings of the existing product line design literature provide applicable strategic guidelines for the new problem faced by retailers. In this study, we address this deficiency in the literature and conduct an in-depth study of the retailer's strategic design of a line of store brands and its assortment decision within the context of retail category management. We analyze the retailer's decision about not only how to design a line of store brands but also which national brand to drop from its assortment. The results of our analysis are as follows. First, if the retailer has to drop one of national brands from its assortment, it is the best for the retailer to drop the low-quality national brand rather than the high-quality national brand. Second, the retailer has to position the high-quality store brand relatively close to the high-quality national brand, remained on its shelf, in terms of quality so as to maximize the size of retail margin from the national brand. On the other hand, the retailer should set the quality of the low-quality store brand at a lower level than that of the low-quality national brand to increase the total category demand by attracting more price sensitive consumers. By doing so, the retailer can also minimize cannibalization between two store brands. Lastly, our analysis shows that the introduction of a line of store brands improves consumer welfare by increasing real values of all products on the shelf.

• Journal of Service Research and Studies
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.29-37
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• 2012

Recently, the market size of hypermarkets in the domestic retail market accounts for a high percentage. The domestic retail market after the opening of the market for the past 1996 and grow to the spread of hypermarkets. However, events such as tasting events were increased due to intense competition among business condition as to attract more customers beyond price competition. Under these circumstances, it is important to examine the relationship of the factors associated with tasting events on consumer buying behavior. The impact on consumer buying behavior in order to verify factors tasting event by setting product standards study the relationship between variables was set up as a model. As result, only one came out significantly to pay the hypothesis of various products depending on the origin of the factors that increase the amount available. This is seen as a supermarket tasting event at the origin of products, and transparency, but also for recently imported foods for consumers who have negative thoughts, mainly domestic product tasting events Mart's sales continue to increase to attract more customers shall be deemed to be one way.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.83-104
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• 2005

This case describes Lotte Mart's practices and achievement in the aspect of social responsibilities and ethics management and its implications in retail industry. Lotte Mart set ethics management as core business objective, and establishes and operates a variety of ethics management programs for each of customer, shareholders, employees, suppliers and society. By these programs, Lotte Mart could achieve improvement in quality and price competitiveness through better partnership with supplier, get more efficiency in business through higher morale among employees, and gain improved customer loyalty through customer satisfaction.

• The Journal of Fisheries Business Administration
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.91-107
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• 2003

Distribution of fish products from Tongyoung Marine ranching can be classified by three routes such as street-stall, live fish transportation vehicles, and wholesale markets neighboring unloading ports. These methods of distribution, however, have been restricted by limited distribution right, difficulties to differentiate fish prices from other surfaces, simple marketing channels. The ratio of cultured live fish circulated in market is increasing while naturally caught live fish is decreasing and the fresh fish shows a little of increasing rate. Consumers purchasing routes mainly depend on the live fish transportation merchants. For fresh fish traditional market plays an important role in trade. Convenience for consumers and quality of products are main factors in making decision of purchases. Bargaining power, however, belongs to the live fish transportation merchants. The demand of special markets for live fish was very strong, and the convenience and quality are relatively important required factors. Catch from Tongyoung Marine ranching has very good reputation as the possibility of being a good brand. Expecting possibility of quality differentiation was higher than price differentiation specially. The possible conclusion of a contract of a supply was suspicious however. Preliminary quality evaluation revealed that the catch is better than the cultured but worse than naturally grown fish. A merchandising is to be in a better position in the formation of prices by giving $\ulcorner$brand image$\lrcorner$ to potential consumers. The target markets are retail stores such as restaurants for raw fish and final consumers. The staple markets are retail stores. Possible items of products are live fish, fresh fish for cook, and fresh fish for raw fish. It is necessary for the catch to be informed as new functional products that have been improved in safety and quality, since the product positioning is similar but not well known to consumers. To secure a brand it is required to register a trademark, eco-label product design or packing, use real name in tranction, introduce recall system, and put label. Price higher than naturally grown live fish should be targeted. Establishing broad distribution channel, wholesale market, franchise are required. To secure enough catch and control shipment of products facilities of containing live fish are necessary. Instead of dealing with live fish only, it would be better to. sell fresh fish and live fish simultaneous. Strategically promotion focuses on advertisement of Marin ranching at first and then focuses on the catch from the marine ranching.