• The International Journal of Costume Culture
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.179-196
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• 2009

This is a follow-up study to "An Analysis of the Fitting of Plus-sized Women's Formal Jackets in On-line Shopping Malls", in which we compiled basic sizes of formal jackets sold in online retailers for plus-sized women and compared specific measurements of the jackets from each retailer. Emphasizing a comparison of age groups 20-39 and 40-59, fit evaluations and analyses were conducted in order to provide data to help manufacturers develop formal jacket patterns that reflect physical characteristics of plus-sized consumers and offer better physical fit. The surveys and evaluations were conducted between October 2007 and May 2008. and the compiled data were analyzed using the SPSS 17.0 statistics program. The results were summarized as follows. The two age groups gave different evaluations of the fit problems in the women's formal jackets sold in online retailers. Whereas the age group 20-39 felt that the main problems were in the shoulder, armscye, upper arm, waist, abdomen and hip areas, the age group 40-59 said that they found more problems in the armscye, upper arms, sleeve length and jacket length. Modifying the shoulder area, armscye depth and jacket length severely compromises the jacket's balance, and attention to these areas must be given during pattern design.

• Journal of the Korea Fashion and Costume Design Association
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.31-46
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• 2003

The purpose of this study was to explore the ways of improving Korean apparel firms' competitiveness by examining the Korea's number one trading partner U.S. apparel industry. Especially, the Los Angeles area apparel industry which is the second largest and the primary market center on the west coast was analysed. The following strategies are suggested to Korean apparel firms to function more effectively in incleasingly competitive U.S. markets: l)Basics can be produced in lower wage countries meanwhile quick turnaround and high quality works can be produced either in Korea or U.S. 2)Manufacturers might try to have direct relationship with powerful retailers who have their own private labels of store-brand lines. 3)Apparel companies can open market showrooms in the California Market Center. For small firms they can contact with independent representatives who receive commissions for showing lines for manufacturers or rent space for showing the lines during market weeks. 4)Apparel firms can contact buying offices to introduce their products to retail buyers. 5)Korean firms can contact Korean-American apparel firms to gain easy access to U.S.Market.

• Journal of the Korea Fashion and Costume Design Association
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.19-29
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• 2004

The current fashion market is experiencing a lot of difficulties in fashion forecasting due to consumers' fast-changing lifestyle on fashion, changes in consumer behavior, and the segmentation of the fashion market. To cope with this harsh reality, many fashion enterprises have paid much attention to the SPA (Specialty Retailer's Store of Private Label Apparel) brand as a promising fashion marketing strategy in terms of which they can survive in the extremely competing fashion market. The SPA brand is in the stage of inception in Korea, but the SPA brands such as MUJI and UNIQLO are already dominating the fashion business in Japan. Korea has just started developing the SPA brand, but its technological development, which was triggered by the success of 'BASIC HOUSE', is rapidly evolving. Under these circumstances, the SPA brand is getting vital for the fashion market in efficiently realizing consumers' requirements, revolutionizing the method for providing product information and the process of Marketing Mix Program, and expressing the value of shop. This paper studies the nature of the SPA brand and fashion merchandising system, and in turn examine the differences between the visual merchandising of the existing fashion brands and the Japanese SPA brands that are used as the fashion marketing strategy which is driven by the up-to-date technological system. Centering around these issues, we propose a visual merchandising system for fashion enterprises which serves to develop Korean-style SPA brands.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.117-129
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• 2009

The bullwhip effect is known as the significant factor which causes unnecessary inventory, lost sales or cost increase in supply chains. Therefore, the causes of the bullwhip effect must be examined and removed. In this paper, we develop two analytical tools for the bullwhip effect control in supply chains. First, we develop the quantitative models for computing the bullwhip effect in a three-stage supply chain consisted of a single retailer, a single distributor and a single manufacturer when the fixed-interval replenishment policy is applied at each stage. The quantitative models are developed under the different conditions for the demand forecasting and share of customer demand information. They are validated through the computational experiments. Second, we develop a simulation-based decision support system for the bullwhip effect control in a more diverse dynamic supply chain environment. The system includes a what-if analysis function to examine the effects of varying input parameters such as operating policies and costs on the bullwhip effect.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.35 no.8
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• pp.906-917
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• 2011

This study identified the present state of store and selection criteria of supplier from the regional fashion buyer point of view and examined the effects of the factors of relative impact between buyer and supplier on the relational bond. The interviews and questionnaires were administered to the owners or the sellers of 85 fashion retail stores in Gwangju. For analysis of data, frequency, means, factor analysis, Cronbach's ${\alpha}$ and regression analysis were applied. The results were as follows. First, in the results of examining the actual conditions of store managers for fashion buyers, fashion buyers complained about lengthy travelling and time consumption inconvenience. They also reported decrease in margin and monthly mean sales over last year. Second, the most important selection the criteria for the supplier were product power, followed by a convenient store layout. Finally, higher quality communication, more compromises, and higher dependence were affected with higher satisfaction, trust, and commitment in suppliers; conversely, the trust and commitment of the buyers decreased relative to the increased power of the suppliers.

• Journal of Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.362-372
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• 2008

Manufacturers, or vendors, and their customers continue to adopt vendor-managed inventory(VMI) program to improve supply chain performance through collaboration achieved by consolidating replenishment responsibility upstream with vendors. In this paper, we construct a mixed integer linear programming model and propose a genetic algorithm for the integrated inventory and routing problems with lost sales maximizing the total profit in the VMI supply chains which comprise of a single manufacturer and multi-retailer. The proposed GA is compared with the mathematical model on the various sized test problems with respect to the solution quality and computation time. As a result, the GA demonstrates the capability of reaching solutions that are very close to those obtained by the mathematical model for small problems and stay within 3.2% from those obtained by the mathematical model for larger problems, with a much shorter computation time. Finally, we investigate the effects of the cost and operation variables on the total profit of the problem as well as the GA performance through the sensitivity analyses.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.243-253
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• 2014

This qualitative case study examined the experience of middle-aged homemakers with buying and wearing clothes. Clothing benefits and clothing purchase types were observed in the homemakers' daily clothing-related behavior. This study aims to understand clothing consumption values in light of clothing benefits and to determine purchasing methods, purchasing mental states, and personal characteristics according to the clothing purchase types of middle-aged homemakers. The participants of this study were four full-time homemakers and four homemakers with a job outside the home, all in middle age. This study was conducted through in-depth interviews based on an unstructured questionnaire, and the data were collected from January 2010 to October 2010. The results were as follows: first, the clothing benefits were identified as a social stereotype, aesthetic taste, economy, wearing situation, and age perception. The most important clothing consumption values to the middle-aged homemakers based on the observed clothing benefits were, in order: social value, emotional value, epistemic value, functional value, and conditional value. Second, the type of clothing purchase was observed to be planned buying, followed by impulse buying, and compensatory buying. Even when a homemaker planned to shop regularly, when they were exposed to an attractive retailer promotion, they seized on the opportunity on impulse or made a compensatory purchase to divert oneself. Even though homemakers prefer primarily impulse buying, when they went shopping for clothing with their mother-in-law or husband, they made planned purchase also.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.11 no.9
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• pp.51-57
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• 2013

Purpose - This study investigates the effect of visual merchandising display (VMD) of local specialty retailer of private label apparel (SPA) brands, such as space, display, and presentation on brand awareness, brand image, and purchase intention. It investigates consumers' VMD awareness and purchase intention of SPA brands to help business activities of local SPA enterprises. Research designs, data, methodology - This study uses SPSS 18.0 to study eight local SPA brands and has 193 effective usable copies from a sample of 200. Results - The display and presentation of VMDs of SPA brands had a positive influence on brand awareness and brand image, which in turn had a positive influence on purchase intention. Conclusions - As SPA brands are increasingly located in supercenters, they face space constraints and find it difficult to display their facade and signs effectively. Therefore, decisions pertaining to display, presentation, and space should consider whether these SPA brands are launched as independent specialty shops or in supercenters. The space for VMD is considered important in independent shops. However, shops that open in supercenters should pay more attention to presentation rather than space.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.15 no.9
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• pp.85-93
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• 2017

Purpose - The volume and valence of online word-of-mouth(eWOM) have become an important part of the retailer's market success for a wide range of products. This study aims to investigate how the growth of eWOM has generated the product's final financial outcomes in the introductory period influences. Research design, data, and methodology - This study uses weekly box office performance for 117 movies released in the South Korea from July 2015 to June 2016 using Korean Film Council(KOFIC) database. 292,371 posted online review messages were collected from NAVER movie review bulletin board. Using regression analysis, we test whether eWOM incurred during the opening week is valuable to explain the last of box office performance. Three major eWOM metrics were considered after controlling for the major distributional factors. Results - Results support that major eWOM variables play a significant role in box-office outcome prediction. Especially, the growth rate of the positive eWOM volume has a significant effect on the growth potential in sales. Conclusions - The findings highlight that the speed of eWOM growth has an informational value to understand the market reaction to a new product beyond valence and volume. Movie distributors need to take positive online eWOM growth into account to make optimal screen allocation decisions after release.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.16 no.7
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• pp.35-45
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• 2018

Purpose - The study investigates the impact of consignment on the economic performance in the supply chain with three stages. Through the analysis on distinct forms of consignment application, this study intends to answer to the question of how the consignment should be used in the multi-stage supply chain. Research design, data, and methodology - The proposed mathematical model represents the supply chain system with a manufacturer, a wholesaler, and a retailer. Three different forms of consignment application are considered depending on which stages adapt the consignment, and their system profits are compared with the traditional non-consignment system in numerical examples. Results - The numerical examples show that the serial consignment application performs better than any other forms of consignment as well as the non-consignment system. The additional analysis indicates that the system profit is significantly sensitive to the consignment rate. Conclusions - The outcome of this study implies the potential of consignment to improve the system performance even in the multi-stage supply chain system. Meanwhile, each supply chain member's preference to the specific form of consignment application could be different depending on which stage he has. All the supply chain members should jointly determine the appropriate consignment rates to obtain the best system performance.