• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.535-550
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to identify the factors that customers perceive as important relationship investment in the relationship efforts provided by retailers for customer relationship purposes and to explain the mediating role of relationship quality such as trust, relationship commitment in the relationship perceived relationship investment and relationship performance. For this study, 270 respondents were surveyed and data were analyzed using SPSS 21.0 and AMOS 20.0 statistical package. Statistical analysis tools, such as SPSS 21.0 and AMOS 20.0 were utilized for ensuring the validity and the reliability, whereas the SEM method was used for testing the research hypothesis. The results of study are as follows. Financial efforts and structural efforts have affected perceived relationship investment. Perceived relationship investment affected trust and relationship commitment but not loyalty. Trust influenced relationship commitment and loyalty whereas relationship commitment did not affect loyalty. Therefore, it is important for retail marketing managers to provide tangible rewards and special benefits at all times in order to recognize that they are doing the best service efforts for customer relations. In order to secure long-term and stable profits by establishing a relationship with them, the service marketing strategies should be promoted to enhance the relationship quality by raising the level of trust.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.12 no.11
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• pp.101-111
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• 2014

Purpose - This study aims to verify the construct of the service quality suitable to the characteristics of the business center, to develop the scale that can measure the service quality objectively, compare the diverse business centers in Korea, and present desirable methods of business center management and operation. Research design, data, and methodology - In the first stage, literature research and focus group interviews with current users and actual business experts of business centers were conducted. In addition, 69 early stage scale items were derived. In the second stage, a Delphi survey was conducted on the experts of business and academic circles. The measurement items in the early stage were supplemented and revised. The content validity rate (CVR) of 69 measures was computed and then the experts' opinions were used. As a result, the business center service quality scale, made up of 9 organizing factors and 36 measurement items, was constructed. In the third stage, a survey was conducted on the occupants who were currently using the business center. It was to confirm if the developed business center service quality scale could be actually utilized. The data of 435 samples collected were used. To refine the scale items, the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted repeatedly. Results - The business center service quality scale, made up of 8 factors and 33 items, was developed again. The 8 factors are reliability, speed, kindness, specialty, responsibility, appearance, convenience, and public interest. The reliability coefficient (Cronbach's Alpha) of each factor is greater than .7. Thus, it was confirmed that there was reliability in the measurement items. Further, the model suitability was verified using the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and the convergent validity and the discriminant validity were verified. This proved the construct validity. Through this process, the Korea Business Center Service Quality Scale was developed. Based on factor analysis, the developed business center service quality (BCSQ) scale consists of 4 aspects, 8 factors, and 33 items, comprising the "process quality" aspect: reliability (3 items), speediness (4 items), kindness (3 items) factors, the outcome quality aspect: expertise (3 items), responsibility (5 items) factors, the environment quality aspect: appearance (5 items), convenience (3 items) factors, and the public interest aspect: public interest (7 items) factor. However, according to CFA, the BCSQ scale consists of a total of 4 aspects, 8 factors, and 33 items, comprising the "process quality" aspect: reliability (3 items), speediness (3 items), kindness (3 items) factors, the outcome quality aspect: expertise (2 items), responsibility (4 items) factors, the environment quality aspect: appearance (3 items), convenience (2 items) factors, and the public interest aspect: public interest (3 items) factor. Conclusions - The BCSQ scale could serve as a diagnostic tool that will allow business center managers to determine service areas that are weak and in need of attention, and to improve the service quality of the business center.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.103-129
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• 2007

One of the most enduring concepts in the history of marketing thought relates to the classification of consumer goods. The product classification theory first proposed by Copeland(1923) has, with little modification, survived to the present day, and continues to be endorsed by the American Marketing Association and other related institutions some 80 years after it was first published. In truth, Copeland's classification is now outdated and bears little, if any, relevance to modern product advertising, retailing and consumption. In particular, it can not accommodate the fact that, in modern societies, consumer preoccupations with style, personal identity and status have meant that the social characteristics of goods, heavily promoted by brand managers who understand their markets, are key determinants of consumer choice and buyer behavior. In this respect, the author attempted to explore the reasons why product classification theory has been unresponsive to changes in market conditions over so many years and argue that its failure to embrace the many social influences on consumption and on consumer behavior is now its most serious weakness. And also, the author proposed the new categorization system of goods, based on the several existing literatures.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.10 no.8
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• pp.7-14
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• 2012

As a new format of retailing, social shopping on SNS has rapidly grown in recent. Although there is much literature associated with customer behaviours in the academic world, little attention has been paid to identifying the shopping patterns of SNS shoppers. This paper will, thus, identify how perceived value has an impact on the buying intention of SNS shoppers, after illustrating what kind of factor influences the formation process of perceived value in the Korean marketplace. Given that SNS shoppers are for the most part 20s as well as 30s, the authors handed out questionnaires to them. Furthermore, based on literature review results, the conceptualised research model was developed. Despite lack of literature, the authors developed five constructs like price reduction, quantity- and time-limited message, product ranges, information-sharing, and required number of shoppers. The researchers made a considerable effort to identify the relationship between research concepts and each variable, based on a few research analysis methods such as frequency analysis, the Varimax rotation technique used orthogonal rotation, Cronbach's Alpha, PCA (Principle Component Analysis), and the like. Amongst the 5 variables used to measure the degree of influences on the perceived value as a social shopping characteristic, it has been evident that price cut, required minimum shoppers, product variety, and information-sharing have a positive impact on the perceived value formation processes of SNS customers. Also, this research implies that SNS retailers can differentiate themselves from other retailers by differently using the above factors. From a practitioner's point of view, these factors should be strategically used to increase the social shopping opportunities of SNS users. It is, furthermore, evident that the perceived value formed by the above 4 factors have played an important role in the buying decision process of SNS customers. In a sense, whether customers are aware of higher price cut rates, information-sharing, required minimum shoppers, and product variety has a positive impact on making buying decisions. From a retailer's point of view, online shopping mall operators are able to use blog as well as twitter to improve the buying intention as a marketing tool of social network, because the business activities provided by social shopping retailers, like the rapid, accurate responses to customer requirements, the provision of a variety of information, and the communications between customers are closely related to buying intentions. There are a few research limitations to conduct this empirical research. It was not easy to review prior papers, due to its lack. In spite of the increasing number of SNS shoppers in Korea, little research attention has been paid to this kind of research topic by academicians, because buying products or services through SNS is in its infancy. With regard to research populations, it would be difficult to generalise the research findings in Korea, owing to unbalanced respondent distribution. Considering the above research limitations as well as the growth of social shopping, many authors should pay considerable attention to SNS-related issues in the future, and develop the more sophisticated criteria to measure the characteristics of SNS shoppers.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.97-109
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• 2011

As a marketing vehicle to survive in intensified retailing competition, retailer brand development has been adopted by retailers in Korea. As evidence, the retailer brand share of a major retailer, Tesco Korea, has grown from 20% in 2007 to 22.8% in the first half of 2008. It means that retailers have provided more and more retailer brand foods for customers. With the growing accessibility to retailer brand foods, it would be expected that the number of retailer brand food claims will increase. Customers have increasingly exposed to a variety of marketing activities conducted by retailers. When buying the retailer brand foods, customers tend to be affected by marketing activities of retailers. Despite the fact that customers trust retailers and then, buy their brand foods, in case of food accidents caused by production process, customers have to seek compensation from a retailer brand supplier. Of course, a retailer tends to shift its responsibility to its suppliers. Accordingly, it is not easy for customers to solve food claims. The research, therefore, aims at exploring the relationship between the buying-decision processes of retailer brand customers and which side takes legal responsibility for food claims. To effectively achieve the research aim, the author adopted a quantitative and a qualitative research technique, in order to supplement the disadvantages of each method. Before field research, based on the developed research model, the author pre-tested questionnaire with 10 samples, amended, and handed out to 400 samples. Amongst them, 316 questionnaires are available. For a focus group interview, 9 participants were recruited, who are students, housewives, and full-time workers, aged from 20s to 40s. Through the focus group interview as well as the questionnaire results, it was found that most customers were influenced by a retailer or store image in a customer's mind, retailer reputation and promotional activities. Surprisingly, customers think that the name of a retailer is a more important factor than who produces retailer brand foods, even though many customers check a retailer brand supplier, when making a buying-decision. Rather than retailer brand suppliers, customers trust retailers. That is why they purchase retailer brands. Nevertheless, production-related food claims is not involved with retailers. In fact, it would be difficult for customers to distinguish whether a food claim is related to selling or manufacturing processes. Based on research results, from a customer perspective, the research suggests that the government should require retailers to take the whole responsibility for retailer brand food claims, preventing retailers from passing the buck to retailer brand suppliers. In case of food claims, in order for customers to easily get the compensation, it is necessary to reconsider the current system. If so, retailers have to fully get involved in retailer brand production stage, and further, the customer awareness of retailer brands will be improved than ever before. Retailers cannot help taking care of the whole processes of retailer brand development, because of responsibility. As a result, the process to seek compensation for food claims might become easier, and further, the protection of customer right might be improved.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.68-86
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• 2016

This study confirmed structural causal relations among concepts such as characteristics of store, store image, affective satisfaction, affective commitment, and loyalty and surveyed mediating roles of affective commitment in grocery retailing. Analysis of structural equation modeling with SPSS18.0 and AMOS18.0 were performed to test the research hypothesis. The results are as follows. First, Perceived quality, product assortment and product price influenced satisfaction. Second, Store image influenced affective satisfaction, affective commitment and loyalty. Affective satisfaction influenced affective commitment but not loyalty directly. Third, affective commitment influenced loyalty through the powerful mediating role. The store characteristics was seen to have a positive impact on affective satisfaction through store image, and in turn related to affective commitment, ultimately leading to loyalty. Especially, It is meaningful result in this study which is confirmed affective commitment have a strong mediating role in between store image, affective satisfaction and loyalty. Finally, we discussed the role of affective commitment and the strategies of affective commitment development, and suggested future studies.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.11 no.12
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• pp.25-37
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• 2013

Purpose - The structure of retailing has changed as retailers develop markets in response to business environment changes. This study aims to analyze the general situation of retailers in order to predict future global strategy using case studies of overseas expansion strategy and the Metro Group's global strategy. Research design, data, and methodology - The backgrounds to the new retail business model and retailer classification are analyzed as theoretical data. In addition, the key success point of the Metro Group's "cash and carry" strategy is analyzed as is the Metro Group's global CFAR (collaborative planning, forecasting, and replenishment) strategy. Finally, the plan for cooperation and precise forecasting under the Metro Group's supply chain management are analyzed from the promotion environment viewpoint. Related materials analyzed included the 2012 annual report, the Metro Group's web page, and a video interview with the executive in charge of global strategy and the new market development department. Some data were revised to avoid disrupting essential aspects of the case studies. Results - The important finding was that the Metro Group could be a world-class retail company with its successful global expansion strategy. The Metro Group's global strategy's primary goal is to have a leading business position in Eastern and Western Europe. The "cash and carry" strategy is highest priority in its overseas expansion strategy. Moreover, the Metro Group has standardized product planning capacity, which could be applied in various countries with different structural and cultural backgrounds. This is the main reason that the Metro Group could rapidly become successful in the Eastern Europe and Asian markets through its structural overseas expansion strategies. In addition, the Metro Group emphasizes the importance of supply chain management. Conclusions - First, retailers should create additional value through utilizing the domestic market, market power, and economies of scale to launch a global strategy to maximize benefits from diversification. Second, the political, economic, and cultural background of the target country needs to be understood to successfully implement the overseas expansion strategy. Third, the main factor of successful cooperation with a local partner is how quickly the company gains total understanding of the business resources and core competence of its partner. All organizations should focus on the achievement of goals in order to successfully operate the partnership. Fourth, retailers should improve their business, financial and organizational structure. Moreover, the work processes and company culture should also be improved to respond strongly in the competitive global market. Fifth, the essential point of a successful retail business is the control capacity of its branding and format. The retailer could avoid forecasting errors through supply chain management by perfectly distributing the actual amount of its inventory. In addition, the risks along the supply chain are effectively shared between the supply chain partners. Finally, the central tendency of the market is to gain in strength with this taking place across all parts of the business.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.15-27
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• 2011

Although a huge number of academic researchers have paid considerable attention to exploring both the degree to which store image influences retailer brand customers and how to develop store personality, they have overlooked the contemporary retail context in which retailers have developed many different types of retailer brands, that is, price-oriented or quality-oriented retailer brands. Rather than focusing on the latter, much literature has looked at the former. Accordingly, even though there are many articles related to store image, a few authors have shown their interest in identifying the extent to which store personality affects customers purchasing retailer brands at lower prices. As a result, their efforts have been to illustrate the relationship between store image and consumer behaviours buying retailer brands. In that multiple retailers over the world such as E-Mart, Lotte-Mart, Tesco Korea and Tesco UK have actively introduced not only the quality-focused retailer brands that quality is better than, or equal to national brands, and prices are slightly higher than, or equal to them, but also price-focused retailer brands, academicians should make an effort to investigate how store image affects customers purchasing a quality-oriented retailer brand, comparing with previous research results. That is why the authors illustrate the extent to which store personality components influence retailer brand customers, including particularly quality-oriented retailer brand customers through an empirical research. By adopting a questionnaire method as a research technique to illuminate the relationship between store image components and retailer brand customers, research validity increases and further, data gathered through a field survey are analysed through a few statistic analysis methods, in order to minimise statistical deviations. Compared with the prior research concentrated on price-focused retailer brands, the authors have significantly shed light on customer behaviours purchasing retailer brand products with higher quality. When it comes to store personality components, the research suggests the following five items: merchandise attributes, services, physical facilities, promotions, and institutional image, considering the subcomponents mentioned by the previous research. Proposing the conceptual research model which those elements are differently hypothesised, according to retailer brand types: PR (Price-oriented Retailer brand) and QR (Quality-oriented Retailer brand), the research is proceeded. Through empirical research, the authors found that amongst the five items, only promotion influenced retailer brand customers in the Korean retailing marketplace, unlike other countries explored by many researchers, such as UK. Although much literature emphasises that those elements are closely related to retailer brand buying proneness, it is completely not fit to the Korean market. Also, research findings provide new insights into the degree of store image effects on retailer brand customers for academiciansand practitioners. Whether the retailer brand development program that a retailer has carried simultaneously both price-focused and quality-focused retailer brand types is practically profitable should be explored in the future.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.7 no.8
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• pp.245-254
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• 2007

The purpose of this study is to analyse the effects of salesperson's lifestyle, selling behaviors on strategic management of salesperson. So this study not only examines differences in the salesperson's lifestyle, selling behaviors and job satisfaction but also analyses the impact of salespersons' lifestyle and selling behaviors on job satisfaction. The results of this study are summarized as follows. First, the result of analyzing differences in the lifestyle according to the characteristics of sex, age, academic background income is no significant difference. Second, the result of analyzing differences in the selling behavior according to the characteristics of sex and marriage is significant difference. Third, the result of analyzing differences in the job satisfaction according to the characteristics of store type is significant difference. Salesperson working at the exclusive agencies is most high job satisfaction. According to the result of examining the relationship between salespersons' lifestyle and the selling behaviors, job-oriented lifestyle has positive effects on the customer orientation and hospitality orientation. Finally salespersons' job satisfaction is positively affected by the job-oriented lifestyle and hospitality-orientation selling behavior.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.51-75
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• 2007

Dongdaemun fashion market has been successfully positioned as a main hub for non-brand fashion product distribution in Korea. One of important competitive advantages of Dongdaemun market often quoted by retail researchers is an efficiently managed network system among supply chain members. This study aimed to examine the importance of buyer-supplier relationship elements and supplier properties from buyers' perspectives (small & very small-sized fashion stores in Dongdaemun market), and to identify the determinants of the relationship length between suppliers and buyers. Survey responses of 233 stores were analyzed using EQS 6.1 for Window and SPSSWIN 10.0. The findings could be summarized as follows: First, fashion stores perceived that right delivery as the most important factor, and geographically closeness, design capability, quality, and lower price followed in order. Second, the characteristics of stores such as location, wholesaling versus retailing focusing, monthly sales, and total business length all affected the perceived importance of buyer-supplier relationship. Third, design capacity, communication, power was identified as determinants of actual relationship length with a supplier, while communication and trust were found to be determinants of future expected relationship length.