• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.99-106
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• 2016

Purpose - The antecedent to the relationship between the effect of the characteristics of strategic alliances and the performance of container liner shipping companies has been investigated in this study as container liner shipping companies' strategic alliances. It affects positively and negatively home, partner, and the third parties' performance in container liner shipping companies. Extensive literature reviews on shipper's strategic alliances reveal that strategic alliances in financial and non-financial performance of container liner shipping companies show the performance such as economic effects, business performance, global supply chain management performance, customer satisfaction, and forward integration and backward integration performance. The purpose of this study is to test empirically that the relationship between the characteristics of strategic alliances and financial and non-financial performance in container liner shipping companies. Structured equation modeling and confirmatory factor analysis were used to test the hypothesis using AMOS statistics program. Most previous researches focused on the relationship between the characteristics of strategic alliances and alliance types. There are few empirical studies that focus on business performance data because it is difficult to collect data in container liner shipping companies. However, this research measures financial and non-financial performance differently compared with the previous researches focusing on the characteristics of strategic alliances and alliance types measurements. Research design, data, and methodology - The conceptual model for the study is based on the studies of Lim (2010), Chen & Zhen (2009), and Wang & Meng (2014). The model is built around the factors of characteristics of strategic alliances and business performance. Cost, marketing, and service factors are regarded as proxy for the characteristics of strategic alliances. The financial and non-financial performance are regarded as proxy for the performance of strategic alliances. Based on the analysis of one hundred cases such as forwarder, shipper, and liner shipping companies, this study uses structural equation modeling to verify the effects of the characteristics of strategic alliances on business performance. Conclusions - This study provides container liner shipping companies to get some policy and practical implications in terms of the characteristics of strategic alliances and business performance. First, the cost factor for alliances characteristics has a positively significant influence on the financial and non-financial performance of strategic alliances. The cost factor relationship between high and low performance group does not have a significant difference on the performance of strategic alliances. Second, the marketing factor of alliances characteristics has a positively significant influence on the financial and non-financial performance of strategic alliances. The high performance group's marketing factor has a great non-financial performance than low performance group, but the low performance group's marketing factor has a grater financial performance than high performance group factor does. Third, the service factor of alliances characteristics has a negative influence on the non-financial performance of strategic alliances. The high performance group's service factor has a great non-financial performance than low performance group. Based on the findings from this study, related implications and future avenues deserve to be discussed.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.39-46
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• 2016

Purpose - Recently, as Korean culture and economy develops, Seoul has become a world-famed city. In Seoul, many special grade hotels have been constructed in order to accommodate many tourists from China, Japan and many other Asian countries. And the hotels entered into competition among themselves. Thus many changes are accelerated due to their mutual competition and manpower problems. In this situation, the role of higher officers above all is thought to be very important in order to enhance the management result and to make preparations for the kernel ability of the organization. Research design, data and methodology - This study was intended to verify how the leadership of the higher officers based on trust affects the job satisfaction of employees of the organization. In order to achieve the purpose of this study, some study models and hypotheses have been established through theoretical examinations. The subjects of this study were centered on the constituents of C-Hotel, M-Hotel, and D-Hotel. 200 questionaries were distributed and 190 questionaries were collected and thus the collection ratio was 91 percent. 8 questionaries which were regarded to be insincere or hard to analyzed were excluded. Finally, 182 questionaries were used for analyzing the factors and trust. For the purpose of the verification of hypotheses, structural equation was used. In order to verify the mediating effect of trust between the relationship of emotional leadership and job satisfaction, 'Three-step Mediated Regression Analysis by Baron & Kenny(1986) was utilized. The four hypotheses for this study are as follows: First, emotional leadership will have a meaningful influence on trust in the affirmative. Second, trust will have a meaningful influence on job satisfaction in the affirmative. Third, trust will play a mediating role in the relationship of emotional leadership and job satisfaction. Result - First, the emotional leadership and trust was found to effect a positive effect. Second, the trust and job satisfaction was found on a positive effect on job satisfaction. Third, the emotional leadership and job satisfaction was found to positive effect on job satisfaction. Fourth, the trust in the relationship between emotional leadership and job satisfaction was found that the partial mediating effect. Especially, in the case of the business of hospitality, human services as well as material resources become its keynote, and we can safely say that the degree of dependence toward human resources is very high. Accordingly, the leaders should display their leadership on the basis of abundant emotional and intellectual faculties so that they can grasp, understand and admit the diverse views of value and emotion of the organization constituents and that they can form emotional leadership. On the basis of the analysis results of the verification of hypotheses, some suggestions and uppermost limit of this study have been presented for further study.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.113-121
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• 2016

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to identify team commitment affecting employees' innovative activities and factors affecting team commitment including empowerment by leaders and job enrichment factors. In other words, so as to explain outcome variables of innovative activities, this study aims to emphasize employees' attachment roles towards their groups within nomological network, and identify the motives encouraging employees' innovative activities. The research purpose is significant due to the realistic situation of hotel industry. The reason why innovative activities are important can be found in recent changes of business environment. Also, unlike other various studies on precedence factors encouraging employees' innovative activities, this study classified those precedence factors into job and leader characteristics, and it emphasized the importance of team commitment as the process that job and leader characteristics are connected to innovative activities. Research design, data and methodology - The survey for this study was conducted during October 6^th ~ November 10^th in 2014 to the employees who are working in 5-star hotels in Korea. As for the selection of hotels and sampling method, convenience sampling method was used to the employees in 5-star hotels. Self-report method was used in the survey, judging that the employees' characteristics would be relatively homogeneous. 311 questionnaires were distributed in total, and 275 reponses were collected. After excluding the missing and unreliable responses, 245 questionnaires were used in the research. SPSS and AMOS programs were used for the analysis. Results - First, empowering leadership had positive effects on hotel employees' team commitment. It indicates that hotel employees are more committed to their team when their leaders set examples, provide information, and involve employees in decision-making process. Second, as a result of the relationship analysis in task diversity, task significance, task identity and team commitment, task diversity and task significance had significant effect on team commitment, while task identity had no significant effect on team commitment. It indicates that team commitment is enhanced when the employees can conduct diverse types of jobs and get more opportunities to talk with the guests. Also, the repetition for the same jobs in hotel rooms and the space for preparing food and beverage do not lead to team commitment, even though the employees fulfill their duties to the end. Third, hotel employees' team commitment has positive effect on their innovative activities. It indicates that employees voluntarily conduct innovative activities when they are attached to their team and identifies themselves with the team. Conclusions - There are theoretical and practical implications in this study. First, in terms of the theoretical perspective, this study proposes structural framework in team commitment, and it identifies the psychological mechanism in team commitment from the aspect of social exchange, which resulted in identification of precedence factors related to team commitment. In addition, this study presents new possibilities for relevant studies about team commitment by examining the effect on team commitment when the importance of innovative activities is emphasized in recent business environment.

• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.31-43
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• 2018

Purpose - This study examines the role of foodservice franchisee's perceived justice(distributive, procedural, and interactional) in developing long-term orientation to franchisor and investigate the mediating role of cohesiveness and relationship satisfaction in the relationship between franchisee's perceived justice and long-term orientation to franchisor. Research design, data, and methodology - We collected data from managers and owners in foodservice franchisees located in Seoul, Korea. Among a total of 500 questionnaires, 500 questionnaires were returned. After excluding 36 invalid respondent questionnaires, 496 valid questionnaires(response rate of 99.2%) were analyzed using frequency, confirmatory factor analysis, correlations analysis, and structural equation modeling with SPSS 21 and SmartPLS 3.0. Result - The findings of this study are as follows: First, distributive justice and interactional justice had positive effects on cohesiveness, but procedural justice did not. Second, distributive justice and interactional justice had positive effects on relationship satisfaction, but procedural justice did not. Third, cohesiveness and relationship satisfaction had positive effects on franchisee's long-term orientation to franchisor. Conclusions - The implications of this study are as follows. First, this study found that procedural justice can create a high cohesiveness and identification of franchisee and also maintain a cooperative relationship with the franchisor. Second, this findings suggest that the perceived distributional and interactional justice can improve the satisfaction with the franchisor and thus positively influence the intention to maintain the relationship and the intention to recontract. Third, the results of this study indicate that the cohesiveness of franchisees can play a pivotal role to improve their satisfaction with the franchisor and pursue mutual development by continuously maintaining stable business relationship with franchisor. The findings of this study are subject to at least three limitations. First, the research subject is limited to the food service franchise shops in Seoul area, so the sample was not nationally representative of the franchise stores. Second, the perceived fairness is measured only from the point of view of the franchisee, and this study has a limitation to examine the difference between the perceived franchisee's and franchisor's justice. Third, Future research needs to identify more closely the relationships between perceived fairness and long-term orientation by gathering specific quantitative data such as the renewal rate and the business performance.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.17 no.10
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• pp.93-105
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• 2019

Purpose - First, empirical research will reveal how personal creativity affects the knowledge sharing and innovation behaviors of organizational members. Second, self-management competency will be verified to explain the causal relationship between independent and dependent variables as a mediating variable and to reduce the time interval. Research design, data, and methodology - There are two major research models. First, personal creativity (professionalism, emotional intelligence, internal motivation) has a positive impact on knowledge sharing (creation of knowledge, organization of knowledge, use of knowledge) and innovation behavior (deriving ideas, implementing ideas, promoting ideas). Second, self-management competency (intellectual capacity, emotional capacity, personality capacity) plays a mediating role. In addition to descriptive statistics and correlation analysis, Cronbach's α was calculated for 259 workers in the retail industry. In addition, confirmatory factor analysis was performed using the AMOS 24.0 program, and the influence on the measurement model was analyzed to verify the structural equation model. Results - First, personal creativity had a positive effect on knowledge sharing and innovation behavior. In other words, it was confirmed that the decision-making process accompanied by individual creativity can create an atmosphere of knowledge sharing and continue to innovate. Second, personal creativity had a positive effect on self-management competency, and self-management competency had a positive effect on knowledge sharing and innovation behavior. Third, self-management competency was found to partially mediate the influence of personal creativity on knowledge sharing and innovation behavior. Conclusions - First, it is important for managers to recognize the value of creative talents who can be a fundamental source of organizational success and competitive advantage, and to attract talented people. Second, managers should be able to develop decision-making processes to develop potential creativity and encourage creative ideas, opinions, or solutions when organizing the work environment of their members. Third, managers should promote the sharing and integration of new knowledge that underlies the creative views and attitudes of teams and organizational members. Unlike previous studies, which emphasize the role of the work environment in which creative behaviors are promoted, this study shows that creativity of individual members, itself, is an important determinant of knowledge sharing and innovation behavior.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.14 no.9
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• pp.73-83
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• 2016

Purpose - Previous studies have not paid attention to global self-corporate brand congruity and affective approach from the viewpoint of global self. This study explored an inducement of gratitude that, under the circumstance of corporate association, consumers feel toward corporate's responsible activities, pride related to corporate's ability, and global self congruity. Current researches also have examined positive behavior effects of global self-corporate brand congruity and the feelings on corporate products. Research design, data, and methodology - This research theoretically reviewed that corporate ability and social responsibility association would influence global self-corporate brand congruity, that corporate ability association could induce consumers' sense of pride, and that social responsibility association might induce gratitude. This study, furthermore, examined theoretically whether global self-corporate brand congruity, pride and gratitude could make consumers behave positively toward corporate products, and developed hypotheses. For the empirical analysis with the questionnaires, 231 employees and common people completed the questionnaires, and structural equation model of AMOS 18.0 was used. Results - From the empirical analysis, the outcomes are as followings. First, corporate ability association makes consumers feel proud. Second, corporate social responsible association makes consumers feel grateful. Third, both corporate ability association and social responsibility association let consumers be aware of global self-corporate brand congruity. Fourth, being conscious of each of pride, gratitude and global self-corporate brand congruity prompts consumers to behave positively toward corporate products. Fifth, mediation effects of pride and the congruity in the roles of corporate ability association on the positive behavior, and those of gratitude and the congruity in the roles of corporate social responsible association on the positive behavior are identified. Conclusions - Based on the results, it can be said that a marketing manager should endeavor to make consumers associate the corporate ability and social responsibility. However, the degree of consumers' feelings such as pride and gratitude can differ according to their cultural backgrounds. It is, therefore, needed to be explored by the types of feelings that can be caused more from the difference in cultural backgrounds by corporate association, and to be investigated differently and positively with behavioral effects on the corporate's products between the types.

• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.31-44
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• 2016

Purpose - This study aims to examine different impacts of franchisor's leadership and franchisee's marketing efforts on franchisee dissatisfaction and switching intentions, and to investigate how franchisee dissatisfaction plays a mediating role in the relationship between these constructs. This study attempted to fill the gap in the literature by treating the franchisee dissatisfaction as a mediator in the relationship between these constructs, identify how franchisor's leadership and franchisee's marketing efforts have effects on franchisee dissatisfaction, in turn, reduce switching intentions, and provide the managerial implications for building a long-term relationship to achieve mutual goals between franchisors and franchisees Research design, data, and methodology - In order to test the hypotheses, the data were collected from franchisees in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province. The franchisee owners were informed about the purpose of this study by the trained interviewers. The respondents received a letter introducing the purpose of this study and another letter that the owners wrote to encourage their active participation. Among the 300 questionnaires distributed, 260 (86.7%) questionnaires were returned. Of those collected questionnaires, 6 uncompleted responses were excluded, and 254 questionnaires with an effective response rate of 84.7% were coded and analyzed using frequency, confirmatory factor analysis, and correlations analysis, and structural equation modeling with SPSS 21.0 and SmartPLS 3.0. Results - The findings of the study are as follows. First, franchisor leadership had a negative effect on franchisee dissatisfaction, but franchisee marketing efforts did not have a significant effect on franchisee dissatisfaction. Second, franchisee dissatisfaction had a positive effect on switching intentions. Third, franchisor leadership had a negative effect on switching intentions, but franchisee marketing efforts did not have a significant effect on switching intentions. Conclusions - This study researched the franchisor's leadership as a single factor of transformational leadership. Thus, it may have limits in measuring leadership. Future studies shall include emotional, loyal, and transactional leadership. In addition, the future studies shall also research the effect of franchisor's leadership and franchisees' marketing efforts on dissatisfaction and switching intentions. For example, the franchisor's relationship-oriented efforts can be a crucial parameter that reduces dissatisfaction and switching intentions.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.93-101
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• 2016

Purpose - As more consumers pursue high quality products at reasonable prices, Korean retail companies are increasing investment in expanding their outlet stores. Despite the growing importance of the outlet business, there has been very little empirical research on consumers' outlet shopping behaviors. This study aimed to investigate the relationships between consumers' perceived product value (performance quality, value for money, and social value) of outlet stores and overall shopping satisfaction and the effect of shopping satisfaction on outlet store loyalty. Research design, data and methodology - The authors developed a structural model in which performance quality, value for money, and social value of products are proposed to affect overall outlet shopping satisfaction, thus increasing customer loyalty. To analyze the research model, data were collected from 88 shoppers at suburban outlets. SPSS 21.0 and AMOS 21.0 were utilized to test the hypotheses. The unidimensionality of each construct was supported from the results of the reliability test with Cronbach's α and confirmatory factor analyses. Correlation analysis was performed and the results warranted the nomological validity of the measures. The fit statistics of the overall model analysis demonstrated an acceptable fit(X²(₁₆₁)=171.651, p=.000; X²/df=1.546; GFI=.821, NFI=.879, TLI=.942, CFI=.953, RMR=.035, RMSEA=.079). Results - The findings are as follows. First, consumers' perceived value of product performance quality had a significant positive effect on overall outlet shopping satisfaction. Consumers, who evaluate performance quality of the product more positively, tend to express stronger satisfaction and happiness about outlet shopping experience. Second, consumers' perceived social value of outlet products influenced their overall satisfaction significantly. Consumers who believe that products of outlet stores enhance self-concepts are more likely to satisfy with outlet shopping experience. However, consumers' perception of outlet products on value for money was not found to significantly influence overall shopping satisfaction. Finally, overall shopping satisfaction had a significant and positive influence on loyalty. Conclusions - While outlet retailers have traditionally focused on promoting competitively priced merchandise, the results of this study suggest that customers' overall satisfaction with outlet shopping is influenced more by the non-price-related product values. In the context of an outlet shopping environment, performance quality and social value of the products were found to be more critical predictors of customer overall satisfaction. Therefore, it would not be efficient for outlet retailers to highlight economic value of their merchandise. Instead, they need to investigate the performance quality of the products regularly and try to deliver quality guaranteed goods to enhance customer satisfaction. Also, outlet retailers should differentiate their businesses by carrying more unique and prestigious brands and emphasize higher social value and symbolic meanings of their products. As competition among outlet retailers are getting fierce, retail companies need to focus on strengthening customer loyalty with a long-term perspective. With a deeper understanding of the relationship between consumers' perceived product values and shopping satisfaction, outlet retailers will be able to develop customer loyalty strategies effectively and to achieve competitive advantage.

• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.1-15
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• 2022

Purpose: In the restaurant sector, it has been known that consumers' positive perception of brands influences their positive WOM intention, and information sources play an important role in increasing credibility by enhancing consumer awareness and developing differentiated brands. This study examines the effects of information sources (e.g., advertisement, WOM, SNS) on trust (cognitive and affective) and, WOM and eWOM intention in the restaurant context. In the model, cognitive and affective trust play mediating roles in the relationships between information sources (e.g., advertisement, WOM, SNS) WOM and eWOM intention. Research design, data, and methodology: Research models and hypotheses were developed according to the research direction. The survey questionnaire items were developed and used appropriately according to the contents of this paper based on prior studies. All constructs were measured with multiple items developed and validated in prior studies. A total of 502 responses were collected from an online survey. The research model was evaluated using SmartPLS 4.0. Frequency analysis was performed to understand the demographic characteristics of the survey respondents. The reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity were assessed using measurement model analysis. The proposed model was verified using the structural equation model. Results: Advertisement, WOM, and SNS information sources all had a positive effect on affective trust, whereas only WOM had a significant effect on cognitive trust. In addition, affective trust had a positive effect on cognitive trust and eWOM intention but did not affect WOM intention. Finally, cognitive trust was found to have a positive effect on both WOM intention and eWOM intention. Conclusions: This study redefines the concept of where restaurant service companies should focus when providing consumers with information about their products and services. As a result, the conceptual framework of positive word of mouth intention to increase new customer visits to the restaurant brand has been expanded. In addition, this study not only presents an information source management strategy for restaurant brands, but also presents practical implications for resource allocation guidelines for customer management in the restaurant sector.

• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.33-43
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• 2017

Purpose - Previous studies about corporate image generally explore how corporate image affects a company's effectiveness from the consumer view. However this study attempts to explore the impacts of corporate image (reliability, friendly, corporate social responsibility, and innovation) on employees' altruistic behaviors in the franchise industry context. This study also examine whether organizational trust and affective commitment play a mediating role in the relationship between corporate image and employees' altruistic behaviors. The authors developed several hypotheses to achieve these purposes. Research design, data, and methodology - The data were collected from employees in food-service franchise companies located in Seoul, Korea. Among a total of 363 questionnaires distributed, 294(response rate of 81%) questionnaires were returned. After excluding 18 invalid respondent questionnaires, 276 valid questionnaires(response rate of 76%) were coded and analyzed using frequency, confirmatory factor analysis, correlations analysis, and structural equation modeling with SPSS 21 and SmartPLS 3.0. Result - The findings of the study are as follows: First, friendly, CSR, and innovation had positive effects on organizational trust, but reliability did not have a significant effect on organizational trust. Second, reliability and friendly of corporate image had positive effects on affective commitment, but CSR and innovation did have a significant effect on affective commitment. Third, organizational trust and affective commitment had positive effects on employees' altruistic behaviors. Conclusions - The aim of this study is to investigate the franchise corporate image as a significant influencing factor of employees' altruistic behaviors. The data were collected from only employees from franchising companies. The findings might vary from position to position. Future studies need to collect and compare data from managers. Future studies need to consider other variables that affect employees' altruistic behaviors. For example, leadership and market orientation might influence employees' attitude and behaviors. Also, future research should include other variables and it may have limitations in sample representative because of sampling franchise corporate in Seoul. Future studies will include franchise corporate all over the country. Future studies can also consider other variables (e.g., job performance and turnover intentions) to measure employee performance at the level of individuals and identify the impact of employee performance on business performance at the level of corporate.