• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.5-14
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• 2011

One of the new roles of modern retail stores is to supply consumers with a memorable experience. In Korea, enhancing a store's environment so that customers remember a unique shopping experience is recognized as a sound strategy for strengthening the store's competitiveness. Motivated by this incentive, awareness of the experience-store concept is starting to increase in various categories of the retail industry. However, many experience stores, except in a few cases, have yet to derive a significant profit, explaining why Korean consumers are somewhat unfamiliar with, yet fascinated by, the experience stores that now exist in the country. Consumer satisfaction directly, and indirectly, affects a company's future profit and potential financial gain; customer satisfaction also affects loyalty. Therefore, knowing the significant factors that increase satisfaction and loyalty is essential for any company, in any field, to be able to effectively differentiate itself from the competition. Intrigued by increased competition opportunities, most Korean companies have adopted experience-store marketing strategies. When establishing the most effective processes for increasing sales and achieving a sustainable competitive advantage of a new concept, companies should consider certain factors that influence consumers' ability to accept new concepts and ideas. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is a theory that models how people accept new concepts. TAM proposes the following two factors that influence a person's decisions about how, and when, he or she will use a new product: "perceived usefulness" and "perceived ease of use." Much of the existing research has suggested that a person's character also affects the process for accepting new ideas. Such personal character attributes as individual preferences, self-confidence, and a person's values, traits, and/or skills affect the process for willingly consenting to try something new. It will be meaningful to establish how the TAM theory's components, as well as personal character, affect individuals accepting the experience-store concept. To that end, as it pertains to an experience store, the first goal of the study is to examine the influence of innovative factors (perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use) on satisfaction and loyalty. The second objective is to define the moderate effect of consumers' personal characteristics on the model. The proposed model was tested on 149 respondents who were engaged in leisure sports activities and bought sports outdoor garments and equipment. According to the study's findings, the satisfaction and loyalty of an experience store can be explained by perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, with the study's results demonstrating the stronger of the two factors being "perceived ease of use." The study failed to explain the effects of a person's character on the model. In conclusion, when the companies that operate the experience stores execute their marketing and promotion strategies, they should stress the stores' "ease of use" product components. Additionally, it can be extrapolated from the study data that since the experience-store idea is still relatively unfamiliar to Korean consumers, most customers are not yet able to evaluate, nor take a position regarding, their respective attitudes toward experience stores.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.279-292
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• 2018

Unlike the global art market which experienced rapid recovery from the impacts of the Global Financial Crisis in 2008, the Korean art market has not yet fully recovered. The gallery-oriented distribution system, vulnerable primary art market functions, and the market structure centered on a small number of collectors make it difficult for young and medium artists to enter the market and, as a result, deepen the economic polarization of artists. In addition, the high price of art works limits market participation by restricting the general public. This study began with the idea that the interest of the public in the art market as well as their participation in the market are urgent. To this end, we noted that public awareness of art transactions can be a starting point for improving the constitution of the fragile art market, focusing on the 'Artist-centered Art Fair' rather than existing art fairs. To examine the contribution of such an art fair to the popularization of the art market, we analyzed the case of the 'Visual Artist Market (VAM)' project of the Korea Arts Management Service. Results found that the 'Artist-centered Art Fair' focuses on providing opportunities for market entry to young and medium artists rather than on the interests of distributors, and promotes the popularization of the art market by promoting low-priced works to the general public. Also, the 'Artist-centered Art Fair' seems to play a primary role in the public sector to foster solid groups of artists as well as to establish healty distribution networks of Korean Art market. However, in the long run, it is necessary to promote sustainable development of the 'Artist-centered Art Fair' through indirect support, such as the provision of a publicity platform or consumer finance support, rather than direct support.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.37-46
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• 2011

Since the Korean retail industry was made accessible to the big conglomerates and foreign retail companies, local traditional markets have faced serious problems. To sustain the local traditional markets' survival, the Korean government established various remedial policies for addressing, and many scholars published articles to suggest how to find solutions to, the problem. Unfortunately, the results have not been satisfactory. The purpose of this study is to find another way to help the Korean traditional retail market, from the view point of the Green Growth Policy, an initiative designed to address environmentally balanced economic growth in Korea. In order to survive and to maintain sustainable growth, it is incumbent upon retailers in the traditional market to understand the concept of the Green Growth Policy. A survey was conducted as a means of testing the degree of awareness of the Green Growth Policy, as well as determining the relationship between the degree of awareness and the degree of organizational commitment by the retailers in the local traditional markets. Interestingly, we were able to detect some of the features (e.g., they were distinguished by the elderly and the young, as well as low level of education and high level of education) in the traditional market retailers' demographic characteristics. We utilized the analysis of variance (ANOVA) statistical method to simultaneously compare the differences in retailers' demographic characteristics; the results were as follows: Overall, the results showed that the awareness of the Green Growth Policy, the degree of trust in the government's policy, levels of self-efficacy, and levels of organizational commitment were higher with the older traditional market retailers than the younger traditional market retailers. Specifically, the degree of trust in government policies (F=9.964,p < .05), levels of self-efficacy (F=5.532,p < .05), and levels of organizational commitment (F=5.697,p < .05) were statistically significant. Moreover, in the portion of the study that addressed the difference between education levels, all the variables were averaged in the higher education category of the traditional market retailers. Specifically, awareness levels of the Green Growth Policy (F=8.564,p < .005) and levels of self-efficacy (F=6.754,p < .005) were statistically significant. These results revealed that the traditional market retailers' demographic characteristics should be considered important factors in order to realize their policy. The results of the study showed the following: 1) The degree of awareness of the government's Green Growth Policy was statistically significant as it related to traditional market retailers' organizational commitment. 2) The degree of trust of the government's policy was significantly moderated between the awareness of the government's Green Growth Policy and the traditional market retailers' organizational commitment. This result demonstrates that the traditional market retailers' awareness of the government's Green Growth Policy will show more organizational commitment with higher levels of trust of the government's policy. 3) It also revealed that traditional market retailers' self-efficacy was fully mediated between the awareness of the Green Growth Policy of the government and traditional market retailers' organizational commitment. The results suggest that the government should show an interest in showing traditional market retailers how to enhance their traditional markets. Implications and future research directions are also discussed.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.45-65
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• 2020

It is desirable to invest in wine that increases its value, but wine investment itself is unfamiliar in Korea. Also, the process itself is unreasonable, and information is often forged, because pricing in the wine market is done by a small number of people. With the right solution, however, the wine market can be a desirable investment destination in that the longer one invests, the higher one can expect. Also, it is expected that the domestic wine consumption market will expand through the steady increase in domestic wine imports. This study presents the consortium block chain framework for revitalizing the wine market and enhancing transparency as the "right solution" of the nation's wine investment market. Blockchain governance can compensate for the shortcomings of the wine market because it guarantees desirable decision-making rights and accountability. Because the data stored in the block chain can be checked by consumers, it reduces the likelihood of counterfeit wine appearing and complements the process of unreasonably priced. In addition, digitization of assets resolves low cash liquidity and saves money and time throughout the supply chain through smart contracts, lowering entry barriers to wine investment. In particular, if the governance of the block chain is composed of 'chateau-distributor-investor' through consortium blockchains, it can create a desirable wine market. The production process is stored in the block chain to secure production costs, set a reasonable launch price, and efficiently operate the distribution system by storing the distribution process in the block chain, and forecast the amount of orders for futures trading. Finally, investors make rational decisions by viewing all of these data. The study presented a new perspective on alternative investment in that ownership can be treated like a share. We also look forward to the simplification of food import procedures and the formation of trust within the wine industry by presenting a framework for wine-owned sales. In future studies, we would like to expand the framework to study the areas to be applied.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.39-57
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• 2012

The unabated influx of micro businesses has turned the Korean retailing market to a rat race, which causes severe financial distress for micro business owners due to heavy competition. The woes of these micro business owner's are exacerbated by the presence of large scale distributors such as Super Supermarket(SSM) and large discount stores. In summary, the Korean retail market is overburdened an uneconomically viable. Retailing has low barriers to entry which attracts unskilled labor or those with little capital. These start-ups have low opportunity costs since they would make low wages elsewhere in the economy. Thus, these owners are content with relatively low returns on their investment. These 'subsistence ventures' are maintained for economical viability rather than economic growth. These 'subsistence ventures' intensifies competition among small-scale businesses. The presence of large retail corporations also aggravates the situation. The recent stagnation of the economy has worsened the retail market in Korea. The overwhelming competition solidifies the coarse structural system and the prolonged economic sluggishness has increased the risk of insolvency for micro business owners. As the economy continues to stagnate, the imminent risk in retailing market will rise up to surface threatening economic stability. More systematic inflows and outflows of retailers are required in order to redress this structural problem. It has been empirically shown that the self-employment rate is high in Korea compared to other OECD countries. To draw the comparison of self-employment rate by industry, Korea shows high rates among transportation, whole sale, retail, education, lodging, and restaurants. In the case of the transportation and education service sectors, this high rate can be explained by the idiosyncratic nature of Korean culture. In the transportation sector, political policies favor private cap service and private freight carriers. In the education service sector, Koreans put particular emphasis on education that leads to many private institutions that outnumber other OECD countries. For these singular reasons, Korea maintains high micro business, self-employed rates particularly in retailing. A comparable nation is Japan, with its similar social, economic, cultural environment among OECD countries. Unlike Korea, Japan has much lower rates of micro business which continues to decrease. Also Korean retailers are much more destitute than Japanese. The fundamental problem of Korean retailing is the involuntary exit of these 'subsistence ventures,' micro businesses with low margins, in which a small drop in demand can lead to financial difficulties for the owner. This problem will be exacerbated when Korean babyboomers retire and join the micro business ventures. The first priority in order to cope with the severity of oversupply in retailing is to provide better opportunities for the potential self-employers. There should be viable alternatives to subsistent ventures. Strengthening the retirement program, scrutiny of exit process, reconfiguration of policy funds are the recommendations.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.1-14
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• 2018

As interest and consumption of luxury goods have become more popular, luxury goods market is growing rapidly. Consumers can acquire psychological satisfaction with material abundance by purchasing and using luxury goods. Also, from the view of corporations, luxury goods have price inelastic characteristics, so they can enjoy price premium and it is good to produce good performance. That is the reason why they should pay much attention to securing luxuriousness. This study examined the establishment of brands luxuriousness in Korean SMEs. First, it examined the world market of luxury goods industry and the present condition of Korean market. Then it identified the constituents of luxuriousness by examining the prior studies and related literatures, and designed a research model based on the theoretical grounds to suggest the methods of brand luxuriousness building of Korean SMEs. Luxuriousness can be defined as the attribute of product that distinguishes luxury goods from other products by consumers' perceptions, and the factor that provides situational benefits that motivate consumers' purchasing behavior. In this study, I identified the sub-dimensions of luxuriousness according to whether there are product related attributes and consumers' benefit in consideration of the problems of existing studies. Product related luxuriousness are classified into superiority(functional benefit) and scarcity(experiential benefit), while non-product related luxuriousness are classified into differentiation(symbolic benefit) and traditionality(exclusive benefit). The following are the ways to build brand luxuriousness. First, company can use product factors. High quality, excellent design, high recognized brand with strong, favorable and unique images can enhance the luxuriousness of brand. Second, company can use price factors. Consumers tend to perceive luxury goods as high-priced items, so lowering the price of product can undermine the luxuriousness of product. Third, company can use distribution factors. It is effective for making consumers to perceive the differentiation and scarcity of luxuriousness through limited distribution channel. In addition, store atmosphere suitable for luxury brands should be created. Fourth, company can use promotion factors. The more consumers are exposed to advertisements, the more positive attitudes toward luxury brands are made, and consumers recognize luxuriousness higher. Price promotion negatively affects consumers' perception of luxuriousness. Fifth, company can use corporate factors. Consumer evaluations of products are influenced not only by the product attributes but also by the corporate association and corporate image surrounding the product. Considering the existing researches, it is possible to enhance the brand luxuriousness through high corporate competence and good corporate reputation. In order to increase the competence of the enterprise, it is useful to approach multidimensionally in relation with the knowledge creation capability. In corporate reputation, the external stakeholders' reputation is important, but the internal members' reputation is also important. Korean SMEs will be able to build brand luxuriousness by establishing marketing strategies as above and/or mix(integrate) them according to the situation.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.25-64
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• 2008

Third-Party awards are growing in popularity. They are the hit product of the year chosen by The Korea Economic Daily, the best 10 products of the year chosen by Sports paper, the best hit product chosen by consulting firm and the best venture company of the year chosen by Information and Communication Ministry. Then these questions may be followed. Why industry likes this type of advertisement? Does this type of advertisement influences consumers' purchase intention? And if it does, how? Many researchers have been interested in external cue of product quality by focusing research effort on brand, price, producer, warranty etc. However, important but under-explored area is the role of third-party reference for signaling product quality. This paper comes from the idea that the third-party reference may signal consumers like manufacturer brand, product brand, product price, and shop brand. We develop a related theories to address research questions and drive some research hypotheses based on the previous studies probing source credibility, attribution, and signal theory. We put more emphasis on source credibility. We conducted the research based on 3x2x2x2 between group factorial design to explore causal relationship between the third party award winning advertising(real, fictional, no) and the purchase intention of consumers exposed to other information simultaneously such as product type(experience, search), distribution channel(direct, indirect) and perceived price(high, low). Since subjects are divided into 2 groups based on the means of response without extra experimental stimulus in case of perceived price. 12 different advertisements are used for conducting this study. The results are followings. First, the source credibility of the third party goes up, consumers' purchase intention would go up. It seems that consumers think the credibility of the third-party most when they are exposed to the third party award winning advertisement. Second, the product type does moderate the relationship between the third-party award winning advertisement and purchase intention. And the type of the distribution channel also moderates this relationship. The consumers' purchase intention goes up higher when they buy experience good and there is significant difference of purchase intention when consumers are exposed to direct channel treatment condition. But, perceived price has nothing to do with the third-party winning advertisement context for raising consumer intention to buy advertised product.

• Journal of Digital Contents Society
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.315-322
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• 2010

This study focused on mobile trend in diffusion of smart phone. Presently, it has been evolved from digital nomad to smart nomad. Smart nomad era is based on digital technology with mobility and being smart. Smart nomad that is made up high-end device and intellectual content has changed structure of industry and life style. Smart phone is a core key in smart nomad era. In 2010 smart phone has been distributed about 2.5 hundreds million which is 20% of whole mobile phone sales and the volume of smart phone sales will be getting bigger and bigger in near future. Although, there are various reasons for success of smart phone market, this research focused 4 reasons: first, development of mobile device, second, evolution of mobile content distribution, third, support of government system, fourth, success of Docomo i-mode and Apple i phone. Smart phone will grow up more rapidly. Smart phone eco-system will be more competitive in the world. In Korea, smart phone eco-system also will be very competitive. For success in the middle of this competitive environment, Korea should lead the competitive phase with development of ability of creation software and content, construction of various partnership and evolution of next generation technology and service.

• Journal of the Korean Recycled Construction Resources Institute
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.185-190
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• 2021

Cement has been used as a main material in the modern construction industry. However, it has been pointed out as a main cause of global warming due to carbon dioxide generated during manufactured. Recently, research that replacing cement substitute to industrial by-products such as Blast Furnace Slag which is by-producted in steelworks. When Blast Furnace Slag is used as a cement substitute, it shows a problem of lower initial strength, which is caused by glassy membrane on the particle surface. In this study, we used Electrolysis Alkaline Aqueous to improve the usability and problem of lower initial strength. As a result of the experiment, cement matrix using Blast Furnace Slag and Alkaline Aqueous showed initial strength and hydrate product were developed than that using general mixing water. Also, as a result of porosity analysis, It was confirmed that cement matrix using Alkaline Aqueous and Blast Furnace Slag has a tighter structure in internal porosity and porosity distribution than using general mixing water.

• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.39-54
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• 2012

Franchise system in Korea has been developed in different way compared with American way of franchising based on mutual contract and intellectual property context. Korean franchising is mostly based on product distribution franchise concept rather than business format franchise in which franchisor makes revenue sources from providing their products as much as possible thru group purchasing and logistics rather than receiving royalty. Many franchise enterprises from Korea drive to enter into global franchise market based on the successful performance of Korean way of franchising. Korean enterprises are required to prepare completely for research and survey regarding local culture, custom, way of life and legal matters etc. when entering into global franchise market to gain a substantial performance. CaffeBene recently entered into American franchise business with success, and many other Korean franchise enterprises have a deep interest in proceeding with global franchise business modeling CaffeBene case. There is no Korean franchise enterprise in United Kingdom in which service franchise area in particular with personal service is considered to become a promising and potential franchise business and many people show a great interest in Oriental foods and beverages with well-being trend. Korean franchise enterprises have now access to United Kingdom easier because IT industry including internet of the country have been developed by leaps and bounds since London Olympic in 2012. The purpose of this study is to suggest key success factors and basic strategy such as situation analysis, selecting business format, and marketing strategy for successful launching of franchise business in United Kingdom.