• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.209-237
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• 2012

1. Research Purpose Consumers rely on various clues to evaluate their decision to patronize a retail store, and store brand is one of them (Dodds 1991; Grewal et al. 1998). As consumers find ever increasing variety of contact points connecting them to specific store, the value of experiential shopping as a means of increasing store's brand equity warrants greater attention from scholars of retail management. Retail shopping values are credited for creating not only cognitive experiences like brand knowledge but also emotional experiences such as shopping pleasure and pride (Schmitt 1999). This may be because today's consumers place emphasis on emotional values associated with shopping pleasure, lifestyle brought to life, brand relationship, and store atmosphere more than utilitarian values such as product quality and price. Many previous literature found this to be true (Ahn and Lee 2011; Mathwick et al. 2001). This brings forth important research issues and questions regarding the roles of shopping experiential values and brand equity with regard to consumer's retail patronage choice. However, despite this importance, research on this area remains quite inadequate (Hwang 2010). For this reason, this study aims to verify the relationships among experiential shopping values, retail store brand equity and tries to link that with customer loyalty by surveying large-scale discount store shoppers in Korea and China. 2. Research Contents In order to carry out the research objective, this study conducted comprehensive literature survey on previous literature by discussing major findings and implications with regard to shopping values and retail brand equity and store loyalty. For data collection, researcher employed survey-based research method where data were collected in two major cities of Korea (Seoul) and China (Bejing) and sampling frame was based on patrons of large discount stores in both countries. Specific research questions raised in this study are as follows; RQ1: How do Korean and Chinese consumers differently perceive of shopping values regarding shopping at large-sclae discount stores? RQ2: Are there differences in consumers' emotional consumption propensities? RQ3: Do Korean and Chinese consumers display different perceptions of brand equity towards large-scale discount stores? RQ4: Are there differences in relationships between shopping values and brand equity for Korean and Chinese consumers? For statistical analysis, SPSS17.0, AMOS17.0 and SmartPLS were employed. 3. Research Results The data collected through face-to-face survey conducted in Seoul and Bejing revealed appropriate data validity and reliability as a result of exploratory/confirmatory factor analysis and reliability tests, andh SEM model yielding satisfactory model fitness. The result of the study may be summarized by three main points. First, as a result of testing differences in consumption dispositions, Chinese consumers showed higher scores in aesthetic and symbolic dispositions, whereas Korean consumers scored higher in hedonic disposition. Second, testing on perceptions toward brand equity of large discount stores showed that Korean consumers exhibited more positive perceptions of brand awareness and brand image than Chinese counterparts. Third, the result of exploratory factor analysis on the experiential shopping values revealed different factors for each country. On Korean side, consumer interest value, aesthetic value, and hedonic value were prominent, whereas on Chinese side, hedonic value, aesthetic value, consumer interest value, and service excellence value were found salient. 4. Research Implications While many previous studies on inter-country differences in retailing area mainly focused on cultural dispositions or orientations to explain the differences, this study sets itself apart by specifically targeting individual consumer's shopping values from an experiential viewpoint. The study result provides important theoretical as well as practical implications for large-scale discount store, especially the impotance of fully exploring the linkage between shopping values and brand equity, which has significant influence on loyalty. Therefore, the specific implications deriving from the result shed some important insights upon the consumption values based on shopping experiences and brand equity. The differences found in store shoppers between the two countries may also provide useful insights for Korean and Chinese retailers who plan to expand their operations globally. Related strategic implications derived from this study is the importance of localizing retail strategy which is based on the differences found in experiential shopping values between the two country groups. Especially the finding that Chinese consumers value consumer interest and service excellence, whereas Koreans place importance on hedonic or aesthetic values indicates the need to differentiate the consumer's psychographical profiles when it comes to expanding retail operations globally. Particularly important will be to pursue price-orienated strategy in China in consideration of the high emphasis on consumer interests and service excellence, but to emphasize the symbolic aspects of brand equity in Korea by maximizing the brand equity associated with aesthetic values and hedonic orientations. 5. Recommendations This study focused on generic retail branded discount stores in both countries, thus making it difficult to tease out store-specific strategies based on specific retail brands. Future studies may benefit fro employing actual brand names in survey questionnaire to verify relationship between shopping values and brand-based store strategy. As with other studies of this nature, this study needs to strengthen the result's generalizability by selecting respondents from a wider spectrum of respondents.

• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.67-79
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• 2014

One of the core policies recently implemented by the Korean government is the introduction of a creative economy, a concept that integrates ICT with the existing economic structure in order to create new growth factors and jobs. In June of 2013, the National Assembly passed a bill for the institutional practice of a creative economy. The concept of a creative economy is to integrate industries centered on ICT in order to form a new-concept industry paradigm that creates new values and services that exceed past industrial categories. In other words, smart convergence, which integrates ICT with various industries, is evaluated as a core factor for boosting the creative economy. Thus, based on the definition of 'smart convergence', this study predicted the economic effects and sociocultural changes that will ensue due to the future era of smart convergence. Also, this study proposes policies for enhancing the creative economy in various ways. More specifically, in-depth interviews with convergence industry experts were carried out and quantitative analyses were performed employing a Solow Model. Furthermore, as a means to revitalize the creative economy, this study underscores the significance of the preemptive institutionalization of legislations and suggests several policy proposals regarding smart convergence rooted in market supply and the demand chain, smart convergence through selective focus, and smart work. This study is differentiated from previous studies that have only focused in establishing theories in that it offers quantitative research with a consideration of the feasibility of proposed policies. The leading experience of Korea regarding smart convergence can provide important lessons to other countries that hope to promote a creative economy as a means to create new growth factors and jobs.

• 한국노년학
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.21-30
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• 2010

Obese people experience dissatisfaction of body, depression, anxiety, and emotional disturbance by social prejudice and discrimination, further they represent decline of health-related quality of life. Exercise therapy is recommended as one of the positive treatments to improve the emotional pain of obese people. This study is to provide guideline of exercise prescription for obese people by investigating the effects of qigong exercise on psychological factors such as health-related quality of life (SF-36), self-efficiency, depression, anxiety, and fatigue in obese people. The subjects of this study were 50~60s adults participated in Golden-Wellbeing program at S university in G gu of S city and were devided into exercise (N=17) and control (N=16) group. Qigong exercise was performed twice per week for 12 weeks and SF-36, self-efficiency, depression, anxiety, and fatigue were measured before and after 12 weeks of exercise. In the 8 items of SF-36 before and after 12 weeks of qi-gong exercise, there was no significance in role limitation-emotional (F=0.187, p=0.668), mental health (F=2.043, p=0.163) between groups, but there was significance in physical functioning (F=15.151, p<0.001), role limitation-physical (F=18.278, p<0.001), social functioning (F=4.957, p=0.033), vitality (F=11.485, p=0.002), bodily pain (F=6.623, p=0.015), and general health (F=4.498, p=0.042) between groups. Also, anxiety (F=0.631, p=0.433) was not significant, whereas self-efficiency (F=6.124, p=0.019), depression (F=5.109, p=0.031), fatigue (F=7.998, p=0.008) was significant between groups. Even though qigong is slow motion and low intensity of exercise, it was found that qi-gong has exercise effect which induces mental and psychological improvement through this study.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.435-455
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• 2021

This study aimed to examine the effect of the income change and income level during the COVID-19 pandemic on individuals' depression, and to test how those associations may differ by gender. Participants consisted of 634 adults(M_age=44.18, SD_age=13.88, 313 females) recruited through an online research company. Participants completed a set of questionnaires that measured income change, average monthly income for the past six months, and the Korean version of CES-D. The results indicated that decreases in income, but not levels of income, significantly predicted levels of depression. Furthermore, both income change and income level interacted with gender to predict depression. Specifically, income change predicted depression only for males, while income level predicted depression only for females. These findings suggest that the effects of income-related indicators on depression during the pandemic may differ by gender. The study also offers practical implications by proposing gender as a potential factor to consider in early identification and intervention to prevent depression during the pandemic.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.57 no.2
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• pp.205-230
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• 2005

This study empirically examines if there is a certain linkage between the production regimes and welfare systems; and if linked, how they are linked. It also investigates what the different regimes performed in terms of economic growth and redistribution. As a matter of fact, we have a series of studies that explores structural diversity of production and welfare. However, the existing studies are limited in that they consider only specific facets of the structure, although the structure of welfare capitalism should be studied as a comprehensive whole. This is the gap which this study tries to overcome. The study is composed of two major parts. The first one is the cluster analysis that examines if Esping-Andersen's notion about three different welfare regime and the thesis of diversity of capitalism can be dealt within a single research framework. The second is the ANOVA analysis investigating if variables of production and welfare are to be statistically different in the trichotomy framework. According to the result of the analyses, we can find at least two important evidences about institutional complementaries of production and welfare. First, Esping-Andersen's framework is useful to comprehensively deal with production as well as welfare. Secondly, there are statistically different regimes of production and welfare in the context of political economic and social policy variables. What is the most striking conclusion of the study is that there is no difference among the regimes in terms of the level of economic efficiency; while we can find a huge differences in terms of the level of welfare effectiveness. In conclusion, there is no substantive evidence to argue that welfare is innately antithesis of economic growth.

• 한국노년학
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.143-155
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• 2011

Disabled elderly faced with disability and the aged problems at the same time. So, this research creates two research questions and examines. First research question is how nine dimensions of daily life satisfaction according to gender difference. Second research question is how the factor of daily life satisfaction by gender difference. The data is sixty-five disabled elderly, 386 among Panel Survey of Employment for the Disabled(PSED, 2008). The methods of analysis for identifying research questions is t-test and multiple linear regression. The result of analysis on first research question, the gender difference six dimensions among nine dimensions of daily life satisfaction come out statistically significant. And The result of analysis on second research question, come out statistically significant, too. Socioeconomic status: the lower class, physical condition: bad health, chronic disease is or not, family and other people's social supports, disability: serious turn out to be factors in common. It has been suggested social policies from the results of studies that the provision of health support policy and program, enlarge assistance on daily life, support system on serious disabled elderly. On the other hand, analysis showed that distinctive factors between disabled elderly man and woman was age and education level. In other words, disabled elderly woman come out into the open that the more grow old, the less daily life satisfaction low, while disabled elderly man appeared higher daily life satisfaction in case of junior and senior high school graduate than uneducated.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.25-57
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• 2012

This study identified motives for writing apparel product reviews in online stores, and determined what motives increase the behavior of writing reviews. It also classified store customers based on the type of writing motives, and clarified the characteristics of internet purchase behavior and of a demographic profile. Data were collected from 252 females aged 20s' and 30s' who have experience of reading and writing reviews on online shopping. The five types of writing motives were altruistic information sharing, remedying of a grievance and vengeance, economic incentives, helping new product development, and the expression of satisfaction feelings. Among five motives, altruistic information sharing, economic incentives, and helping new product development stimulate writing reviews. Store customers who write reviews were classified into three groups based on their writing motive types: Other consumer advocates(29.8%), self-interested shoppers(40.5%) and shoppers with moderate motives(29.8%). There were significant differences among three groups in writing behavior (the frequency of writing reviews, writing intent of reviews, duration of writing reviews, and frequency of online shopping) and age. Based on results, managerial implications were suggested. Long Abstract : The purpose of present study is to identify the types of writing motives on online shopping, and to clarify the motives affecting the behavior of writing reviews. This study also classifies online shoppers based on the motive types, and identifies the characteristics of the classified groups in terms of writing behavior, frequency of online shopping, and demographics. Use and Gratification Theory was adopted in this study. Qualitative research (focus group interview) and quantitative research were used. Korean women(20 to 39 years old) who reported experience with purchasing clothing online, and reading and writing reviews were selected as samples(n=252). Most of the respondents were relatively young (20-34yrs., 86.1%,), single (61.1%), employed(61.1%) and residents living in big cities(50.9%). About 69.8% of respondents read and 40.5% write apparel reviews frequently or very frequently. 24.6% of the respondents indicated an "average" in their writing frequency. Based on the qualitative result of focus group interviews and previous studies on motives for online community activities, measurement items of motives for writing after-purchase reviews were developed. All items were used a five-point Likert scale with endpoints 1 (strongly disagree) and 5 (strongly agree). The degree of writing behavior was measured by items concerning experience of writing reviews, frequency of writing reviews, amount of writing reviews, and intention of writing reviews. A five-point scale(strongly disagree-strongly agree) was employed. SPSS 18.0 was used for exploratory factor analysis, K-means cluster analysis, one-way ANOVA(Scheffe test) and ${\chi}^2$-test. Confirmatory factor analysis and path model analysis were conducted by AMOS 18.0. By conducting principal components factor analysis (varimax rotation, extracting factors with eigenvalues above 1.0) on the measurement items, five factors were identified: Altruistic information sharing, remedying of a grievance and vengeance, economic incentives, helping new product development, and expression of satisfaction feelings(see Table 1). The measurement model including these final items was analyzed by confirmatory factor analysis. The measurement model had good fit indices(GFI=.918, AGFI=.884, RMR=.070, RMSEA=.054, TLI=.941) except for the probability value associated with the ${\chi}^2$ test(${\chi}^2$=189.078, df=109, p=.00). Convergent validities of all variables were confirmed using composite reliability. All SMC values were found to be lower than AVEs confirming discriminant validity. The path model's goodness-of-fit was greater than the recommended limits based on several indices(GFI=.905, AGFI=.872, RMR=.070, RMSEA=.052, TLI=.935; ${\chi}^2$=260.433, df=155, p=.00). Table 2 shows that motives of altruistic information sharing, economic incentives and helping new product development significantly increased the degree of writing product reviews of online shopping. In particular, the effect of altruistic information sharing and pursuit of economic incentives on the behavior of writing reviews were larger than the effect of helping new product development. As shown in table 3, online store shoppers were classified into three groups: Other consumer advocates (29.8%), self-interested shoppers (40.5%), and moderate shoppers (29.8%). There were significant differences among the three groups in the degree of writing reviews (experience of writing reviews, frequency of writing reviews, amount of writing reviews, intention of writing reviews, and duration of writing reviews, frequency of online shopping) and age. For five aspects of writing behavior, the group of other consumer advocates who is mainly comprised of 20s had higher scores than the other two groups. There were not any significant differences between self-interested group and moderate group regarding writing behavior and demographics.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.487-495
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• 1996

The consumer perception on health and food habit, the experience of health food use and the discrimination between health food and drug of Korean consumer were surveyed by using a questionnaire containing 20 items in order to obtain the basic data for the assessment of the benefit and risk of health foods in Korea. A total of 1,000 people over 20 years of age living in Seoul and the vicinities were interviewed and asked to fill out the questionnaire during the period from the October 1995 to the February 1996. Among the 882 answers collected 23 was incomplete data, and 859 answers were used for the statistical analysis by using SAS program. The survey revealed a strong interest of the consumer on health food by showing that more than a half of the subjects (58.8%) had the experience of actual use of health food, and 68.2% believed the effectiveness. What the consumer expect most from health food was to have beneficial effect to maintain overall health condition (59.8%), and the most negative aspect of health food was the overstatement on the effectiveness by the producers (52.1%). The most important source of information for the purchase of health food was the suggestion of friends and relatives (30.6%). Among the health foods registered and regulated by the food law, royal jelly (22.7%), squalene (16.0%), refined fish oil (15.1%), lactic acid bacteria (10.6%) and aloe (8.8%) were relatively well aware. Although 84% of the subjects perceived that health food is different from drug or traditional medicine, the largest percentage of the subject selected ginseng as the most well known type of health food (22.7%) as well as the most well known drug (or traditional medicine) (41.7%). Ginseng was also chosen as the most frequently used health food (17.0%), and vitamin tablets the third (13.0%). The vague definition of health food and unambiguous discrimination of it from medicine by the consumers were problematic for the correct use and reasonable purchasing behavior. The clear definition and proper regulation on the manufacture and distribution of health food, more strict control of labelling and advertisement, and a wide consumer education on health food were recommended.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.37-47
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• 2007

Targeting dental hygienists who work in clinical division and public dental health division, this study was to investigate and analyze their working environment by work division, so that it could make basic material available in the interest of efficiently employing technical manpower specializing in public health and their better work environment in the future. 1. In terms of the sociodemographic characteristics of respondents, it was found that employees in public health were married in higher percentage and had higher age with longer career than those in clinical division, and it was noted that the former group had higher percentage in longer academic career than the latter group. 2. In terms of working days and hours, it was found that dental hygienists employed in public health worked 5 days a week(95.8%), while those in clinical division worked 6 days a week(70.3%). That is, the latter group worked longer days a week than the former group. 3. In terms of annual regular holidays, it was found that dental hygienists in public health division mostly took 11 to 20 days off a year, while those in clinical division mostly took 1 to 3 days off a year. That is, the former group is significant different in annual holidays from the latter group. 4. In terms of pay and allowances, it was found that most of public health group(89.4%) got monthly pay, while most of clinical group(65.4%) got the pay in annual salary. 5. In terms of reorientation experiences, it was found that 63.5% of total respondents didn't have any opportunity of domestic and overseas reorientation. And in terms of financial sponsorship for reorientation, it was noted that 54.0% of total respondents were financially supported for their reorientation by the institution they work for. 6. In terms of in-house welfare environment for married employees, it was found that 85.5% respondents ever faced no discrimination in job opportunities. In terms of the availability of maternity leave, it was noted that 69.2% respondents used the maternity leave, and 74.8% respondents used the maternity leave during 3 months. 7. In terms of quitting job, it was found that 46.8% respondents had ever left their job(public health group: 53.8%, clinical group: 45.8%), while the remaining 53.2% respondents(public health group: 46.2%, clinical group: 54.2%) had never left their job. Here, it is found that the employees in public health accounted for somewhat higher percentage in quitting job than those in clinical division. In terms of the number of leaving job, it was noted that most(50.8%) respondents left their job once, and there were similar distributions in quitting job between these both groups. In terms of the reason for quitting job, it was found that 29.2% respondents left their job due to desire for better pay(allowance) and working conditions.