• 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.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.26
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• pp.131-156
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• 2012

As the Global Age has arrived, the domain of festivals has expanded to fulfill the role of being not only a tourist attraction but of being a factor that determines the image and identity of cities, and the factor of enhancing the brand value of a particular city is being focused upon. The city of Bucheon, which aims to be a culture oriented city, is attempting to utilize the Bucheon International Comics Festival as a cultural asset for the revitalization of the city. This study has as its purpose the development of an evaluation index model on the brand value of the Bucheon International Comics Festival and research being conducted based on the developed evaluation index model on the awareness level of the citizens of Bucheon of the festival. In regards to this, the theoretical background was examined and the index model was developed based on precedent research. Based on this, a survey of 1,000 citizens of Bucheon was conducted in this study. This study conducted a survey targeting 500 persons, dividing them into 2 groups according to whether they participated in the festival. The survey of this study established 9 evaluation categories for the International Comics Festival evaluation index model which consists of demographic research and participation motivation, value of comics, festival brand awareness and association image, perceived product quality and loyalty for the festival, internationality of the festival and urban activation. Each survey question is composed of 5 points scale measurement. As a result of the survey, 'for an education of children' was the highest for the participation motivation, and 'not knowing of the festival information' was the highest for the reason of not having participated. The industrial value was evaluated as the highest among the value of comics by the both two groups, and it was studied that there was perception gap for the festival according to whether they participated in the festival for each survey question. It was revealed that the level of awareness of the Bucheon International Comics Festival was "normal," the "city revitalization" index and the "value of comics" index were relatively high and the "international character of the festival" index was the lowest. Furthermore, it was shown that there were differences in the awareness of the established categories of the developed evaluation index model based on whether or not there was participation in the festival. This study comprehensively organizes these analytical results and derives implications which can be used as data for the criteria of the development of future strategy for the Bucheon International Comics Festival.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.13 no.10
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• pp.533-546
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• 2013

This study analyzed the contents of online hotel reviews of Benikea hotels. The results were as follows: First, the outstanding customer value were functional value, emotional value, price/value for money and epistemic value, conditional value are next. Social value was not found. Functional value was provoked by the functions of hotel room, room amenities, room view, room cleaness, restaurant service, and hotel staff friendliness as human services. Emotional value was the emotional response to the qualities of hotel's functions. Price/value for money was a perceived value of hotel user by the comparison of what to invest with what to receive. From the results, it can be proposed that hotel should maintain the basic qualities of core functions of hotel.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.51-63
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• 2013

This study investigates the effect of verbal and nonverbal communication on customer emotions and service quality perceptions. The subjects used in this study were customers of a fashion shop in Sunchon South Korea. The questionnaires were conveniently sampled from July 2010 to August, 2010. Questionnaire data from 335 customers of a national brand were analyzed through a reliability analysis, factor analysis, and multiple regression analysis. The results of this study are as follows. First, it was found that the verbal communication of service providers have a significant impact on customer emotion. Second postures/proxemics and physical appearance/paralanguage (out of 3 factors of nonverbal communication) have significant (+) influences on the positive emotion of customers and kinesics have significant (-) effects on the negative emotion of customers. Third, the verbal communication of service providers has a considerable impact on customer service quality perceptions. Forth, given the relationship between non-verbal communication and service quality, it was represented that all factors (postures/proxemics, physical appearance/paralanguage, and kinesics) of nonverbal communication, have significant positive influences upon customer service quality perceptions. Fifth, it was found that customer emotions have a significant impact on customer service quality perceptions.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.631-644
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• 2013

This study investigates the gaps between ideal and actual corporate social responsibility (CSR) by comparing levels of CSR perceptions and examining the relationship differences between CSR perception, perceived quality, and affective trust from a consumer perspective. Data from 315 adult samples were collected through a nationwide online survey. In order to compare ideal and actual CSR, the study employed the approach of latent means analysis (LMA) and multi-group comparisons within the framework of a structural equation modeling (SEM). The result of latent means comparison showed significant differences of perceptions on fashion CSR across ideal and actual contexts. Only actual economic CSR was evaluated higher than in the ideal context and the effect size of inter-management CSR was the largest among seven domains. Multi-group SEM revealed a significant discrepancy between ideal and actual CSR structural models that exhibited relationships of CSR perception, perceived quality, and affective trust. The paths from internal management and ethical CSR to perceived quality and from economic and philanthropy CSR to affective trust were different across ideal and actual contexts. Implying the understanding of consumer CSR perceptions and the mediating role of perceived quality, this study suggests that marketers narrow the gap between ideal and actual CSR.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.7
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• pp.353-374
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• 2001

Price and brand are two major attributes of products that consumer purchases. Price is important because it is often a measure of worth and quality. Some consumers purchase only well-known national brands. However, By reason of the price competition on account of new business condition and depressions, and consumers practical and rational purchasing tendency, consumers tend to purchase private brands(PB hereafter) because as consumers they expect that producers have reasonable and acceptable quality. Accordingly, The study, with intrinsic cue, extrinsic cue, familiarity anything like these cues from the study of Richardson et aI(1994, 1996), intends to present current topics we guide in retailer's promotion strategy for PB. As for investigating how quality evaluation has on effect on the private brands purchasing behavior of discount store grocery items. This study establishes a hypotheses on the basis of the quality evaluation cues of PB and literature review for purchasing behavior and collects materials for consumers about 196, and also analyzes them using a variety of SPSS/PC+package program. Therefore, the findings of this study provide the following managerial implications. 1) Retailer will successful in increasing private brand market share through dramatic improvement in package design, labeling, advertising, and branding strategies. 2) Planned Purchasers have high intention to repurchase PB because they buy them reasonably in accordance with the estimate therefore, they might have word-of-mouth effect for the evaluation of quality and recognition. They need to acknowledge benefits for PB purchases to maintain purchase like that. 3) The main consumers are housewives in their thirties and forties and they something reasonably because they have a lot of family and retailer will work out.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.95-111
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• 2015

This purpose of this study is to academically define what "luxury products" mean, and to clarify the cognitive structural relationship between product attributes and "luxuriousness" in relation to the determinant of luxuriousness that eventually affects the purchase intention of consumers. This study is also written under the theory that luxuriousness leads to benefits such as functional benefit, experiential benefit, symbolic benefit, and exclusive benefit; which all provide core values to consumers and serve as effect factors that influence the psychological satisfaction of consumers. The commonly discussed measure of the determinant of luxuriousness has often failed to adequately describe the reasons to why the consumers prefer luxury products. This study also aims to suggest a new path in how and what the consumers perceive as luxury products, and to conceptualize what luxuriousness means in the marketing perspectives on the background of a previous theory. The part of product attributes are divided in the following sections: the quality and design of functional cues and brands of symbolic cues, as well as prices. The part of the determinant of luxuriousness is divided in sections of superiority, scarcity, differentiation, and traditionality. Therefore, this study used the theoretical concept used in such common measures as well as 282 examples to empirically analyze the relationship between product attributes and luxuriousness of luxury products, and how such affect the purchase intentions of consumers. The survey used to aid this study targeted luxury product consumers regarding "B" brand of automobiles. Using the analysis through a structural equation model, the study draws a conclusion that in a relationship between product attributes and luxuriousness, quality(which is one of the functional cues) affects the facts of superiority, differentiation in a significant way, and design affects the factors of scarcity in a significant way. And brand(one of the symbolic cues) significantly affects the factors of traditionality within the luxuriousness factors, and price appeared to affect superiority and scarcity. Additionally, the brand of product attributes significantly affects purchase intention, and superiority and scarcity of luxuriousness affects purchase intention in a significant way. The structural concept of luxury and luxuriousness suggested in the study will provide the theoretical basis for building a new case study, and the determinants of luxuriousness in the marketing perspective will be a practical help for checking the consumers' psychological reasons for purchase.

• 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.