• The Journal of Society for e-Business Studies
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.33-60
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• 2020

Along with the rapid advance in internet technologies, ubiquitous mobile device usage has enabled consumers to access real-time information and increased interaction with others through various social media. Consumers can now get information more easily when making purchase decisions, and these changes are affecting the brand landscape. In a digitally connected world, brand image is not communicated to the consumers one-sidedly. Rather, with consumers' growing influence, it is a result of co-creation where consumers have an active role in building brand image. This explains a reality where people no longer purchase products just because they know the brand or because it is a famous brand. However, there has been little discussion on the matter, and many practitioners still rely on the traditional measures of brand indicators. The goal of this research is to present the limitations of traditional definition and measurement of brand and brand image, and propose a more direct and adequate measure that reflects the nature of a connected world. Inspired by the proverb, "A man is known by the company he keeps," the proposed measurement offers insight to the position of brand (or brand image) through co-purchased product networks. This paper suggests a framework of network analysis that clusters brands of cosmetics by the frequency of other products purchased together. This is done by analyzing product networks of a brand extracted from actual purchase data on Amazon.com. This is a more direct approach, compared to past measures where consumers' intention or cognitive aspects are examined through survey. The practical implication is that our research attempts to close the gap between brand indicators and actual purchase behavior. From a theoretical standpoint, this paper extends the traditional conceptualization of brand image to a network perspective that reflects the nature of a digitally connected society.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.222-235
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• 2022

The Government provides a financial assistance to stimulate firm R&D and innovation activities. Previous papers on the impact of public subsidies on firm R&D investments mainly had a focus on an individual policy tool regardless of potential impacts of other policy instruments. This study addresses this gap by examining the effects of policy mix regarding a subsidy and a tax credit. The empirical analyses from fixed effect model using Survey on Technology of SMEs 2015-2017 revealed valuable points. First, policy mix induces more R&D investment of SMEs, which in turn, shows a complementary relationship between two instruments. Second, even if impact of tax credit controlled, subsidy is positively associated with SMEs R&D investment. These findings justify policy mix interventions to promote SME R&D activity. Moreover, grants can be applied as a more useful policy tool for SMEs that are constrained by resources and capabilities.