• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.59-69
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• 2010

Green or an environmental consciousness has been a major issue for businesses and government offices, as well as consumers, worldwide. In response to this movement, the Korean government announced, in the early 2000s, the era of "Green Growth" as a way to encourage green-related business activities. The Korean fashion industry, in various levels of involvement, presents diverse eco-friendly products as a part of the green movement. These apparel products include organic products and recycled clothing. For these companies to be successful, they need information about who are the consumers who consider green issues (e.g., environmental sustainability) as part of their personal values when making a decision for product purchase, use, and disposal. These consumers can be considered as eco-sumers. Previous studies have examined consumers' purchase intention for or with eco-friendly products. In addition, studies have examined influential factors used to identify the eco-sumers or green consumers. However, limited attention was paid to eco-sumers' disposal or recycling behavior of clothes in comparison with their green product purchases. Clothing disposal behaviors are ways that consumer can get rid of unused clothing and in clue temporarily lending the item or permanently eliminating the item by "handing down" (e.g., giving it to a younger sibling), donating, exchanging, selling, or simply throwing it away. Accordingly, examining purchasing behaviors of eco-friendly fashion items in conjunction with clothing disposal behaviors should improve understanding of a consumer's clothing consumption behavior from the environmental perspective. The purpose of this exploratory study is to provide descriptive information about Korean eco-sumers who have ecologically-favorable lifestyles and behaviors when buying and disposing of clothes. The objectives of this study are to (a) categorize Koreans on the basis of clothing disposal behaviors; (b) investigate the differences in demographics, lifestyles, and clothing consumption values among segments; and (c) compare the purchase intention of eco-friendly fashion items and influential factors among segments. A self-administered questionnaire was developed based on previous studies. The questionnaire included 10 items of clothing disposal behavior, 22 items of LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) characteristics, and 19 items of consumption values, measured by five-point Likert-type scales. In addition, the purchase intention of two eco-friendly fashion items and 11 attributes of each item were measured by seven-point Likert type scales. Two polyester fleece pullovers, made from fabric created from recycled bottles with the PET identification code, were selected from one Korean brand and one US imported brand among outdoor sportswear brands. A brief description of each product with a color picture was provided in the survey. Demographic variables (i.e., gender, age, marital status, education level, income, occupation) were also included. The data were collected through a professional web survey agency during May 2009. A total of 600 final usable questionnaires were analyzed. The age of respondents ranged from 20 to 49 years old with a mean age of 34 years. Fifty percent of the respondents were males and about 58% were married, and 62% reported having earned university degrees. Principal components factor analysis with varimax rotation was used to identify the underlying dimensions of the clothing disposal behavior scale, and three factors were generated (i.e., reselling behavior, donating behavior, non-recycling behavior). To categorize the respondents on the basis of clothing disposal behaviors, k-mean cluster analysis was used, and three segments were obtained. These consumer segments were labeled as 'Resale Group', 'Donation Group', and 'Non-Recycling Group.' The classification results indicated approximately 98 percent of the original cases were correctly classified. With respect to demographic characteristics among the three segments, significant differences were found in gender, marital status, occupation, and age. LOHAS characteristics were reduced into the following five factors: self-satisfaction, family orientation, health concern, environmental concern, and voluntary service. Significant differences were found in the LOHAS factors among the three clusters. Resale Group and Donation Group showed a similar predisposition to LOHAS issues while the Non-Recycling Group presented the lowest mean scores on the LOHAS factors compared to the other segments. The Resale and Donation Groups described themselves as enjoying or being satisfied with their lives and spending spare-time with family. In addition, these two groups cared about health and organic foods, and tried to conserve energy and resources. Principal components factor analysis generated clothing consumption values into the following three factors: personal values, social value, and practical value. The ANOVA test with the factors showed differences primarily between the Resale Group and the other two groups. The Resale Group was more concerned about personal value and social value than the other segments. In contrast, the Non-Recycling Group presented the higher level of social value than did Donation Group. In a comparison of the intention to purchase eco-friendly products, the Resale Group showed the highest mean score on intent to purchase Product A. On the other hand, the Donation Group presented the highest intention to purchase for Product B among segments. In addition, the mean scores indicated that the Korean product (Product B) was more preferable for purchase than the U.S. product (Product A). Stepwise regression analysis was used to identify the influence of product attributes on the purchase intention of eco product. With respect to Product A, design, price and contribution to environmental preservation were significant to predict purchase intention for the Resale Group, while price and compatibility with my image factors were significant for the Donation Group. For the Non-Recycling Group, design, price compatibility with the factors of my image, participation to eco campaign, and contribution to environmental preservation were significant. Price appropriateness was significant for each of the three clusters. With respect to Product B, design, price and compatibility with my image factors were important, but different attributes were associated significantly with purchase intention for each of the three groups. The influence of LOHAS characteristics and clothing consumption values on intention to purchase Products A and B were also examined. The LOHAS factor of health concern and the personal value factor were significant in the relationships with the purchase intention; however, the explanatory powers were low in the three segments. Findings showed that each group as classified by clothing disposal behaviors showed differences in the attributes of a product, personal values, and the LOHAS characteristics that influenced their purchase intention of eco-friendly products. Findings would enable organizations to understand eco-friendly behavior and to design appropriate strategic decisions to appeal eco-sumers.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.4-14
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• 2010

Collaboration strategies entail information sharing and other varied forms of cooperation that are mutually beneficial to the company and stakeholder groups. This study addresses the specific types of collaboration used in the fashion industry while also examining strategies that have been most successful for fashion companies and perceived benefits of collaboration from the customer perspective. In the present study we define fashion companies and brands as collaborators and their partners or stakeholders as collaboratees. We define collaboration as a cooperative relationship where more than two companies, brands or individuals provide customers with beneficial outcomes utilizing their own competitive advantages on an equal basis. Collaboration strategies entail information sharing and other varied forms of cooperation that are mutually beneficial to the company and stakeholder groups. Through collaboration, fashion companies have pursued both tangible differentiation, such as design and technology applications, and intangible differentiation such as emotional and psychological benefits to customers. As a result, collaboration within the fashion industry has become an important, value creating concept. This qualitative study utilized case studies and in-depth interview methodologies to examine customers' attitudes concerning collaboration in the fashion industry. A total of 173 collaboration cases were identified in Korean and international markets from 1998 through December 2008, focusing on fashion companies. Cases were collected from documented data including websites and industry data bases and top ranked portal search sites such as: Rankey.com; Naver, Daum, and Nate; and representative fashion information websites, Samsungdesignnet and Firstviewkorea. Cases were collected between November 2008 and February 2009. Cases were selected for the analysis where one or more partners were associated with the production of fashion products (excluding textile production), retail fashion products, or designer services. Additional collaboration case information was obtained from news articles, periodicals, internet portal sites and fashion information sites as conducted in prior studies (Jeong and Kim 2008; Park and Park 2004; Yoon 2005). In total, 173 cases were selected for analysis that clearly exhibited the benefits and outcomes of collaboration efforts and strategies between fashion companies and stakeholders. Findings show that the overall results show that for both partners (collaborator and collaboratee) participating in collaboration, that the major benefits are reduction of costs and risks by sharing resource such as design power, image, costs, technology and targets, and creation of synergy. Regarding types of collaboration outcomes, product/design was most important (55%), followed by promotion (21%), price (20%), and place (4%). This result shows that collaboration plays an important role in giving life to products and designs, particularly in the fashion industry which seeks for creative and newness. To be successful in collaboration efforts, results of the depth interviews in this study confirm that fashion companies should have a clear objective on why they are doing the collaboration. After setting the objective, they should select collaboratees that match their brand image and target market, make quality co-products that have definite concepts and differentiating factors, and also pay attention to increasing brand awareness. Based on depth interviews with customers, customer benefits were categorized into six factors: pursuit for individual character; pursuit for brand; pursuit for scarcity; pursuit for fashion; pursuit for economic efficiency; and pursuit for sociality. Customers also placed more importance on image, reputation, and trust of brands regarding the cases shown in the interviews. They also commented that strong branding should come first before other marketing strategies. However, success factors recognized by experts and customers in this study showed different results by subcategories. Thus, target customers and target market should be studied from various dimensions to develop appropriate strategies for successful collaboration.

• Korean journal of food and cookery science
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.225-231
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• 2002

This study was carried out to investigate the possibility of improving the texture and flavor of Dasik by adding various types of sugar (syrup, honey) and flavor ingredients (omija, chija, coffee, green tea extract) to rice powder. Dasik samples were prepared, and the sensory quality and physical characteristics of those were compared. The moisture content of Dasik added with syrup was higher than that of honey. Coffee Dasik with syrup was the highest (23.6) in moisture content. In sensory quality, the omija and coffee Dasik showed the highest score in flavor quality (p<.001). Omija Dasik with honey and coffee Dasik with syrup showed the highest scores in overall acceptability (6.4, 6.2). Green tea Dasik with syrup showed the highest value in the lightness (L) of color. Omija Dasik with syrup showed the highest value in the redness (a) of color Chija Dasik was the highest in the yellowness(b) of color. In physical characteristics, the hardness was negatively correlated with the moistness, tenderness, and texture acceptability in sensory quality(p〈0.001). The cohesiveness was positively correlated with the overall acceptability in sensory quality (p〈0.01). In the relation of texture characteristics and sensory quality, the higher the moisture content, the lower the hardness and springiness were, but the higher the brittleness and the cohesiveness were(p〈.001). Overall, omija and coffee Dasik appeared to have desirable flavor, taste and overall acceptability.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.508-519
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• 2020

This study empirically investigated the influence of entrepreneurship and technological commercialization capabilities of domestic small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises on financial performance by mediating technological performance. To achieve this, a survey was administered to their hands-on workers in charge of R&D. The survey results were analyzed through the structural equation model as follows. Entrepreneurship had an effect on technological and financial performance. Technology commercialization capability had an effect on technological performance. However, technological commercialization capabilities were evaluated to be inferior to financial performance, which can be interpreted as financial performance being judged as different between individuals or organizations in terms of technological commercialization capabilities. Technological performance had an effect on financial performance. Technological performance played a mediating role in the effects of entrepreneurship and technology commercialization capability on financial performance. Consequently, it is very important for entrepreneurship and technology commercialization capability to develop new products and improve corporate performance with insufficient financial status or operating system completion.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.10 no.10
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• pp.261-275
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• 2012

An increasing number of mountaineers are recently creating diverse consumer needs for mountaineering garments, thereby leading to a production of smart mountaineering garments with diverse-functions. Smart mountaineering garments are increasingly adding to comfort and safety, boosting their market size. This study researched on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to examine factors that influence the intention of consumers to purchase buy mountaineering garments. For that purpose, 641 people aged 20-61 years who experienced in mountaineering were surveyed online. An extended TAM was designed by adding new variables such as fashion involvement and garment involvement associated with the characteristics of clothing products to the variables such as self-efficacy sense, technological innovativeness, perceived enjoyment. The findings of the study suggested that self-efficacy sense influenced perceived usefulness, perceived easiness of use, and perceived enjoyment, while garment involvement and fashion involvement influenced the perceived easiness of use and the perceived usefulness, respectively. Also, the perceived easiness of use influenced perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment, while the perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment directly influenced the intention of purchase. Based on the findings of this research, this study seeks to determine factors variables of smart garments purchase intention, and to explore measures to enhance such purchase intention, thereby offering working implications for developing smart mountaineering garments.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.32 no.12
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• pp.1915-1926
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• 2008

Although we know that images of a country or an industry are influential factors in product evaluation, there has been little discussion about the channels through which consumers form a country or an industry image. Guided by the assumption that the image of the Korean fashion industry conveyed through U.S. media will likely affect the evaluation of Korean fashion products, we decided to examine articles published between January 1998 and June 2008 in Woman's Wear Daily(WWD), a prestigious U.S. daily trade newspaper covering all aspects of the national and international fashion business. By using the "Korean", we found 329 relevant articles. Through content analysis, we identified the aspects of the Korean fashion industry that have been considered salient to U.S. fashion media professionals. We set up categories based on the contents of the articles that discussed segments of the supply chain of the fashion industry. We found more comments on the Korean fashion industry as fiber and fabrics supplier or apparel manufacturer than in any other categories, which reflects that South Korea has been traditionally one of the most attractive sourcing countries for the U.S. fashion business. We identified significantly less coverage on the designing, branding, marketing, and retailing aspects of the Korean fashion industry. Due to economic boom in Korea, the country's fashion industry is recognized as having a highly fashion-conscious market that can afford the world's premium brands. However, the industry is viewed as being rather vulnerable to changes in the macro economic environment.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.103-114
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• 2011

This study is to provide basic information on clothing fitness necessary to develop apparel products for Korean companies that want to enter or have already made inroads into the Chinese market. In an effort to serve this purpose, a standard upper torso body model for Chinese women was established by applying the Rohrer Index and Size Designation of Clothes - Women of GB/T 1335.2-1997 to Chinese women in their 20s to determine body types and its characteristics. First, according to the result of applying the Rohrer Index to categorize body types, Type 1 showed the longest vertical body length and a short horizontal length with the lowest degree of flatness. Type 2 was a standard body type with a height of 158.73cm, weight of 53.02kg and the Rohrer Index of 1.32. Type 3 had a thick and flat body shape that had the highest degree of flatness and the shortest vertical length in its upper torso among all three types of body. Second, F-test was conducted on 4 distinctive body types obtained from comparing obesity scores to verify differences in body shapes for different degree of obesity. The test result indicated significant differences in 3 of the 4 body types and showed different structural components for different degree of obesity. Third, the result of comparing correlational distributions of body types and height range, and body types and degree of obesity for all and specified age groups revealed that about 33.30% of the body types appeared in Type2-A followed by 20.18% in Type1-A, 18.40% in Type2-Y and 7.91% in Type1-Y respectively. Body types and degree of obesity for two different age groups were most frequent in Type2-A. For the group of young women in their early 20s appeared the most in Type2-A, Type1-A, Type2-Y and Type 1-Y respectively and young women in late 20s were frequent in the order of Type2-A, Type2-Y, Type1-A and Type1-Y.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.117-141
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• 2006

Daily sales volume in retailers seems to be changed because of five-days-work in a week resulting in growth of leisure time in Korea recently. The day of the week effect of sales volume that can not be theoretically explained, which sales pattern varies depending on days systematically and consistently, is so important. Especially the day of the week effect of sales volume exists in which retail branch and the extents of the day of the week effect from the perspective of marketing in retailing is very important. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate whether the day of the week effect of sales volume exists in men's clothing retailers and if so, there is difference in daily sales volume. There was insufficient researches in the field of anomaly such as the day of the week effect of sales volume in marketing. For this reason, this study has drawn upon research findings of finance, general demand theory, and previous studies of the day of the week effect in stock markets. In doing so, these works are referenced in theoretical background and applicability in retailing market of this study. This study empirically investigated the day of the week effect of sales volume through the revenues of a men's clothing retailers (P company) in past five years. As the result of this study, the day of the week effect of sales volume existed in men's clothing retailers and the day of the week effect showed positive from Monday to Sunday, which means Sunday, the biggest. Also, the day of the week effect by season was different. The result of this study is expected to provide some helpful evidence that offers effective operational strategies to retailers.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.336-340
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• 2004

This is the result of the comparison of the number of jeans, colors, images, opinions when it was purchased, shapes according to the gender of persons in jeans. According to the gender, male students had 1.64 jeans(46.3%) and female students had 2.09 jeans(53.7%) on the average. Male students selected colors of jeans which they don't have, but want to wear once in the order of blue(3.7%), red(21.0%), white(24.1%), black(25.6%), and others(25.6%). Female students selected colors in the order of blue(3.2%), black(15.6%), red(24.8%), white(27.7%) and others(25.6%). In case of the general image about jeans, male students thought the jeans as masculine(1.2%), sexy(3.1%), unisexual(3.2%), active(23.6%), young(29.8%), and comfortable(36.5%) and female students thought it as masculine(0.3%), sexy(3.5%), unisexual(10.4%), young(21.9%), comfortable(28.1%) and active(35.8%). Male students considered torn or holed jeans ill-mannered(10.7%), delinquent, (20.7%)trendy(21.0%), comfortable(22.9%), and dandy(24.7%). Female students think it ill-mannered(3.4%), delinquent7.1%, trendy(17.4%), comfortable(21.1%), and dandy(50.9%). When they purchase jeans, male students choose according to trends(17.9%), don't consider design(19.5%) and look for their own styles(62.6%), female students didn't consider design(5.2%), choose according to trends(22.0%), and look for their own styles(72.5%). The designs of jeans which they usually wear were bell bottom(1.5%), wide-shaped(7.4%), baggy(17.5%), straight-shaped(73.6%) in case of male students. on the other hand, in case of female students, baggy(10.2%), wide-shaped(11.0%), bell bottom(17.0%), and straight-shaped(61.8%). The designs of jeans which they didn't have but want to wear once are wide-shaped(10.1%), bell bottom(13.2%), baggy(20.9%), and straight-shaped(55.2%) in case of male students. On the other hand, females students want to wear baggy(11.6%), wide-shaped(15.0%), straight-shaped(27.6%), and bell bottom(45.8%). The above-mentioned findings illustrated that both male and female students regarded blue as the original color of jeans, but they wanted to wear jeans in colors other than blue. In the past, jeans were considered masculine and unisex, but they viewed jeans as an apparel that was comfortable to wear and made it easier to move. Female students had a higher tendency to be fashionable than male students, and their preference for jeans was consequently different. Jeans manufacturers should take those characteristics into account to produce products in different colors and form.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.7
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• pp.85-90
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• 2015

Purpose - Global trends play a part to change the structure of the fashion industry. In particular, companies attempting to conduct innovative marketing centering on such products as SPA brands are growing into global companies. SPA stands for "Specialty Store Retailer of Private Label Apparel", meaning its activities are fully integrated from manufacturing through sales, including material procurement design, product, distribution, inventory management, and final sales. For this reason, more understanding of individual corporate profitability is very sensitive to consumer's attitudinal changes. The effects that corporate marketing activities on customer lifetime value through brand attitude were analyzed based on a structural equation model. Rust suggested value equity, brand equity, and relationship equity as customer equity driver. The study examines Chinese consumer because China is the fastest growing fashion market in the world. Research design, data, and methodology - The survey targeted Chinese college student age 20s. Only respondents who had purchased SPA brands in the past year were included for this research. A total of 303, except for 47 missing data of 350 distributed questionnaires were included in this research. The questionnaire is consists of six part to measure value, brand, relationship equity, attitude toward brand, purchase intention and demographic characteristics. This research conducted exploratory factor analysis and reliability test. To verify research hypotheses, structural equation model test was conducted. As for customer equity, diversified models in consideration of the scope of acquisition data, a method of collection of data, influencing factor, and predictability were suggested based on a net present value model. However, the history of customer equity study is relatively short, and sufficient empirical analyses have not been conducted, so more integrated analysis is required. In this study, the concept of driver suggested by Rust was applied to figure out the effects that consumer's attitude has on customer equity. The customer equity driver suggested by them consists of brand equity, value equity, and relationship equity. Results - This study reveals that value equity and brand equity have a positive influence on relationship equity. And, relationship equity has a positive influence on purchase intention through brand attitude. However, value equity and brand equity do not influence on brand attitude. Conclusion - The results of this research generated following implications. First, SPA brands need to take advantage of their value equity such as perceived low price and up-to-date fashion style to attract Chinese young consumer. Second, strong brand equity promises dominants position in the competitive market. As Chinese fashion market grows rapidly, SPA brands can consider branding strategy such as flagship store and celebrity marketing enhancing brand image. Third, the core concept of customer equity strategy is to maintain a relationship with their expecting and existing customers. The relationship equity is built by brand equity and value equity. When SPA brands serves product and service meet with individual customers, customers have intimacy to the brands.