• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.45-54
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• 2016

Purpose - There have been numerous studies investigating the effects of corporate social responsibility initiatives on corporate associations or corporate images. In line of this research stream, current research examined the potential impact of customer participation in the process of corporate social responsibility initiatives on attitude toward the company. This research differentiates from previous studies that it is the first to connect corporate social responsibility and customer participation. Specifically, we suggest a structural model on corporate associations which was classified into corporate ability associations and corporate social responsibility associations that the more the customers participate in initiating corporate social responsibility, corporate associations were formed more positively. And this leads to the increase of revisit intentions through customer satisfaction. Research design, data, and methodology - To test our research model, we collected data of real consumers of a large discount store in Korea. At the large discount store, customers were given an opportunity to participate the discount store's CSR activity program. We performed field survey and collected data of 146 respondents. We analyzed the data using PASW statistics 21.0 and AMOS 16.0 in order to test our structural model. Results - The results showed that consumers who participated more in initiating corporate social responsibility revealed higher score for corporate ability associations and corporate social responsibility associations. These corporate associations had a positive effect on customer satisfaction, which leads to higher attitude toward revisit intentions. Specifically, hypothesis 1.1 "As Customer participation in CSR process increases, the evaluation of CA associations will be positive,"was supported. Hypothesis 1.2 "As Customer participation in CSR process increases, the evaluation of CSR associations will be positive," was supported. Hypothesis 2.1 "As the evaluation of CA associations is positive, satisfaction with the firm will increase," was supported. Hypothesis 2.1 "As the evaluation of CSR associations is positive, satisfaction with the firm will increase," was supported. Hypothesis 3 "As satisfaction with the firm increases, revisit intentions with the firm will increase," was supported. Conclusions - This research is the first to study the relationship between customer participation in CSR process, CSR, and consumer reactions. This research also contributes to customer participation and corporate social responsibility literature by suggesting customer participation as an antecedent and empirically demonstrating the positive relationships between the constructs. The findings of this research may offer managerial implications for marketing practitioners. When performing corporate social initiatives, it is better to let the customer participate in the process which leads to higher corporate ability associations and corporate social responsibility associations, also higher satisfaction and revisit intentions. Our results provide useful information to practioners that spontaneous participation of consumers makes CSR initiatives effective and successful. Limitations and ideas for further research remain in this research. For example, our focus on the logic was cognitive evaluations(e.g. corporate associations) but affective dimensions might be considered since recent researches are investigating the relationship between customer participation and affective reaction as a response. Despite the limitations, this research have unique and applicable implications for academics and practitioners.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.6
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• pp.233-240
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• 2020

This study uses the moderating model to explore the relationships between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) associations, brand awareness and consumer purchase intention. Besides investigating the direct effects of CSR associations on brand awareness and consumer purchase intention, this study also focuses on discovering the moderating role of CSR associations on the relationship between brand awareness and consumer purchase intention among Vietnamese students. Adapting scales from previous research, the authors distribute questionnaires to consumers across the country. Then, the validity and reliability are tested via Cronbach's alpha, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). Moreover, by employing a meta-analytical path analysis with a sample of 686 consumers, the authors show that CSR associations play an important role in shaping purchase intention among Vietnamese consumers regarding the consumption of organic milk products. Also, CSR associations have a strong effect on brand awareness. However, our study shows that purchase intention is not directly affected by brand awareness. In other words, brand awareness does not mediate the relationship between CSR associations and purchase intention. Interestingly, authors show that CSR associations moderate the link between brand awareness and consumer purchase intention. Based on the research, some recommendations are made to companies that produce organic milk products.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems Conference
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• 2003.09a
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• pp.1-6
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• 2003

Associations, as specific forms of knowledge, reflect relationships among items in databases, and have been widely studied in the fields of knowledge discovery and data mining. Recent years have witnessed many efforts on discovering fuzzy associations, aimed at coping with fuzziness in knowledge representation and decision support processes. This paper focuses on associations of three kinds, namely, association rules, functional dependencies and pattern associations, and overviews major fuzzy logic extensions accordingly.

• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.149-157
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• 2016

The purpose of this study aims to investigate the characteristics of architectural association methods which apply Hall's poetic concept by looking into how Hall extracts languages and images under what circumstances and by analyzing how the extracted elements are integrated into an architectural space through what association processes. First of all, poetic association functions in the architectural process are compared, and the value of using visual associations in architectural designs are investigated based on the results of the analysis. Next, Steven Holl's poetic concept is investigated in the context of the concept extraction step, the idea expansion step, and the space composition step in order to find out how such association methods work in the process of architectural designs. The methods of reproducing, changing and using Steven Holl's poetic concept can be summarized as follows in relation with experiential associations, multi-meaning associations and morphology associations: 1) Steven Holl's experiential associations are a method of expressing perceived images in the form of languages in the process of interpreting land and programs. This method has the characteristics of reproducing various architectural ideas by generating a relationship between invisible characteristics of land in images and languages. 2) Steven Holl's multi-meaning associations are a method of directly associating a project with related objects and incidents, or of coming up with a hidden meaning. It has the characteristics of changing ambiguous images of metaphoric, figurative or ironic languages into concrete architectural images. 3) Steven Holl's morphology associations is a method of expressing morphology images and languages which are directly related to the images. Morphology associations have the characteristics of regenerating sensory experience elements into languages or images, which can be seen experiential associations; or they use metaphoric images in architecture by substituting them with other architectural elements, which can be seen in multi-meaning associations.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.153-169
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• 2017

The rapid growth of the Korean fashion industry has contributed greatly to the establishment of various fashion associations that have appeared since the 1960s. Seoul Fashion Week celebrated its 20th anniversary; there is now a crucial opportunity for the role of Korean fashion associations to the world's top five fashion collections. This study examines and compares the various roles of Korean fashion associations and the fashion associations of France, Italy, USA, and UK. Based on the comparison results, suggestions for the roles of Korean fashion associations are as follows. The following three roles are important in both Korean and foreign associations: stable operation of collections, the creation of various funds to support fashion designers, and foster new designers through linkage with the education programs for textiles and design. Mutual cooperation among various associations is essential to achieve future goals. The specific activities of foreign associations are highly suggestive for direction. In addition to the pursuit of members' rights, it is also desirable to conduct various social activities. It is necessary to create various events that ordinary citizens and students can enjoy in addition to achieving the goal of promoting and selling products at the Seoul Fashion Week. In order to overcome various difficult situations facing Korea and to prepare for a great leap forward for the fashion industry, Korean fashion associations should spare no effort to overcome mutually conflicting interests and understand other perspectives from a macro perspective.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.5-15
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• 2011

Research regarding corporate associations in marketing has generally been approached using the association theory. However, limited research investigates the effect of corporate associations on consumer loyalty to individual brands by examining the role of self connectedness with a corporate image. The activation of behavior-related constructs can influence individuals' behaviors without their intention or conscious awareness. A recently developed body of research suggests that self connection can play an important role in affecting subsequent behaviors. Although these effects have received considerable attention, the set of mechanisms involved in self connectedness and loyalty to individual brands is not clear. An active self account in which associative constructs can affect behavior by temporarily altering the active self-concept may lead to behavior or evaluation. If the exposure to a corporate brand can induce consumers' cognitive associations and goal-primed effects through the role of active self accounting, the connectedness between the consumer's self and the corporate brand could be developed and this connectedness could be explained by associative and connection models and the goal priming theory. Therefore, this study investigates the influence of corporate associations on loyalty to individual brands through connections between the corporate and the consumer's self. There are three main purposes of the research. First, theories regarding corporate associations will be explored. Second, theories of self-concept will be investigated and self connectedness with corporate brands will be explored. Third, the effects of the connectedness between the self and the corporation on corporate identification and loyalty to individual brands will be investigated. For the purposes of this research, the types of corporate associations are classified into corporate ability (CA) associations and corporate social responsibility (CSR) associations. Furthermore, the connectedness between the consumer's self and the corporate image are divided into two concepts: the connectedness between the individual self-concept and the corporate identity and the connectedness between social self-concept and the corporate identity. This study suggests the hypotheses that the types of consumer self connections with the corporate image could vary according to the types of corporate associations created and further that the connectedness between the corporate association and the consumer's self-concept have positive effects on loyalty to corporate individual brands. The results of testing these hypotheses are as follows. First, corporate ability associations enhance the connectedness between the consumer's individual self and corporate brands. That is, corporate ability associations influence individual connectedness between the corporate and individual self-concept positively from the viewpoint of the consumer's personal ability and branding success. In addition, corporate social responsibility associations have a positive effect on social connectedness between the corporation and the consumer's social self-concept. Second, the connectedness between the corporate brand and the consumer's self-concept affects identification with the corporation. The consumer's personal self and social self connectedness induces corporate identification. Third, individual self connectedness has a positive effect on loyalty to corporate individual brands, while social self connectedness does not. This also means that individual self connectedness with the corporate image or brand plays a more important role in forming individual brand loyalty than social self connectedness with the corporate does. In addition, social connectedness cannot influence individual brand loyalty until it passes through identification with the corporate. Fourth, consumers who experience identification with a corporate identity also show positive responses to corporate individual brands. That is, consumers also develop loyalties toward individual brands through the corporate identification because self-pursued goals that are induced by corporate associations can be achieved by consuming the individual brands that are sold by the corporate that the consumers identify with.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.29 no.spc1
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• pp.149-150
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• 1996

The results of observations of a dozen OB stellar associations made with the ultraviolet space telescope Glazar is presented.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.47.2-47.2
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• 2019

We present a kinematic study of the two young OB associations Cygnus OB2 and Carina OB1 using the recently released Gaia astrometric data. The unimodal distributions of parallaxes of stars indicate that these associations are real stellar systems, rather than line-of-sight coincidences. The associations are found to comprise dense star clusters and a sparse halo which have different proper motions. Clusters have small spatial sizes with small dispersions in proper motion, while the haloes extending to tens of parsecs have a large dispersion in proper motion. We speculate that this aspect is related to that found in molecular clouds, the so-called "line width-size" relation. In this talk, the formation process of these associations is discussed, based on our findings.

• Fashion, Industry and Education
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.30-39
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• 2018

This study investigates the importance of brand and retailer associations when consumers evaluate a product category extension in the context of brand and retailer collaborations. Although brand extensions are considered to reduce costs for introducing a new product category, limited study has focused on the role of brand and retailer associations in the context of brand and retailer collaborations. Using a total of 440 participants, a hypothesized model was tested using a structural equation modeling (SEM). The results show that brand and retailer associations influence the perceived fit between a brand and a retailer. In addition, the image fit and quality fit are significantly related to brand and retailer attitudes as well as brand extension evaluation. Since consumers may use their associations with brands or retailers when they perceive product differentiation, market position, and brand extensions, the role of brand or retailer associations is important to marketers, retailers, and consumers. Given the importance of brand and retailer collaborations as a brand positioning strategy in the global branding and retail setting, the findings of this study contribute to brand and retail management by providing empirical evidence on how consumers perceive new products from extended brands in the marketplace when a brand collaborates with a retailer.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.37-45
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• 2021

Objectives: Bisphenol A (BPA) is used in the electrical, mechanical, medical, and food industries. Previous studies have suggested that BPA is an endocrine disruptor. Regulation of BPA has led to increased use of bisphenol F (BPF) and bisphenol S (BPS). However, few studies have investigated the associations of BPF and BPS with thyroid dysfunction in children. Our study investigated the associations of prenatal BPA and early childhood BPA, BPF, and BPS exposure with thyroid function in 6-year-old children. Methods: Prenatal BPA concentrations were measured during the second trimester of pregnancy in an established prospective birth cohort. We measured urinary BPA, BPF, and BPS concentrations and thyroid hormone levels (thyroid-stimulating hormone, total T3, and free T4) in 6-year-old children (n=574). We examined the associations between urinary bisphenol concentrations and percentage change of thyroid hormone concentrations using multivariate linear regression. We also compared thyroid hormone levels by dividing the cohort according to BPA, BPF, and BPS concentrations. Results: The associations between prenatal BPA and total T3 levels were statistically significant in all models, except for girls when using a crude model. The associations between urinary BPA and BPS concentrations and levels of all thyroid hormones were not statistically significant. However, we observed that lower free T4 levels (-1.94%; 95% confidence interval, -3.82 to -0.03) were associated with higher urinary BPF concentrations in girls only. Conclusions: Our findings identified significant associations between prenatal BPA exposure and total T3 levels in all children and between BPF exposure and free T4 levels in girls only.