• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.1285-1301
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• 2024

With growing concerns about sustainability in the fashion industry, fashion brands are increasingly promoting their sustainability initiatives. However, do sustainable attributes always drive consumers' purchase intentions toward sustainable apparel? Grounded in psychological egoism and congruity theory, this study aims to understand the effect of conventional and sustainable apparel attributes on purchase intentions for sustainable apparel, considering the roles of brand type (fast fashion vs. sustainable fashion) and green self-identity. Data were collected from an online survey of 244 U.S. consumers aged 18 and older. The results revealed that conventional attributes of quality, fit, style, and comfort had a significantly stronger effect on purchase intentions than sustainable attributes. Both conventional and sustainable attributes enhanced purchase intention for fast fashion brands, while only conventional attributes were significant for sustainable fashion brands. Green self-identity did not have a significant moderating effect, indicating that apparel buying is a behavior less influenced by green self-identity. The findings highlight the importance of conventional attributes while suggesting that attributes perceived as lacking in the brand are crucial for driving purchase intentions. This study offers valuable insights into consumer behavior in sustainable fashion consumption and helps develop effective strategies for fast fashion and sustainable fashion brands.

• Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.29-59
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• 2016

These days, the business environment such as Information Technology (IT) is rapidly changing, and organizations are consistently trying to change themselves for the survival and success under the changing environment. In this situation, change management is very important because it draws the change behaviors of organization members for the success of organizational change. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of the organization members' psychological factors on the performance of the acquisition of new IT, which is one of the most important organizational change. Based on previous studies in the area of organizational change, organization members' resistance to change, self-congruity theory, change activities and organizational performance, the research model is developed for validating the effect of organization members' self-congruity on the performance of the acquisition of new IT. Statistical analyses show that self-congruity has a significant effect on the change activities. In particular, private self-congruity has more impact on the change activities than public self-congruity. In addition, self-leadership, rewards and recognitions, and the diffusion of change activities have significant effects on job satisfaction. Self-leadership has a significant effect on organizational commitment.

• Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.83-105
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• 2010

Smartphone services seem to be appealing to people worldwide and show rapid growth in mobile service market. Based on the theoretical framework like attachment theory and self-congruity theory, we developed the research model and proposed six hypotheses. An analysis of 113 smartphone service users found that continued use intention in smartphone services is affected by uses' attachment to the service. We also found that the attachment is significantly increased by self-congruity, customization, and perceived usefulness. Our aim was to gain insight into ways of creating an environment that facilitating continued use intention of smartphone services. This study has important implications for academic researchers and practitioners who seek to understand why smartphone service users continuously use their smart phone services. Other practical implications of these findings and future research implications are also discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.12-25
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• 2016

Based on the self-congruity theory, this study investigated how congruity between multi-brand store image and consumers' self-image affect store attributes and consumer responses. A total of 331 questionnaires were used to analyze data. The results of research were: 1) 'Sophistication' as the congruity factor between store image and consumers' self-image affected 'utility', 'atmosphere', and 'design' among store attribute factors. Also, 'sincerity' influenced 'utility' as the store attribute factor. 2) 'Atmosphere' as the store attribute factor positively influenced consumers' emotional responses, and 'utility' and 'design' factors positively influenced consumers' cognitive responses. 3) Consumers' emotional responses had a positive impact on consumers' cognitive responses; in addition, consumers' emotional and cognitive responses had positive impacts on consumers' behavioral responses. 4) A-Land indicated higher scores on 'sophistication', 'atmosphere', and 'design' factors than ABC Mart. ABC Mart had shown higher scores on 'ruggedness' and 'utility' factors than A-Land. This study provides practical implications to develop effective marketing strategies to manage multi-brand stores.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.7
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• pp.603-611
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• 2021

This study aims to analyze the mediating influences of resonance-based self-attitude and brand credibility in a relationship between celebrity endorser credibility and celebrity endorser congruity toward brand purchase intention in the current dynamic business environment. It employs a quantitative research method and reports on a survey, using a questionnaire, including the population of consumers of various instant coffee brands in several cities in Indonesia. The number of respondents in this study was 432 people. The analysis was performed using Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling and SmartPLS software. The analysis consisted of descriptive statistics, evaluation of the measurement model, evaluation of the structural model, and hypothesis testing. The results partially support the model developed. The findings suggest that the instant coffee product advertising in Indonesia needs to create brand messages focusing on the formation of resonance-based self-attitude from consumers to increase the influence of celebrity endorser credibility and celebrity endorser congruity, as well as the brand credibility towards the brand purchase intention. This study contributes to the marketing literature and the theory of planned behavior by providing empirical evidence on the relationship between celebrity endorser credibility, celebrity endorser congruity, resonance-based self-attitude, brand credibility, and brand purchase intention.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.61-89
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of sex of supervisor on the stress and promotion of Korean women workers in the workplace using the Korean Women Manager Panel. The results demonstrate that when the direct boss of female workers was female, stress in the workplace was high and the promotion rate of staff and assistant managers was low. According to the theory of queen bee phenomenon and role congruity theory, a structure of glass ceiling and the male-dominated working culture does not require positive qualities of female leadership but requires a high recognition standard or competitiveness. It can be interpreted that the female worker with the female supervisor showed more stress in the workplace and the probability of female promotion in staff and assistant managers is low.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.117-139
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• 2013

Research on purchase intention had showed remarkable progress in contributing to the theory of consumer behavior. Despite the popularity of academic discussions on various issues influencing purchase intention, the mediating role of brand recall and brand attitude on purchase intention, in particular advergames, has not yet been well explored, especially in developing economies such as Malaysia. Furthermore, the influence of self-brand congruity, entertainment and brand placement acceptance as antecedents to brand recall and brand attitude are expected to add value to the brand recall, brand attitude and purchase intention relationships. This paper aims to investigate the impact of the mediating role of brand recall and brand attitude on purchase intention in advergames among Malaysian gamers. The antecedents towards brand recall and brand attitude are also examined to measure their influence on purchase intention. A total of 350 Malaysian gamers were interviewed through online survey in this study. The results showed that brand recall and brand attitude mediate the relationship between self-brand congruity, entertainment and brand placement acceptance with purchase intention. Also, entertainment and brand placement acceptance were found to have a significant relationship with brand recall. As expected, brand recall and brand attitude showed a positive relationship with consumer purchase intention in advergames. It was found that self-brand congruity has a significant influence on brand attitude and purchase intention. When users see the brand which matches with them, they tend to act positively toward the brand exposed in the game. This is consistent with Escalas and Bettman (2005) who suggested that the greater the congruity, the more positive the consumer's attitude toward the brand in question. This leads to game usage and purchase (Davis and Lang, 2013). In the advergaming context, the entertainment value in advergames is very important to determine the level of enjoyment and pleasure experienced by gamers during game-playing. Therefore, the more entertaining the ads, the more it will be remembered and the greater the positive behavior of the consumer towards the advergames - this ultimately stimulates their intention to purchase the brand. This study shows the effect of brand placement on brand recall and brand attitude and also purchase intention. Brand placements might not work in games due to the interactivity involved in game-playing as people could be distracted from noticing the brand placements (Yang et al., 2006). However, the significant influence of brand placements found in this study may provide major promise for advertisers. Game players may or may not explicitly remember the brands they see in the games, but these placements may influence their brand recall and brand attitude and could therefore influence later decisions (Yang et al., 2006). In this study, it was found that self-brand congruity was not significantly related with brand recall. The reason for this could be attributed to the fact that this study examined gamers who are highly involved in the interactive medium of games which force them to focus on game play rather than advertisements; the level of recognition to remember the brand exposed in the game is low and contributes to the "mismatch" between the gamers and the said brand. The present study contributes to the existing literature of the antecedents of brand recall and brand attitude in advergames. This study contributes to the role of brand recall and brand attitude as mediators in purchase behavior theory. Academically, the relationship between brand recall and brand attitude is well known in advergaming research, but their impact as important mediators on purchase intention add new understanding in the interactive communication literature. Their mediating role may provide new insights on how they facilitate the effects of self-brand congruity, entertainment and brand placement on purchase intention. Besides that, the studies on the influence of self-brand congruity on brand recall and brand attitude and also consumer intention to purchase had not well-investigated in advergames. This study contributes to fill those gaps in advergames literature. For practitioners, this study could suggest the use of illustrative or demonstrative placements of new products to help customers remember new brands, and the use of associative placements for existing products to increase consumers' purchase intention (Ho et al., 2011). To advertisers, this study may provide useful information to improve their current advertising strategies in games, for instance, by considering game players' congruity, entertainment value and brand placement factors.

• The Korean Fashion and Textile Research Journal
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.611-623
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• 2021

In the era of COVID-19 and advanced ICT technology, retail technologies such as those that use virtual reality(VR) have been drawing significant attention in the fashion industry. This study investigated the impact of shopping motivation and telepresence on consumer attitude, trust, and behavioral intentions in VR fitting room application environments. An online survey was conducted on female consumers in their 20s and 30s after exploring a VR fitting room application. Overall, 225 responses were used for the analysis. The study demonstrated that usefulness had a significant effect on attitude toward product (ATP) and trust toward app (TTA), while enjoyment had a significant effect on ATP, but did not significantly affect TTA. Telepresence did not significantly affect TTA, but had a significant influence on ATP and behavioral intention. TTA had a significant influence on ATP, and both ATP and TTA had significant effects on behavioral intention. Moreover, the effects of usefulness, enjoyment, and telepresence on ATP, TTA, and behavioral intention were significant, as the self-congruity between consumers and avatars increased. The application of the motivation theory and technology acceptance model offers theoretical perspectives for understanding VR fitting room application users' attitudinal and behavioral responses in mobile shopping environments. In addition, this study provides practical implications to mobile retailers that utilize advanced technologies.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.556-571
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• 2020

This study predicts consumer preference for social clothing at work, excluding uniforms using the self-product congruence theory that also establishes a model to predict the preference for recommended products that match the consumer's own image. A total of 490 Korean male office workers participated in this study. Participants' self-image and the product images of 20 apparel items were measured using nine adjective semantic scales (namely elegant, stable, sincere, refined, intense, luxury, bold, conspicuous, and polite). A model was then constructed to predict the consumer preferences using a neural network with Python and TensorFlow. The resulting Predict Preference Model using Product Image (PPMPI) was trained using product image and the preference of each product. Current research confirms that product preference can be predicted by the self-image instead of by entering the product image. The prediction accuracy rate of the PPMPI was over 80%. We used 490 items of test data consisting of self-images to predict the consumer preferences for using the PPMPI. The test of the PPMPI showed that the prediction rate differed depending on product attributes. The prediction rate of work apparel with normative images was over 70% and higher than for other forms of apparel.

• East Asian Journal of Business Economics (EAJBE)
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.35-45
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• 2022

Purpose - In spite of the growing importance of Taiwanese green industry, most of employees who work in this industry in Taiwan are dominated by males. Only a few females are working in this industry and their wage is lower. This research is applying role congruity theory which explains why females share only a small portion in Taiwan's green industry. This study addresses a research question, "How has the gender inequality and discrimination been reflected in the occupation structure of Taiwan's green industry? How has this gender occupation structure influenced females in the green industry?" Research design, data, and methodology - To find out the impact of gender role in the green industry, the dataset of the 2015 Taiwan Social Change Survey is used. Using STATA, t test has been implemented to address our research question with three hypotheses. Result -All of hypothesis were all supported. It is found there is a statistical difference in stereotypical thinking between female who work in the green industry and the non-green industry of Taiwan. The limited female representation in the green industry of Taiwan influences job matching and job satisfaction significantly. Conclusion - This study suggests the Taiwanese government should encourage STEM education for females and provide more relevant vocational education and training particularly for females' competency development in the green industry. By providing vocational education and training to meet the skill needs of greener economy resilient to climate change, Taiwan's green industry will grow further and will overcome gender inequality and discrimination.