• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.49-73
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• 2023

This study examines the usage status of legal services provided by lawyers targeting domestic consumers and investigates empirically how much online platforms that facilitate lawyer search and consultation can increase consumers' utility, and how much the lawyer legal service market will expand through this. To this end, this study applies a discrete choice demand model to the data collected through a conjoint survey to estimate the value of the lawyer search and consultation platform perceived by consumers, and estimates the effectiveness of the platform in expanding the market for lawyer legal services through a simulation method. As a result of the analysis, the relative value that consumers place on finding and consulting a lawyer using the online platform instead of being introduced to a lawyer by an acquaintance or searching for a lawyer offline is estimated to be about 70,414 won. It was found that the existence of lawyer search and consultation platforms could increase the market size of legal services by as little as 18.9% to as much as 70.2%. In particular, the platforms are expected to increase the accessibility of legal services to vulnerable groups.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.155-168
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• 2013

This study describes consumers' movie choices in conjunction with other group members and attempts to reassess the effect of the online word of mouth (WOM) source in a joint decision context. The tendency of many people to go to movies in groups has been mentioned in previous literature but there is no modeling research that studies movie choice from the group decision perspective. We found that ignoring the group movie-going perspective can result in a misunderstanding, especially underestimation of genre preference and the impact of the WOM variables. Most of the studies to measure online WOM effects were done at the aggregate level, and the role of online WOM variables(volume vs valence) is mixed in the literature. We postulate that group-level analysis might offer insight to resolve these mixed understanding of WOM effects in the literature. We implemented the study via a random effect model with group-level heterogeneity. Romance, drama, and action were selected as genre variables; valence and volume were selected as online WOM variables. A choice-based conjoint survey was used for data collection and the models was estimated via Bayesian MCMC method. The empirical results show that (i) both genre and online WOM are important variables when consumers choose movies, especially as group, and (ii) the WOM valence effect are amplified more than the volume effect does as individuals are engaged in group decision. This research contributes to the literature in several ways. First, we investigate movie choice from a group movie-going perspective that is more realistic and consistent with the market behavior. Secondly, the study sheds new light on the WOM effect. At group-level, both valence and volume significantly affect movie choices, which adds to the understanding of the role of online WOM in consumers' movie choice.