• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.73-92
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• 2009

Consumers influence other consumers' brand choice behavior by delivering a variety of objective or subjective information on a particular product, which is called WOM (Word-Of-Mouth) activities. For WOM activities, WOM senders should choose messages to deliver to other consumers. We classify the contents of the messages a consumer chooses for WOM delivery into two categories: Subjective (positive or negative) evaluation and objective information on products. In our study, we regard WOM senders' activities as a choice behavior and introduce a choice model to study the relationship between the choice of different WOM information (WOM with positive or negative subjective evaluation and WOM with objective information) and its influencing factors (information sources and consumer characteristics) by developing two bivariate Probit models. In order to consider the mediating effects of WOM senders' product involvement, product attitude, and their characteristics (gender and age), we develop three second-level models for the propagation of positive evaluations, of negative evaluations, and of objective information on products in an hierarchical Bayesian modeling framework. Our empirical results show that WOM senders' information choice behavior differs according to the types of information sources. The effects of information sources on WOM activities differ according to the types of WOM messages (subjective evaluation (positive or negative) and objective information). Therefore, our study concludes that WOM activities can be partially managed with effective communication plans influencing on consumers' WOM message choice behavior. The empirical results provide some guidelines for consumers' propagation of information on products companies want.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.1-24
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• 2005

This paper applies a prelaunch forecasting model to the Home-Networking (HN) market of South Korea. The HN market of Korea is categorized into two distinctive markets. One HN market consists of new apartments in which builders install HN and the other HN market consists of existing houses in which residents purchase HN Among these markets, this paper focuses on existing houses as capturing consumers' choice. To forecast sales of HN for existing houses, we use a conjoint model based on our survey data of consumer preferences. By incorporating various indicators of HN technologies into our conjoint model, we also forecast diffusion of HN system embodied in PLC or Wireless Lan. We call this model Choice-Based Diffusion Model. In addition, based on the simulation experiments, we also identify important factors that affect the demands of HN system.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.8
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• pp.465-473
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• 2021

This study is the application of a choice experiment to assess Mekong Delta urban households' preferences and motivations for ecosystem conservation in the U Minh forest. The study applied a choice modeling approach to estimate the economic values of the proposed ecosystem conservation program in the U Minh forest by accessing urban consumer preferences and their willingness to pay for the project. Discrete choice experimental data was collected from 450 residents in the cities of the Vietnamese Mekong Delta. The multinomial logit model was employed to identify consumer's stated preferences for the environmental and sustainability attributes of the conservation project. The results showed that Mekong Delta urban residents paid much attention to the proposed project to protect and develop the U Minh forest. In addition, the results showed that higher education, income, and knowledge of the U Minh forest revealed a higher likelihood of selecting the project, while the older residents would select the status quo more than the younger ones. The study also proved that the effect of participation had a strong impact on the willingness to pay for the project. The findings could be useful for policymakers to take action to raise resident's awareness and willingness to pay for the U Minh forest project.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.10 no.12
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• pp.25-34
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• 2012

Purpose - This study examines college students' perceived choice attributes in traditional markets and the relationship quality. We study the relationships between attributes that common people look for while choosing a store (e.g., product, service, advertising, and atmosphere), consumption emotion, consumer's value, and relationship quality. Research design, data, methodology - In order to verify the relationship between choice attributes and relationship quality, and moderating (i.e., consumption emotion) and mediating effects (i.e., customer value), we collected data from 202 consumers in Gyeonggi province to test the theoretical model and its hypotheses. For this purpose, this study, utilized an empirical methodology. Results - First, contrary to the previous research findings involving college students, this study observed that four factors of store choice attributes at a traditional market were important to consumers in heightening the relationship quality. Specifically, product (β = .608, p < .01), service (β = .351, p < .01), advertising (β = .237, p < .01), and atmosphere (β = .425, p < .01) are significantly related to relationship quality. Second, consumers selected product (β =. 521, p < .01) as the most important attribute. Atmosphere (β = .254, p < .01) and service division (β = .148, p < .05), in this order, are the other important factors in this regard. However, advertising (β = -.112, p = .100) is not statistically significant. To improve and develop the relationship quality with consumers, traditional markets should ensure supply of suitable products and goods, improve store atmosphere by modernizing facilities, and educate merchants to improve their services. Third, the results of the moderating effects, although marginally statistically significant, suggest that for the consumers with low consumption emotion for traditional markets, an affirmative experience of products and store atmosphere heightens their values. In addition, the consumers having low consumption emotion who could promote consumer values were found to improve and develop a marginally significant relationship quality. Finally, the study revealed that the consumer's value exhibited a complete mediation effect in the relationships between service and relationship quality, and advertising and relationship quality and a partial mediation effect in the relationships between product and relationship quality, and atmosphere and relationship quality. Conclusions - Consumer satisfaction is important to increase the competitiveness of traditional markets, and products and store atmosphere are important attributes to increase the relationship quality. Specifically, merchants should supply different products, modernize their facilities, and improve store atmosphere to compete in traditional markets. In addition, traditional markets should provide value and competitive prices to attract consumers, and should maximize the consumer's value and promote the consumption emotion. Traditional markets should evolve to accommodate changes in the consumer's value and invest in not only functional elements but also symbolic elements.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.159-172
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• 2013

In the present study, we apply the multiple cue probability learning (MCPL) paradigm to examine consumer learning from feedback in repeated trials. This paradigm is useful in investigating consumer learning, especially learning the relationships between the overall quality and attributes. With this paradigm, we can analyze what people learn from repeated trials by using the lens model, i.e., whether it is knowledge or consistency. In addition to introducing this paradigm, we aim to demonstrate that knowledge people gain from repeated trials with feedback is robust enough to weaken one of the most often examined contextual effects, the asymmetric dominance effect. The experiment consists of learning session and a choice task and stimuli are sport rafting boats with motor engines. During the learning session, the participants are shown an option with three attributes and are asked to evaluate its overall quality and type in a number between 0 and 100. Then an expert's evaluation, a number between 0 and 100, is provided as feedback. This trial is repeated fifteen times with different sets of attributes, which comprises one learning session. Depending on the conditions, the participants do one (low) or three (high) learning sessions or do not go through any learning session (no learning). After learning session, the participants then are provided with either a core or an extended choice set to make a choice to examine if learning from feedback would weaken the asymmetric dominance effect. The experiment uses a between-subjects experimental design (2 × 3; core set vs. extended set; no vs. low vs. high learning). The results show that the participants evaluate the overall qualities more accurately with learning. They learn the true trade-off rule between attributes (increase in knowledge) and become more consistent in their evaluations. Regarding the choice task, there is a significant decrease in the percentage of choosing the target option in the extended sets with learning, which clearly demonstrates that learning decreases the magnitude of the asymmetric dominance effect. However, these results are significant only when no learning condition is compared either to low or high learning condition. There is no significant result between low and high learning conditions, which may be due to fatigue or reflect the characteristics of learning curve. The present study introduces the MCPL paradigm in examining consumer learning and demonstrates that learning from feedback increases both knowledge and consistency and weakens the asymmetric dominance effect. The latter result may suggest that the previous demonstrations of the asymmetric dominance effect are somewhat exaggerated. In a single choice setting, people do not have enough information or experience about the stimuli, which may lead them to depend mostly on the contextual structure among options. In the future, more realistic stimuli and real experts' judgments can be used to increase the external validity of study results. In addition, consumers often learn through repeated choices in real consumer settings. Therefore, what consumers learn from feedback in repeated choices would be an interesting topic to investigate.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.35 no.12
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• pp.1440-1453
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• 2011

Proper consumer segmentation is receiving more attention from industry professionals as markets become more diverse and consumer-centered. Researchers have recognized the limitations of the traditional cluster analysis technique and this research study analyzes market segmentation using Mixture-model or latent-class segmentation. This study used a questionnaire to determine the characteristics of clothing shoppers using a new technique that proved its superiority over traditional techniques. Questions included items measuring fashion shopping behavior, store choice criteria, apparel consumption styles, price perception by product type, and demographic characteristics. Data were collected from 1074 males and females in their 20s and 30s through an online survey. SPSS 16.0 and Latent GOLD 4.0 were used to analyze the data. The ideal typology of clothing shoppers using the Mixture-model were: 'brand loyalty orientated group', 'group of conservative late 30s', 'group of pleasure-emotion early 20s', 'value oriented consumer product with high-income group', 'group of eco/symbol oriented consumer', and 'group of utility/goal oriented male consumer'. This study showed differences in fashion product purchasing behavior by conducting market segmentation for clothing shoppers using the Mixture-model.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.125-138
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• 2017

The goal of the study is to understand how consumers' constraint as opposed to utility structure gives rise to final decision when consumers purchase more than one variant of product at a time, i.e., horizontal variety seeking or multiple-discreteness. Purchase and consumption decision not only produces utility but also involves some sort of cognitive pressure. Past consumption or last purchase is likely to be linked to this burden we face such as concern for obesity, risk of harm, and guilt for mischief. In this research, the existence and the role of dynamic constraint are investigated through a microeconomic utility model with multiple dynamic constraint. The model is applied to the salty snacks data collected from field study where burden for spiciness serves as a constraint. The results are compared to the conventional multiple discreteness choice models of static constraints, and policy implications on price discounts is explored. The major findings are that first, one would underestimate the level of consumer preference for product offerings when ignoring the carry-over of the concern from the past consumption, and second, the impact of price promotion on demand would be properly evaluated when the model allows for the role of constraint as both multiple and dynamic. The current study is different from the existing studies in two ways. First, it captures the effect of 'mental constraint' on demand in formal economic model. Second, unlike the state dependence well documented in the literature, the study proposes the notion of state dependence in different way, via constraint rather than utility.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.28 no.10
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• pp.217-227
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• 2023

This study aims to stratify consumer market evaluation items from the Consumer Decision Journey(CDJ) perspective and understand the relationship between laws/systems and consumer orientation through the Korea Consumer Agency's '19 Korea Consumer Markets Evaluation Indicators. This study divided consumer market evaluation items into the selection comparison stage, selection decision stage, and post-purchase experience stage. And present a model that stratified the relationship with consumer orientation of laws/systems and verified using the CDJ model's experience as a control variable. Studies have shown that the relationship between the consumer market evaluation index that evaluates consumer orientation can be stratified according to the consumer decision-making stage and positively affects the relationship with consumer orientation of laws/systems. In addition, the impact of consumer market evaluation variables (reliability, and price) on the consumer orientation of laws/systems was different depending on the presence or absence of consumer damage experience.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.29-38
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• 2011

Since a distribution market was opened in 1993 after the conclusion of the Uruguay Round (UR), various new businesses emerged in the Korean retail industry, such as convenience shops, supermarkets, specialty stores, non-store marketing methods, and cyber shopping malls, in addition to traditional markets and department stores. Competition among these retail businesses has intensified. According to the National Statistical Office (NSO), the growth rate of the total retail industry has shown a 32% increase in the past 5 years. While department stores, supermarkets, specialty stores, and other non-store retailing venues have shown signs of stagnation at a growth rate of 20-30%, which is similar to the growth rate of the entire retail industry, convenience shops and non-store marketing have shown 60-70% growth over the same period. By comparison, the growth rate of cyber shopping malls has nearly tripled. When applying development aspects of retail businesses through the competition to the retail life cycle, mom-and-pop stores and traditional markets have already entered the decline phase as specialty stores reach their maturity phase and demonstrate their limit of growth. Department stores are now in the latter part of the growth phase, which is still considered to have some growth potential. Big super markets are still in the early part of their growth stage although they were introduced 20 years ago. Meanwhile, retail businesses such as convenience stores, supermarkets, mail order houses, and warehouse stores are entering the middle growth phase and are expected to continue with their quantitative growth. At a time when most retail businesses in Korea are in a state of development or in the full growth stage, what kind of new innovative retailing will appear and develop? Moreover, what growth engine will drive it? This study analyzes the appearance of innovative retailing and its development process by establishing a discussable consumer's choice model through the interlocking mutual behavior of differentiated competitiveness and consumers' choice based on an awareness of this issue. The analysis of the results of this study can be summarized as follows. First, if a new vacuum zone emerges at the retail market level, innovative retailing such as low price/low service or high price/high service will emerge simultaneously. Second, if the number of new businesses in the vacuum zone increases, this will create competitiveness among the businesses, and each retailer will develop raising of level. Third, if a new business that raises the level develops, competition between the new and the existing retailer will occur, and an assimilation process between the existing retailing and the new retailing will be unfolded. Fourth, each retailing will promote distribution innovations in order to break the frontier of the existing distribution technology, and other retailing will follow the innovator. On the basis of an analysis of the abovementioned results, this study presents the following three suggestions. First, responding to the consumer's decision-making process on the attributes of retail shops that promote differentiation in strategies, this study established a consumer's choice model that can be discussed in relation to changes in market share. Second, this study provided an analysis of the emerging and developmental processes of innovative retail businesses using a more precise logical structure on the basis of the consumer's choice model described in this study. Third, the development process of retail businesses discussed in this study presented retailing solutions regarding management aspects on how to compose a strong retail mix that can help retail businesses gain competitive advantages in the market.

• Informatization Policy
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.81-97
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• 2014

The purpose of this research is to analyze consumers'choice behavior with regard to information and communication technology(ICT) devices and related services. This research focuses on the relationships not only within each category but also among different categories by considering multiple choice situations in a variety of categories simultaneously. The multivariate probit model with demographic variables and the alternative specific constant model with variance-covariance matrix are estimated using survey data; moreover, the multi-dimensional scaling method is utilized for the presentation of the relationship map. It is evident from the results that some devices and services have a complementary or substitute relationship each other. This study can provide useful information for the development of new products and services by understanding and predicting consumer's behavior.