• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.55-60
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• 2001

Objectives : The SERVQUAL scale is based on gap theory, which suggests the difference between consumers' expectations and the quality of the medical service actually received. However, problems in the implementation of the SERVQUAL scale have been identified by several researchers. Some researchers have proposed a simple performance-based measure (SERVPERF) or au exportation-controlled performance-based measure(Non-Diff) as alternatives to the SERVQUAL scale. On the basis of the theoretical concerns discussed, we examined the capability of each of the three scales(SERVQUAL, Non-Diff, SERVPERF) to explain variations in consumer satisfaction. Methods : Data was gathered from a self-administered questionnaire in a 430 bed hospital. Questionnaires evaluating medical services were distributed to 180 ambulatory patients. A total of 167 usable questionnaires were gathered. The questionnaire was composed of 10 expectation, performance and expectation-controlled performance items. In addition, overall satisfaction and purchase intention were measured. Results : Compared with the SERVQUAL scale, the Non-Diff and SERVPERF scales better explained the observed variations in consumer satisfaction(SERVOQUAL, $R^2=0.29;\;Non-Diff,\;R^2=0.51;\;SERVPERF,\;R^2=0.48$) and purchase intention(SERVQUAL, $R^2=0.22;\;Non-Diff,\;R^2=0.33;\;SERVPERF,\;R^2=0.34$). Conclusion : The maier conclusion from our study is that the Non-Diff and SERVPERF scales are more efficient in assessing consumer satisfaction than the SERVQUAL scale. Therefore we suggest that consumer satisfaction he measured by the Non-Diff or SEVPERF scales.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.167-177
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• 2019

Innovation of genomics technology has recently been extended to Direct To Consumer Genetic Test (DTC-GT) which consumers purchase without requesting the service on medical institutes. In 2016, Korea has introduced the DTC-GT but the market size is small comparing to global market. This study analyzes consumers' purchase intentions and purposes and their influential factors based on 2018 consumer survey. According to the results of binominal and multinominal logistic regression, knowledge after purchase, attitude on medical care benefit, health status are statistically significant on purchase intentions. Purchase purposes are different on age group and related on medical care rather than health care. These results imply that DTC-GT is needed to improve consumer satisfaction, re-purchase and effective care service. This paper is expected to contribute on strategic directions for the new DTC-GT product development.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.517-526
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• 2022

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The increased consumers' interests in health and food safety have increased the demand for organic foods. Many studies have been performed on consumers' purchase intentions for organic foods and their influencing factors, and various studies have shown that the prices of organic foods and the consumers' willingness to pay are important influencing factors. This study examined the payment value of organic foods and agrifood consumer competency index according to the food-related lifestyles in South Korean consumers. SUBJECTS/METHODS: A cross-sectional analysis was performed using the 2019 Consumer Behavior Survey for Food. A total of 6,176 participants aged 19 to 74 years (male: 2,783, female: 3,393) were included in the analysis. RESULTS: Three factors were extracted by factor analysis (rational consumption-seeking type, convenience-seeking type, and health, and safety-seeking type) to explain the consumers' food-related lifestyles. The results of cluster analysis suggested that consumers were classified into 3 food-related lifestyles as the 'exploratory consumers' (n = 2,485), 'safety-seeking consumers' (n = 1,544), and 'passive consumers' (n = 2,147). Exploratory consumers showed a significantly higher willingness to pay for imported organic foods (P < 0.05). Safety-seeking consumers had a significantly higher willingness to pay for domestic organic foods (P < 0.05). For the agrifood consumer competency index, exploratory consumers had the highest score, followed in order by safety-seeking consumers and passive consumers. CONCLUSIONS: These results provide basic data in understanding consumption tendency for organic foods and agrifoods based on food-related lifestyles of South Korean consumers.

• Korean Management Science Review
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.117-134
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• 2014

Today the concept of corporate social responsibility has become an essential element for coexistence of corporations and the society. In this study the impact of four responsibilities of business organizations proposed by Archie Carroll (economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary) on customer loyalty through the mediating effect of trust and company-consumer identification is analyzed. A questionnaire survey was conducted for four well-known Korean companies (Dong Suh Food, LG Household and Health Care, Samsung Electronics, and Hyundai Motor). After factor analysis, legal and ethical responsibilities were grouped as the same factor, thus three social responsibilities were finally used for hypotheses testing. Major findings were as follows: First, economic responsibilities had positive impact on honesty trust, professionalism trust, favorableness trust, and company-consumer identification, Second, legal/ethical responsibilities were found to have significant effects on honesty trust, favorableness trust, and company-consumer identification. Third, in the case of discretionary responsibilities, professionalism trust, favorableness trust, and company-consumer identification were revealed to have a significant positive relationship. Fourth, only two trust variables (honesty and professionalism) and company-consumer identification had positive influence on the loyalty of customers. These findings are expected to help decision makers to set up corporate objectives and choose action items for corporate social responsibility. At the last part, implications of the study and future research directions were discussed.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.33-42
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• 2012

This paper dealt with developing conceptual model for making public policy on consumer product safety. The matters of consumer safety, public health and environmental protection are essential parts of making policy for consumer products. Moreover, policy authority should consider all measures based on consumer safety. In the process making regulations, policy authority has to have some methods to prevent errors on treating eligible persons as persons disqualified under uncertainty decision making of public policy. To recognize and ensure fairness on public policy, policy authority needs to establish basic policy making and fundamental concepts. Therefore, we developed conceptual model for consumer products safety, CPSPcon in this paper. The conceptual model is one part of SSM(Soft System Methodology) and can support specific policy target. The CPSPcon model can assist in evaluation of responses to an adapting or considering model.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.201-211
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to analyze the determinants affecting the consumer-brand relationship quality (CBRQ) in the fast food restaurant. The questionnaires were distributed to 250 students in the K University located in Masan, who were sampled by convenience-sampling method from December, 6 to 14, 2004. The 246 questionnaires were responded, and 12 unusable questionnaires were excluded, then 234 were used for the final analysis (response rate: 93.7%). SPSS (12.0) was used for the statistical analysis. The result of this study showed that the CBRQ of low monthly income group was significantly lower than that of high monthly income group (p < .05), and the CBRQ of more frequent visiting group was significantly higher than that of less frequent visiting group (p < .001). The CBRQ of group who spend less than 30 minutes on their visiting the fast food restaurant was lower than that of group who spend more than 30 minutes (p < .01). As a conclusion, the operators in the fast food restaurant should focus on the concentrated marketing strategy for the frequent-visiting customers who had a strong quality of consumer-brand relationship in order to increase sales volume, and at the same time they should try to make marketing strategy to induce the less frequent-visiting customers who had less strong consumer-brand relationship quality to their restaurants in order to strengthen quality of consumer-brand relationship, which would be resulted to lead them to their restaurant more frequently.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.119-131
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• 2019

Among the themes for CSR(Corporate Social Responsibility), consumer issues include protecting the health and safety of consumers who purchase and use the products. In particular, ensuring product safety is a major theme of consumer issues for corporate social responsibility. Currently, the government implements the Electrical Appliances and Consumer Products Safety Control Act for product safety management and selects products that may harmful to consumers as safety control items, and manages the products by designating them as 4 types of safety certification, safety confirmation, supplier conformity verification, and safety standard compliance. In this paper, we propose management plans for the establishment of a more reasonable classification type of safety management target for 48 items of consumer products to be controlled by the act, and confirm the validity of the plan. First, we perform cluster analysis using data for CISS (Consumer Injury Surveillance System) to derive a new classification type of the safety management target. Next, we compare the results of the cluster analysis with the classification type of the act and the existing scenario classification method RAS (Risk Assessment by Scenario) and the causal network method RAMP (Risk Assessment Method based on Probability). Based on these results, we propose two new plans of safety management target classification and verify its validity.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.212-218
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• 2022

This study aims to understand health care consumer's information searching behavior according to their presence of chronic diseases. For this purpose, 240 patients' data of university hospital located in Seoul were collected by surveys from 9 February to 11 February 2016. For statistical analysis, we used SPSS Ver. 26.0. The main results of this study are as follows: First, Chi-square test showed that chronic patients used expert information sources and experiential information sources more than those without chronic diseases. Second, chronic patients were found to search nutrition management, exercise management, and patient case. Lastly, in the case of hospital-related searches, patients with chronic diseases searched more waiting time and medical expenses than those without chronic diseases. The significance of this study is to provide basic data for efficient information provision and establishment of marketing strategies reflecting information needs of health care consumers.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.477-481
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• 2020

Viability plays an important role in the beneficial microbes (probiotics) to produce health benefits. However, this idea has been changed after the invention of the term "paraprobiotics," indicating that non-viable microbes could produce health benefits similar to those produced by live probiotics. Occasionally, it might be dangerous to administer live probiotics to people with weak immunity. In such cases, ingestion of paraprobiotics could be a potential alternative. The definition of paraprobiotics refers to the use of inactivated (non-viable) microbial cells or cell fractions to provide health benefits to the consumer. Paraprobiotics have attracted much attention because of their long shelf life, safety, and beneficial effects, such as modulation of immunity, modification of biological responses, reduction of cholesterol, anti-inflammatory, and antiproliferative properties. These features indicate that paraprobiotics may play a vital role in improving the health of the consumer by enhancing particular physiological functions, even though the exact underlying mechanisms have not yet been completely elucidated. In this mini-review, we briefly discuss the historical backgrounds of paraprobiotics and evidence of their health-promoting effects, prophylactic, and therapeutic properties.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.389-398
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• 2001

Objectives : To investigate the information searching behavior of health care consumers according to sociodemographic characteristics. Methods : A questionnaire survey was conducted of 1,507 persons who were selected through a multi-stage stratified area cluster sampling of the Republic of Korea, excluding the province of Jeiu-do. Personal were conducted through a door-to-door survey between 27 July and 10 August 1999. Results : 80.5% of respondents used more than one source of information and those $40\sim59$ years of age, female, a housewife or student and those who claimed a religion demonstrated more active information searching behavior. A personal informer was used significantly more in those $20\sim39$ years old, female, and those who claimed a religion. Clerical workers, those with post-secondary education and a monthly income greater than 2,000,000 won ($1500) were more actively used a public informer. Low socioeconomic status and older persons used an experimental informer when they chose a health care institution. Conclusion : Regardless of the sociodemographic characteristics, personal and experimental informers were the most useful source of information. Because appropriate information was not easy to obtain, the health care consumer was dependent upon word-of-mouth communication(personal informer) when using health care services.