• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.67-95
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• 2009

The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the transference of trust process, an important factor to consumer's purchase decision-making. Even though several researchers have discussed the trust transference process, there is no research related to this concept. Specifically we have focused on the transference of trust from the retailer to low involvement private label (PL) products. PL products were chosen as transference of trust occurs under ambiguity due to lack of information about the product and their manufacturer. PL products provide relatively less information than national brand (NB) products. In addition, retailers have been rapidly expanding their PL product categories. To identify the theoretical and empirical limitations of prior studies, we discuss several theories explaining the transference of trust: 'Balance theory' and 'availability heuristic' in transference of cognitive trust; 'affective transference' and 'affect as information' in transference of affective trust. An empirical test was performed. A self completion questionnaire was developed and administered to a convenience sample of PL users. 206 usable questionnaire were received. The results show that the transference of trust plays a mediating role linking the retailer to the manufacturer and to the product. Although our model, which included the transference process of trust as a mediating effect, did not improve the competitive model, the coefficients of the respective paths were found to be better. This study confirms the transference of cognitive trust from the retailer to both the manufacturer and the product, but not for affective trust. We offer the explanation that PL products may tend to have affective trust resulting from brand familiarity but not to their PL manufacturers.

• Journal of Ginseng Culture
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• v.2
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• pp.71-83
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• 2020

College students are the potential income classes preparing for income activities and are the main consumers of the future that are very important. In order to understand the current state of ginseng-related consumption culture of young consumers, this study wanted to examine university students' attitudes toward ginseng-related products and services in the future, and to find out their purchasing status, satisfaction, and intent to purchase them. In doing so, we looked at the relative influence of the relevant variables that affect the intent of the purchase. As a result, the variables that affect college student consumers' intention to purchase ginseng-related products were shown in the order of their reliability, economy, purchasing experience, subjective interest, monthly income, monthly allowance, pride in ginseng, and age. Of these, most of the variables had positive effects, but the average monthly income, monthly allowance, and age had negative effects. In other words, the higher the reliability, economy, and self-esteem of ginseng, the higher the willingness to buy ginseng, the higher the subjective interest in ginseng, the higher the age, the lower the monthly allowance, and the lower the income, the lower the willingness to buy ginseng. To promote college students' consumption of ginseng products, it is necessary to cut prices for the younger generation, enhance the quality of the products for the younger generation, improve the taste to overcome the negative aspects of rejecting the bitter and bitter taste, and, above all, induce consumers' attention. It is also necessary to expand accessibility through the development of convenient and easy-to-eat products for young people and the expansion of sales outlets. Recently, young consumers are interested in new products they have never experienced before, products that are good to certify because of their unique design or packaging, and retro products that stimulate nostalgia in the past, so they need to promote and provide information related to consumption of ginseng products in this regard. Considering the practicality and convenience of consumers, we propose consideration of personal consumers' taste curation services, which reflect their preference for products that are convenient to carry with them in line with various living environments, and can have synergy with other products.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.71-96
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• 2011

Within the traditional medical delivery system, patients residing in medically vulnerable areas, those with body movement difficulties, and nursing facility residents have had limited access to good healthcare services. However, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) provides us with a convenient and useful means of overcoming distance and time constraints. ICT is integrated with biomedical science and technology in a way that offers a new high-quality medical service. As a result, rapid technological advancement is expected to play a pivotal role bringing about innovation in a wide range of medical service areas, such as medical management, testing, diagnosis, and treatment; offering new and improved healthcare services; and effecting dramatic changes in current medical services. The increase in aging population and chronic diseases has caused an increase in medical expenses. In response to the increasing demand for efficient healthcare services, a telehealth service based on ICT is being emphasized on a global level. Telehealth services have been implemented especially in pilot projects and system development and technological research. With the service about to be implemented in earnest, it is necessary to study its overall acceptance by consumers, which is expected to contribute to the development and activation of a variety of services. In this sense, the study aims at positively examining the structural relationship among the acceptance factors for telehealth services based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Data were collected by showing audiovisual material on telehealth services to online panels and requesting them to respond to a structured questionnaire sheet, which is known as the information acceleration method. Among the 1,165 adult respondents, 608 valid samples were finally chosen, while the remaining were excluded because of incomplete answers or allotted time overrun. In order to test the reliability and validity of the assessment scale items, we carried out reliability and factor analyses, and in order to explore the causal relation among potential variables, we conducted a structural equation modeling analysis using AMOS 7.0 and SPSS 17.0. The research outcomes are as follows. First, service quality, innovativeness of medical technology, and social influence were shown to affect perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of the telehealth service, which was statistically significant, and the two factors had a positive impact on willingness to accept the telehealth service. In addition, social influence had a direct, significant effect on intention to use, which is paralleled by the TAM used in previous research on technology acceptance. This shows that the research model proposed in the study effectively explains the acceptance of the telehealth service. Second, the research model reveals that information privacy concerns had a insignificant impact on perceived ease of use of the telehealth service. From this, it can be gathered that the concerns over information protection and security are reduced further due to advancements in information technology compared to the initial period in the information technology industry, and thus the improvement in quality of medical services appeared to ensure that information privacy concerns did not act as a prohibiting factor in the acceptance of the telehealth service. Thus, if other factors have an enormous impact on ease of use and usefulness, concerns over these results in the initial period of technology acceptance may become irrelevant. However, it is clear that users' information privacy concerns, as other studies have revealed, is a major factor affecting technology acceptance. Thus, caution must be exercised while interpreting the result, and further study is required on the issue. Numerous information technologies with outstanding performance and innovativeness often attract few consumers. A revised bill for those urgently in need of telehealth services is about to be approved in the national assembly. As telemedicine is implemented between doctors and patients, a wide range of systems that will improve the quality of healthcare services will be designed. In this sense, the study on the consumer acceptance of telehealth services is meaningful and offers strong academic evidence. Based on the implications, it can be expected to contribute to the activation of telehealth services. Further study is needed to assess the acceptance factors for telehealth services, such as motivation to remain healthy, health care involvement, knowledge on health, and control of health-related behavior, in order to develop unique services according to the categorization of customers based on health factors. In addition, further study may focus on various theoretical cognitive behavior models other than the TAM, such as the health belief model.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.131-154
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• 2013

New internet technologies have created a revolutionary new platform which allows consumers to make decision about product price and quality quickly and provides information about themselves through the transcript of online reviews. By expressing their feelings toward products or services on virtual opinion platforms, users extend their influence into cyberspace as electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM). Existing research indicates that an impact of eWOM on the consumer decision process is influential. For both academic researchers and practitioners, investigating this phenomenon of information sharing in online website is essential given the increasing number of consumers using them as sources of purchase decisions. It is worthwhile to examine the extent to which opinion seekers are willing to accept and adopt online reviews and which factors encourage adoption. Discerning the most motivating aspects of information adoption in particular, could help electronic marketers better promote their brand and presence on the internet. The objectives of this study are to investigate how online WOM influences a persons' purchase decision by discovering which factors encourage information adoption. Especially focused on the self-efficacy, this research investigates how self-efficacy affects on information usefulness and adoption of online information. Although people are exposed to same review or comment about product or service, some accept the reviews while others do not. We notice that accepting online reviews mainly depends on the person's preference or personal characteristics. This study empirically examines this issue by using cognitive dissonance theory. Specifically, in the movie industry, we address few questions-is always positive WOM generating positive effect? What if the movie isn't the person's favorite genre? What if the person who is very self-assertive so doesn't take other's opinion easily? In these cases of cognitive dissonance, is always WOM generating same result? While many studies have focused on one direct of WOM which indicates positive (or negative) informative reviews or comments generate positive (or negative) results and more (or less) profits, this study investigates not only directional properties of WOM but also how people change their opinion towards product or service positive to negative, negative to positive through the online WOM. An experiment was conducted quantitatively by using a sample of 168 users who have experience within the online movie review site, 'Naver Movie'. Users were required to complete a survey regarding reviews and comments taken from the real movie page. The data reflected user's perceptions of online WOM information that determined users' adoption level. Analysis results provide empirical support for the proposed theoretical perspective. When user can't agree with the opinion of online WOM information, in other words, when cognitive dissonance between online WOM information and users' preference occurs, perceived self-efficacy significantly decreases customers' perception of usefulness. And this perception of usefulness plays an important role in determining users' intention to adopt online WOM information. Most of researches have been concentrated on characteristics of online WOM itself such as quality or vividness of information, credibility of source and direction of online WOM, etc. for describing effect of online WOM, but our results suggest that users' personal character (e.g., self-efficacy) plays decisive role for acceptance of online WOM information. Higher self-efficacy means lower possibility to accept the information that represents counter opinion because of cognitive dissonance, whereas the people that have lower self-efficacy are willing to accept the online WOM information as true and refer to purchase decision. This study suggests a model for understanding role of direction of online WOM information. Also, our result implicates the importance of online review supervision and personalized information service by confirming switching opinion negative to positive is more difficult than positive to negative through the online WOM information. This implication would help marketers to manage online reviews of their products or services.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.253-262
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• 2014

This, an association research for design-improvement and model-development of exhibition shops at rural tourism communities, is to secure objective data by analyzing customers' awareness-tendency of and demand for agricultural-specialty exhibition shops. Survey-questions for finding out consumers' awareness-tendency and demand were determined through brainstorming of a professional council, 30 rural communities of which visit-rate by consumers is considerably high were selected for the recruit of 200 consumers. For investigation and analysis, survey and in-depth interview were carried out at the scene with the application of frequency analysis and summarization of their opinions, which revealed that they have a strong will to visit the rural tourism communities for the purchase of agricultural specialties along with the experience of learning-program and on-the-scene direct dealing and that their viewpoint on the direct dealing at the scene was very positive. Also it was confirmed hat their satisfaction with the purchase of agricultural specialties by on-the-scene direct dealing, their pleasure at the purchase, their satisfaction with services and their intention for re-purchase of them were very high while their satisfaction with the exhibition shops was very low. With on-the-scene survey, the consumers' opinions could be listened to in depth. Almost all of them said their satisfaction with the trip to those rural tourism communities was considerably high since they could go to those communities themselves to relieve the stress from their modern life, to experience healing and to see the goods on the scene. Their satisfaction also was attributed to the fact that they have enough trust in purchase along with feeling the warm-heartedness of rural residents. As to their awareness of exhibition shops, they showed a positive response to the on-the-scene direct dealing at rural communities while they, thinking that the space in those exhibition shops was not sufficiently wide, demanded for more systematic counters in more accessible and affordable exhibition shops so that they might be more satisfied with the exhibition shops. Their demand for the necessity of exhibition shops selling agricultural specialties was found to be over 80%, which indicates that the necessity is very high. As to the suitability of function, they have the opinion that the business at those shops had better be focused on sales since they have the understanding of information when they take a trip to the rural communities, while there was another opinion: since agricultural products are seasonal items they should be exhibited and sold at the same time. More than 90% of the respondents had a positive viewpoint on direct dealing of agricultural specialties on the scene, which showed that their response to it was very high. They preferred the permanent shops equipped with roll-around table-booths. In addition, it was revealed that they want systematic exhibition shops in rural communities because they frequent those communities for on-the-scene direct purchase. The preferred type and opinion resulting from estimation of consumers' demands have been reflected for development of practical designs. The structure of variable principles has been designed so that the types of display-case and table-booth might be created. The result of this study is a positive data as a design model which can be utilized at rural communities and will be commercialized for the verification of its validity.

• Korean journal of food and cookery science
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.413-421
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• 2012

This study was conducted with 418 adults 20 years or older, all of whom lived in Daegu and Gyeongbuk. According to a survey, the number of females was greater than that of males (40.7%) by 59.3%, and that for ages 30 years was the highest. The preference for Korean traditional drinks was relatively high at 51.8%, and the frequency of drinking Korean traditional drinks was 39.0%. The adults answered that they had these beverages on special days such as holidays, ritual days, and birthdays. Among the reasons for drinking a traditional beverage 'good taste' scored the highest with 27.0% of respondents, followed by 'Korean traditional food' with 24.4%. The recognition of Korean traditional drinks was high in the order of Sikhe, Soojunggwa, Cha, and Hwachae. The preference for Sikhe was the highest. The group who agreed that it was important to develop a Korean functional traditional drink was 11.5% higher than that of the negative group, as 13.4% 'agreed a lot' and 41.1% 'agreed'. Consumer awareness toward traditional drink functionality was generally positive, with 3.5 points or higher on average, and awareness of the nutritional supplementation, diabetes control, the recuperative effects of the drinks were also high. Among Korean traditional drinks Sikhe was the highest with regard to intention to purchase. As a result, the popularization of traditional Korean drinks was based on three factors: quality oriented image, popularity oriented image, and product attribute-oriented image. These factors significantly influenced the preference for and purchase of Korean functional traditional drinks.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.1-19
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• 2010

As having the movement of developing private brand (PB) goods, domestic big retailers are facing up with new problems. Thus, it is required studies of PB products, and how consumers recognize PB products as a consideration commodity set. Also, it is worthy in order that it gives us the important meaning on the marketing strategy with focusing on evaluating the differences between customers buying PB grocery goods with respect to demographic characteristics and purchasing behaviors. PB has some advantages for customers and retailers. However, according to AC Nielson's report (2005), Asian and emerging market has 1/5 sales relatively to Western countries. But we can assume that the emerging market has the most potential growth through this result. As a result from several other studies, it becomes necessary to not only increase the rate of selling composition of PB product temporarily, but also analyze the characteristics of customers using big retailers and segmenting customer groups to make PB product as a consideration commodity set for them. In addition, it is needed to have a variety of acts of marketing. From studies related to PB, there is a prejudice - cheap products have low quality - but, evaluation by customers who have used those products shows neutral stand, and there is a study representing that it is the most important to accumulate the belief between the retailers selling PB products and consumers using those for the accurate evaluation and intention on purchasing. Also, by the result from analyzing the characteristics of customers buying PB products, we could assume that higher income and higher education level, more preference on PB products. Especially, according to TNS's research, the primary targets of PB product are 30's who seeks value for money and planned spending habits, and 40's who have teenager children, and are interested in encouraging themselves. This paper used Probit model to analyze the characteristics of consumers. This model helps us to analyze with the variables representing the demographic characteristics of consumers (gender, age, educational level, occupation, income level, living area), and variables related to purchasing behavior (visiting frequency on big retailers, the average amount that they pay for goods in there, and check-up which brand made those goods). The method we used in this study is by man to man interview and survey on-line with the rate of 89% and 11% in Seoul and Gyunggi Province, respectively, for about one month from the beginning of February, 2008. As a result of this, under the assumption that people buy PB products more as long as they go shopping more, it was not meaningful for target groups which we pointed out as frequently visiting customers to be. Although, we have expected women buy more PB products than men do, gender doesn't mean anything for the result. And, it has inferred that married people buy more PB goods than singles do. It was also meaningless with variables related to occupation. Because housewives are often exposed to any kind of supermarket than workers are, we could not get any relatives. Moreover, we couldn't proof that younger generation prefer big retailers more than older people who 50~60's. Education levels doesn't affect on the purchase of PB product as well. Related to living area, the result is statistically not similar as we expected whether living in Seoul or not. It shows there is no relationship with the preference on retail brands and PB products, and it is similar with the study researched by TNS(2008) that customers tend to buy PB product impulsively no matter which brand it is and where they are even though their shopping place is the big market where customers are often using. Variables on which we had meaningful results are income level and living place. That is, customers who have 3,000,000~6,000,000 WON every month on average are more willing to buy PB products than other customers whose income is over 6,000,000 WON, and residents not living in Seoul prefer PB goods than those who are living in Seoul. To explain more about what we got, if there is only one condition about customer's visiting frequency on big retails, we could come up with this result that more exposed to PB products, more purchasing frequency. Consequently, it brings the important insight that large retailers have to prepare something to make customers visit them often to increase selling rate of PB products. To demonstrate the result of analyzing more, what is more efficient variables are demographically including marital status, income level, and residential area to buy items that affect the PB products and could include the frequency of visiting large markets by the purchase habits. Specifically, then, married couples rather than singles, middle-income customers than high-income customers, and local residents not living in Seoul than customers in Seoul are more likely to purchase PB goods. In addition, as long as a customer visits two times more, then the purchasing rate of PB products is to increase over 5.3%. Therefore, it seems that retailers are better to make a shopping place as fun and comfortable places. With overwhelming the idea that PB products are just cheap, one-time purchase goods, it is needed to increase the loyalty on those goods like NB products, try to make PB products as a consideration products set, and occur to sustainable sales. Especially, as suggested by this paper, it seems like it strongly needs to identify the characteristics of customers who prefer PB, to segment those customers, and to select the main target, and to do positioning with well-planned marketing strategies. Then, it is able to give us a meaningful point on marketing strategy by developing the field of PB study, identifying the difference of life style and shopping habits of customers.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.57-94
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• 2011

Nowadays, it is common that most consumers are purchasing goods in e-stores. The e-stores eager to attract, revisit, retain, and finally convert them into loyal customers. The e-store marketers have planned and executed numerous marketing efforts. As one of the marketing activities, e-store managers attempt to build web sites that meet customers' functional and psychological needs. A wide array of studies has been done to identify factors that could affect customers' response of web sites. Majority of studies were conducted to verify technology-related and functional variables of the website which facilitate transactions and enhance customer responses such as purchase intention and website loyalty. However, there has been little research on the external cues of website and psychological variables of consumer that could have positive influences on customer response. The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of e-store personality on e-store loyalty through mediating variables such as e-store identification, e-store trust, and e-store engagement. The authors of this study develop the model and set up the six main hypotheses and a set of sub-hypotheses based on a literature review, shown in