• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.254-261
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• 2024

Among eco-friendly energy, solar energy is one of the renewable energy sources that is developing in the spotlight in many countries. In line with this, the Korean government and local governments are carrying out projects to provide subsidies for the distribution of household solar power, raising the spread of household solar power and awareness. However, due to the lack of research on consumer perception of household solar power, this study investigated the perception of household solar power from 2015 to 2022 by setting the central word as solar power. As a result, 2016 had the highest number of collections, and when the top 50 words for each year were analyzed, it was confirmed that words related to the installation and maintenance of household solar power dominated. And through CONCOR analysis, a total of four were derived: solar energy recognition, renewable and eco-friendly energy recognition, solar government policies, solar companies, and perceptions of households. Through emotional analysis, it was confirmed that 2021 had the most positive data. As a result, consumer perception of household solar power is positive based on what was mentioned above, but research on how to use negative opinions on waste control and installation and maintenance should be conducted.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.53-67
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• 2009

For the last decades, service quality has been studied as one of the most important tools for a service company to compete with the other companies. Based on these past researches, it has been agreed that the service quality is a basic and powerful tool to create the competitive advantage. Due to similar reason, many service marketing practitioners have been also focused on the service quality to retain the existing consumers and collect the new consumers. However, service quality is subjectively perceived by individual consumers. Consumer evaluation of service quality can be different from each other. Especially consumers with one life-style may evaluate the service quality differently from the consumers with the other life-styles. Therefore we need to know whether there are differences in service quality perception on the categories of life-style. Life-style refers to a distinctive mode of living in its aggregate and broadest sense. It embodies the patterns that were developed and emerged from the dynamics of living in a society. Since the concept of life-style and its relationship to marketing was introduced in 1963 by William Lazer, methods of measuring the life-style and their application have been developed. Life-style has been usually used to segment the marketplace because it offers marketers a unique and important view of the market. When Life-style is combined with clustering methods, life-style segmentation can generate identifiable whole persons rather than isolated fragment. Life-style segmentation begins with people instead of products and classifies them into different life-style types, each characterized by a unique style of living based on a wide range of activities, interests, and opinions(Plummer, 1974). In this study we applies the life-style segmentation based on the AIO(Activities, Interests, and Opinions) to the consumers of the large discount stores. In Korea, the large discount store market has entered into maturity stage so that the market differentiation strategy is becoming a more critical issue to the marketing practitioners. One of the most important tools to differentiate from the competitors in large discount store market is continuously to provide service of better quality than competitors. This study tries to find answers about the following questions: 1) How can we categorize the consumer life-styles in the large discount store? 2) What are the characteristics of the categorized groups? 3) Are there any differences in service quality perception among the consumers with different life-styles 4) Are there any differences in consumer behavior among them in the large discount store? For the purpose, we collected survey data from consumers and analyzed the data with the SPSS package where we had $X^2$-test, factor analysis, ANOVA, MANOVA, and cluster analysis. The survey was made during one month in the April of 2008. Among the collected 306 copies of questionnaires, 281 copies were chosen as the effective samples for empirical analysis except 25 copies with wrong responses. To identify the life-style patterns, we used the measures employed by Kim and Kwon(1999), where 44 items on a seven-point scale were used to measure factors of the life-style patterns. The Principal Component Method was used for factor extraction, and the VARIMAX orthogonal factor rotation was employed. The 7 items showing low factor loading were eliminated. The results of the factor analysis suggested that nine factors of the life-style patterns were identified as follows: 1) the equality-of-sexes and pursuit-of-independence tendency 2) self-management tendency 3) sociable tendency 4) self-display tendency 5) degree of a dilettante life 6) pursuit-of-information tendency 7) bargain hunter tendency 8) TV preference tendency 9) pursuit-of-leisure tendency. Next, after the K-means cluster analysis was performed with nine factors of the life-style patterns, the life-styles of the respondents were classified into four groups which are named as the 'progressive practicality-oriented group', 'positive success-oriented group', 'sociable ostentation-oriented group', 'stable conservation-oriented group'. The analysis results for usage behavior between the market segments showed statistically significant differences in the frequency of usage, duration time in the store, consumer satisfaction, and loyalty. Also, we tried to investigate whether the large discount store consumers differently perceive the quality of service based upon the types of life-style. To measure the service quality of large discount store, we adapted several measurement models measuring the service quality such as SERVPERF, BCP, R-SERVPERF, R-BCP. MANOVA and One-Way ANOVA were performed to confirm the difference in service quality perception based on the market segments. The results have also shown significant differences between life-style types in service quality perception. These findings show that the large discount store marketers should consider consumer life-style as one of the most important market segments for marketing and understand the difference in service quality perception between life-style types. Our findings give important implications to marketers of large discount stores as well as life-style researchers. First, this study showed there were significant differences in consumer's service quality perception and usage behavior between the types of life-style. It provides evidence that the life-style approach can be a important basis in segmenting the large discount store market and will make consumers perceive the service quality high. Second, most previous researches on service quality have been in aggregate level. However, our results imply that the future research on service quality have to focus on segment level.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.367-376
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• 2020

According to recent statistics on new consumer market trends, 'alone consumption' is at the center. This study focuses on the social big data that attracts the public's opinions in that it is important for a certain social trend to comprehensively understand the various fields such as society, locality, culture, marketing, economics, and psychology that form the background for it. Therefore, we set up the linkage of 'solo consumption' and conducted research on new consumer market trends using Opinion Analisys. As a result of this trend analysis, representative keywords such as 'honbab', 'honsul' and 'honyoeng' were derived and analyzed the trend of new consumer market using this data. Alone consumption is an inevitable new consumption trend caused by demographic change after the global economic crisis. The importance as a trend reflecting this will be further strengthened. Trend analysis by social big data will help scientific and systematic business distribution strategies and planning to help make new and valuable decisions and decisions about new consumer markets.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.58 no.4
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• pp.613-633
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• 2020

This study identifies consumers' perceived benefits and costs when using Samsung Health (a healthcare app) based on consumer reviews from Google Play Store's app and social media discourse. We examine the differences in the benefits and the costs of Samsung Health using these two sources of data. We conducted text frequency analysis, clustering analysis, and semantic network analysis using R programming. The major findings are as follows. First, consumers experience benefits and costs on several functions of the app, such as step counting, device interlocking, information acquisition, and competition with global consumers. Second, the results of semantic network analysis showed that there were eight benefit factors and three cost factors. We also found that the three costs correspond to the benefits, indicating that some consumers gained benefits from certain functions while others gained costs from the same functions. Third, the comparison between consumer app review and social media discourse showed that the former is appropriate to assess the performance of app functions, while the latter is appropriate to examine how the app is used in daily life and how consumers feel about it. The current study suggests managerial implications to healthcare app service providers regarding what they should strengthen and improve to enhance consumers' satisfaction. It also suggests some implications from the two media, which can be mutually complementary, for researchers who study consumer opinions.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.293-299
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• 1991

The purpose of this study were to investigate opinions on the contents and method of the educational public information of food sanitation, to enrich education of food sanitation for consumer. Data of questionnaires were collected from 78 consumer protection association and 66 food industrial company. The results of the study were summarized as follows; The educational public contents of food sanitation appropriated is remarked as a basic knowledge in a safety of food (an additive, an agricultural medicines) and in nutrition and sanitation. The effective method of public information is suggested as a TV, Radio, utilization of periodicals and pamphlet. The crucial problem of the imported food surveyed in the consumer protection association is an agricultural medicines and a heavy metal. In the food industrial company, it is remarked that the problem occurs in deposit and storage of food from the standpoint of sanitation. Finally, improvement of sanitary condition in food selling place is suggested.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.139-154
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• 2014

This study aims to devise a tool which can identify the concept of 'consumption happiness' and to develop a standardized scale to measure consumption happiness. How can we measure consumption happiness? Based on it, the concept and perspective of consumption happiness was formed and then the scale for measuring it was developed. To develop the scale, questions were extracted through a literature survey, an FGI interview was conducted and validity was verified through experts' opinions. Then the scale was developed by conducting a questionnaire survey for consumers. For the analysis of the research, SPSS 20. 0 for Windows and AMOS 17.0 were used and 500 consumers responded to an online survey. In order to examine the general characteristics of the investigation object, the technical statistics of frequency, percentage, average and standard deviation were performed. To develop the research, test-retest correlation, item-to-total correlation, Cronbach's ${\alpha}$ reliability, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were conducted. The final 20-item consumption happiness scale, which consisted of four factors, was constructed in the end.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.31-43
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• 2016

Objectives : It focuses on what the consumers expected Korean medicine to improve on, and analyzes patients' impressions. Methods : This research is based on the Ministry of Health and Welfare's Survey on Usage of Korean Medicine (2008, 2011, and 2014) and was new analysis for our research objective. Results : The general consensus among the consumers was uncertainty of effectiveness, expensive costs, side effects, need for expertise, lack of scientific evidence, expansion of diseases treated, and improvement of equipment. Consumers distrusted Korean medicine due to its uncertainty of its effectiveness, expensive costs, side effects, and lack of scientific evidence for its effectiveness, and avoided using Korean medicine. Conclusions : These results seem to be a combination of the Korean medicinal doctors treating patients not based on evidence but on their individual experiences, lack of health insurance for Korean medicine resulting in expensive costs, lack of research on toxicity and safety of Korean medicine, and lack of scientific and clinical studies for evidence-based research. To solve these problems, the Korean medicine community needs to standardize treatments based on evidence, and look to Chinese medicine for possible solutions.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.14-28
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• 2020

Objectives: The aim of this study was to analyze consumer experience with Digestive Enzymes, a digestive enzyme product that includes medicinal herbs (Multi-Zyme^®). The goal was to provide basic data on improvements and marketability of future digestive enzyme products containing medicinal herbs. Methods: Qualitative research was conducted to explore the current participants' experience. In-depth interviews with a semi-structured interview guide were conducted to investigate the experience and perception of the participants. The participants were recruited using snowball sampling and purposive sampling, and a qualitative content analysis method was adopted. Credibility was ensured by adopting a member check, triangulation, and peer debriefing method. Results: In-depth interviews were completed with a total of 8 participants. The collected data were classified into 16 codes and then further divided into the following seven categories: direct buying, indirect buying, effects, questions, recommendations, positive perception, and negative perception. The categories were grouped into three themes: 'Experience of purchasing existing health foods', 'Experience of taking Multi-Zyme', and 'Opinions on selling Multi-Zyme at Korean medicine clinics'. Conclusion: The participants experienced effect of the Multi-Zyme^® and were willing to recommend it around. However, the Korean medicine doctors need to inform consumers about the dose and duration when taking Multi-Zyme^® to prevent abuse. Some consumers may trust Multi-Zyme^® sales from Korean medicine clinics, but some held opinions that those sales were not trustworthy, so promotion and improvement are needed.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.107-123
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to investigate the opinions of teachers, directors, and parents about childcare teachers' facial expression language. We performed in-depth interviews based on literature and previous studies, which consisted of ten childcare teachers, ten directors, and ten parents. From the in-depth interviews, we are able to mainly conclude that all groups think that a childcare teacher's facial expression language is very important, and strongly influences interpersonal problems and work performance. Mostly, childcare teachers aim to have pleasant facial expressions. However they complain that in some situations it is difficult to do so, which causes severe stress. They argued that the facial expressions of both the director of the childcare center and the parents are also very important for children. However, the directors thought that teachers' facial expressions affect children and their parents' impressions of the teachers and quality of childcare. The parents are usually highly satisfied with the childcare when the teacher has a pleasant facial expression, which motivates the parents to have a positive impression of the teacher. Taken together, childcare teachers' facial expression language is critical for children and the childcare environment. Thus, developing an education program for facial expression language would be helpful for improving the quality of child care. Plus, childcare environments should be developed so that teachers do not experience difficulty in having pleasant facial expressions. This result might have the limitation of being collected from only female childcare teachers, directors, and parents.

• International Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.87-100
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• 2012

Smart wear integrates computing technology into fabric or a garment for additional functionality. This research explored the attitudes and opinions of the use of smart wear from the viewpoint of caregivers. Thirty two individuals including care providers of children and adult family members with health problems participated in focus group interviews. Participants reported being interested in smart wear because of the potential to detect the location (GPS) of a dependent (e.g., child, elderly) and to monitor vital signs. Participants indicated perceived advantages of smart wear such as identifying geographical location and effectiveness. Perceived concerns mentioned were privacy/security issues and accuracy of data. Participants taking care of dependents without a specific disease were hesitant to adopt and pay for smart wear. However, caregivers of elderly individuals expressed positive adoption intentions and willingness to reasonably pay for smart wear. They indicated expectations that potential insurance would provide coverage for cost savings. Caregivers expressed the need of specific requirements for future adoption such as customizability, and comfort/safety. Specific to smart wear clothing, most respondents preferred it be an undershirt or a jacket with a sensor located in the shoulder area. The findings from this study can be used in product development, promotion and marketing of smart wear.