• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
• /
• v.25 no.1
• /
• pp.88-103
• /
• 2017

The rapid growth in the popularity of social media sites has meant that social media has become an important communication channel for brands. Brands create brand pages on social media to cultivate positive and strong relationships with consumers. This study seeks to enhance our understanding of how fashion brand pages in social media foster consumer-brand relationships by exploring the factors that affect the development of consumer-brand relationships. Drawing on the parasocial interaction theory, this study proposes parasocial interaction as a key factor of this process. Specifically, this study proposes four antecedents (vividness, interactivity, social presence, and focused attention) of consumers' parasocial interaction with brand pages, which further affects consumer responses in terms of affective engagement and brand loyalty. An online survey was administered with consumers who have followed and visited at least one fashion brand page via a social networking site (SNS). Structural equation modeling revealed that consumers' perceptions of vividness, interactivity, social presence, and focused attention on a fashion brand page positively affected their feelings towards parasocial interaction with the brand page, which in turn led to their affective engagement with the brand page and consequent brand loyalty. These findings suggest that consumers build relationships of varying degrees with brand pages in a similar manner to that with people, which leads to their development of a positive relationship with the brand. This study concludes with discussions and practical implications.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
• /
• v.46 no.5
• /
• pp.805-826
• /
• 2022

This study explored the process by which consumers purchase products from small fashion business owners via online and mobile channels. In addition, group types were classified given that the purchasing process depends on the consumers' life cycle. The consumer focus group interview (FGI) was conducted on 18 participants that were divided into six groups by age, work, and children. Results revealed that first, consumer journey comprised four stages. Factors influencing need recognition were "attention to information of social media influencer," "attention to information of affiliated groups," and "repeated advertising of SME products/brands." For information searching, "exploring purchase reviews," "environment for mobile shopping information exploration," and "continuous product tracking" were important factors. Purchasing and shopping stages were affected by "price-free, improvised purchase decision" and "convenient mobile payment system and point benefits." After the purchase, "active sharing and repeated purchase when satisfied" and "blocking relationships when dissatisfied" occurred. Second, six consumer groups based on the fashion life cycle are the "Platform lover," "Influencer follower," "Trust builder," "Novelty seeker," "Convenience seeker," and "New designer supporter." Ultimately, small business owners can develop the process of planning and selling fashion products more efficiently.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
• /
• v.24 no.1
• /
• pp.146-154
• /
• 2021

Conspicuous consumption is often investigated in Korea and consumers purchase a product to publicly display economic power or social status. The existing studies argue that brand loyalty and luxury brand preferences escalate conspicuous consumption, and it is important to identify different visual perception to understand irrational consumers' behavior. Car emblem as brands' visual identity represents the brand's image, mission and message. Irrational consumers thus are expected have different visual perception to the emblem or logo. To understand the impact of irrational consumer behavior on visual perception, this study explored how brand loyalty and luxury brand preferences impact on the visual perception of car emblems between Korean domestic brand and imported brand. This study used eye tracking technology to measure the respondents' attention on an emblem of the cars. Eye tracking tools analyze fixations and measure the attention on a specific area of interests (AOI). This study explored the maintaining time and frequency on AOI, as well as explored the size of pupil to identify the respondents' attention on the AOI. In this experiment, the logos of domestic cars (i.e., Hyundai and Kia) and foreign cars (i.e., Mercedes-Benz and BMW) were swapped to see how irrational consumer behavior impact on visual perception of car emblem.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
• /
• v.7 no.6
• /
• pp.241-254
• /
• 2020

As environmental concerns continue to grow, green supply chain management (GSCM) is attracting attention as an element of competitive advantage for companies. This study examined internal GSCM practices to show how they influenced the end-point of the supply chain from the perspective of the end-consumer. It identified the effects of environmental concerns on consumer purchasing behavior mediated by the company image of internal GSCM practices. Data were collected through an email survey of Korean consumers. Reliability and validity were verified using SPSS 18.0. Cronbach's alpha, and confirmatory factor analysis. The results showed that environmental concerns had a positive impact on such practices, and the image of internal GSCM practices was found to have a significantly positive effect on consumer purchasing behavior. Companies will have to actively reflect environmental factors in their operational activities, and GSCM implementation will become a necessity. A positive image of internal environmental management and eco-design, which are key elements of internal GSCM practices, strengthened the company's eco-friendly image and ultimately affected consumer purchasing behavior. This suggests that it is important for companies to evaluate their environmental attitude and make eco-friendly products from a consumer's perspective, making it a differentiation strategy for a company in building an eco-friendly corporate image.

• Agribusiness and Information Management
• /
• v.5 no.2
• /
• pp.27-37
• /
• 2013

Referral marketing plays an important role in promoting new products. When it comes to innovative agricultural products, early adopter's review or recommendation has a more critical impact on follower's purchase decision making. Hence, understanding of consumer's characteristics and needs play more important role in success of innovation. More particularly, other researchers pay attention to the role of consumer innovativeness. This study attempts to fill this gap in knowledge between innovative propensity of consumer and her/his intention to generate positive word of mouth about new agricultural products. Furthermore, in this paper, we adopt Vandecasteele and Geunes' motivated consumer innovativeness model to investigate consumer innovativeness in extrinsic motive and intrinsic motive level, and examine the moderating role of referral efficacy. For empirical verification, survey method is used for data collection. Partial least square (PLS) is adopted to analyze the data. Finally, several theoretical contributions and practical implications are discussed.

• Human Ecology Research
• /
• v.55 no.2
• /
• pp.105-124
• /
• 2017

The recent global economic crisis has resulted in increased discussion and attention on the sharing economy, a form of economic activity where individuals share currently available products. This study investigates consumer sharing economy usage attitudes and usage intentions by applying rational choice theory. For this study, an investigation that had 400 adult consumers from across Korea answer a structured questionnaire was conducted. A statistical approach using SPSS ver. 22.0 was used to analyze the data. The study found that the consumer's sharing economy value and participation levels were higher than usual. Higher than usual consumption patterns were seen for the construct of rational behavior theory. An analysis of the relative influence of variables regarding sharing economy usage intention also found that usage intention was higher for those who had experienced using a sharing economy services rather than those who did not have experience. In addition, the sharing economy usage intention also increased along with the values for subjective norms, sharing economy usage attitudes, sharing economy participation, sharing economy emotional benefits, and increased values. This study found that fundamental materials for consumer education should be made to eliminate difficulties that consumers have when they use sharing economy services. It is also expected that economic policy will develop to stimulate the sharing economy in a stable manner, that sharing economy-related information will be provided to consumers, and that consumer policies will be prepared to prevent consumer problems before they occur.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
• /
• v.29 no.4
• /
• pp.731-751
• /
• 2019

This study examined the impact of various product photo features on the attention of potential consumers in online apparel retailers' environment. Recently, the method of apparel's product photo representation in online shopping stores has been changed a lot from the classic product photos in the early days. In order to investigate if this shift is effective in attracting consumers' attention, we examined the related theory and verified its effect through laboratory experiments. In particular, experiment data was collected and analyzed using eye tracking technology. According to the results of this study, it was shown that the product photos with asymmetry are more attractive than symmetrical photos, well emphasized object within a photo more attractive than partially emphasized, smiling faces are more attractive for customer than emotionless and sad, and photos with uncentered models focus more consumer's attention than photos with model in the center. These results are expected to help design internet shopping stores to gaze more customers' attention.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
• /
• v.48 no.4
• /
• pp.206-215
• /
• 2022

Background: Fragrance substances in consumer products can cause adverse health effects such as contact allergy. In South Korea, consumer chemical products must list 26 known fragrance allergens on product labels when they contain more than 0.01%. Fragrance substances are mostly used in combination, so co-exposure can occur via use of a consumer chemical product. Co-exposure to fragrance allergens may show a synergistic effect on the human body. Objectives: The aims of the study were to analyze the characteristics of fragrance allergens in consumer chemical products available on public websites and to identify the co-occurrence patterns of fragrance allergens. Methods: The chemicals in 1,443 ingredient disclosures for consumer chemical products were collected through the Ecolife database. The 26 labelled fragrance allergens were identified by category of consumer chemical product. The co-occurrence patterns of the 26 labelled fragrance allergens were analyzed by frequent pattern mining. The unlabelled fragrance allergens presented by European Union Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety were also identified. Results: Consumer chemical products contained an average of 5.3±4.2 substances among the 26 labelled fragrance allergens. More than 85% of air fresheners, deodorizing agents, and fabric softeners contained at least one of the 26 labelled fragrance allergens. The most frequently contained fragrance allergens were limonene (50.5%), linalool (49.9%), hexyl cinnamal (34.0%), and citronellol (28.3%). 16.7% of consumer chemical products showed a co-occurrence of limonene, linalool, hexyl cinnamal, and citronellol. Thirty-eight unlabelled fragrance allergens were found in the consumer chemical products, with hexamethylindanopyran (25.2%) being the most frequently contained substance. Conclusions: The characteristics and co-occurrence patterns of 26 labelled fragrance allergens would be useful information for the management of co-exposure to fragrance allergens in consumer chemical products. It is necessary for attention to be paid to unlabelled fragrance allergens.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
• /
• v.23 no.1
• /
• pp.59-69
• /
• 1985

Consumer satisfaction/dissatisfaction is a concept which is receiving increased attention from consumers, public policy makers, and marketers alike. The literature in this field is still meager, has been growing rapidly byt with diversity of direction. The purpose of this study is to review the conceptualization and taxonomy of CS/D in consumer research. Three types of the basic process in a general theory of CS/D are suggested; system CS/D, enterprise CS/D and product-service CS/D. It is also classified into macro marketing system CS/D, micro marketing system CS/D and consuming mix CS/D. The conceptualization of CS/D begins with a basic model of how CS/D results from the individual product purchase experience of individual consumer. Basic CS/D models are classified into process model which contains experience, information search, prepurchase evaluation and comparison process variables and psychological model which is derived from cognitive dissonance theory. Theoretical and empirical foundations about expectation model are asimilatin, contrast, generalized negativity and assimilation contrast theories.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
• /
• v.8 no.4
• /
• pp.249-254
• /
• 2020

This study are to show the relation between ethical consumption consciousness, life meaning and happiness of life. Specifically, this study aims to examine the mediation effects of the meaning of life in the relationship of the ethical consumption consciousness and happiness, a survey was conducted by collecting 265 valid questionnaires. SPSS and AMOS statistical package were used to examine the relationships between variables. The results showed that ethical consumption consciousness had a significantly positive effect on life meaning. It was also found that life meaning had a positive effect on happiness of life. This study is significant in the sense that it identifies ethical consumerism consciousness has a positive influence on life meaning and consumer happiness. In particular, the mediating effect of the meaning of life, which is drawing attention in various research fields, was confirmed in the relationship between ethical consumption consciousness and happiness. This study can be used as effective information for further ethical consumption education and suggested implications for enhancing ethical consumption consciousness and happiness in various ways.