• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.206-215
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• 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
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.205-220
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• 2003

The purpose of this study was to investigate factors affecting consumer's housing tenure status by various household's characteristics. This study used 1997 KHPS(Korea Household Panel Study) by Daewoo Economic Research Institute and used 1,977 households for the analysis. The results of this research were summarized as follows; 1. There were major differences in household's characteristics by consumer's housing tenure status, except for the household's monthly income and savings. 2. Factors affecting consumer's choice of ‘owning’ a housing and taking a ‘chonsei’ system were very similar, but they affected in the opposite direction. 3. Factors affecting consumer's choice of taking a ‘chonsei’ system and ‘renting’ a house were much more similar, and they affected in the same direction. This study can be useful in developing housing service and design, and housing policy by consumer's choice of housing tenure status.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.57-80
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to examine the information search behavior of medical consumers visiting a hospital, and investigate the consumption values of medical consumers, classified according to the information search behavior, and characteristics of online health and disease information. This study also tried to identify the factors affecting medical consumers classified according to information search behavior, and gain an extensive understanding of medical consumers'consumption values and online information use. The analysis results of this study are as follows: First, the consumption values of medical consumers were classified into a total of 7 factors, i.e. future-positive value, family-oriented value, sustainablehealth value, rational-progressive value, social-cooperative value, socialachiever value and hedonistic-individual value. Next, the characteristics of medical consumers'online information search behavior were classified into three types of consumer groups, i.e. the limited information-oriented consumer group, the practical information-oriented consumer group and the passionate information-oriented consumer group. Second, the analysis of the differences among the three groups classified according to the characteristics of the information search behavior in terms of consumption values, use of online information sources, utility and the intention to reuse online information showed that all the differences were statistically significant. The passionate information-oriented consumer group showed the highest scores in the sustainable-health value, the social-achiever value and the hedonisticindividual value. Third, the factors affecting medical consumers, classified into three groups according to the characteristics of the information search behavior, were found to be socio-demographic variables like consumers' age and occupation, consumers'consumption values, use of online information sources, and utility of online information. This study tried to understand what values medical consumers have according to the differences in the information search behavior by examining the consumption values of medical consumers according to the information search behavior. The significance of this study lies in the fact that consumption values are instrumental in understanding medical consumers by identifying the fundamental motives and desires of consumers' behavior.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.45-61
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• 2020

As consumers have transformed into the influential entities in the recent consumption environment, it needs a new concept to describe their characteristics. Drawn on the notion of smart consumer experience, this study views the multiple traits of new consumers as consumer smartness. Therefore, elaborating the concept of consumer smartness, this study aims to develop its measurement and validate it by examining the relationship with external variables. Two online surveys were conducted by a professional survey company that had nationwide consumer panels. A total of 531 adult consumers who had purchased fashion goods online completed a self-administered questionnaires. A series of exploratory and confirmative factor analysis generated 21 measuring items with six underlying constructs of consumer smartness such as innovativeness, opinion leadership, self-disclosure, marketing literacy, dissatisfaction, and technology sophistication. In order to validate the measurement, this study conducted a Pearson's correlation test and structural equation modeling analysis with consumer smartness and external constructs. The result shows that there was a significant positive relationship between consumer smartness and behavioral intentions online. In addition, consumer smartness influenced their shopping and sharing intention which supported the validity of new measurement of consumer smartness. This study provides a theoretical and empirical ground of understanding consumer smartness as new consumer characteristics in the changing environment of fashion retailing.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.43 no.8 s.210
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• pp.83-98
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• 2005

The purpose of this study is to examine consumer's relationship benefit perception for fashion products and to examine the influence of relationship benefit perception on consumer satisfaction based on consumer characteristics. Data for this research were collected by surveying 766 women older than 20 years old in Seoul, Gwangju, and Gyeonggi-do. The following is a summary of the conclusions reached from this research: (1) Relationship benefit perception was divided into five separate areas: informational benefit, emotional benefit, special treatment benefit, economic benefit and social benefit. (2) Relationship benefit perception influenced consumer satisfaction. (3) There was a difference in benefits influenced on consumer satisfaction based on consumer characteristics such as sociability, relationship preference, and price importance.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.29-40
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• 2021

Purpose: In this study, with the transaction amount of foreign direct Purchase and foreign direct sales increasing, South Korea is in a situation where foreign direct sales are focused on China. We looked at the impact of consumer innovation and site characteristics on repurchase ability among the characteristics of overseas direct purchase consumers as a way to make direct overseas sales to various overseas countries. Research design, data and methodology: Consumer innovativeness consists of four variables: functional, hedonistic, social, and cognitive, and the site characteristics consisted of four variables: product price, product assortment, convenience, and service. The study was conducted on consumers with foreign direct purchase experience, and was finally used in 252 additional analyses. Results: The main findings of this study were first, that the impact on the degree of re-purchase among consumer innovativeness of foreign direct purchase consumers had a significant impact in the order of cognitive innovativeness, hedonistic innovativeness, and functional innovativeness. Social innovativeness did not affect the degree of re-purchase. Second, site characteristics have been found to have a significant impact on the degree of re-purchase in order of product assortment, commodity price, and service. Convenience did not affect the degree of re-purchase. Conclusions Taken together these results can be called the biggest characteristic of the cognitive innovativeness of the consumer's inclination to use the overseas direct purchase, the price or quick response of the goods sold on the site is a factor that affects the re-purchase, above all it is important to have a variety of products. We will present this element as a way to make direct sales abroad to various countries. In addition, foreign direct purchase is a lot of transactions in China, the United States, EU, but the share of China is high in foreign direct sales, and the U.S. and EU have a very low performance, it is important to consider the reasons why they prefer Korean products in China to study the social and cultural characteristics of U.S. and European consumers in the future, and to support and active marketing that companies and sellers can increase sales.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.13-32
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• 2016

The goal of this study was to determine the effect of social responsibility characteristics and consumer attitude on consumer purchasing intention. And we used survey result data from 400 adults (200 males and 200 females) aged between 20 and 50 years for our research sample. Also, this study aims to look at the purchasing intention based on Fishbein's attitude model, in order to predict consumer purchasing behaviors on the products made by corporations that have good social responsibility. By using consumer consciousness of social responsibility and Consumer assessment on corporations' social responsibility, this study also intends to examine the ultimate effects on the intention. The following is a summary of the main results and suggestions. First, less than 30 percent of all consumers have experienced education on social responsibility, which is significantly low. Consumers' education experience had no effects on consumer purchasing intention. Consumers' education experience on social responsibility is surely related to purchasing intention, but gives no meaningful relations from the actual proof analysis, which is because of the problems of current consumer education programs. Government and official institutions, corporations, consumer groups should provide more educational opportunities than broadcast media, internet, school, and printed media. Second, according to the analysis result on Consumer consciousness of social responsibility, the assessment scores on social contribution and environmental protection are relatively lower than on consumer protection and energy resource saving. They tend to focus more on social responsibility related to individual interest rather than broader social responsibility as a member of society. Third, consumers have a positive attitude about corporation and its products made by corporations that have good social responsibility. Fourth, the most contributing factor on consumer purchasing intention is corporate consumer attitude. The next is product consumer attitude, Consumer consciousness of social responsibility, and Consumer assessment on corporations' social responsibility.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.7
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• pp.292-302
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• 2020

The purpose of this study was to investigate the sensory characteristics of 11 noodles from four countries by descriptive analysis and consumer acceptance test. Noodle types were udon, pasta, kalguksu, and plain noodles. Fourteen sensory descriptors were developed to evaluate the sensory characteristics of the noodles. The sensory characteristics of the noodles were sweetness, saltiness, springiness, hardness, chewiness, milk flavor, yeasty odor, milk powder flavor, loose particles, and so on. PCA conducted to visually summarize the sensory characteristics of noodles by consumer preference test revealed that 77.1% of the variance was positively defined by sweet, springiness, cohesiveness, chewiness, and moisture and was negatively defined by hardness, color, and floury taste. Yk_udng_KR, thin_KR showed high scores for attributes of springiness and cohesiveness. Overall consumer acceptance was surveyed. Udng_KR scored the highest for attributes such as gusu. Udng_KR showed the highest springiness and high moisture, taste acceptance, and overall acceptance. Note: Please confirm this word.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.107-124
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• 2017

Consumer citizenship is essential for better market and economy, and social capital plays an important role for raising consumer citizenship. This study explored the types of social capital developed on social media, and investigated the relationship between consumer citizenship of college students and social capital. Using data from 263 undergraduate students currently using social media, K-mean cluster analysis, one-way ANOVA, Duncan's multiple range test, chi-squared test, and multiple regression analysis were conducted. The major results were as follows. First, four types of social capital on social media were identified: mediocre social capital, instrumental-centered social capital, weak social capital, and strong social capital. Second, socio-demographic characteristics variables such as gender and work experience showed significant difference by type of social capital through social media. In addition, the most used social media and time for using social media variables showed significant difference by type of social capital through social media. Third, controlling for socio-demographic characteristics and social media usage pattern, the types of social capital had a significant effect on consumer citizenship. Based on the results, the implications for consumer education to develop consumer citizenship were suggested.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.19 no.40
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• pp.187-201
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• 1996

Market segmentation is the act of dividing a market into distinct groups of buyers who might require separate products and/or marketing mixes. For the selection of target markets which is the first stage for the development of international market, international market segmentation should be preceded and objective criteria(variables) for the markets segmentation are necessory. Criteria of international market segmentation for passenger car are constituted with consumer characteristics, characteristics of consumer response, manufacturer characteristics and environment. Criteria of consumer characteristics include geographic variables(nation), G.N.P per capita and so on, criteria of characteristics of consumer response contain the number of possessed car, the number of registered car, the number of imported car and the number of possessed car per 1,000 persons.