• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.245-276
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• 2008

Brand equity is one of the most important concepts in business practice as well as in academic research. Successful brands can allow marketers to gain competitive advantage (Lassar et al.,1995), including the opportunity for successful extensions, resilience against competitors' promotional pressures, and the ability to create barriers to competitive entry (Farquhar, 1989). Branding plays a special role in service firms because strong brands increase trust in intangible products (Berry, 2000), enabling customers to better visualize and understand them. They reduce customers' perceived monetary, social, and safety risks in buying services, which are obstacles to evaluating a service correctly before purchase. Also, a high level of brand equity increases consumer satisfaction, repurchasing intent, and degree of loyalty. Brand equity can be considered as a mixture that includes both financial assets and relationships. Actually, brand equity can be viewed as the value added to the product (Keller, 1993), or the perceived value of the product in consumers' minds. Mahajan et al. (1990) claim that customer-based brand equity can be measured by the level of consumers' perceptions. Several researchers discuss brand equity based on two dimensions: consumer perception and consumer behavior. Aaker (1991) suggests measuring brand equity through price premium, loyalty, perceived quality, and brand associations. Viewing brand equity as the consumer's behavior toward a brand, Keller (1993) proposes similar dimensions: brand awareness and brand knowledge. Thus, past studies tend to identify brand equity as a multidimensional construct consisted of brand loyalty, brand awareness, brand knowledge, customer satisfaction, perceived equity, brand associations, and other proprietary assets (Aaker, 1991, 1996; Blackston, 1995; Cobb-Walgren et al., 1995; Na, 1995). Other studies tend to regard brand equity and other brand assets, such as brand knowledge, brand awareness, brand image, brand loyalty, perceived quality, and so on, as independent but related constructs (Keller, 1993; Kirmani and Zeithaml, 1993). Walters(1978) defined information search as, "A psychological or physical action a consumer takes in order to acquire information about a product or store." But, each consumer has different methods for informationsearch. There are two methods of information search, internal and external search. Internal search is, "Search of information already saved in the memory of the individual consumer"(Engel, Blackwell, 1982) which is, "memory of a previous purchase experience or information from a previous search."(Beales, Mazis, Salop, and Staelin, 1981). External search is "A completely voluntary decision made in order to obtain new information"(Engel & Blackwell, 1982) which is, "Actions of a consumer to acquire necessary information by such methods as intentionally exposing oneself to advertisements, taking to friends or family or visiting a store."(Beales, Mazis, Salop, and Staelin, 1981). There are many sources for consumers' information search including advertisement sources such as the internet, radio, television, newspapers and magazines, information supplied by businesses such as sales people, packaging and in-store information, consumer sources such as family, friends and colleagues, and mass media sources such as consumer protection agencies, government agencies and mass media sources. Understanding consumers' purchasing behavior is a key factor of a firm to attract and retain customers and improving the firm's prospects for survival and growth, and enhancing shareholder's value. Therefore, marketers should understand consumer as individual and market segment. One theory of consumer behavior supports the belief that individuals are rational. Individuals think and move through stages when making a purchase decision. This means that rational thinkers have led to the identification of a consumer buying decision process. This decision process with its different levels of involvement and influencing factors has been widely accepted and is fundamental to the understanding purchase intention represent to what consumers think they will buy. Brand equity is not only companies but also very important asset more than product itself. This paper studies brand equity model and influencing factors including information process such as information searching and information resources in the fashion market in Asia and Europe. Information searching and information resources are influencing brand knowledge that influences consumers purchase decision. Nine research hypotheses are drawn to test the relationships among antecedents of brand equity and purchase intention and relationships among brand knowledge, brand value, brand attitude, and brand loyalty. H1. Information searching influences brand knowledge positively. H2. Information sources influence brand knowledge positively. H3. Brand knowledge influences brand attitude. H4. Brand knowledge influences brand value. H5. Brand attitude influences brand loyalty. H6. Brand attitude influences brand value. H7. Brand loyalty influences purchase intention. H8. Brand value influence purchase intention. H9. There will be the same research model in Asia and Europe. We performed structural equation model analysis in order to test hypotheses suggested in this study. The model fitting index of the research model in Asia was $X^2$=195.19(p=0.0), NFI=0.90, NNFI=0.87, CFI=0.90, GFI=0.90, RMR=0.083, AGFI=0.85, which means the model fitting of the model is good enough. In Europe, it was $X^2$=133.25(p=0.0), NFI=0.81, NNFI=0.85, CFI=0.89, GFI=0.90, RMR=0.073, AGFI=0.85, which means the model fitting of the model is good enough. From the test results, hypotheses were accepted. All of these hypotheses except one are supported. In Europe, information search is not an antecedent of brand knowledge. This means that sales of global fashion brands like jeans in Europe are not expanding as rapidly as in Asian markets such as China, Japan, and South Korea. Young consumers in European countries are not more brand and fashion conscious than their counter partners in Asia. The results have theoretical, practical meaning and contributions. In the fashion jeans industry, relatively few studies examining the viability of cross-national brand equity has been studied. This study provides insight on building global brand equity and suggests information process elements like information search and information resources are working differently in Asia and Europe for fashion jean market.

• The Journal of Society for e-Business Studies
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.241-256
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• 2011

The present study examines the impact of eWOM on consumer decision making process by viewing eWOM as the product information supplier. We employ the concept of information entropy which was proposed in the information theory to explain different consumer responses to various types of product information in eWOM. Information entropy is the degree of uncertainty associated with the information in the message. In eWOM, a variety of information with different levels of entropy is available, and these different entropy levels result in different impacts on consumer behavior. The preliminary hypotheses are formulated to examine the impact of eWOM on consumer behavior, at the product attribute level and the purchase action level separately. An experiment was conducted to online shopping mall users and the analysis gives valuable insights into our future research.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.971-986
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• 2006

As baby boomer generations become older, these "New-age elderly" have emerged as an important consumer segment for apparel products. These young-minded elderly have positive attitudes to technology and enjoy many of high technology tool in their everyday life, which signals a huge market potential for internet apparel retailing targeting these elderly consumers. Internet apparel businesses are required to provide various consumer information to its consumers to facilitate the decision making process. For elderly consumers, who might have different shopping behaviors from the younger consumer segments, different kinds of information with higher quality would be required. As a preliminary step to develop internet consumer information model for elderly consumers, this study seeks to investigate the current practice of information offerings of internet apparel businesses for elderly consumers. Ten internet sites carrying apparel products for elderly consumers were selected and analyzed their offerings of consumer information by five researchers. This study found that internet apparel businesses targeting elderly consumers were still small-sized and lack of sophisticated technology to support these elderly consumers. Most web sites provided basic product information and service information but not fashion and trend related information. Managerial implications were discussed.

• Journal of Applied Tourism Food and Beverage Management and Research
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.1-20
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• 2006

The family life cycle is a useful indicator of consumer behavior, as well as the family life cycle concept utilizes a combination of demographic and socioeconomic variables that best explains the changes in the construct of the family. The family decision-making research has frequently examined role relationship between husband and wife across stages and sub-decisions. The objective of this research is to measure children and parents' perceptions of the influence of the decision-making process for a family dining-out experience, and to determined the customers' choice behavior of restaurants according to isolated factors underlying the important attributes of the restaurants, and finally authors applied a market segmentation approach by capturing customers' preference of restaurant attributes in family dining-out situation and to investigated influence of the family decision making for family dining out in family life cycle. For practitioner, marketing implications are provided and recommendations for future research are also discussed.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.187-198
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• 2021

This study aims to understand the current status of the use of IoT-based products and services from the perspective of consumers and analyze the role and consumption value of each service-generated from the products and services. Their features and generated consumption value have been identified The decision-making process was divided into based on three stages (pre-purchase, purchase, and post-purchase) stages, and IoT services were classified in stages. In the pre-purchase stage, the IoT service provides information and alternatives, and is used for interaction and automatic payment systems in the purchasing stage. In the post-purchase stage, repetitive purchases are encouraged and after-sale services are provided. Throughout the decision-making process, smart retai application and servicel provides epistemic and functional value. In addition, it provides conditional and social value in the pre-purchase stage, and conditional value in the post-purchase stage. This study aims to provideprovides marketers and retailers an insight advice for the enhanced satisfaction of consumersimproving the satisfaction of consumers and the development of smart retail by examining the consumer-centered consumption value.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.67-76
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• 2020

Purpose: Consumers are affected by the purchase of a large number of opinions or support during the online purchasing process. This can be defined as the term of 'social decisions' on line. This paper seeks to explore the factors of influence on social decisions in on-line environment and to study in depth. Methodology: The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the impact of factors on online social decisions. To verify the hypothesis of study, This study collected 256 from Seoul City, Gyeonggi Province and Chungcheong Province through Survey. Results: According to the research results, First, eWOM information usefulness have a positive impact on online social decisions, Second, online network connectedness have a positive impact on online social decisions. Third, innovative product have a positive impact on online social decisions. and the lower the category of knowledge, the more inclined it is to make online social decisions. Finally, social decisions have a positive impact on purchasing decisions about product. It is most significant that academic research has advanced consumer behavior in response to recent changes in the consumption environment. It is meaningful that we have studied in depth the changing consumer decision process in online channel environment.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.607-626
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• 2023

This study analyzes consumer fashion purchase patterns from a big data perspective. Transaction data from 1 million transactions at two Korean fashion brands were collected. To analyze the data, R, Python, the SPADE algorithm, and network analysis were used. Various consumer purchase patterns, including overall purchase patterns, seasonal purchase patterns, and age-specific purchase patterns, were analyzed. Overall pattern analysis found that a continuous purchase pattern was formed around the brands' popular items such as t-shirts and blouses. Network analysis also showed that t-shirts and blouses were highly centralized items. This suggests that there are items that make consumers loyal to a brand rather than the cachet of the brand name itself. These results help us better understand the process of brand equity construction. Additionally, buying patterns varied by season, and more items were purchased in a single shopping trip during the spring season compared to other seasons. Consumer age also affected purchase patterns; findings showed an increase in purchasing the same item repeatedly as age increased. This likely reflects the difference in purchasing power according to age, and it suggests that the decision-making process for pur- chasing products simplifies as age increases. These findings offer insight for fashion companies' establishment of item-specific marketing strategies.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.265-273
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• 2010

The aim of this paper is developing the educational program for the elder's daily life as a consumer, according as recognize the important of their consumption function and role in modern society. This paper consider the studies for elder consumption needs and activities for educational program, then present six principles and contents in four areas. The principals are empirical, socialization, interrelation, spontaneity, individualization and respect for the aged principal. The program themes are preventive education for elder consumer, advisable transaction, advisable transaction through cases and consumer's right, responsibility, duty and process of decision for purchase.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 1997.10a
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• pp.175-179
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• 1997

As consumer's desire becomes various, agility of mold manufacturing is most important factor for competence of manufacturer. In common works to use commercial CAM system to generate tool path, some decision making process is required to produce optimal result of CAM systems. We propose tool selection procedures to aid the decision making process. The system provides available tool size for machining of design model part of injection mold die by analyzing sliced CAD model of die cavity and core. Also, the tool size information is used to calculate machining time. The system is developed with commercial CAM using API. This module will be used for optimization of tool selection and planning process.