• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.3-33
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• 1991

Since the early 1980's, the Korean government has gradually been widening the Korean market to foreign consumer goods. This, combined with the increased purchasing power of the Korean consumers resulting from the continued economic growth of the country, has sparked a spectacular influx of foreign consumer goods into Korea, ranging from BMW's to chopsticks. Import of foreign consumer goods amounted to more than 6 billion dollars in 1989 and is continuing to grow at a rapid rate. The increased import of foreign consumer goods doubtlessly improved the overall welfare of the Korean consumers by providing them with a wider range of options to choose from, by lowering the prices of some of the consumer goods domestically produced, and also by forcing the producers of some Korean goods to face competition with better foreign goods, thus giving them an incentive to raise the quality of their products. However, it is agreed by most economists that this increase in general welfare has been much smaller than what they had expected at the outset. Consumer prices of most imported consumer goods are easily double the import price, and in some cases, more than treble the import prices. Further, there has not been a noticeable drop in the prices of domestically produced consumer goods. Much of the blame has been attributed to the distribution sector of Korea. The objective of this paper is to analyze the imported consumer goods distribution sector of Korea, focusing on the possible sources of the poor performance of that sector, and to make policy suggestions that could potentially increase the welfare. This paper differs from all the previous research by others on this subject in that it analyzes the imported consumer goods distribution sector of Korea as a vertical structure. The distribution sector of an imported consumer good is a vertical structure since it consists of an international market, an import stage, and domestic wholesale and retail markets, in that order vertically. Our study naturally includes the analysis of the vertical restraints as well as the analysis of the industrial organization of each horizontal stage in the vertical structure. Each horizontal component of the imported consumer goods distribution sector is basically a monopolistically competitive market differentiated by characteristics of goods and by the locations and the services of firms. Further, restrictive dealership and resale price maintenance are found to be widely in use. Our main findings are the follwing; First, most consumer goods are imported monopolistically or oligopolistically through restrictive dealership contracts between foreign producers and domestic importers. Such restrictive dealership gives importers market power in the domestic market and explains many of the large discrepancies betwen the consumer prices and the import prices of many goods. Korean anti - trust law does not cover the issues arising from the market power of an importer resulting from a restrictive dealership contract. Second, some major producers of Korean goods are also importers of foreign goods that are substitutes of their products. The import of substitutes by major domestic producers is anti - competitive because it tends to raise the prices of both domestic goods and foreign goods, and also because it reduces the incentive of the domestic producers to raise the quality of their products. Third, wholesalers and retailers widely use resale price maintenance as a price fixing mechanism, and while this is against the anti- trust law, it seldom gets noticed. Fourth, the high level of rents of real estate for commercial use works as an entry barrier to the distribution sector and results in reduced competition by the firms in that sector. Finally, there are information problems. Consumers have inferior information to firms about the quality of a foreign consumer good that they have not tried before. Such information asymmetry often enables firms to raise prices. In addition, information asymmetry between importers frequently delays the import of cheaper substitutes. In order to alleviate the problems indentified above, we suggest the following policy changes. The government should strengthen the anti - trust law and its enforcement to regulate restrictive import contracts, import of competing goods by major domestic producers, and RPM by wholesalers and retailers that is aimed at price fixing. In addition, the government should loosen its tight real estate policy to encourage investment in the distribution sector. Finally, we suggest that the import price revelation policy that has been in use for some items since 1990 be expanded to most imported consumer goods that are introduced for the first time to give consumer better information and be used only for the period of time needed to inform sufficient number of consumers.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.17 no.10
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• pp.61-71
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• 2019

Purpose - This study aims to explore the impact of factors on Korean consumer goods purchase decision of Vietnam's Generation Z. Research design, data, and methodology - A mixed research method was utilized in this study including focus group, in-depth interview, pilot study, and official study. The conceptual model and hypothesis were tested using data collected cross-sectional by questionnaire, from a sample of 439 respondents, by both electronic and paper surveys with non-probability and convenience sampling. The SPSS 20 and AMOS 20 software were employed to analyze the data. Results - Results showed that Vietnam's Generation Z was strongly impacted by social media, Hallyu, country of origin, social norms, and perceived usefulness. Besides, Korean consumer goods purchase decision of Vietnam's Generation Z also were impacted by intermediary factors such as trust, social norms, product involvement, perceived quality, perceived usefulness, attitude, and buying intention. There were differences in factors affecting the purchase decision of the boy and girl Generation Z group. Conclusions - The factors impacting on Korean consumer goods decision of Vietnam's Generation Z are very important for Korean firms and government. The findings provide Korean firms opportunity for appropriate to be carried out factors impacting Korean consumer goods to generation Z in Vietnam successful.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.81-102
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• 1997

This study intended to investigate factors shaping the styles for comsumers to express their dissatisfaction after comsuming goods(cloth and household appliance) and services(public and health) In particular this study examined what kinds of characteristics were crucial to distinguish three styles of consumers' and public complaints. The characteristics of consumer to be considered in this study included consumer knowledge consumer attitude consumer and several socio-economic characteristics. The sample used in this study were consumers whose age was grater than 20 years old living near Seoul in 1996. Discriminant analysis was conducted to investigate what factors discriminate the style of complaint. This study found that several consumer characteristics were sigificant in explaining different styles for consumers to response their dissatisfactions. The effects of consumer characteristics were more significant in explaining the complaining styles derived from public and health services rather than goods. Overall consumer attitude consumer knowledge and the degree of satisfaction of services were discriminant variables in explaining the styles of consumer complaint. Both consumer knowledge and budgeting skill were significant in explaining complaint styles to response dissatisfaction derived from consuming clothing while both consumer education and time constraint were significant in shaping the kinds of complaining styles derived from consuming household appliances.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.1-14
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• 2004

The purpose of study is to analyze the consumer attitude toward original brand and imitation goods. To carry out this purpose, the study examined consumers' purchase frequency, degree of concern, future purchase, intention, other people's evaluation and self-satisfaction. The results of experiment can be summarized as follows: First, the consumers didn't show high degree of purchase frequency, of concern, of future purchase but they showed positive attitude in other people's evaluation and self-satisfaction. Second, they showed high degree of the purchase of imitation goods but they didn't show high degree of their degree of satisfaction. Third, with regard of their purchase intention, they purchased imitation goods because they were cheap, regardless of image, quality and design which original brand name goods had. Finally, to figure out the correlation between original brand name goods and imitation goods, their purchase intention of original brand name goods was surveyed according to their satisfaction with imitation goods after they purchased them. According to the result, they answered that they would purchase original brand name goods when they satisfied with imitation goods.

• Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.181-200
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• 2006

The purpose of this study is to examine factors influencing online product transformation focusing on benefits of online shopping and word of mouth. Generally, it has been known that buying search goods is more proper than experience goods in the online. However benefits of online shopping and word of mouth make product transformation from experience goods to search goods and the product transformation promote the purchase of experience goods online. We developed a conceptual model of online product transformation including benefits of online shopping(e.g. good price and convenience), online word of mouth (e.g. bulletin board and consumer reviews), and consumer characteristics (e.g. innovativeness and Internet usage). Also, we suggest several research propositions on online product transformation. The implications for marketing strategies of experience goods and furher research direction are suggested.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.305-312
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• 2005

Pick-up/delivery of consumer goods to offices, shops, and restaurants in order to support urban lives is one of the most vital activities in a city. With economic growth and technological innovation, a greater variety of goods have come to be supplied, and pick-up/delivery of consumer goods has become more complex. Efficient urban goods movement in Central Business District(CBD} starts with an efficient system for loading/unloading, and pick-up/delivery activities. Loading/unloading activity may be carried out on-street, or on especially designated space inside or outside buildings. Therefore, purpose of this study is to clarity the efficient urban goods movement in CBD(also called the pick-up/delivery activity) from the three different types of loading/unloading facilities. For this purpose, the differences in loading/unloading and truck-trip activity time of each loading/unloading facility was compared by performing the simulation analysis.

• Archives of design research
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• v.21
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• pp.195-204
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• 1997

This study is the comparative analysis of the image structure young korean and Japanese on the present day consumer goods. Korean young men and women have image structure with 3factors of "minute-simplicity" , "practical-nan-practical ", "light-heavy", Japanese young men have those with, "light-heavy", "gay-quiet", "graceful-unstylish". And Japanese young women have those with, "gay-quiet", "light-heavy", "graceful-unstylish". Korean men and women have the same image structure. While Japanese men and women have different image structures. Korean young men and women are sensitive to decoration elements of consumer goods. Japanese young women are also sensitive to the decoration element. Korean young men and women and the Japanese young women seem to grasp their image on the consumer goods at the level of recognition, However, Japanese young men seem to grasp their image on the consumer goods at the level of sense of value.er, Japanese young men seem to grasp their image on the consumer goods at the level of sense of value.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.71-84
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• 1998

This study attempts to investigate what information the consumer want, and the needs and contents of information for 10 goods categories. Especially, this study aims to be used as the basic data for development of consumer information program. So, data of this survey was collected in Puchon, and the results can be used in regions which has the similar circumstance. Major findings are as follows. Consumers in Puchon think that it is difficult for them to have the information about goods. They want to know the comparative quality of goods and criterion of selection. Needs of information about 10 goods categories are different from each other. They want the informations about cereals/meats/vegetables, home appliance, book/stationery/toy more than others. They want to acquire the information from community bulletins and mass communication. So, consumer information center in University can produce the information program available to community members using this results. Then, they offer it to them through various channels.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.23 no.59
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• pp.69-77
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• 2000

To make internet shopping mall competitive, effective consumer service should be provided. The objective of this study is to analyse the consumer satisfaction for internet shopping mall. For this purpose, questionnaire survey has been used. For the statistical analysis, multivariate linear regression were utilized using the SAS program. According to the results in this study, the variables that positively affect toward consumer satisfaction are the quality of goods, the information of goods, the display method of goods, the convenience of ordering point of time and cancellation. On the contrary, the variables that negatively affect toward consumer satisfaction are the price of goods and the weakness of information security.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.143-167
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• 2006

Despite the popularity of e-commerce, the understanding of preferred product types for information searches and purchase on the internet are not sufficient. This paper studies the effect of risk perception on information search behavior through online only, offline only, and on-offline together. Specially, this study classifies product types into search goods, experience goods, and credence goods. The study attempts to determine how the relationship between the perceived risk and the information search is influenced by the product knowledge level. The results show that the higher the risk perceptions about experience goods and credence goods, the more the consumer searches information through online and offline together when the consumer's knowledge level is low. When the consumer's knowledge level is high, however, the higher the risk perception regarding search goods, the more the consumer searches information through online only.