• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.441-454
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• 2021

This study analyzed consumer needs for the development of elderly-friendly HMR products in China. In developing the products, items needed to be improved, types and packages of the necessary products, additional improvements and food preferences were investigated. According to the demographic characteristics of elderly Chinese consumers, these was analyzed as well. A survey was conducted on a total of 370 elderly people, and data analysis was performed using SPSS 18.0 program. Items related to product quality safety, such as "marks of origin by ingredient", "rich nutrients", "expansion of letter size of packaging", "rich nutrients" and "clear manufacturing date and expiration date", were required to develop HMR products. The types of products that should be developed were porridge and noodles, and the packaging types that should be developed were eco-friendly packaging and recycled packaging. In addition, "low-calorie HMR", "development of various seasonings", "use of eco-friendly food ingredients" and "HMR to digest easily" should be improved. The demand for product improvement and food preference showed significant differences according to the degree of education, monthly income and oral health. The results were intended to prepare basic data for setting the direction when developing elderly-friendly HMR.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.22 no.9
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• pp.322-327
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• 2022

Based on goal-achievement and embodied cognition theories, this research investigates how goal-achievement status, which is specified into goal under-achievement, achievement, and over-achievement, influences one's preference for the degree of hardness (vs. softness) in products. The results reveal that consumers who have not yet reached or who just met their goals compared to those who over-achieved their goals want their products (e.g., pillows, mattresses, chairs) to be firm rather than soft. Existing embodied cognition studies have mostly focused on how physical experiences affect consumers' judgments and product preferences, whereas this research shows that consumers can automatically pursue physical experiences according to their goal achievement status.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.1-24
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• 2024

Considering the continuous growth in the production and consumption of Gastrodia elata, it's crucial to accurately understand the consumer demand for Gastrodia elata products and develop health products tailored to consumer preferences. In this study, we surveyed 400 consumers each from South Korea and China to gauge their perceptions and buying intentions concerning Gastrodia elata products. The results revealed that Korean consumers predominantly evaluate Gastrodia elata products based on health consciousness, whereas Chinese consumers emphasize the product's external characteristics. In Korea, Gastrodia elata products are mainly promoted for their health benefits and are primarily consumed in ingestible forms. In contrast, in China, Gastrodia elata is frequently used as a culinary ingredient. These findings underscore that consumer perceptions and buying intentions can differ depending on how a product is advertised and presented. Future studies should take into account the evolving international Gastrodia elata market and the surging demand, incorporating diverse countries and cities. It will also be imperative to maintain ongoing monitoring, drawing insights from the industrial growth drive model.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.9
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• pp.59-70
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• 2015

Purpose - This study aims to suggest strategies for Korean enterprises advancing into the Vietnam bakery market by analyzing the effects of perceived values on brand preference and purchase intention among Korean and Vietnamese consumers. Research design, data, and methodology - The perceived value model designed includes functional (price, quality), emotional, and social values. The survey collected data from 500 consumers in Seoul (Korea) and HoChiMinh (Vietnam). The SPSS 18.0 package was used for analysis. Results - First, among Vietnamese consumers, perceived value had a positive (+) effect on global brand preference in the order of functional value of quality, social value, and the functional value of price. However, from an ethnocentric trend and brand image origin, emotional value had a negative effect on global brand preference. In contrast, among Korean consumers, perceived value had a positive (+) effect on global brand preference in the order of functional value of quality, the functional value of price, and the social value. However, emotional value had no effect on global brand preference. Second, for both Korean and Vietnamese consumers, perceived value had a significant positive effect on purchase intention. Third, unlike the Korean consumer, for the Vietnamese consumer, global brand preference had a significant effect on purchase intention. Conclusions - The study implies the following. First, the Vietnamese bakery market has a high proportion of middle-aged customers in their 40s (64%). In terms of monthly income, there was a large proportion (40%) of high-income earners (over $325). Therefore, bakery consumption can be seen as concentrated among middle-aged and high-income consumers. Based on this, bakery strategies should include efforts to increase purchase prices as well as ways to attract local consumers (large cities). Second, unlike Korean consumers, among Vietnamese consumers, the resistance to a global brand based on emotional value (the ethnocentric tendency and brand image origin) can be seen as relatively low. Thus, in the case of the Vietnam bakery market, to increase a global brand's preference, the company should develop a differentiated strategy so that Vietnamese consumers can recognize it better, focusing on product quality, good service quality, and price in the local environment and on social value for social development. Third, in the case of the Vietnamese customer, we found that social value exerts the greatest influence on purchase intention. Therefore, a brand that engenders an image of building the local Vietnamese community can achieve a higher social value and influence purchase intention. In addition, although Vietnamese consumers have ethnocentric tendencies in terms of products, we found that if it is a preferred global brand then there are intentions to purchase. Fourth, in the case of Vietnam, if the preference for global brands is formed, consumer awareness may be connected to purchase intention. Therefore, global brands operating in Vietnam should pay attention to how to improve consumer preferences for global brands in order to increase purchase intention.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.61-101
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• 2014

This study investigates when and how disagreements in online customer ratings prompt more favorable product evaluations. Among the three metrics of volume, valence, and variance that feature in the research on online customer ratings, volume and valence have exhibited consistently positive patterns in their effects on product sales or evaluations (e.g., Dellarocas, Zhang, and Awad 2007; Liu 2006). Ratings variance, or the degree of disagreement among reviewers, however, has shown rather mixed results, with some studies reporting positive effects on product sales (e.g., Clement, Proppe, and Rott 2007) while others finding negative effects on product evaluations (e.g., Zhu and Zhang 2010). This study aims to resolve these contradictory findings by introducing preference heterogeneity as a possible moderator and causal attribution as a mediator to account for the moderating effect. The main proposition of this study is that when preference heterogeneity is perceived as high, a disagreement in ratings is attributed more to reviewers' different preferences than to unreliable product quality, which in turn prompts better quality evaluations of a product. Because disagreements mostly result from differences in reviewers' tastes or the low reliability of a product's quality (Mizerski 1982; Sen and Lerman 2007), a greater level of attribution to reviewer tastes can mitigate the negative effect of disagreement on product evaluations. Specifically, if consumers infer that reviewers' heterogeneous preferences result in subjectively different experiences and thereby highly diverse ratings, they would not disregard the overall quality of a product. However, if consumers infer that reviewers' preferences are quite homogeneous and thus the low reliability of the product quality contributes to such disagreements, they would discount the overall product quality. Therefore, consumers would respond more favorably to disagreements in ratings when preference heterogeneity is perceived as high rather than low. This study furthermore extends this prediction to the various levels of average ratings. The heuristicsystematic processing model so far indicates that the engagement in effortful systematic processing occurs only when sufficient motivation is present (Hann et al. 2007; Maheswaran and Chaiken 1991; Martin and Davies 1998). One of the key factors affecting this motivation is the aspiration level of the decision maker. Only under conditions that meet or exceed his aspiration level does he tend to engage in systematic processing (Patzelt and Shepherd 2008; Stephanous and Sage 1987). Therefore, systematic causal attribution processing regarding ratings variance is likely more activated when the average rating is high enough to meet the aspiration level than when it is too low to meet it. Considering that the interaction between ratings variance and preference heterogeneity occurs through the mediation of causal attribution, this greater activation of causal attribution in high versus low average ratings would lead to more pronounced interaction between ratings variance and preference heterogeneity in high versus low average ratings. Overall, this study proposes that the interaction between ratings variance and preference heterogeneity is more pronounced when the average rating is high as compared to when it is low. Two laboratory studies lend support to these predictions. Study 1 reveals that participants exposed to a high-preference heterogeneity book title (i.e., a novel) attributed disagreement in ratings more to reviewers' tastes, and thereby more favorably evaluated books with such ratings, compared to those exposed to a low-preference heterogeneity title (i.e., an English listening practice book). Study 2 then extended these findings to the various levels of average ratings and found that this greater preference for disagreement options under high preference heterogeneity is more pronounced when the average rating is high compared to when it is low. This study makes an important theoretical contribution to the online customer ratings literature by showing that preference heterogeneity serves as a key moderator of the effect of ratings variance on product evaluations and that causal attribution acts as a mediator of this moderation effect. A more comprehensive picture of the interplay among ratings variance, preference heterogeneity, and average ratings is also provided by revealing that the interaction between ratings variance and preference heterogeneity varies as a function of the average rating. In addition, this work provides some significant managerial implications for marketers in terms of how they manage word of mouth. Because a lack of consensus creates some uncertainty and anxiety over the given information, consumers experience a psychological burden regarding their choice of a product when ratings show disagreement. The results of this study offer a way to address this problem. By explicitly clarifying that there are many more differences in tastes among reviewers than expected, marketers can allow consumers to speculate that differing tastes of reviewers rather than an uncertain or poor product quality contribute to such conflicts in ratings. Thus, when fierce disagreements are observed in the WOM arena, marketers are advised to communicate to consumers that diverse, rather than uniform, tastes govern reviews and evaluations of products.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.63 no.3
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• pp.95-109
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• 2013

This thesis was conducted with the purpose of proposing a systematic and comprehensive system for women's upper garment sizes so that the satisfaction level of women purchasing the upper garment products in Internet shopping malls is enhanced. To achieve this, this study first conducted a survey of women from the ages of 18 to 39 and attempted to discover consumer satisfaction levels and preferences of the clothing product sizing system of Internet shopping malls. While keeping track of the global distribution environment, an optimal clothing sizing system for Korean women that fit recent changes in their body shapes was proposed. The results of this study are as follows. First, A result of studying the satisfaction levels and preferences of consumer's purchase experience and the sizing system showed that 48.6% of the total respondents were dissatisfied with the current sizing system. Second, based on the research of the size classification system of domestic and foreign upper garment for women, unlike domestic Internet shopping malls, overseas generally offer several size classifications. Third, results of studies 1 and 2 was used to propose an optimal clothing products sizing system method. Also, the body and product sizes and the measurement methods should be offered together. In summary of all these results, by establishing globally compatible sizing system, consumers are able to recognize their sizes on their own and by doing this, it will lower perceived risk of the consumers at the time of a Internet shopping mall purchase, and this will raise their level of satisfaction while making purchases.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.9
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• pp.373-379
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors affecting change in consumers' consumption tendency and the perception of aged meat. This study compared 2012 and 2019 results from beef consumer surveys. The importance of quality judgment criteria, taste determinants, and the perception that marbling is harmful to health were analyzed using regression analysis through the backward elimination method. As a result of the analysis, it was determined that the importance had increased for recognizing freshness, juiciness, tenderness, and ripening period, and for knowing that marbling was harmful to the health. Also shown was that the intention to purchase aged meat had an influence on whether the consumer favorably perceived the freshness, tenderness, and ripening period. This study analyzed how consumers' consumption tendencies changed to cope with these changes in consumer preferences. The basic data of the research analyzed consumption propensity, the intention to consume beef, and what factors influence the perception of mature meat. It is thought that there is a need to raise awareness about aged meat for diversification of consumer preferences and rational production and consumption in the future.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.393-402
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• 2007

The purpose of this study is to provide the design direction based on consumer sensitivity through the structure between product design preferences - sensitivity image - design elements. For the purpose, we selected men's shaver products for this study subject and collected 164 shavers' pictures released between 2001-2007 years. Then, we carried out a pilot test for collection of sensitivity images about shavers, made a survey using semantic differential method and analyzed the survey. According the result, consumers preferred the sensitivity images "luxury, attractive, stable", design elements satisfied the preference images were "form of body is not a circular arcs or a polygon, material is steel, button is push style, and a color of body is not brown." This study can provide a base of the causal relationship between design preferences - sensitivity image - design elements and a design process to predict consumer sensitivity-oriented design.

• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.161-176
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• 2009

As the Internet has been growing, WWW(World Wide Web) based services were popularized and users using the service were increased excessively. To support these environments, a processing of many transactions became an essential consideration. There are many researches regarding the user profiling on web services to support those transactions effectively. Most of them are just for grasping the comsumer's preferences. However, a trend of recent web service is not limited what they are doing between consumers and providers; a consumer can become a provider and also a provider can become a consumer virtual open environments such as open market on the internet. For this reason, it is necessary to inspect a preference of consumers as well as providers one. In this paper, we proposed personal preference tree(PPT) reflecting the preferences for providers and implemented the module applying to the web service, and evaluated the applicability the personal preference module through a simulation.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.123-129
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• 1989

In this survey we have studied the opinions of housewives to understand of the preferences of domestic consumers. This survey was conducted using a Questionnaire with 30 questions answered by 1,009 housewives. The following are the main findings. 1. The favorite beverages of housewives were coffee, yulmu tea, ginseng tea and black tea in decreasing order. Over 80% of the housewives recognized ginseng as an excellent and effective food . 2. The over 90% of the housewives had experience in taking ginseng. Their highest expectation of ginseng was its efficacy as a remedy for the hang-over syndrom. 3. The majority of housewives boiled it in water when take ginseng and indicated that ginseng was expensive in general. 4. They knew well about ginseng drink and tea whereas most of the housewives didn't know about ginseng capsules and tablets. 5. The preference for ginseng products differs greatly by the age of the housewife. Therefore, to make ginseng more favorable as a perfect tonic food, new ginseng products must be developed which appeal to the preference of the consumers.