• Title/Summary/Keyword: Customer Behavior

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Framing Instead of Solving: Approaching the Wicked problem of Restaurant Food Waste through Service Design Research (해결대신 프레이밍: 서비스 디자인 연구를 통해음식점 음식물쓰레기라는 난제에 접근)

  • Punyotai Thamjamrassri;Kun-Pyo Lee;Yong-Ki Lee
    • Journal of Service Research and Studies
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    • v.12 no.3
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    • pp.93-114
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    • 2022
  • The hospitality and food service sector is the food sector that generates the most food waste. To deliver a more sustainable service, the food service industry needs to understand and reduce customer plate waste, which is mostly avoidable. Several studies have investigated the drivers of plate waste behaviors and proposed mitigations. However, service designers need actionable insights that inspire innovative solutions. The goals of this study are twofold. The first goal is to identify factors influencing young consumers' food waste behavior in restaurants. The second goal is to frame food waste challenges as design opportunities for service designers. A photo diary was conducted with 10 Korean university students. Participants took before and after photos of two meals and fill out questionnaires. The questions include personal background, considerations when choosing a meal, satisfaction with the meal, and reasons for leaving food. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected and analyzed. The results suggest that lack of awareness and control are the key drivers of leftovers. The food waste problem is framed into "How Might We" design opportunities for service design. Interventions should focus on improving communication with oneself, dining partners, and restaurants. The paper contributes by demonstrating the service design research approach to framing wicked problems with the example of restaurant food waste.

A Study on the Introduction of Library Services Based on Blockchain (블록체인 기반의 도서관 서비스 도입 및 활용방안에 관한 연구)

  • Ro, Ji-Yoon;Noh, Younghee
    • Journal of the Korean BIBLIA Society for library and Information Science
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    • v.33 no.1
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    • pp.371-401
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    • 2022
  • If the blockchain means storing information in a distributed environment that cannot be forged or altered, it is mentioned that this is similar to what librarians collect, preserve, and share authoritative information. In this way, this study examined blockchain technology as a way to collect and provide reliable information, increase work efficiency inside and outside the library, and strengthen cooperative networks. This study attempted to propose various ways to utilize blockchain technology in book relations based on literature surveys and case studies in other fields. To this end, this study first analyzed the field and cases of blockchain application to confirm the possibility and value of blockchain application in the library field, and proposed 12 ways to utilize it based on this. The utilization model was proposed by dividing it into operation and service sectors. In the operation sector, it is a digital identity-based user record storage and authentication function, transparent management and traceable monitoring function, voting-based personnel and recruitment system, blockchain governance-based network efficiency function, and blockchain-based next-generation device management and information integration function. The service sector includes improved book purchase and sharing efficiency due to simplification of intermediaries, digital content copyright protection and management functions, customized service provision based on customer behavior analysis, blockchain-based online learning platforms, sharing platforms, and P2P-based reliable information sharing platforms.

The Application of the Goal-Gradient Hypothesis and theTemporal Construal Theory to Customer Loyalty Programs- Goal Gradient Hypothesis and Temporal Construal Theory

  • Song, Tae Ho;Kim, Mincheol;Ko, Wooli
    • Asia Marketing Journal
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    • v.16 no.1
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    • pp.1-12
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    • 2014
  • The goal-gradient hypothesis states that the tendency to approach a goal increases with the increasing proximity of the goal (Hull 1932). It was initially supported with an evidence of animal experiments and since then, several papers have investigated the goal-gradient hypothesis in humans. Although there are some evidences related to the goal-gradient hypothesis in human behaviors, none of previous studies can properly explain its underlying mechanism, and what's more, they were not able to suggest useful managerial applications in human behaviors. From these perspectives, this work points out that there are some theoretical weaknesses to apply the goal-gradient hypothesis into the complicated human decision-making behaviors and proposes an alternative theoretical mechanismthat underlies the goal-gradient hypothesis in human. Finally, it offers insights into managerial implications of the goal-gradient hypothesis in the marketing field. This study focuses on the changes in motivations for achieving goals, in terms of how approaches to goals vary according to temporal distance from those goals. Specifically, the temporal construal theory (Liberman and Trope 1998) is considered as the underlying mechanism of the goal-gradient in that the temporal construal theory argues how the temporal distance from a goal makes people change their associated values regarding to that goal. According to the temporal construal theory, the value of distant future outcomes (near future outcomes) is construed on the basis of abstract and central features (concrete and peripheral features), and it argues that distant future situations are construed on a higher level than near future situations. This means that the value associated with the high-level construal is enhanced over delay, whereas the value associated with the low-level construal is discounted over delay. Our propositions suggest that the goal-gradient behavior in human can be motivated by the different aspects or characteristics of the goal as time changes based on the temporal construal theory. Thus, the following propositions are proposed. P 1-1: If the goal is far away, consumers put more value on the central features that are more associated with the desirability of the goal. P 1-2: If the goal is far away, consumers put more effort into accomplishing the goal that has more central features, regardless of its peripheral features. P 2-1: If a goal is near, consumers put more value on the peripheral features that are more associated with the feasibility of the goal. P 2-2: If a goal is near, consumers put more effort into accomplishing the goal that has more peripheral features, regardless of its central features. We hope to provide sufficient managerial implications for the companies as our research aims to show how consumers react differently as they progress toward the goal. Proposed propositions may provide guidance for companies developing a loyalty program, enabling them to understand what kinds of benefits or services they should provide or emphasize to consumers in loyalty programs on the basis of the time-dependent changes in outcome values (such as gifts, reward coupons). The effects of temporal distance from a goal should inform companies' marketing activities and help themto determine where emphasis should be placed in designing the benefits of their loyalty program.

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Cause-Related Marketing of Amway Korea (Focus on the Campaign for Nutrilite's Kid Health) (한국 암웨이 대의명분 마케팅 (뉴트리라이트 어린이 건강지킴이 캠페인을 중심으로))

  • Yoo, Chang Jo;Park, Heung Soo;Kang, Seong Ho;Kwon, Gae Eun;Bae, Su Jung
    • Asia Marketing Journal
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    • v.11 no.3
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    • pp.205-224
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    • 2009
  • Social responsibility which a corporation should be aware of is increasing as it plays a more important role in society. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) was taken by some huge entrepreneurs in the past. Conversely, CSR is prized one of important business activities for every corporate nowadays. Cause-related marketing draws particularly special attention among various CSRs, because it has a direct and positive effect on purchasing behavior. Marketing activity of Amway Korea is an excellent example of the cause-related marketing in Korea. Mid 2000s, some multilevel marketing firms had evaded the law, customer had negative attitude towards Amway Korea. Amway Korea, however, has overcome the difficulties by cause-related marketing, which is called campaign for Nutrilite's kid health. Present case examines the cause-related marketing, which Amway Korea has been doing for 10 years. Especially, we investigate specific factors, which differentiated CSR of Amway Korea from one of other firms. Lastly, we discuss a future action for Amway Korea's cause-related marketing and implications.

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A Study on the Cognitive/Affective Personality and Experiential Factors Influencing on Smart Phone Users' Emotional Exhaustion and Education Performance (스마트폰 이용자의 정서적 소진과 학습 성과에 영향을 주는 인지·감성 성향과 사용 경험에 관한 연구)

  • Ming-Yuan Sun;Sundong Kwon;Yong-Young Kim
    • Information Systems Review
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    • v.18 no.4
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    • pp.69-88
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    • 2016
  • Nowadays, organizations have adopted Smart Work to efficiently manage tasks, such as electronic document approval, customer management, and site inspection, without spatial-temporal constraints. Smartphones, which are commonly used in Smart Work, enable individuals to perform their jobs anytime and anywhere, thus blurring the boundary between work and non-work. To solve the problem of blurred work/non-work boundaries, a construct of self-control and affective factors needs to be considered because business style is changed from command to autonomy in the Smart Work context. Moreover, employees can convey their emotions easily over smartphones. Recent marketing studies have analyzed consumers' behavior based on the combination of cognitive, affective, and behavioral components, and researchers of information systems are also interested in these factors. However, previous research has some limitations, such as not classifying factors into cognitive, affective, and behavioral as well as not covering all three factors. Therefore, we explore the roles of cognitive, affective, and behavioral components in emotional exhaustion and education performance, and conduct a survey on undergraduate and graduate students, who are the major users of smartphones. Findings show that when individuals improve their cognitive capability (self-control) and usage experience (smartphone communication and internet usage), they can decrease emotional exhaustion and increase education performance. In the role of affective capability, increasing education performance is partially accepted. These results imply that organizations should not focus on controlling the usage of smartphones but on promoting appropriate smartphone usage.

Comparative Study on Factors that Affect Outsourcing Performances in Medical Institutions and Hotel Industries (아웃소싱 성과에 영향을 미치는 선행요인에 대한 의료기관과 호텔산업 간의 비교연구)

  • Ryou, Se-Seon;Lee, Jun-Bom;Jung, Mun-Suk
    • CRM연구
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    • v.3 no.2
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    • pp.21-41
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    • 2010
  • The current research was conducted to examine the factors that affect outsourcing performances, and further investigate whether a discrepancy in performance exists between the medical institutions and hotel service institutions. The study surveyed both medical and hotel administrators for approximately two months, who managed outsourcing tasks. Total of 325 responses out of 350 distributed were collected. However, due to inadequate responses, six responses were excluded, amounting to total of 319 (155 medical institutions, 164 hotels) valid responses included in the final analysis. First, the informal outsourcing relationships between representatives of outsourcing service seekers and providers did not appear to have significant effects in terms of the levels of trust in neither medical institutions nor hotel industries. However, the relationships affected outsourcing degrees exclusively in medical institutions, showing the disparity between the two service institutions. This was explained due to the continuing long term efforts required to establish an informal relationship in medical institutions. Second, communication was shown to have positive effects on levels of trust in both medical institutions and hotel industries. This indicates a prominent outsourcing trait that emphasizes the significance of mutual cordial communication that contributes to establishing positive relationships. Third, opportunistic behavior of the outsourcing service providers appeared to negatively affect the levels of trust as well as outsourcing degrees for both medical and hotel industries. Therefore, opportunistic behaviors were found to have more tendencies to causing tension and discomfort rather than creating a relationship based on mutual credibility or conviviality. Fourth, the effect of service infrastructures on the level of trust did not appear to be significant on medical institutions, while showing positive influence on hotel industries. Additionally, service infrastructures were found to positively influence the outsourcing performance levels for both sectors. Fifth, trust between outsourcing service seekers and providers did not appear to have noticeable impact on the outsourcing degrees for either institution. On the contrary, trust appeared to have positive impacts on performance for both institutions. This further indicates that, when engaging in outsourcing, strengthening relationships through mutual partnership with outsourcing entities rather than establishing contractual relationships leads to improving the reciprocal trust, which in turn improves work results. Lastly the outsourcing degree of service seekers appeared to have positive impact on the outsourcing performance for both medical institutions and hotel industries, indicating the causal relationship between the affectability of outsourcing degrees and the following performance results.

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The Effects of Environmental Dynamism on Supply Chain Commitment in the High-tech Industry: The Roles of Flexibility and Dependence (첨단산업의 환경동태성이 공급체인의 결속에 미치는 영향: 유연성과 의존성의 역할)

  • Kim, Sang-Deok;Ji, Seong-Goo
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.17 no.2
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    • pp.31-54
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    • 2007
  • The exchange between buyers and sellers in the industrial market is changing from short-term to long-term relationships. Long-term relationships are governed mainly by formal contracts or informal agreements, but many scholars are now asserting that controlling relationship by using formal contracts under environmental dynamism is inappropriate. In this case, partners will depend on each other's flexibility or interdependence. The former, flexibility, provides a general frame of reference, order, and standards against which to guide and assess appropriate behavior in dynamic and ambiguous situations, thus motivating the value-oriented performance goals shared between partners. It is based on social sacrifices, which can potentially minimize any opportunistic behaviors. The later, interdependence, means that each firm possesses a high level of dependence in an dynamic channel relationship. When interdependence is high in magnitude and symmetric, each firm enjoys a high level of power and the bonds between the firms should be reasonably strong. Strong shared power is likely to promote commitment because of the common interests, attention, and support found in such channel relationships. This study deals with environmental dynamism in high-tech industry. Firms in the high-tech industry regard it as a key success factor to successfully cope with environmental changes. However, due to the lack of studies dealing with environmental dynamism and supply chain commitment in the high-tech industry, it is very difficult to find effective strategies to cope with them. This paper presents the results of an empirical study on the relationship between environmental dynamism and supply chain commitment in the high-tech industry. We examined the effects of consumer, competitor, and technological dynamism on supply chain commitment. Additionally, we examined the moderating effects of flexibility and dependence of supply chains. This study was confined to the type of high-tech industry which has the characteristics of rapid technology change and short product lifecycle. Flexibility among the firms of this industry, having the characteristic of hard and fast growth, is more important here than among any other industry. Thus, a variety of environmental dynamism can affect a supply chain relationship. The industries targeted industries were electronic parts, metal product, computer, electric machine, automobile, and medical precision manufacturing industries. Data was collected as follows. During the survey, the researchers managed to obtain the list of parts suppliers of 2 companies, N and L, with an international competitiveness in the mobile phone manufacturing industry; and of the suppliers in a business relationship with S company, a semiconductor manufacturing company. They were asked to respond to the survey via telephone and e-mail. During the two month period of February-April 2006, we were able to collect data from 44 companies. The respondents were restricted to direct dealing authorities and subcontractor company (the supplier) staff with at least three months of dealing experience with a manufacture (an industrial material buyer). The measurement validation procedures included scale reliability; discriminant and convergent validity were used to validate measures. Also, the reliability measurements traditionally employed, such as the Cronbach's alpha, were used. All the reliabilities were greater than.70. A series of exploratory factor analyses was conducted. We conducted confirmatory factor analyses to assess the validity of our measurements. A series of chi-square difference tests were conducted so that the discriminant validity could be ensured. For each pair, we estimated two models-an unconstrained model and a constrained model-and compared the two model fits. All these tests supported discriminant validity. Also, all items loaded significantly on their respective constructs, providing support for convergent validity. We then examined composite reliability and average variance extracted (AVE). The composite reliability of each construct was greater than.70. The AVE of each construct was greater than.50. According to the multiple regression analysis, customer dynamism had a negative effect and competitor dynamism had a positive effect on a supplier's commitment. In addition, flexibility and dependence had significant moderating effects on customer and competitor dynamism. On the other hand, all hypotheses about technological dynamism had no significant effects on commitment. In other words, technological dynamism had no direct effect on supplier's commitment and was not moderated by the flexibility and dependence of the supply chain. This study makes its contribution in the point of view that this is a rare study on environmental dynamism and supply chain commitment in the field of high-tech industry. Especially, this study verified the effects of three sectors of environmental dynamism on supplier's commitment. Also, it empirically tested how the effects were moderated by flexibility and dependence. The results showed that flexibility and interdependence had a role to strengthen supplier's commitment under environmental dynamism in high-tech industry. Thus relationship managers in high-tech industry should make supply chain relationship flexible and interdependent. The limitations of the study are as follows; First, about the research setting, the study was conducted with high-tech industry, in which the direction of the change in the power balance of supply chain dyads is usually determined by manufacturers. So we have a difficulty with generalization. We need to control the power structure between partners in a future study. Secondly, about flexibility, we treated it throughout the paper as positive, but it can also be negative, i.e. violating an agreement or moving, but in the wrong direction, etc. Therefore we need to investigate the multi-dimensionality of flexibility in future research.

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The Study of Characteristics of Consumer Purchasing Private Brand Products at Large-Scale Mart (국내 대형마트의 유통업체 브랜드 상품 구매 소비자의 특성 분석에 관한 연구)

  • Hwang, Seong-Huyk;Lee, Jung-Hee;Roh, Eun-Jung
    • Journal of Distribution Research
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    • v.15 no.4
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    • pp.1-19
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    • 2010
  • As having the movement of developing private brand (PB) goods, domestic big retailers are facing up with new problems. Thus, it is required studies of PB products, and how consumers recognize PB products as a consideration commodity set. Also, it is worthy in order that it gives us the important meaning on the marketing strategy with focusing on evaluating the differences between customers buying PB grocery goods with respect to demographic characteristics and purchasing behaviors. PB has some advantages for customers and retailers. However, according to AC Nielson's report (2005), Asian and emerging market has 1/5 sales relatively to Western countries. But we can assume that the emerging market has the most potential growth through this result. As a result from several other studies, it becomes necessary to not only increase the rate of selling composition of PB product temporarily, but also analyze the characteristics of customers using big retailers and segmenting customer groups to make PB product as a consideration commodity set for them. In addition, it is needed to have a variety of acts of marketing. From studies related to PB, there is a prejudice - cheap products have low quality - but, evaluation by customers who have used those products shows neutral stand, and there is a study representing that it is the most important to accumulate the belief between the retailers selling PB products and consumers using those for the accurate evaluation and intention on purchasing. Also, by the result from analyzing the characteristics of customers buying PB products, we could assume that higher income and higher education level, more preference on PB products. Especially, according to TNS's research, the primary targets of PB product are 30's who seeks value for money and planned spending habits, and 40's who have teenager children, and are interested in encouraging themselves. This paper used Probit model to analyze the characteristics of consumers. This model helps us to analyze with the variables representing the demographic characteristics of consumers (gender, age, educational level, occupation, income level, living area), and variables related to purchasing behavior (visiting frequency on big retailers, the average amount that they pay for goods in there, and check-up which brand made those goods). The method we used in this study is by man to man interview and survey on-line with the rate of 89% and 11% in Seoul and Gyunggi Province, respectively, for about one month from the beginning of February, 2008. As a result of this, under the assumption that people buy PB products more as long as they go shopping more, it was not meaningful for target groups which we pointed out as frequently visiting customers to be. Although, we have expected women buy more PB products than men do, gender doesn't mean anything for the result. And, it has inferred that married people buy more PB goods than singles do. It was also meaningless with variables related to occupation. Because housewives are often exposed to any kind of supermarket than workers are, we could not get any relatives. Moreover, we couldn't proof that younger generation prefer big retailers more than older people who 50~60's. Education levels doesn't affect on the purchase of PB product as well. Related to living area, the result is statistically not similar as we expected whether living in Seoul or not. It shows there is no relationship with the preference on retail brands and PB products, and it is similar with the study researched by TNS(2008) that customers tend to buy PB product impulsively no matter which brand it is and where they are even though their shopping place is the big market where customers are often using. Variables on which we had meaningful results are income level and living place. That is, customers who have 3,000,000~6,000,000 WON every month on average are more willing to buy PB products than other customers whose income is over 6,000,000 WON, and residents not living in Seoul prefer PB goods than those who are living in Seoul. To explain more about what we got, if there is only one condition about customer's visiting frequency on big retails, we could come up with this result that more exposed to PB products, more purchasing frequency. Consequently, it brings the important insight that large retailers have to prepare something to make customers visit them often to increase selling rate of PB products. To demonstrate the result of analyzing more, what is more efficient variables are demographically including marital status, income level, and residential area to buy items that affect the PB products and could include the frequency of visiting large markets by the purchase habits. Specifically, then, married couples rather than singles, middle-income customers than high-income customers, and local residents not living in Seoul than customers in Seoul are more likely to purchase PB goods. In addition, as long as a customer visits two times more, then the purchasing rate of PB products is to increase over 5.3%. Therefore, it seems that retailers are better to make a shopping place as fun and comfortable places. With overwhelming the idea that PB products are just cheap, one-time purchase goods, it is needed to increase the loyalty on those goods like NB products, try to make PB products as a consideration products set, and occur to sustainable sales. Especially, as suggested by this paper, it seems like it strongly needs to identify the characteristics of customers who prefer PB, to segment those customers, and to select the main target, and to do positioning with well-planned marketing strategies. Then, it is able to give us a meaningful point on marketing strategy by developing the field of PB study, identifying the difference of life style and shopping habits of customers.

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The Effect of Price Discount Rate According to Brand Loyalty on Consumer's Acquisition Value and Transaction Value (브랜드애호도에 따른 가격할인율의 차이가 소비자의 획득가치와 거래가치에 미치는 영향)

  • Kim, Young-Ei;Kim, Jae-Yeong;Shin, Chang-Nag
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.17 no.4
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    • pp.247-269
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    • 2007
  • In recent years, one of the major reasons for the fierce competition amongst firms is that they strive to increase their own market shares and customer acquisition rate in the same market with similar and apparently undifferentiated products in terms of quality and perceived benefit. Because of this change in recent marketing environment, the differentiated after-sales service and diversified promotion strategies have become more important to gain competitive advantage. Price promotion is the favorite strategy that most retailers use to achieve short-term sales increase, induce consumer's brand switch, in troduce new product into market, and so forth. However, if marketers apply or copy an identical price promotion strategy without considering the characteristic differences in product and consumer preference, it will cause serious problems because discounted price itself could make people skeptical about product quality, and the changes of perceived value might appear differently depending on other factors such as consumer involvement or brand attitude. Previous studies showed that price promotion would certainly increase sales, and the discounted price compared to regular price would enhance the consumer's perceived values. On the other hand, discounted price itself could make people depreciate or skeptical about product quality, and reduce the consumers' positivity bias because consumers might be unsure whether the current price promotion is the retailer's best price offer. Moreover, we cannot say that discounted price absolutely enhances the consumer's perceived values regardless of product category and purchase situations. That is, the factors that affect consumers' value perceptions and buying behavior are so diverse in reality that the results of studies on the same dependent variable come out differently depending on what variable was used or how experiment conditions were designed. Majority of previous researches on the effect of price-comparison advertising have used consumers' buying behavior as dependent variable. In order to figure out consumers' buying behavior theoretically, analysis of value perceptions which influence buying intentions is needed. In addition, they did not combined the independent variables such as brand loyalty and price discount rate together. For this reason, this paper tried to examine the moderating effect of brand loyalty on relationship between the different levels of discounting rate and buyers' value perception. And we provided with theoretical and managerial implications that marketers need to consider such variables as product attributes, brand loyalty, and consumer involvement at the same time, and then establish a differentiated pricing strategy case by case in order to enhance consumer's perceived values properl. Three research concepts were used in our study and each concept based on past researches was defined. The perceived acquisition value in this study was defined as the perceived net gains associated with the products or services acquired. That is, the perceived acquisition value of the product will be positively influenced by the benefits buyers believe they are getting by acquiring and using the product, and negatively influenced by the money given up to acquire the product. And the perceived transaction value was defined as the perception of psychological satisfaction or pleasure obtained from taking advantage of the financial terms of the price deal. Lastly, the brand loyalty was defined as favorable attitude towards a purchased product. Thus, a consumer loyal to a brand has an emotional attachment to the brand or firm. Repeat purchasers continue to buy the same brand even though they do not have an emotional attachment to it. We assumed that if the degree of brand loyalty is high, the perceived acquisition value and the perceived transaction value will increase when higher discount rate is provided. But we found that there are no significant differences in values between two different discount rates as a result of empirical analysis. It means that price reduction did not affect consumer's brand choice significantly because the perceived sacrifice decreased only a little, and customers are satisfied with product's benefits when brand loyalty is high. From the result, we confirmed that consumers with high degree of brand loyalty to a specific product are less sensitive to price change. Thus, using price promotion strategy to merely expect sale increase is not recommendable. Instead of discounting price, marketers need to strengthen consumers' brand loyalty and maintain the skimming strategy. On the contrary, when the degree of brand loyalty is low, the perceived acquisition value and the perceived transaction value decreased significantly when higher discount rate is provided. Generally brands that are considered inferior might be able to draw attention away from the quality of the product by making consumers focus more on the sacrifice component of price. But considering the fact that consumers with low degree of brand loyalty are known to be unsatisfied with product's benefits and have relatively negative brand attitude, bigger price reduction offered in experiment condition of this paper made consumers depreciate product's quality and benefit more and more, and consumer's psychological perceived sacrifice increased while perceived values decreased accordingly. We infer that, in the case of inferior brand, a drastic price-cut or frequent price promotion may increase consumers' uncertainty about overall components of product. Therefore, it appears that reinforcing the augmented product such as after-sale service, delivery and giving credit which is one of the levels consisting of product would be more effective in reality. This will be better rather than competing with product that holds high brand loyalty by reducing sale price. Although this study tried to examine the moderating effect of brand loyalty on relationship between the different levels of discounting rate and buyers' value perception, there are several limitations. This study was conducted in controlled conditions where the high involvement product and two different levels of discount rate were applied. Given the presence of low involvement product, when both pieces of information are available, it is likely that the results we have reported here may have been different. Thus, this research results explain only the specific situation. Second, the sample selected in this study was university students in their twenties, so we cannot say that the results are firmly effective to all generations. Future research that manipulates the level of discount along with the consumer involvement might lead to a more robust understanding of the effects various discount rate. And, we used a cellular phone as a product stimulus, so it would be very interesting to analyze the result when the product stimulus is an intangible product such as service. It could be also valuable to analyze whether the change of perceived value affects consumers' final buying behavior positively or negatively.

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The Effects of Intention Inferences on Scarcity Effect: Moderating Effect of Scarcity Type, Scarcity Depth (소비자의 기업의도 추론이 희소성 효과에 미치는 영향: 수량한정 유형과 폭의 조절효과)

  • Park, Jong-Chul;Na, June-Hee
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.18 no.4
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    • pp.195-215
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    • 2008
  • The scarcity is pervasive aspect of human life and is a fundamental precondition of economic behavior of consumers. Also, the effect of scarcity message is a power social influence principle used by marketers to increase the subjective desirability of products. Because valuable objects are often scare, consumers tend to infer the scarce objects are valuable. Marketers often do base promotional appeals on the principle of scarcity to increase the subjective desirability their products among consumers. Specially, advertisers and retailers often promote their products using restrictions. These restriction act to constraint consumers' ability th take advantage of the promotion and can assume several forms. For example, some promotions are advertised as limited time offers, while others limit the quantity that can be bought at the deal price by employing the statements such as 'limit one per consumer,' 'limit 5 per customer,' 'limited products for special commemoration celebration,' Some retailers use statements extensively. A recent weekly flyer by a prominent retailer limited purchase quantities on 50% of the specials advertised on front page. When consumers saw these phrase, they often infer value from the product that has limited availability or is promoted as being scarce. But, the past researchers explored a direct relationship between the purchase quantity and time limit on deal purchase intention. They also don't explored that all restriction message are not created equal. Namely, we thought that different restrictions signal deal value in different ways or different mechanism. Consumers appear to perceive that time limits are used to attract consumers to the brand, while quantity limits are necessary to reduce stockpiling. This suggests other possible differences across restrictions. For example, quantity limits could imply product quality (i.e., this product at this price is so good that purchases must be limited). In contrast, purchase preconditions force the consumer to spend a certain amount to qualify for the deal, which suggests that inferences about the absolute quality of the promoted item would decline from purchase limits (highest quality) to time limits to purchase preconditions (lowest quality). This might be expected to be particularly true for unfamiliar brands. However, a critical but elusive issue in scarcity message research is the impacts of a inferred motives on the promoted scarcity message. The past researchers not explored possibility of inferred motives on the scarcity message context. Despite various type to the quantity limits message, they didn't separated scarcity message among the quantity limits. Therefore, we apply a stricter definition of scarcity message(i.e. quantity limits) and consider scarcity message type(general scarcity message vs. special scarcity message), scarcity depth(high vs. low). The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of the scarcity message on the consumer's purchase intension. Specifically, we investigate the effect of general versus special scarcity messages on the consumer's purchase intention using the level of the scarcity depth as moderators. In other words, we postulates that the scarcity message type and scarcity depth play an essential moderating role in the relationship between the inferred motives and purchase intention. In other worlds, different from the past studies, we examine the interplay between the perceived motives and scarcity type, and between the perceived motives and scarcity depth. Both of these constructs have been examined in isolation, but a key question is whether they interact to produce an effect in reaction to the scarcity message type or scarcity depth increase. The perceived motive Inference behind the scarcity message will have important impact on consumers' reactions to the degree of scarcity depth increase. In relation ti this general question, we investigate the following specific issues. First, does consumers' inferred motives weaken the positive relationship between the scarcity depth decrease and the consumers' purchase intention, and if so, how much does it attenuate this relationship? Second, we examine the interplay between the scarcity message type and the consumers' purchase intention in the context of the scarcity depth decrease. Third, we study whether scarcity message type and scarcity depth directly affect the consumers' purchase intention. For the answer of these questions, this research is composed of 2(intention inference: existence vs. nonexistence)${\times}2$(scarcity type: special vs. general)${\times}2$(scarcity depth: high vs. low) between subject designs. The results are summarized as follows. First, intention inference(inferred motive) is not significant on scarcity effect in case of special scarcity message. However, nonexistence of intention inference is more effective than existence of intention inference on purchase intention in case of general scarcity. Second, intention inference(inferred motive) is not significant on scarcity effect in case of low scarcity. However, nonexistence of intention inference is more effective than existence of intention inference on purchase intention in case of high scarcity. The results of this study will help managers to understand the relative importance among the type of the scarcity message and to make decisions in using their scarcity message. Finally, this article have several contribution. First, we have shown that restrictions server to activates a mental resource that is used to render a judgment regarding a promoted product. In the absence of other information, this resource appears to read to an inference of value. In the presence of other value related cue, however, either database(i.e., scarcity depth: high vs. low) or conceptual base(i.e.,, scarcity type special vs. general), the resource is used in conjunction with the other cues as a basis for judgment, leading to different effects across levels of these other value-related cues. Second, our results suggest that a restriction can affect consumer behavior through four possible routes: 1) the affective route, through making consumers feel irritated, 2) the cognitive making route, through making consumers infer motivation or attribution about promoted scarcity message, and 3) the economic route, through making the consumer lose an opportunity to stockpile at a low scarcity depth, or forcing him her to making additional purchases, lastly 4) informative route, through changing what consumer believe about the transaction. Third, as a note already, this results suggest that we should consider consumers' inferences of motives or attributions for the scarcity dept level and cognitive resources available in order to have a complete understanding the effects of quantity restriction message.

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