• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.9 no.8
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• pp.7-16
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• 2018

Purpose - The effect of regional culture has been acknowledged for decades. However, very little research takes it as an important issue in the medical tourism service decision process. This study focuses on regional culture to identify customers' preference for medical tourism in the international environment. It is proposed that regional culture may work as an critical moderator in the international medical tourism destination choice process. Especially, the destination attributes may vary according to regional culture. Research design, data, and methodology - By the questionnaire survey, the sample is collected from 2,041 potential Chinese residents in different regions of China. Regression analysis is constructed to test the effect of regional culture on Chinese customers' destination preference. Results - Results imply that regional culture plays a critical moderating role in the destination choice process. Results also indicate that destination attributes including medicine and travel characteristics are the important predictors of destination preference. Conclusions - This study provides the fundamental base to use regional culture as a descriptive variable for segmentation when establishing an effective marketing strategy. Furthermore, this research suggests that different strategies relied on destination attributes should be made to attract more Chinese customers for the development of medical tourism industry.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.11-20
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• 2024

Purpose: This study focuses on the Chinese smartphone market to estimate product attributes influencing Chinese customers' preference for developing new smartphones through conjoint analysis. Research design, data and methodology: The online questionnaire survey is processed among Chinese potential smartphone customers. Conjoint analysis including traditional conjoint analysis (TCA) and choice-based conjoint analysis (CBCA), is used to analyze the useful data of 500. Results: Results indicate that price is the most important predictor while screen size is the least for Chinese customers' preference whether the method is TCA or CBCA. However, the importance of brand, capacity, CPU, and screen design is different. Moreover, based on each smartphone attribute level's utility, the new products with the best combinations are different compared with both methods. Finally, the predicted market shares of the top 3 products are the same with maximum utility rule model between TCA and CBCA. However, when considering with the new best combined product, they are significantly different. Conclusions: Managers should recognize the differences between TCA and CBCA and select the best method to develop new smartphones for sustainable business in the Chinese competitive market based on the important attributes of price, brand, capacity, CPU, screen design, and size.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.1-21
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• 2008

Research has emphasized that relationship marketing programs enhance customer satisfaction and reduce switching intentions by building switching barriers. However, the psychological reactance theory demonstrates that building switching barriers can make customers fsel that the alternative not chosen is more attractive, because their freedom of choice has been deprived. It can be hypothesized that a relationship marketing program, which is intended to offer various benefits to customers, may not result in positive customer attitude and behavior. This paper examines the effects of relationship marketing programs on customers' perceptions of switching cost and loss of freedom. The effects of those perceptions on customer satisfaction and switching intentions were identified. In addition, the moderating role of personal reactance was examined. The results of this study suggest that (1) perceived switching cost has significant influence on boosting perceived loss of freedom; (2) perceived loss of freedom has no significant effects on customer satisfaction; (3) perceived loss of freedom enhances customers' switching intentions. Furthermore, psychological reactance has a significant influence on customers' switching intentions. This study concludes that the role of relationship marketing programs should be reconsidered, especially in terms of customers' switching intentions. Customer satisfaction is not the key factor of predicting customers' future behavior.

• Culinary science and hospitality research
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.157-173
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• 2000

The purpose of this study is to identify important selection attributes for customers dining at family restaurants in Seoul, and the determinant and predicting factors in customers' intentions to return. A closed-ended questionnaire was used, and a systematic sampling approach was employed to survey a sample of customers in family restaurants. The data were analyzed using factor and multiple regression analysis. A four-dimensional structure was established from 14 selection attributes. The results of the study indicated four dimensions that were significantly related to the likelihood of customers returning to the same restaurants, as follows: Food and Environment, Service and Courtesy, Price and value, and Location and promotion. The findings from this study have both theoretical and practical implications. Implications of these findings are discussed.

• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• no.28
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• pp.140-148
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• 2001

The purpose of this thesis is to provide basic information of efficient flow line arrangement, which results from examining the factors of route choice with a focus on the store' space elements and pedestrian activity patterns in the outlets. The route tracking is applied to grasp pedestrian activity patterns, therefore, a concrete analysis into influential factors of the space structure arrangement and forms on route choice. The route tracking is a means to understand pedestrian activity patterns by establishing an unrecognizable space and examining every route in the investigating area for pedestrian activity pattern research. Three sample stores have different systems in the ground plan structures, the escalator location and the directions. The analysis focuses on the booth arrangement and shopping patterns. In conclusion, route choice of the customers and the structure of the space are quite closely related and affect the quality of shopping. This can suggest evidence for the need of the space structure to meet the pedestrian activity patterns.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.5
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• pp.61-79
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• 2000

This research suggests the strategic adoption methodology of Customer Relationship Management. The backgrounds of CRM is the business environment changing that Market power is shifting to the customer who has unprecedented powers of choice today. The strategic adoption of Customer Relationship Management determines the value, needs and preferences of each customer or customer segment. Customer Relationship Strategy is an explicitly defined plan for how a company has decided to connect with, relate to, and focus on its chosen customers to create value. Deliberate decisions must be made, often involving trade-offs, so that investments are aligned with customer needs and value. Plan defined in terms of target customers value proposition, role in value delivery, and risk/reward sharing. All customers are not created equal; specific customers and/or customers segments are more desirable/valuable to pursue. Key premise of CRM is that value can be created by changing company's business model to better connect with customers. Area of service of Customer Relationship Management are as follows. Portfolio strategy, Market Opportunity Assessment, Brand Equity, Market Positioning, Pricing, Channel Strategy, Market Segmentation. Target Market Identification, Customer LifeTime Value Analysis, Customer Profitability, Customer Connections Economics Analysis. The objects of CRM are maximizing customer service effectiveness, improving customer loyalty, increasing customer service efficiency, optimizing intelligence about customer behaviors and preferences.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2020.12a
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• pp.117-121
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• 2020

Many of hotel customers obtain information from hotel websites to find the best alternative. One of the crucial information for the choice is spatial/visual information of hotel rooms. However, hotel website provides photographs only showing representative room features that may not be sufficient to give a full understanding of hotel room to customers. HMD-based 3D virtual environments (HVE) created by 3D camera could improve customers' experiences of hotel rooms by providing full virtual tours of hotel rooms. However, to the best of our knowledge, whether HVE can adequately provide similar customers' perception on spatial/visual information remains unproven as physical hotel rooms. The present study thus aims to verify how similar and reliable information on physical hotel room HVE provides to hotel customers in comparison with hotel website with 2D photograph and display-based 3D virtual environment. For this purpose, this study conducted a comparative experiment to investigate perception of three environments. As a result, the study found that HVE is more effective to provide spatial/visual information as similar as an actual hotel room. In addition, HVE increases customers' perceptions towards the reliability of information, the quality of hotel room and intention to book.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.145-150
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• 2021

The trend of globalization leads an increased need for international freight transportation and accelerates the development of the international logistics industry. The objective of this paper is to identify the critical factors that affect the choice of logistics service provider (LSP). The data sample was collected through a questionnaire, responded by 218 companies that outsource logistics services. The analysis uses descriptive statistics; exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and regression analysis were conducted with SPSS. The role of capabilities, customer service, and company reputation were evaluated and tested. Our findings show that capabilities and customer service have a considerable impact on the choice of LSP. The findings also indicate that company reputation do not have significant impact on the choice of LSP. They also showed that the capabilities is the variable that has the most significant effect on the choice of LSP. An implication of this study is that the competition should not only focus on pricing, but should be extended to improving enterprises capabilities, i.e., upgrading human resources, modernizing the modes of transportation, expanding business geographically and developing new technologies. Our study provides LSP managers with insights into how to meet customer expectations in the competitive logistics service sector.

• Korean Business Review
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• v.12
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• pp.239-254
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• 1999

There has been a lot of researches on the major motivation of consumer's choice for airlines. Due to the competition in airline industries, most of airlines offer a various level of benefits to customers such as a frequent traveller bonus, a schedule, services in flight including a meal and an entertainment program, a discounted fare and an intangible part of personal service. However, it is very difficult to measure the performance of the customers' benefit and to identify the weight of each factor being considered on the airline choice. In this paper, we focus on the airline choice process for the business travellers. The AHP is applied to evaluate the factors reflecting the business travellers' choice for airlines. This study will be useful to build a marketing plan for the business traveller's market.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.159-179
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• 2006

With the advances in information technologies and the wide acceptance of IT outsourcing practices, subscription-based information & telecommunications services(ITS) become more available. Convergence and intensified industry competition have made it an imperative for the ITS providers to keep their current customers and acquire new customers at the same time. In this study, we developed a framework for effective customer management based on the factors influencing the post-purchase customer choice: stay with the present provider or switch to another one. Specifically, we classified the factors into four categories: Holding factors, Defect factors, Inducement factors, and Hurdle factors depending on the characteristics of the influence and direction of the influence. Based on the classification, we developed a post-purchase customer choice model for the subscription-based ITS providers. Then, we illustrated a possible application of the model in the context of the broadband Internet access service. The model could be used to increase the competitive advantage of service providers through the effective customer management in the subscription-based ITS market.