• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.19-45
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• 2008

This study is to empirically examine the primary dimensions of visual merchandising (VMD) of internet shopping mall, namely store design, merchandise, and merchandising cues, to be a attractive virtual store to the shoppers. The authors reviewed the literature related to the major components of VMD from the perspective of the AIDA model, which has been mainly applied to the offline store settings. The major purposes of the study are as follows; first, tries to derive the variables related with the components of visual merchandising through reviewing the existing literatures, establish the hypotheses, and test it empirically. Second, examines the relationships between the components of VMD and the attitude toward the VMD, however, putting more emphasis on finding out the component structure of the VMD. VMD needs to be examined with the perspective that an online shopping mall is a virtual self-service or clerkless store, which could reduce the number of employees, help the shoppers search, evaluate and purchase for themselves, and to be explored in terms of the in-store persuasion processes of customers. This study reviewed the literatures related to store design, merchandise, and merchandising cues which might be relevant to the store, product, and promotion respectively. VMD is a total communication tool, and AIDA model could explain the in-store consumer behavior of online shopping. Store design has to do with triggering a consumer attention to the online mall, merchandise with a product related interest, and merchandising cues with promotions such as recommendation and links that induce the desire to pruchase. These three steps might be seen as the processes for purchase actions. The theoretical rationale for the relationship between VMD and AIDA could be found in Tyagi(2005) that the three steps of consumer-oriented merchandising are a store, a product assortment, and placement, in Omar(1999) that three types of interior display are a architectural design display, commodity display, and point-of-sales(POS) display, and in Davies and Ward(2005) that the retail store interior image is related to an atmosphere, merchandise, and in-store promotion. Lee et al(2000) suggested as the web merchandising components a merchandising cues, a shopping metaphor which is an assistant tool for search, a store design, a layout(web design), and a product assortment. The store design which includes differentiation, simplicity and navigation is supposed to be related to the attention to the virtual store. Second, the merchandise dimensions comprising product assortments, visual information and product reputation have to do with the interest in the product offerings. Finally, the merchandising cues that refer to merchandiser(MD)'s recommendation of products and providing the hyperlinks to relevant goods for the shopper is concerned with attempt to induce the desire to purchase. The questionnaire survey was carried out to collect the data about the consumers who would shop at internet shopping malls frequently. To select the subject malls, the mall ranking data announced by a mall rating agency was used to differentiate the most popular and least popular five mall each. The subjects was instructed to answer the questions after navigating the designated mall for five minutes. The 300 questionnaire was distributed to the consumers, 166 samples were used in the final analysis. The empirical testing focused on identifying and confirming the dimensionality of VMD and its subdimensions using a structural equation modeling method. The confirmatory factor analysis for the endogeneous and exogeneous variables was carried out in four parts. The second-order factor analysis was done for a store design, a merchandise, and a merchandising cues, and first-order confirmatory factor analysis for the attitude toward the VMD. The model test results shows that the chi-square value of structural equation is 144.39(d.f 49), significant at 0.01 level which means the proposed model was rejected. But, judging from the ratio of chi-square value vs. degree of freedom, the ratio was 2.94 which smaller than an acceptable level of 3.0, RMR is 0.087 which is higher than a generally acceptable level of 0.08. GFI and AGFI is turned out to be 0.90 and 0.84 respectively. Both NFI and NNFI is 0.94, and CFI 0.95. The major test results are as follows; first, the second-order factor analysis and structural equational modeling reveals that the differentiation, simplicity and ease of identifying current status of the transaction are confirmed to be subdimensions of store design and to be a significant predictors of the dependent variable. This result implies that when designing an online shopping mall, it is necessary to differentiate visually from other malls to improve the effectiveness of the communications of store design. That is, the differentiated store design raise the contrast stimulus to sensory organs to promote the memory of the store and to have a favorable attitude toward the VMD of a store. The results that navigation which means the easiness of identifying current status of shopping affects the attitude to VMD could be interpreted that the navigating processes via the hyperlinks which is characteristics of an internet shopping is a complex and cognitive process and shoppers are likely to lack the sense of overall structure of the store. Consequently, shoppers are likely to be alost amid shopping not knowing where to go. The orientation tool enhance the accessibility of information to raise the perceptive power about the store environment.(Titus & Everett 1995) Second, the primary dimension of merchandise and its subdimensions was confirmed to be unidimensional respectively, have a construct validity, and nomological validity which the VMD dimensions supposed to have a positive correlation with the dependent variable. The subdimensions of product assortment, brand fame and information provision proved to have a positive effect on the attitude toward the VMD. It could be interpreted that the more plentiful the product and brand assortment of the mall is, the more likely the shoppers to favor it. Brand fame and information provision as well affect the VMD attitude, which means that the more famous the brand, the more likely the shoppers would trust and feel familiar with the mall, and the plentifully and visually presented information could have the shopper have a favorable attitude toward the store VMD. Third, it turned out to be that merchandising cue of product recommendation and hyperlinks affect the VMD attitude. This could be interpreted that recommended products could reduce the uncertainty related with the purchase decision, and the hyperlinks to relevant products would help the shopper save the cognitive effort exerted into the information search and gathering, which could lead to a favorable attitude to the VMD. This study tried to sheds some new light on the VMD of online store by reviewing the variables mentioned to be relevant with offline VMD in the existing literatures, and tried to link the VMD components from the perspective of AIDA model. The effect size of the VMD dimensions on the attitude was in the order of the merchandise, the store design and the merchandising cues.It is said that an internet has an unlimited place for display, however, the virtual store is not unlimited since the consumer has a limited amount of cognitive ability to process the external information and internal memory. Particularly, the shoppers are likely to face some difficulties in decision making on account of too many alternative and information overloads. Therefore, the internet shopping mall manager should take into consideration the cost of information search on the part of the consumer, to establish the optimal product placements and search routes. An efficient store composition would be possible by reducing the psychological burdens and cognitive efforts exerted to information search and alternatives evaluation. The store image is in most part determined by the product category and its brand it deals in. The results of this study support this proposition that the merchandise is most important to the VMD attitude than other components, the manager is required to take a strategic approach to VMD. The internet users are getting more accustomed and more knowledgeable about the internet media and more likely to accept the internet as a shopping channel as the period of time during which they use the internet to shop become longer. The web merchandiser should be aware that the product introduction using a moving pictures and a bulletin board become more important in order to present the interactive product information visually and communicate with customers more actively, therefore leading to making the quantity and quality of product information more rich.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.119-138
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• 2016

Since the Industrial Revolution, which made the mass production and mass distribution of standardized goods possible, machine-made (manufactured) products have accounted for the majority of the market. However, in recent years, the phenomenon of purchasing even more expensive handmade products has become a noticeable trend as consumers have started to acknowledge the value of handmade products, such as the craftsman's commitment, belief in their quality and scarcity, and the sense of self-esteem from having them,. Consumer interest in these handmade products has shown explosive growth and has been coupled with the recent development of three-dimensional (3D) printing technologies. Etsy.com is the world's largest online handmade platform. It is no different from any other online platform; it provides an online market where buyers and sellers virtually meet to share information and transact business. However, Etsy.com is different in that shops within this platform only deal with handmade products in a variety of categories, ranging from jewelry to toys. Since its establishment in 2005, despite being limited to handmade products, Etsy.com has enjoyed rapid growth in membership, transaction volume, and revenue. Most recently in April 2015, it raised funds through an initial public offering (IPO) of more than 1.8 billion USD, which demonstrates the huge potential of online handmade platforms. After the success of Etsy.com, various types of online handmade platforms such as Handmade at Amazon, ArtFire, DaWanda, and Craft is ART have emerged and are now competing with each other, at the same time, which has increased the size of the market. According to Deloitte's 2015 holiday survey on which types of gifts the respondents plan to buy during the holiday season, about 16% of U.S. consumers chose "homemade or craft items (e.g., Etsy purchase)," which was the same rate as those for the computer game and shoes categories. This indicates that consumer interests in online handmade platforms will continue to rise in the future. However, this high interest in the market for handmade products and their platforms has not yet led to academic research. Most extant studies have only focused on machine-made products and intelligent services for them. This indicates a lack of studies on handmade products and their intelligent services on virtual platforms. Therefore, this study used signaling theory and prior research on the effects of sellers' characteristics on their performance (e.g., total sales and price premiums) in the buyer-seller relationship to identify the key influencing e-Image factors (e.g., reputation, size, information sharing, and length of relationship). Then, their impacts on the performance of shops within the online handmade platform were empirically examined; the dataset was collected from Etsy.com through the application of web harvesting technology. The results from the structural equation modeling revealed that the reputation, size, and information sharing have significant effects on the total sales, while the reputation and length of relationship influence price premiums. This study extended the online platform research into online handmade platform research by identifying key influencing e-Image factors on within-platform shop's total sales and price premiums based on signaling theory and then performed a statistical investigation. These findings are expected to be a stepping stone for future studies on intelligent online handmade services as well as handmade products themselves. Furthermore, the findings of the study provide online handmade platform operators with practical guidelines on how to implement intelligent online handmade services. They should also help shop managers build their marketing strategies in a more specific and effective manner by suggesting key influencing e-Image factors. The results of this study should contribute to the vitalization of intelligent online handmade services by providing clues on how to maximize within-platform shops' total sales and price premiums.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.174-186
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• 1996

This study was carried out in order to understand the plan, design, constructing and actual condition of management of modernized horticultural facilities in Kyungpook Province which had been constructed from 1992 to 1995 funded by Government support. The aim of this study is to provide reference data for success of the forth project. It was performed by making up a question about driving of project and management condition of equipment after constructing. The results obtained from this study are as follows: 1. 73.5% of facilities horticulture farmhouse recognized that the prospect of greenhouse is bright, but 92.5% of the farmhouse also recognised that they need technical consultation on protected horticulture farming. Therefore, technical educations would must be enhanced about foundation of greenhouse and cultivation technique. 2. The holding times of explanatory meetings, cause of understanding to farmhouse, were one or two times in greenhouse construction, and 62.5% of the farmhouse expressed the insufficiency at the explanation and educational data. For this reason, it was judged that the construction contract had been delayed more than 5 months in 49.3% of the farmhouse after the decision of project budget. 3. In constructing after a contract, the rates of construction delay is 53.4% and defect occurrence is 41.1%. The biggest reasons of construction delay was insufficiency of worker and materials supply. Each percentage is 29.1%. And the reason of defect occurrence is badness of machinery equipment(62.9% ). 4. In management of greenhouse, a pipe-constructed plastic film greenhouse changes plastic film every one and three years because of sticking dust on plastic film. It was needed to about in cleaning technique of coverings. Because that used 3-5 years only half of the expected life span. 5. The order of broken rating in the subsidiary equipment is like this lollop ventilator (42.8%), a general control system(33.3%) especially, in the case of a general control system, the rate of all family can control is 52.7%. so, it is time to develop easy control equipment which every one could use as soon as possible. 6. When choose heat generator as decide capacity, the most priority is the mount of heat generator the percent is 45.5% heat generator and as decide model, the private purchase's percent is 77.3%. It is higher than a public bidding heat generator the percent is 22.7% heat generator when it compare with a public bidding. In the case of $CO_2$ generator, using rate is only 19.0%. The using rate is very low, so it needs education how to use depends on the way of the subsidiary equipment. 7. In the case of seedlings, it is asked to use factory-processed seedling effectively. because it's difficult to get security of labors(58.8%), hoped crops (55.9%) access same crops(29.4%) much more and changing of crops depends on market situation. that is the main reason the lack of knowhow.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.51-60
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• 2014

Previous research on loyalty program has verified the factors that influence redemption behavior and the understanding of the mechanism of redemption behavior with academic and practical implications. However, these research has not proven boundary conditions in which the phenomena can be strengthened or weakened- that is, the moderating effect remains unclear. The inclusion of moderating variables can provide a more extensive understanding of the mechanism of this behavior from academic and managerial perspectives alike. Therefore, this current research proposes regulatory focus as a moderating variable, which has received scarce attention in the study of loyalty program behavior, especially individual characteristic variables that, in turn, affect the consumers' purchasing behavior in various ways. Previous research on consumer decision making investigates the differential role of regulatory focus as a series of stages. Regulatory focus theory posits that people depend on the two types of regulatory focus when pursuing goals: promotion focus vs. prevention focus. The former induces tendencies to recognize a goal as a hope and ideal, as something that satisfies the need for accomplishment, and to be sensitive to the presence of a positive outcome of the match and to match the pursuit of goals. On the other hand, the latter tends to regard a goal as the responsibility or obligation to achieve the goal, has a tendency to avoid failure to meet a target, and is sensitive to the presence of the negative consequences that do not reach the target. The following propositions are suggested: 1) The effect of higher accumulation effort level on delaying point redemption speed will be relatively more pronounced for customers with prevention focus. 2) The effect of higher accumulation effort level on large redemption unit size will be relatively more pronounced for customers with prevention focus. 3) The effect of higher accumulation effort level on hedonic redemption ratio will be relatively more pronounced for customers with promotion focus. Therefore, this research provides a moderating variable that has the potential to be used as a reference for market segmentation and affects the relationship between point accumulation effort and three sides of point redemption behavior. On this basis, the direction for the future research on this issue is recommended. Future research could verify these propositions conducting a survey of customers' propensity of regulatory focus in conjunction with the history of the loyalty program of data. This would provide a more realistic effect on the usage behavior of loyalty program consumers by providing useful implications for both marketing practitioners and researchers.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.45-53
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• 2015

Purpose - Online shopping enables consumers to conveniently purchase products irrespective of the time and place. As a result, several online shopping companies have emerged to cater to this growing market and, therefore, the competition among them has become increasingly intense. This paper evaluates the comparative efficiency of online shopping companies for a multi-year period (2009-2013), in order to help online shopping managers identify major drivers for enhancing management efficiency and the subsequent competitiveness. Research design, data, and methodology - The researchers collected the data from 2009 to 2013 from the distribution yearbook. This paper analyzes the marketability (sales figures), profitability (business profits), and management conditions (net profits) of domestic online shopping enterprises by incorporating information on human resources (number of employees) and material resources (total assets and capital). Therefore, the number of employees, total assets, and capital are selected as input variables, and sales figures, business profits, and net profits as the output variables. In this study, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was used to measure the comparative efficiency of domestic online shopping companies. In addition, the Malmquist Productivity Index was used to evaluate the trend of change of Decision Making Units' (DMUs') efficiency for a multi-year period. Results - First, as of 2013, Interpark (2.415) was found to be the most efficient online shopping enterprise, followed by Aladdin Communications (2.117), Hyundai Home shopping (1.867), Home&Shopping (1.176), NS Home shopping (1.170), Commerce Planet (1.126), CJ O Shopping (1.105), Ebay Korea (1.088), and GS Home Shopping (1.051). Second, this study recognizes how the management efficiency has changed for the period 2009-2013. Third, the lesser the capital and employees, the more are the net profits, and the better is the management efficiency of domestic online shopping companies. Lastly, the productivity of such companies is influenced by endogenous factors rather than exogenous factors such as shifts in business environment and technological advances. Conclusions - DHC Korea influenced various distribution channels to reach customers through the Internet. Consequently, this helped in increasing the awareness about its products, in addition to an increase in sales. These achievements can be attributed to the characteristics of online shopping companies. Although it is easy for these companies to suggest goods for one-off purchases, they however have difficulties in retaining customers. Overcoming this challenge can be one of the ways to benchmark a successful case of an efficient company. For example, an online shopping company can attract customers by developing a corresponding mobile application as a convenient way to shop online. Additionally, they can satisfy customers by quick delivery of purchased products, which is possible by building an effective logistics network. Our study indicates that the productivity of an online shopping company was influenced by endogenous factors driven by improvements in managerial practices rather than exogenous factors. Accordingly, online shopping companies should adopt strategies to improve their operational efficiency rather than sales volume-oriented management.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.289-298
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• 2009

An analysis was carried out for this study to figure out if there exists any differences in the model consumers accept for commercialized MP3-playing clothing and bio-signal sensing clothing. To analyze the differences of the structural variables of the products types, t-test was conducted with SPSS 15.0 package and multi-group analysis with AMOS 5.0 to find out the differences of each path goes with product types in structural equation model. In analytical results of effective sample of 557 copies of questionnaire, consumers' were highly aware of MP3-playing clothing in perceived ease of use, while they were aware relatively high of bio-signal sensing clothing in perceived usefulness, attitudes, consumer acceptance. The perceived value which was input to find out consumers awareness about sale price of commercialized products, was proven to do very important moderating role in forming consumers' attitudes and acceptance intention. Besides, consumers showed a difference in path in accepting model goes with product types. In bio-signal sensing clothing case, 'the perceived usefulness$\rightarrow$attitudes' path which was backed up in MP3-playing clothing was rejected, and 'perceived value$\rightarrow$attitudes' path appeared relatively high with moderating role of perceived value higher than MP3-playing clothing. Considering the results above, as the smart clothing is in the initiative commercialization stage while consumers were in the inquiry stage into awareness or information necessary in the course of purchase decision-making, and so an effective commercialization strategy seems to be necessary.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.184-193
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• 2020

The purposes of this paper are to find the effects of beauty shop online motivations on the convenience of reservation system, to investigate the convenience of reservation system on satisfaction, and to determine the effects of satisfaction on word-of-mouth behaviors. Based on the results, there are three factors in the motivations: diversion, service-prioritized, and impulse-driven tendencies. Also, there are five factors in the reservation convenience perception: efficiency of decision-making, easy monetary transaction, overall convenience, accessibility, and effortless nature of rewarding system. In terms of the convenience of online booking, the access convenience was found that as the motivation diversion and the service-prioritized motivation higher and as the impulse reservation motivation lower. Furthermore, this paper concludes that offered by online beauty service reservation systems, and higher satisfaction rate leads to higher review behaviours.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.31 no.12
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• pp.1721-1732
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• 2007

This study identified types of information source, and explored a path model for consumer information search by shopping attributes in the context of online decision making. Participants completed self-administered questionnaires during regularly scheduled classes. A total of 219 usable questionnaires were obtained from respondents who enroll at universities in the southwestern region of the United States. For data analysis, factor analysis and path model estimation were used. Consumer information source was classified into three types for online clothing purchases: Online source, Offline retail source, and Mass media. Consumers were more likely to rely on offline retail source for online clothing purchases, than other sources. In consumer information search by shopping attributes, online sources were more likely to be related to transaction-related attributes(e.g., incentive service), whereas offline retail source(e.g., displays in stores, manufacturer's catalogs and pamphlets) were more likely to be related to product and market related attributes(e.g., aesthetics, price) when purchasing clothing online. Also, the path model emphasizes the effect of shopping attributes on traditional retailer search behavior, leading to online purchase intention for clothing. This study supports consumer information search by attributes, and discusses a managerial implication of multi-channel retailing for apparel.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.61-72
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• 2017

Purpose - The ICT development is affecting the consumer behaviors in selecting channel or distribution system. This study aims to advance the theory on the influence and interaction with omni-channel behaviors. Specifically, analyzing moderating variable is category knowledge that effect between propensity of brand loyalty and its precedence factor which is perceived difference, perceived value, authenticity and consumer-brand relationship. Research design, data, and methodology - The subject of this research is consumers who purchase goods in omni-channel situation. The hypothesis of this research is derived from the literature of the preceding research analysis on brand loyalty, omni-channel and consumer behaviors. This study have constructs that were defined operationally with reference to previous studies, and the research model was designed to figure out the structural relationship among perceived difference, perceived value, authenticity, consumer-brand relationship and brand loyalty. From 2016 Sept. 1 to Dec. 31, a questionnaire survey was performed targeting customers using omni-channel. 327 questionnaire survey had conducted. 316 survey data were used for empirical analysis except data that had missing and wrong value. AMOS(structural equation) was used to confirm the hypothesis which developed by researcher. Results - The results of this study are as follows. First, an authenticity has significant effect on brand loyalty. Second, in the omni-channel situation, but perceived differentiation, perceived value, consumer-brand relationship does not affect brand loyalty. According to this result, it is judged that it is easy to search for information in the situation of omni-channel and integrated decision making is done without distinction between channels. Third, category knowledge has moderating effect between brand loyalty and precedence factors. When the category knowledge level is low, preceding factors have a significant effect on brand loyalty. when the category knowledge level is high, the preceding factors did not have a significant effect on brand loyalty except the authenticity. Conclusions - This study finds out omni-channel's phenomenon is different from other distribution channel phenomenon. In the situation of omni-channel, it is suggested that brand loyalty may be relatively low for a certain brand because it raises the knowledge level of the category. Then this study provides a managerial implications based on the role of the moderate effect on category knowledge, brand loyalty and omni-channel.