• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.49-58
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• 2010

Corporate social responsibility has become a very important issue for researchers (Greenfield, 2004; Maignan & Ralston, 2002; McWilliams et al., 2006; Pearce & Doh 2005), and many consider it necessary for businesses to define their role in society and apply social and ethical standards to their businesses (Lichtenstein et al., 2004). As a result, a significant number of retailers have adopted CSR as a strategic tool to promote their businesses. To this end, this study sought to discover U.S. consumers' attitudes and behavior in ethical purchasing and consumption based on their subjective perception and evaluation of a retailer. The objectives of this study include: 1) determine the participants awareness of retailers corporate social responsibility; 2) assess how participants evaluate retailers corporate social responsibility; 3) examine whether participants evaluation process of retailers CSR influence their attitude toward the retailer; and 4) assess if participants attitude toward the retailers CSR influence their purchase behavior. This study does not focus on actual retailers' CSR performance because a consumer's decision making process is based on an individual assessment not an actual fact. This study examines US college students' awareness and evaluations of retailers' corporate social responsibility (CSR). Fifty six college students at a major Southeastern university participated in the study. The age of the participants ranged from 18 to 26 years old. Content analysis was conducted with open coding and focused coding. Over 100 single-spaced pages of written responses were collected and analyzed. Two steps of coding (i.e., open coding and focused coding) were conducted (Esterberg, 2002). Coding results and analytic memos were used to understand participants' awareness of CSR and their ethical purchasing behavior supported through the selection and inclusion of direct quotes that were extracted from the written responses. Names used here are pseudonyms to protect confidentiality of participants. Participants were asked to write about retailers, their aware-ness of CSR issues, and to evaluate a retailer's CSR performance. A majority (n = 28) of respondents indicated their awareness of CSR but have not felt the need to act on this issue. Few (n=8) indicated that they are aware of this issue but not greatly concerned. Findings suggest that when college students evaluate retailers' CSR performance, they use three dimensions of CSR: employee support, community support, and environmental support. Employee treatment and support were found as an important criterion in evaluation of retailers' CSR. Respondents indicated that their good experience with a retailer as an employee made them have a positive perception and attitude toward the retailer. Regarding employee support four themes emerged: employee rewards and incentives based on performance, working environment, employee education and training program, and employee and family discounts. Well organized rewards and incentives were mentioned as an important attribute. The factors related to the working environment included: how well retailers follow the rules related to working hours, lunch time and breaks was also one of the most mentioned attributes. Regarding community support, three themes emerged: contributing a percentage of sales to the local community, financial contribution to charity organizations, and events for community support. Regarding environments, two themes emerged: recycling and selling organic or green products. It was mentioned in the responses that retailers are trying to do what they can to be environmentally friendly. One respondent mentioned that the company is creating stores that have an environmentally friendly design. Information about what the company does to help the environment can easily be found on the company’s website as well. Respondents have also noticed that the stores are starting to offer products that are organic and environmentally friendly. A retailer was also mentioned by a respondent in this category in reference to how the company uses eco-friendly cups and how they are helping to rebuild homes in New Orleans. The respondents noticed that a retailer offers reusable bags for their consumers to purchase. One respondent stated that a retailer uses its products to help the environment, through offering organic cotton. After thorough analysis of responses, we found that a participant's evaluation of a retailers' CSR influenced their attitudes towards retailers. However, there was a significant gap between attitudes and purchasing behavior. Although the participants had positive attitudes toward retailers CSR, the lack of funds and time influenced their purchase behavior. Overall, half (n=28) of the respondents mentioned that CSR performance affects their purchasing decisions making when shopping. Findings from this study provide support for retailers to consider their corporate social responsibility when developing their image with the consumer. This study implied that consumers evaluate retailers based on employee, community and environmental support. The evaluation, attitude and purchase behavior of consumers seem to be intertwined. That is, evaluation is based on the knowledge the consumer has of the retailers CSR. That knowledge may influence their attitude toward the retailer and thus influence their purchase behavior. Participants also indicated that having CSR makes them think highly of the retailer, but it does not influence their purchase behavior. Price and convenience seem to surpass the importance of CSR among the participants. Implications, recommendations for future research, and limitations of the study are also discussed.

• Journal of the Korea Fashion and Costume Design Association
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.1-14
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• 2017

The consumption trend of fashion in modern industrial society is developing from the rapid changes, and the lifespan of fashion products becomes shorter due to the various industrial wastes. Due to the attitude change caused by the ethical consumption consciousness and environment awareness, the up-cycle fashion products got to receive attention, and it is in the limelight as a new trend to realize the sustainable fashion products in the domestic and foreign fashion. The purpose of this study lies in drawing the expression characteristics by investigating and analyzing the cases of each type on the fashion bag products of up-cycle brand, and contributing to the diversification of product family fitting to the characteristics of fashion bag product of up-cycle brand, systematic strategies of up-cycle fashion products, and activation of up-cycle fashion market. In research methods, the theatrical researches were conducted centered the relevant domestic literature materials, preceding papers, etc., which ran paralleled with the actual case analysis study. Through the preceding research and websites related to selected products, websites of up-cycle companies, relevant books, related articles, etc., the expression characteristics of up-cycle fashion bag products were drawn. The results of this study are as follows: First, as it has the feature of historicality, the designs can be created by containing the designer's story, story of materials, and consumer's story. Second, since it has the characteristic of sustainability, the application of manufacturing process and materials, extension of product life, conversion of original material's function, etc. can be sustainable. Third, as it's a trait of scarcity, all products may be produced by hand, and it can have the specialty which the original materials have. Fourth, since it has an eco-friendly trait, even while saving the original materials, the aesthetic needs could be met according to the consumers' continuous demand.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.28-35
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• 2014

Due to recent interest of the consumers on safe farm products and the government's political support for eco-friendly agriculture, organic fruit production has been growing continuously. This research was conducted in order to study the effect of cover plants on soil microbial community on cover plants and establish an organic fruit cultivation method through choosing optimal cover plant. As a result of investigating soil microbial population density, the bacterial density in soil showed an increasing trend in June compared to April, and there was a decreasing trend in bacterial density of the soil in August compared to June. The density of actinomycetes in soil increased around 1.6 times in June compared to April when the soil was covered with hairy vetch. The increase of filamentous fungus in crimson clover group was 6.1 times higher in June compared to April and in hairy vetch group, the increase was 4.9 times higher in June compared to April. As a result of analyzing DNA extracted from the soil categorized by different types of cover plants using DGGE method, soil collected from April had higher number of bands detected from different locations according to different types of cover plants. Diversity of the bands from the soil collected from August showed higher range of reduction. As a result of analyzing soil microbial community by different period and the types of cover plants using Pyrosequencing method, microbes were detected in the order of Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Chloroflexi, and Firmicutes. Distribution rate of Firmicutes increased in the soil collected in August compared to June and this was shown in all types of cover plants by twice the amount.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.506-512
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• 2011

Due to an overall increase of income, the general standard of living has improved and people have begun to be interested in being more healthy in their lives. This tendency has affected the food market, especially in relation to organic and eco-friendly food. Thus, the overall market size for those products has grown to give more choices to consumers. To examine the effect of the motive for choosing certain food products on the actual attitude and intent to purchase the products, a survey was given to 330 people living in Seoul, which resulted in 235 usable responses. The content of the questionnaire consisted of 18 questions on food choice motives, 3 questions on the attitude toward organic foods and 3 questions on the intention of purchasing for organic foods. The SPSS 12.0 statistics program was used to analyze of following: frequency analysis, factor analysis, reliability analysis, t-test, one way ANOVA and regression analysis. Five factors of food choice motives were obtained from the analysis: health, convenience, price, familiarity and environmental protection. The regression analysis showed that food choice motive, health and environmental protection factors have a positive relationship with organic food attitudes and organic food attitudes have a positive relationship with the intent to purchase organic food.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.34 no.7
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• pp.1205-1219
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• 2010

This study analyzes the conditions and products of internet shopping malls that sell natural dyeing products. In this study, 98 natural dyeing internet shopping malls were selected. The results of this study are as follows. The locations of the internet shopping malls were Gyeonggi-do, Seoul, Jeollanam-do, Gyeongsangbuk-do, Gwang-ju (city), Daegu (city), Busan (city), Gyeongsangnam-do, and Jeju-do. The most frequent dyes of the natural dyeing products were loess, followed by charcoal, indigo, and persimmon. Indigo was most frequently used in Seoul, with loess and charcoal most frequent in Gyeonggi-do. Persimmon, indigo, loess, and charcoal were mainly used in Jeollanam-do, with persimmon and loess in the Gyeongsangbuk-do, and persimmon in Jeju-do. The highest ordered product categories were accessories, followed by adult clothing, interior decoration products, and bedding. The most frequent products were bedclothes, followed by scarves, female shirts, blouses, pillows, female jackets, and vests. Regarding the price of products, 150,000-200,000 won was the highest for the Saenghwal Hanbok, with 10,000-30,000 won for underwear, 30,000-60,000 won for accessories, and 100,000-150,000 won for bedding. Concerning product information, 58.2% of internet shopping malls offer the product size and almost half of them did not show the properties or directions for handling the product. Based on the research results, the problems of the conditions and products of natural dyeing internet shopping mall were derived. The results show that the natural dyes of internet shopping malls lacked regional symbolism, the products were not specialized, and product information was not fully offered to consumers. To solve these problems, the strategies for marketing the promotion of the natural dyeing internet shopping mall were, ‘Using natural dyes from local resources’, ‘Market oriented and specialized item design’, and ‘Offer right product information’.

• Journal of the Korea Fashion and Costume Design Association
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.213-220
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• 2019

The dry cleaning effect related to the type of soil and fiber was analyzed using silicone and alcohol-based solvents(ethyl alcohol, isopropyl alcohol, acetone) that are relatively safe for the human body and environment to improve the detergency of hydrophilic soils in dry cleaning system. Based on this analysis, an effective dry cleaning method to be carried out for improving the detergency according to the type of hydrophilic soils. After dry cleaning was performed using 20 types of artificial soiled fabrics consisting of 7 types of fibers and 4 types of hydrophilic soils, the detergency was measured and the results were compared and analyzed by solvents and fiber types. The results are presented as follows; first, the detergency of hydrophilic soils using silicone solvents showed a low rate of detergency. In particular, the tannin soil showed a lower level of detergency compared to the protein soil. Second, the detergency of hydrophilic soils using silicon solvents with dry soap differed in some detergency according to the soil and fiber types. Especially, the detergency of curry soil on cotton fabric showed significant improvement. Third, the protein soil was not removed from dry cleaning using alcohol-based solvents, but the effect of dry cleaning of curry soil on both cotton and polyester fabric was substantially improved. As a result, the elimination of blood soil is more effective in silicon solvents than in alcohol-based solvents. The removal of tannin soils may improve detergency by adding dry soap to silicon solvents or by using alcohol-based solvents as alternative solvents. The use of alternative solvents such as silicon and alcohol solvents can contribute to the environmental improvement of the dry cleaning industry, which uses petroleum-based solvents. It is also expected to provide consumers with the opportunity to choose eco-friendly and efficient dry cleaning methods.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.183-197
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to compare the purchase intention on naturally dyed clothing between Korea and the US. As independent variables that affect the purchase intention, benefits that consumers seek when purchasing naturally dyed clothing, especially for fabric materials, and attitudes towards naturally dyed clothing were selected. A quantitative research method with a survey was employed. 160 data from Korea and 180 data from the US were used for the analysis. The convenience sampling method (i.e., college female students) was used. Descriptive statistics, factor analysis, t-test and regression analysis were employed to test the differences in purchase intention, fabric benefit sought, and the attitudes. The fabric benefit sought selected for this study includes eco-friendliness, uniqueness, aesthetic, comfort and quality. The attitude toward naturally dyed clothing was categorized as an emotional and a cognitive attitude. The results show the significant differences in the fabric benefit sought depending on nationality, major and experiences in natural dyeing. Significant differences were found in of the attitude toward naturally dyed clothing among the nationalities and the experience types in natural dyeing. In addition, there were significant differences in purchase intention toward naturally dyed clothing between Korean and the US participants, and countries show different fabric benefits and attitudes which influenced participants' purchase intention. The results of this study suggest an appropriate fabric planning for environment-friendly fashion products for both countries.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.450-470
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• 2018

This study examined the risk components and risk types perceived in the context of purchasing decisions of paper fashion products. This study also identified the levels of perceived risk by consumers and the differences between age groups in risk perception. First, qualitative data were collected through a focus group interview with 7 Korean females in their 20s to 50s. The interviewees were presented with two types of paper materials (undyed and dyed Jumchi-Hanji) and products (bags and wallets) made with the papers. The interviewees mentioned 11 risk components which were classified into five types of risks: performance (easily torn/lack of durableness, lint/pilling/wear-out, lack of water-resistant, no washability, and deformation and discoloration over time), social-psychological (old and traditional image), aesthetic (lack of design diversity, unsatisfactory appearance due to repair), financial (expensive price, lack of usability in daily life) and time/convenience (difficulty in handling) risks. Based on the results of the interview, a measurement for evaluating the risk perception of paper fashion products was developed. Second, quantitative data were collected from 64 Korean women in their 20s to 50s using the measurement. Respondents who were presented with the paper materials and the products perceived the performance risk more strongly than the social-psychological risk and aesthetic risk. In addition, differences between age groups were found: younger respondents perceived performance risk and social-psychological risk more strongly than older respondents, but older respondents perceived financial risk more than younger respondents. Based on this study, strategies for the risk reduction of paper fashion products were proposed.

• Korean journal of food and cookery science
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.169-175
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to provide the basic information necessary to efficiently run a coffee shop. It comparatively analyzes the relative importance and satisfaction of side menu selection characteristics through analyses on customer importance-satisfaction when selecting a side menu as well as their usage behavior of the side menu at coffee shops. According to reason price the analysis result on the differences in the coffee shop side menu importance and satisfaction, there was a difference because the importance of selecting a side menu was higher for the attributes of taste, health, packing & appearance, economics and personnel service compared to satisfaction among which the price of a side menu was found to be the top priority for improvement. The significance of coffee shop side menu for the respondents prior to usage as well as their satisfaction after usage was evaluated in order to comparatively analyze the relative importance and achievement of each characteristic through the IPA. The result indicated that the variables positioned in the Concentrate Here area (II) were related to economic feasibility such as reasonable price, appropriate price of set menu, telecommunication company affiliated service and coupon usage and point accumulation. As for the Keep up the Good Work area (I), there were many variables regarding personnel service including taste of side menu, blending with coffee, clean packing, clean packaging, staff's side menu knowledge, staff's quick response, staff's politeness and staff's sincere response. As for the variables in the Low Priority area (III), health variables on health such as nutritional value, eco-friendly food materials and calories were observed.

• The Journal of Fisheries Business Administration
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.31-50
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• 1999

The purpose of this paper is to offer policies or laws governing the future of Korean seafood markets in view of societal marketing concept. The environment surrounding those markets is changing quickly and constantly. The proposals in this paper are meant to help the Korean seafood market coping with this swiftly changing environment. This paper sorts this changing environment in terms of institutional side and secio-economical side. The institutional side involves the enforcement of international and domestic seafood trade standards, the increase of seafood importation, the adoption of optional seafood sales system, the openness of distribution market, and the adoption of TAC system. The secio-economical side involves the development of telecommunication and transportation, and the changing of seafood consumption pattern. The forecast about the future of seafood market could be classified into three fields, that is, the production field, the distribution field, and the consumption field of seafood. In the production field of seafood, the stabilization of supply of seafood and the production management oriented seafood market could be forecasted. In the distribution field, the formulating of enforced trade standards, the dispersion of marketing function among fisher, wholesaler and retailer, the development of marketing skills, and the promotion of marketing information system could be forecasted. Finally, in consumption field, the promotion of standardization and diversification, the appearance of intellectual consumers could be forecasted. This paper seeks to offer policies or laws fur the three categories of the seafood market-the government, the fisher, and the distributor-coping with the changing environment on the above three fields, thereby benefiting the consumer's long-term welfare. For the government, this paper suggests the construction of a Seafood Transaction Information Infrastructure, a Seafood Dealer License System, and a Seafood Safety Security System. For the fishers, this paper proposes an Eco-labelling System, a Sustainable Production System, and a Real Naming System in dealing seafood. Finally, for the distributors, this paper offers a Seafood Production Controlling System, a Nature-friendly Marketing System, and a Consumer-oriented Marketing System.