• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.1013-1030
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• 2010

Recently a prevailing trend in marketing has been the use of consumer participations or prosumer activities and this has caused consumers to become skeptical in their treatment of information found on blogs. Therefore, these marketing practices can be usefully examined to ensure they represent a neutral source of information for consumers. This study thus investigated married women's production activities of consumer information using personal blogs, their motives and experiences, and the characteristics of the information they produced. A qualitative study was undertaken using focus group interviews with two groups of sixteen married women in their 30's and 40's. Results suggested that personal bloggers' information production activities were primarily initiated by businesses and that bloggers were paid for their activities either with money or through the products they reviewed. Although the information produced was, because of its basis in consumer experience, consumer friendly, its quality was limited in the sense because it primarily reflected the perspective of businesses. The bloggers, themselves, expressed ethical uncertainty about their practices. Implications for consumer education and policy were also discussed.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.29-44
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• 2012

The research is aimed to provide suggestions to higher the level of green consumption awareness in South Korea and China, through comparative analysis of consumers in both countries. It also tries to understand how the consumption awareness and consumer education influences on the green consumption awareness. The study examined residents in Seoul, Korea, and Suzhou, China, and the research was conducted from March 25 to 31 in 2010. Three hundred and four samples in total were analyzed. The major results of this study were summarized as follows: First, Korean consumers' green consumption awareness is higher than that of Chinese consumers. Yet, consumers in both countries showed the lowest level in environmental participatory awareness in green consumption awareness. Second, environmental problems concern and green consumption information search is the key variable in the improvement of green consumption awareness level both in Korea and China.

• Journal of the Korea Fashion and Costume Design Association
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.1-15
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• 2016

The object of this study is to find out the influence of college students' consumption value on consumer attitudes towards environmental awareness and clothing environmental behavior. Questionnaires were administered to 236 college students living in DaeguCity and Kyoungbuk province. Frequency, factor analysis, reliability analysis, regression analysis, and t-test were used for data analysis. Our findings are as follows. Consumption value of college students had factors as differentiated, consumption needs, utility, economies ostentation, others awareness, and belonging. Consumer attitudes towards environmental awareness were found as environmental importance, environmental product purchase, environmental product interest, and environmental action. Clothing environmental behavior were found as up cycle, buying eco-friendly clothing, active participation, saver purchase, and eco-friendly clothing management. The result of this study showed differentiated, others awareness, and belonging had significant effect of environmental product purchase and consumption needs, utility, and belonging had significant effect of environmental action. Differentiated, and others awareness had significant effect of up cycle, buying eco-friendly clothing, active participation, and eco-friendly clothing management. Gender of college students showed significant differences consumption value, consumer attitudes towards environmental awareness, and clothing environmental behavior.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.113-129
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• 2004

This study was pursued to examine the differences in housewives' willingness of buying genetically modified(GM) Food by the basic knowledge and recognition toward GMO. The results could provide a basic information for the consumer education and consumer policy about genetically modified food. The final 723 observations collected using a questionnaire were analysed by frequency, percentage. mean, standard deviation, t-test.$X^2$. ANOVA. and duncan-test using the SPSS/WIN 10.0 programs. The main results were following (1) Consumers' basic knowledge about GMO was too low to understand or interpretate information regarding GM food which was provided or would be provided. So consumers education for very basic biology should be offered for consumer to understand and interpretate various information about GM food is provided. (2) Consumers didn't trust GM food information provided by government. however they wanted government to provide information regarding GM food. (3) The more basic biology knowledge consumer has, the better recognition of GM food and the higher possibility that they eat consumer has.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.119-140
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• 2016

This study objectively analyzes the understanding of changes in North Koreans' home lives and the differences between the home life cultures of South and North Korea. A comparative analysis was conducted of terms related to consumer and family resource management to determine language differences and create a mutual understanding of social convergence unification. First, the analysis revealed that the North Korean language is not developed in certain areas, such as consumer welfare or consumer patterns related to resolving issues or complaints connected to consumptive lifestyles. In financial management, there were terms that referred to the collapsed North Korean economic conditions after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the North Korean famine. Second, terms reflecting North Korea's social, political, and economic structures were discovered, and it was found that South and North Korean languages differed from each other with regard to terms about kinship, sports, and art.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.325-341
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• 2010

A study on what kind of problems young consumers experience in buying and using mobile phone services with a comprehensive and consumers oriented perspective is needed. Through this acknowledgement, we investigated (i) the degree of consumer problems that young consumers experience in purchasing and using mobile phone services, and (ii) the related variables that affect experiences of this consumer problem. The parents of the teenagers were also included in the survey because they experience the same problems young consumers' experience in buying and using mobile phone services. Data were gathered through an internet survey (www.embrain.com) and a total of 699 samples from 350 parents and 349 youths using mobile phone services were analysed. The results are as follows. First, the teenagers and parents' experience level of young consumers' problems were generally high experiencing similar kinds of problems. Second, parents experienced more young consumers' problems than the teenagers in buying and using mobile phone services, especially in misuse and abuse of the phones. Third, among the teenagers, the monthly usage fee music or game usage, the number of changes in mobile phone service operators, the number of replacement mobile phones and the gender had a significant effect on consumers' problems of mobile phone services. Among the parents, the monthly usage fee, music or game usage, confirmation of the bill, and the gender of their child were significant consumer problems. Based on results of our survey the direction of consumer policy and education was suggested for teenagers and their parents.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.291-305
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to explore the consumer responses such as willingness to pay premium and purchasing cost for fair trade coffee as an ethical product while considering the treatment effect of consumer knowledge. First, the levels of consumer knowledge, willingness to pay premium and purchasing cost were presented. Then, the influencing factors on willingness to pay premium and purchasing cost of fair trade coffee were analyzed by applying the treatment effect model. From the results, first, the level of willingness to pay premium was high and consumers having purchasing experience of fair trade coffee spent 9,923 won at once, while less than half of the consumers knew the fair trade coffee. Second, consumer knowledge, ethical judgement, perception of price value, education level and pocket money significantly influenced to willingness to pay premium, while consumer knowledge, information evaluation, importance of fair trade criteria and level of education significantly influenced to purchasing cost for fair trade coffee. Especially, consumer knowledge of fair trade coffee was an important influencing factor for willingness to pay premium and purchasing cost indirectly as well as directly. Thus, this study might provide some useful information for consumers to choose the ethical behavior and the related companies to create effective promoting strategies for ethical products.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.31-47
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• 2016

This research examines the effects of consumers' moderation and simplicity, autonomy, and income level on happiness, and based on this, classifies consumer types and examines the differences in consumer happiness and life happiness in accordance with this classification. The questionnaire survey was conducted on adults in their 20's through 60's. Moreover, hierarchical regression analysis, cluster analysis, and the analysis of variance were conducted. The results of this research are as follows. First, on consumer happiness, moderation and simplicity, income level, autonomy, education level, and gender had significant effects; on life happiness, moderation and simplicity, income level, autonomy, and education level had significant effects. Second, consumers were classified into three types according to moderation and simplicity, autonomy, and income level, and when making a comparison based on these factors between consumer happiness and life happiness, both consumer happiness and life happiness showed significant differences, but the detailed aspects were different. In the case of consumer happiness, non-autonomous moderation and simplicity type were reported to have the highest sense of happiness, followed by autonomous moderation and simplicity type, and passive moderation and simplicity type, but in the case of life happiness, autonomous moderation and simplicity type were reported to have the highest sense of happiness, followed by non-autonomous moderation and simplicity type, and passive moderation and simplicity type.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.17-27
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• 2004

The purpose of this study was to examine whether the intergenerational program affected the children's perceptions on the elderly and aging. This study also investigated how the children evaluated the program. The study methods was one group pretest-posttest design. The subjects were 30 elementary school children from 1st to 3rd grade. The intergenerational program was composed of 6 activities: recreation activity for rapport, making a kite, gardening, learning old customs, education of traditional manner, and making rice-cakes. It was executed for two weeks. Data for children's perceptions on the elderly and aging were collected by the interview using questionnaire at pretest-posttest. The results of the qualitative data analysis showed that the children's perception on the elderly and aging changed more positively after the program. There were significant differences between pre- and post-test on the children's perceptions of aging and intellectual aspects of the elderly. Most of the children evaluated the program very positively.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.52 no.5
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• pp.443-456
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• 2014

The purpose of this study was to explore the patterns of private education, investigate the characteristics of private education patterns, and analyze the differences in study habits and academic achievement of youth on the basis of private education patterns. In this study, we used the data from the 2012 Panel of the Korea Children and Youth Panel Study by the National Youth Policy Institute. The subjects of this study were ninth-grade students and their parents. The statistical methods used for the analysis were two-step clustering, Chi-squared test, analysis of variance, and multiple regression. The major findings were as follows: first, private education was classified into three patterns, namely financial investment, time investment, and reduction of investment; and four categories, namely; private education methodology, private education time, private education expenses, and number of youth with access to private education. Second, the statistically significant socio-demographic characteristics of private education patterns were parents' education, parents' job type, father's working hours, sex of children, housing form, and income. Third, the study found that financial investment and a reduce of investment led to better study habits and academic achievement than time investment and no investment. Fourth, private education and study habits showed statistically meaningful effects on academic achievement; in particular, study habits had strong effects on academic achievement. Based on the results, a variety of educational programs for the improvement of the study habits of the youth were suggested.