• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.245-276
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• 2008

Brand equity is one of the most important concepts in business practice as well as in academic research. Successful brands can allow marketers to gain competitive advantage (Lassar et al.,1995), including the opportunity for successful extensions, resilience against competitors' promotional pressures, and the ability to create barriers to competitive entry (Farquhar, 1989). Branding plays a special role in service firms because strong brands increase trust in intangible products (Berry, 2000), enabling customers to better visualize and understand them. They reduce customers' perceived monetary, social, and safety risks in buying services, which are obstacles to evaluating a service correctly before purchase. Also, a high level of brand equity increases consumer satisfaction, repurchasing intent, and degree of loyalty. Brand equity can be considered as a mixture that includes both financial assets and relationships. Actually, brand equity can be viewed as the value added to the product (Keller, 1993), or the perceived value of the product in consumers' minds. Mahajan et al. (1990) claim that customer-based brand equity can be measured by the level of consumers' perceptions. Several researchers discuss brand equity based on two dimensions: consumer perception and consumer behavior. Aaker (1991) suggests measuring brand equity through price premium, loyalty, perceived quality, and brand associations. Viewing brand equity as the consumer's behavior toward a brand, Keller (1993) proposes similar dimensions: brand awareness and brand knowledge. Thus, past studies tend to identify brand equity as a multidimensional construct consisted of brand loyalty, brand awareness, brand knowledge, customer satisfaction, perceived equity, brand associations, and other proprietary assets (Aaker, 1991, 1996; Blackston, 1995; Cobb-Walgren et al., 1995; Na, 1995). Other studies tend to regard brand equity and other brand assets, such as brand knowledge, brand awareness, brand image, brand loyalty, perceived quality, and so on, as independent but related constructs (Keller, 1993; Kirmani and Zeithaml, 1993). Walters(1978) defined information search as, "A psychological or physical action a consumer takes in order to acquire information about a product or store." But, each consumer has different methods for informationsearch. There are two methods of information search, internal and external search. Internal search is, "Search of information already saved in the memory of the individual consumer"(Engel, Blackwell, 1982) which is, "memory of a previous purchase experience or information from a previous search."(Beales, Mazis, Salop, and Staelin, 1981). External search is "A completely voluntary decision made in order to obtain new information"(Engel & Blackwell, 1982) which is, "Actions of a consumer to acquire necessary information by such methods as intentionally exposing oneself to advertisements, taking to friends or family or visiting a store."(Beales, Mazis, Salop, and Staelin, 1981). There are many sources for consumers' information search including advertisement sources such as the internet, radio, television, newspapers and magazines, information supplied by businesses such as sales people, packaging and in-store information, consumer sources such as family, friends and colleagues, and mass media sources such as consumer protection agencies, government agencies and mass media sources. Understanding consumers' purchasing behavior is a key factor of a firm to attract and retain customers and improving the firm's prospects for survival and growth, and enhancing shareholder's value. Therefore, marketers should understand consumer as individual and market segment. One theory of consumer behavior supports the belief that individuals are rational. Individuals think and move through stages when making a purchase decision. This means that rational thinkers have led to the identification of a consumer buying decision process. This decision process with its different levels of involvement and influencing factors has been widely accepted and is fundamental to the understanding purchase intention represent to what consumers think they will buy. Brand equity is not only companies but also very important asset more than product itself. This paper studies brand equity model and influencing factors including information process such as information searching and information resources in the fashion market in Asia and Europe. Information searching and information resources are influencing brand knowledge that influences consumers purchase decision. Nine research hypotheses are drawn to test the relationships among antecedents of brand equity and purchase intention and relationships among brand knowledge, brand value, brand attitude, and brand loyalty. H1. Information searching influences brand knowledge positively. H2. Information sources influence brand knowledge positively. H3. Brand knowledge influences brand attitude. H4. Brand knowledge influences brand value. H5. Brand attitude influences brand loyalty. H6. Brand attitude influences brand value. H7. Brand loyalty influences purchase intention. H8. Brand value influence purchase intention. H9. There will be the same research model in Asia and Europe. We performed structural equation model analysis in order to test hypotheses suggested in this study. The model fitting index of the research model in Asia was $X^2$=195.19(p=0.0), NFI=0.90, NNFI=0.87, CFI=0.90, GFI=0.90, RMR=0.083, AGFI=0.85, which means the model fitting of the model is good enough. In Europe, it was $X^2$=133.25(p=0.0), NFI=0.81, NNFI=0.85, CFI=0.89, GFI=0.90, RMR=0.073, AGFI=0.85, which means the model fitting of the model is good enough. From the test results, hypotheses were accepted. All of these hypotheses except one are supported. In Europe, information search is not an antecedent of brand knowledge. This means that sales of global fashion brands like jeans in Europe are not expanding as rapidly as in Asian markets such as China, Japan, and South Korea. Young consumers in European countries are not more brand and fashion conscious than their counter partners in Asia. The results have theoretical, practical meaning and contributions. In the fashion jeans industry, relatively few studies examining the viability of cross-national brand equity has been studied. This study provides insight on building global brand equity and suggests information process elements like information search and information resources are working differently in Asia and Europe for fashion jean market.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.85-97
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• 2010

Internet communities are a typical space for knowledge creation and use on the Internet as people discuss their common interests within the internet communities. When we define 'Knowledge Communities' as internet communities that are related to knowledge creation and use, they are categorized into 4 different types such as 'Search Engine,' 'Open Communities,' 'Specialty Communities,' and 'Activity Communities.' Each type of knowledge community does not remain the same, for example. Rather, it changes with time and is also affected by the external business environment. Therefore, it is critical to develop processes for practical use of such changeable knowledge communities. Yet there is little research regarding a strategic framework for knowledge communities as a source of knowledge creation and use. The purposes of this study are (1) to find factors that can affect knowledge creation and use for each type of knowledge community and (2) to develop a strategic framework for practical use of the knowledge communities. Based on previous research, we found 7 factors that have considerable impacts on knowledge creation and use. They were 'Fitness,' 'Reliability,' 'Systemicity,' 'Richness,' 'Similarity,' 'Feedback,' and 'Understanding.' We created 30 different questions from each type of knowledge community. The questions included common sense, IT, business and hobbies, and were uniformly selected from various knowledge communities. Instead of using survey, we used these questions to ask users of the 4 representative web sites such as Google from Search Engine, NAVER Knowledge iN from Open Communities, SLRClub from Specialty Communities, and Wikipedia from Activity Communities. These 4 representative web sites were selected based on popularity (i.e., the 4 most popular sites in Korea). They were also among the 4 most frequently mentioned sitesin previous research. The answers of the 30 knowledge questions were collected and evaluated by the 11 IT experts who have been working for IT companies more than 3 years. When evaluating, the 11 experts used the above 7 knowledge factors as criteria. Using a stepwise linear regression for the evaluation of the 7 knowledge factors, we found that each factors affects differently knowledge creation and use for each type of knowledge community. The results of the stepwise linear regression analysis showed the relationship between 'Understanding' and other knowledge factors. The relationship was different regarding the type of knowledge community. The results indicated that 'Understanding' was significantly related to 'Reliability' at 'Search Engine type', to 'Fitness' at 'Open Community type', to 'Reliability' and 'Similarity' at 'Specialty Community type', and to 'Richness' and 'Similarity' at 'Activity Community type'. A strategic framework was created from the results of this study and such framework can be useful for knowledge communities that are not stable with time. For the success of knowledge community, the results of this study suggest that it is essential to ensure there are factors that can influence knowledge communities. It is also vital to reinforce each factor has its unique influence on related knowledge community. Thus, these changeable knowledge communities should be transformed into an adequate type with proper business strategies and objectives. They also should be progressed into a type that covers varioustypes of knowledge communities. For example, DCInside started from a small specialty community focusing on digital camera hardware and camerawork and then was transformed to an open community focusing on social issues through well-known photo galleries. NAVER started from a typical search engine and now covers an open community and a special community through additional web services such as NAVER knowledge iN, NAVER Cafe, and NAVER Blog. NAVER is currently competing withan activity community such as Wikipedia through the NAVER encyclopedia that provides similar services with NAVER encyclopedia's users as Wikipedia does. Finally, the results of this study provide meaningfully practical guidance for practitioners in that which type of knowledge community is most appropriate to the fluctuated business environment as knowledge community itself evolves with time.

• Journal of Service Research and Studies
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.48-62
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• 2023

As seen in the recent K-pop craze, the size and influence of the Korean music industry is growing even bigger. At least 6,000 songs are released a year in the Korean music market, but not many can be said to have been successful. Many studies and attempts are being made to identify the factors that make the hit music. Commercial factors such as media exposure and promotion as well as the quality of music play an important role in the commercial success of music. Recently, there have been many marketing campaigns using Internet memes in the pop music industry, and Internet memes are activities or trends that spread in various forms, such as images and videos, as cultural units that spread among people. Depending on the Internet environment and the characteristics of digital communication, contents are expanded and reproduced in the form of various memes, which causes a greater response to consumers. Previously, the phenomenon of Internet memes has occurred naturally, but artists who are aware of the marketing effects have recently used it as an element of marketing. In this paper, the mediated effect of Internet memes in relation to the success factors of popular music was analyzed, and a prediction model reflecting them was proposed. As a result of the analysis, the factors with the mediated effect of 'cover effect' and 'challenge effect' were the same. Among the internal success factors, there were mediated effects in "Singer Recognition," the genres of "POP, Dance, Ballad, Trot and Electronica," and among the external success factors, mediated effects in "Planning Company Capacity," "The Number of Music Broadcasting Programs," and "The Number of News Articles." Predictive models reflecting cover effects and challenge effects showed F1-score at 0.6889 and 0.7692, respectively. This study is meaningful in that it has collected and analyzed actual chart data and presented commercial directions that can be used in practice, and found that there are many success factors of popular music and the mediating effects of Internet memes.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.161-173
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• 2020

As ICT convergence technology has spread and applied to various industrial fields and society in general, interest in rural entrepreneurship using smart farm as a means for solving many pending problems in agriculture is increasing. In this context, this study is to look at the influential factors in terms of perceived usefulness associated with the rural entrepreneurial intention using smart farm and suggest a proposal for spreading smart farms. The subjects were 296 general adults over 20 years old who were selected by simple random sampling method. The research method was exploratory factor analysis and multiple regression analysis using IBM SPSS 22.0. The perceived usefulness of smart farm, which are availability, reliability and economic efficiency were selected as independent variables to analyze the influential factors on rural entrepreneurial intention using smart farm and the moderating effect of personal innovation was observed. As a result, reliability and economic efficiency have a positive(+) influence on rural entrepreneurial intention using smart farm. And personal innovation moderates the relationship between the availability, reliability of smart farm and rural entrepreneurial intention using smart farm. The results of this study have significance in that we devised and empirically revealed factors affecting rural entrepreneurship intentions from the perspective of perceived usefulness of smart farms, away from studies of general entrepreneurship intention factors such as internal personal characteristics and external environmental factors. The implications of the study are expected to be utilized at the seeking direction of policy for potential entrepreneur using smart farm, the training and consulting in actual field of smart farm.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.159-174
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to examine whether the entrepreneurship education through team learning positively influences the effectiveness of team learning and the satisfaction of entrepreneurship curriculum. To do this, we analyzed the questionnaire data of 149 students who took the entrepreneurship course that was conducted by the team learning method focused on problem solving task among the entrepreneurship courses opened in the venture autonomous major. First, we examined the effect of team learning effectiveness and entrepreneurial education satisfaction on the effectiveness of the team learning by individual's intention for startup, diversity of team members, and supporting activities of assistants as independent variables. For this, hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to examine whether independent variables influenced the effectiveness of team learning, and whether the effectiveness of team learning mediates between these independent variables and entrepreneurial education satisfaction. The results of this study support the hypothesis that supporting activities of assistants will influence team learning effectiveness. However, the hypothesis that individual's intention for startup or team diversity influences team learning effectiveness was rejected. On the other hand, the results of the regression analysis show that individual's intention for startup has a significant effect on the satisfaction of entrepreneurship education. In addition, the effectiveness of team learning was found to be influential on the educational satisfaction, and it was verified that the effectiveness of team learning was mediating between the supporting activities of assistants and the satisfaction of entrepreneurship education. Especially, as a result of the hierarchical regression analysis, it was found that the significance of the supporting activities of assistants decreased remarkably. This suggests that the mediating path that affects the satisfaction of entrepreneurship education is very meaningful through the effectiveness of the team learning although the supporting activities of assistants are partially mediated. As a result of this study, it was found that the supporting activities of assistants are important in the team learning entrepreneurship education and it is also confirmed that the individual's intention for startup is also important. Especially, supporting activities of assistants were found to be an important factor affecting the satisfaction of entrepreneurship education through the effectiveness of team learning. Therefore, I think that it is essential to designing a practical education course that meets individual's intention for startup in the entrepreneurship education of university students and networking with the participation of internal and external experts or entrepreneurs. In addition, I think that it is necessary to think more thoughtfulness about the composition of team members in the team learning, and to provide more meticulous support to the effectiveness of the team learning.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.87-104
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• 2015

As the influence of Landscape Urbanism has grown, various criticisms on the discourse also have increased. A study on critical opinions of Landscape Urbanism is necessary to fully comprehend the theoretical structure of the discourse and its limitations. This study introduced the concept of Intension and Extension, which is used in the field of Logics and Semiotic, as an analytical tool to interpret various criticisms based on different views in a more objective and synthetic way. After examining the development of criticisms of Landscape Urbanism, 30 texts with important critiques on the theory were selected and analyzed. Criticisms can be classified as internal criticism and external criticism according to specific topics they are engaged with. The study only covers internal criticism as a research scope. The internal criticisms on Landscape Urbanism are re-categorized into topics of theory, practice and the relation between theory and practice. Vagueness of concepts and error in concepts are two types criticism related to the issue of theory. Lexical Ambiguity and Intensional Vagueness are the main causes of conceptual vagueness in Landscape Urbanism. Conceptual vagueness related with the problem of redefining an existing concept through expanding its meaning reveals a structural dilemma. There are three types of criticism included in the topic of practice: absence of practical results, form-oriented practice, and ambiguous identity in practical results. Ambiguous identity is caused by Extensional Vagueness allowing borderline cases. Because these borderline cases overlap with extensions of landscape architecture, it is hard to differentiate projects of Landscape Urbanism and those of conventional landscape architecture. Most criticisms on the relation between theory and practice raise the question on the practical method. Two types of criticism are engaged with the topic of the practical method: errors in practical methods and absence of practical methods. The absence of practical methods is a fundamental problem of Landscape Urbanism which is hard to solve by the proposed solutions. However, these structural problems are not only the weak point but also the factor that is able to prove the potentials expand the scope of Landscape Urbanism. In addition to the results of the study, internal criticisms on Landscape Urbanism should be examined in the following studies in order to predict the next direction of Landscape Urbanism.