• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.75-86
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• 2016

Objectives : This study empirically verified the effects of service provided by medical service providers on customer satisfaction and favorable word-of-mouth intention. Moreover, it measured the mediation effects of customer satisfaction in the relationship between medical service quality factors and favorable word-of-mouth intention and proposed implications in terms of marketing. Methods : The research hypothesis was verified with a structural equation, and the Sobel test was used to analyze of customer satisfaction in the relationship between medical service quality factors and word-of-mouth intention. Results : From the hypothesis verification results, physical and human factors among the quality factors of medical service affected customer satisfaction.Additionally,customer satisfaction interacted as a factor influencing favorable word-of-mouth intention. Conclusions : Medical service providers should work to enhance the satisfaction of customers in terms of human and physical factors by providing quality medical service that is different from other providers and by improving the quality of medical service and the environment which could lead to effective word-of-mouth intention.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.171-189
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• 1999

This study aims to investigate the determinants of service quality and the relationships of service quality, customer satisfaction, word of mouth and subsequent purchase intention of medical service. SERVQUAL, an instrument developed by the marketing area, is offered as a possible measure of medical service quality. SERVQUAL measures service dimension of tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. The questionnaire method is used in this study. A survey is conducted on patients who are randomly selected. The questionnaire are sent to 300 patients and 208 are available. The objectives of this study were: 1) to find out the influence of determinants of service quality on medical service. 2) to investigate the relationship of medical service quality and customer satisfaction. 3) to analyze the relationship of customer satisfaction and favorable word of mouth, ubsequent purchase intention 4) to find out the gap perceived service quality between secondary and tertiary hospital. The results of this study are summarized as follows: 1) Reliability, responsiveness and assurance have a positive impact on the medical service quality. 2) Medical service quality has a positive impact on the customer satisfaction. 3) Customer satisfaction has a positive impact on the favorable word of mouth and subsequent purchase intention. 4) There is no gap between secondary and tertiary hospital of perceived service quality.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.15 no.12
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• pp.61-72
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• 2017

Purpose - Despite that the importance of small enterprises' performance in the community has been magnified, no study has been conducted yet on the performance based on consumers directly faced by small enterprises. Accordingly, this study aims to investigate the relationship between the life styles of consumers who use small enterprises' stores by type and the word of mouth(WOM) effects, which are concrete behaviors of consumers. Research design, data, and methodology - The VALS classification system was utilized to classify the types of life styles of consumers who use small enterprises' stores. The consumers were divided into a total of four types. This study was intended to investigate the effects of the types of consumers on the word of mouth(WOM) effects of consumers who use small enterprises' stores along with the effects of consumers' perception of economic situations on their word of mouth(WOM) effects after using small enterprises' stores. Results - The results of the study indicated that among the types of consumers who use small enterprises' stores, the group that pursues faith and the group that pursues knowledge had positive (+) effects on favorable word of mouth(WOM) effects. However, the group that pursues trends and the group that pursues action were shown to have no effect and positive or negative perceptions of economic situations were shown to have no effects of the word of mouth(WOM) effects of users of small enterprises' stores. Conclusions - In this study, as a measure to create small enterprises' performance, word of mouth(WOM) effects on small enterprises' stores according to consumers' consumption behaviors were examined focusing on consumers. Through the study results, the groups of consumers who use small enterprises' stores by type that provide favorable word of mouth(WOM) effects were derived. And This Study aims to investigate the relationship between the four type life styles of consumer who use small enterprises' stores and the word of mouth(WOM) effect. Accordingly This study is significant in that it derived a measure to create small enterprises' performance centering on consumers and that it presented a cornerstone for the establishment of small enterprises at the government level.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.15-23
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• 2011

This study examined the effects educational service elements have on the satisfaction of educational service; it also analyzed how such satisfaction influenced educational institutions' registration renewal and word-of-mouth communications about the schools. The key factors of educational services included the following four components: physical environment, education programs, instructors, and tuition fee. An investigation into how the factors of educational services in private educational institutions may affect consumer satisfaction was an additional goal of this study. Based on the cause-and-effect analysis of the above constructs, the degree of influence that each of the attributes and the component factors have on consumers' educational service selection, as well as the consumers' satisfaction, were explored. An empirical analysis was conducted on students who were taking classes in cram schools; the analysis was also conducted on the students' parents. The results indicated that the hypotheses regarding the elements of educational service, educational program, and the instructor factor were supported. Furthermore, a hypothesis concerning the effects educational service satisfaction has on re-registration and word of mouth was supported, as well. Upon aggregating the above study results, it was concluded that when determining the effects of satisfaction on educational service, the educational program, and the instructor factor played a crucial role, while physical surroundings and tuition did not. When addressing the influence of the educational services factors on educational services satisfaction, education programs and instructors had a positive effect, whereas physical environment and tuition fee had no statistically significant impact. According to the influence of educational services satisfaction on registration renewal and word-of-mouth effects, educational services satisfaction was found to be a positive influential factor for both. In addition, it was found that satisfaction of educational service had a positive effect on renewing enrollment and forming word-of-mouth recommendations. Although the research seems simple, some theoretical implications can be drawn, as follows: First, one interpretation of the findings that the programs' and instructors' factors had a positive effect on educational services satisfaction but the physical environment and tuition fee factors did not have a significant effect suggests that the greatest influence factors in educational services are educational programs and instructors. Second, increased educational services satisfaction may result in consumer behavior changing, resulting in more registration renewals and more favorable word-of-mouth comments. Third, increased educational services satisfaction may result in enhancing consumer responses, resulting in more registration renewals and more favorable word-of-mouth opinions. Further research directions should include developing an integrated model that will allow for variation over time, before and after purchases, in relation to consumers' choices of educational services.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.15-26
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• 2016

Many brands are attempting to use consumers as a part of their marketing strategies, due to the fashion industry's sensitive response to consumers' reaction. In addition, due to the popularity of e-WOM(electronic Word-Of-Mouth), fashion brands are highly sensitive to their supporters' online reviews. Amid this background, the main objectives of this study are as follows: 1) to analyze the effect of online reviews' attributes and valences on forming an impression about a fashion brand; 2) to examine the online re-WOM(word-of-mouth) effect of online reviews by fashion brand supporters on brand attitude; and 3) to measure the moderating effect of fashion involvement in online re-WOM intention. In order to verify the research model and to test the proposed hypotheses, a 2 (utilitarian vs. hedonic review attributes) by 2 (positive vs. negative review valences) model is constructed and gathers 215 respondents. The results demonstrate that consumers form the highest reliable impression based on utilitarian and negative online reviews. However, there is no relationship between the types of online reviews and the formation of a favorable impression. Findings also reveal that the impression formed by online reviews has a positive effect on re-WOM intention, contributing to brand attitude. In addition, the hypothesis about the moderating effect produced by fashion involvement on re-WOM is supported. In conclusion, these results suggest that online reviews by fashion brand supporters have a powerful effect on forming a consumer's impression towards a fashion brand, affecting re-WOM intention and brand attitude.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.30 no.6 s.154
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• pp.916-927
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to identify psychological and behavioral outcomes of commitment to apparel brand community by test structural equation model. Subjects of 317 members for 9 selected apparel communities responded the questionnaire in the home-page or in the attached file. The results were as follows: 1) The suggested structural equation mode was accepted by data from apparel brand communities with hish brand strength(${\chi}^2=97.42$, d.f.=89, p=0.25, GFI=0.92, AGFI=0.88, RMR=0.05, NFI=0.94). However, this model wasn't accepted by data kom apparel brand communities with low brand strength. 2) Three types of commitment to brand community(emotional, continuous and normative commitments) influenced brand identification positively and brand identification positively influenced three types of behavioral outcomes(favorable word-of-mouth, co-production and repurchase of brand). Therefore, managements need to develop marketing programs to promote each type of commitment to their's own brand community.

• East Asian Journal of Business Economics (EAJBE)
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.42-50
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• 2013

Brand Equity plays a major role in the highly competitive Quick Service Restaurants (QSR) industry in India. There are a variety of factors which affect the brand equity that a company commands in the market. Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) is an emerging concept in marketing wherein all the major promotional activities are used to create a synergic output and send across a clear and consistent message to the customers. This study aims to find out the impact of five major tools of IMC namely Advertising, Word of Mouth, Sales Promotion, Event Sponsorships and Public Relations which are most applicable in the QSR industry on the four major dimensions namely Brand Awareness, Brand Association, Perceived Quality and Brand Loyalty which aid in creating Brand Equity. The study was conducted by collecting data from a sample and analyzing the data using statistical tools to find any relationships between the above mentioned variables. The findings suggest that marketers should focus on building favorable opinion about the brand amongst customers and take care regarding the news published about the brand since it affects brand image. Moreover, it was also found out that making people aware about the brand and the perceived quality about the brand play the major role in creating brand equity more than other factors.

• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.75-104
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• 2016

Purpose The business ecosystem perspective offers a new lens in which to view customers. Customers as the member of business ecosystems influence firms by participating in both the firm level activities and the business ecosystem level activities. For example, customers participate in the business ecosystems by forming interest groups, allowing their voice to be heard the within business ecosystems. Customers can also, turn public opinion around and foster the business ecosystems favorable to firms. On the other hand, as an extreme case of customer participation, customers can engage in community activities to boycott the purchase of products or services from certain firms or business ecosystems. Design/methodology/approach This study views content creation and feedback activities as customer participation in the firm level. On the other hand, word-of-mouth (WOM) and boycott activities are considered as customer participation in the business ecosystem level. This study presents a research model regarding the relationships among customer socialization, customer participation, and psychological ownership. The proposed model is validated through an empirical analysis on online platform business ecosystems. Findings When the two business ecosystems are compared, different results were drawn. In the Facebook ecosystem, boycott and psychological ownership did not have a significant relationship. However, in the Kakao ecosystem, the two had a significant positive relationship. The mediating effect of the business ecosystem type sheds a light on the mission, purpose, vision, and other values associated with the theory of the business on the customer-firm relationship. Further implications for theory and practice were discussed in this study.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.449-476
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• 2016

This study examines how an initially perceived product value affects consumer's purchase intention after reading online reviews with various tones. The study proposes that associations among initially perceived overall product value, degree of confirmation resulting from reading the reviews, and final purchase intention differ across review tones such that 1) when the tone is favorable, the effect of an initially perceived product value is stronger than when the tone is critical, and 2) when the tone is extreme, the effect of confirmation is stronger than when the tone is moderate. The survey was conducted with 276 online shopping mall users in Korea, and most of the hypotheses were supported. This study asserts that the effects of online reviews should be considered together with customer's level of expectation formed prior to reading online reviews, which resulted from extensive search and screening processes that the customer went through before reading online reviews.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.1-7
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• 2005

Today, it can not be denied that customer's satisfaction is one of the most important key factors for business success. This paper studies relationships between customer's satisfaction and intention in multiplex, where customer satisfaction means several kinds of the satisfaction of both facility and personnels inside and outside multiplex while the intention means that customer has the intention that he/she will revisit, inform by word of mouth, and stay at multiplex in the future. The number of subjects In this study is 346 persons stayed at four multiplexes, among which we obtained valid responses from 326 persons through questionnaire investigation. We held hypotheses for the relationships, and for the testing, used methods are Spearman's correlation, Mann-Whitney test, etc, and for statistical analysis, SPSS 10.1 software was used. Thus, we found statistically significant results. The relation between customer's satisfaction and his/her favorable intention is positive. With the information given in this paper we can notice which kind of satisfaction is highly related to each intention of customer, so that multiplex can be operated more effectively toward high revenue.