• Title/Summary/Keyword: Green Retailers

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The Moderating Effects of Retailers' Green Practices upon Customer Environmental Values and Organic Food Purchasing Intention

  • Cho, Meehee;Bonn, Mark A.;Kang, Sora
    • Journal of Distribution Science
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    • v.13 no.11
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    • pp.5-13
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    • 2015
  • Purpose - The purpose of this study is to understand how retailers' green practices influence customer environmental values and their organic food purchasing intention. Research design, data, and methodology - Data were collected from randomly intercepting retail shoppers (n=719) departing from 33 retail stores selling organic food products located in Florida, USA. U.S. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, CFA and Hierarchical regression analyses. Results - Results documented that customer environmental values (social-altruistic values and biospheric values) were determinants of organic food purchasing intention. Retailers' green practices representing'green self-governance'were found to significantly enhance the effects of customer environmental values upon organic food purchasing intention. Conclusions - This study successfully demonstrated that customers'willingness to purchase eco-friendly products can be greatly increased when having a positive perceptions toward retailers'green practices such as environmental friendly waste management, environmental improvement of packaging, taking back packaging and recovery of the company's end-of-life products.

A study on the Relationship between the Degree of Awareness on Low Carbon Green Growth and the Organizational Commitment Focused on the Traditional Retailers (전통시장 상인들의 저탄소 녹색성장에 대한 인식과 조직몰입의 관계에 대한 연구)

  • Yang, Hoe-Chang;Kim, Sung-Il;Park, Young-Ho;Lee, Shang-Nam
    • Journal of Distribution Science
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    • v.9 no.3
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    • pp.37-46
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    • 2011
  • Since the Korean retail industry was made accessible to the big conglomerates and foreign retail companies, local traditional markets have faced serious problems. To sustain the local traditional markets' survival, the Korean government established various remedial policies for addressing, and many scholars published articles to suggest how to find solutions to, the problem. Unfortunately, the results have not been satisfactory. The purpose of this study is to find another way to help the Korean traditional retail market, from the view point of the Green Growth Policy, an initiative designed to address environmentally balanced economic growth in Korea. In order to survive and to maintain sustainable growth, it is incumbent upon retailers in the traditional market to understand the concept of the Green Growth Policy. A survey was conducted as a means of testing the degree of awareness of the Green Growth Policy, as well as determining the relationship between the degree of awareness and the degree of organizational commitment by the retailers in the local traditional markets. Interestingly, we were able to detect some of the features (e.g., they were distinguished by the elderly and the young, as well as low level of education and high level of education) in the traditional market retailers' demographic characteristics. We utilized the analysis of variance (ANOVA) statistical method to simultaneously compare the differences in retailers' demographic characteristics; the results were as follows: Overall, the results showed that the awareness of the Green Growth Policy, the degree of trust in the government's policy, levels of self-efficacy, and levels of organizational commitment were higher with the older traditional market retailers than the younger traditional market retailers. Specifically, the degree of trust in government policies (F=9.964,p < .05), levels of self-efficacy (F=5.532,p < .05), and levels of organizational commitment (F=5.697,p < .05) were statistically significant. Moreover, in the portion of the study that addressed the difference between education levels, all the variables were averaged in the higher education category of the traditional market retailers. Specifically, awareness levels of the Green Growth Policy (F=8.564,p < .005) and levels of self-efficacy (F=6.754,p < .005) were statistically significant. These results revealed that the traditional market retailers' demographic characteristics should be considered important factors in order to realize their policy. The results of the study showed the following: 1) The degree of awareness of the government's Green Growth Policy was statistically significant as it related to traditional market retailers' organizational commitment. 2) The degree of trust of the government's policy was significantly moderated between the awareness of the government's Green Growth Policy and the traditional market retailers' organizational commitment. This result demonstrates that the traditional market retailers' awareness of the government's Green Growth Policy will show more organizational commitment with higher levels of trust of the government's policy. 3) It also revealed that traditional market retailers' self-efficacy was fully mediated between the awareness of the Green Growth Policy of the government and traditional market retailers' organizational commitment. The results suggest that the government should show an interest in showing traditional market retailers how to enhance their traditional markets. Implications and future research directions are also discussed.

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The Impact of Consumption Utility from Green Retail Environment on Revisit Intention (환경친화적 유통공간의 소비효용이 재방문의도에 미치는 영향)

  • Paik, In-Yeol;Kang, Wooseong
    • Journal of Distribution Science
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    • v.16 no.2
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    • pp.67-81
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    • 2018
  • Purpose - Recently the importance of green consumption and corporate social responsibility has been increasing, thereby enhancing the importance of green consumption space as well. The retail space, as a representative consumption space, is now consuming more energy by introducing bigger retail space, 24-hour operation, cutting-edge equipment, and manless checkout system. Especially for retailers, who are constantly interacting with consumers, not only the economic consideration but also the consumer experience via retail service and physical retail space is crucial for their success. Therefore, this study intends to understand the main factors of motivating consumer perception about green retail space. In addition, we further investigate the mediating and moderating variables to encourage revisit intention and green retail space image. Research design, data, and methodology - In order to test our hypotheses with two models, we conducted a survey using questionnaires. In model 1, 356 respondents were surveyed to determine whether consumers' green attitudes and behaviors enhance environmentally friendly perception on retail space properties. In model 2, a questionnaire survey was conducted on 69 consumers who have experience in green retail space. Questionnaire surveys were conducted with on-line panels in Korea and analyzed using regression model and Hayes' PROCESS macro. Results - We found that consumers with green attitude put more importance on the attributes of green retail space. Also, the utility of the green retail space was found to be significant in emotional and social benefits. And, the consumers, who perceived the importance of green retail space, show higher revisit intentions. The emotional and social utilities have significant positive effects on revisit intention through green retail space image. Conclusions - This study demonstrates that a green retail space can induce positive consumer utility, thereby increasing green retail space image and revisit intention. Thus, in order to increase the image and revisit, retailers should communicate green messages with consumers, enhance green attributes of retail space, and target green consumers. To do so, we suggest that various marketing efforts such as publicity and education are needed to appeal experiential green products and retail space to consumers.

Consumer Awareness and Evaluation of Retailers' Social Responsibility: An Exploratory Approach into Ethical Purchase Behavior from a U.S Perspective (소비자인지도화령수상사회책임(消费者认知度和零售商社会责任): 종미국시각출발적도덕구매행위적탐색성연구(从美国视角出发的道德购买行为的探索性研究))

  • Lee, Min-Young;Jackson, Vanessa P.
    • 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.

Perceptions of the Retailers within Green Food Zone on the enforcement of the Special Act on the Safety Management of Children's Dietary Life (어린이 식생활 안전관리 특별법 시행에 대한 학교주변 판매업자 인식조사)

  • Lee, Seung-Sin;Yang, Deok-Soon;Lee, Jong-Hye;Lee, Young-Hee;Heo, Sun-Kyung
    • Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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    • v.27 no.1
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    • pp.55-62
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    • 2012
  • This study is a survey of regulatees' perception on main contents and enforcement effect of the Act, the retailers at food stores within Green Food Zone, for the effective enforcement of "The Special Act on the Safety Management of Children's Dietary Life" legislated in 2008. Percentage, frequency analysis, and T-test are derived from the survey carried out to the 175 retailers at food stores within Green Food Zone, across the country except Jejudo, for the two months March and April of 2011. The survey results are as follows. Over 80% of the respondents are aware of comprehensive policy for child food safety and the enforcement of 'the Special Act' and considering the rate of satisfaction on food safety information provided by government, over 90% of the respondents, virtually most of them, are satisfied. The rate of awareness of Green Food Zone is about 80% and that of outstanding business for children is about 50%, showing little perception of it. The comparison of the survey result of 2011 with that of 2010, which have the same questions to the retailers within Green Food Zone, still indicates a need for enhancement of understanding on absolute standard, though it showed fairly better improvement in general. Several proposals are given in this study based on the survey results, which will contribute to the children food safety and health improvement in the end.

Seeking a Better Place: Sustainability in the CPG Industry (추심경호적지방(追寻更好的地方): 유포장적소비품적산업적가지속발전(有包装的消费品的产业的可持续发展))

  • Rapert, Molly Inhofe;Newman, Christopher;Park, Seong-Yeon;Lee, Eun-Mi
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.20 no.2
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    • pp.199-207
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    • 2010
  • For us, there is virtually no distinction between being a responsible citizen and a successful business... they are one and the same for Wal-Mart today." ~ Lee Scott, al-Mart CEO after the 2005 Katrina disaster; cited in Green to Gold (Esty and Winston 2006). Lee Scott's statement signaled a new era in sustainability as manufacturers and retailers around the globe watched the world's largest mass merchandiser confirm its intentions with respect to sustainability. For decades, the environmental movement has grown, slowly bleeding over into the corporate world. Companies have been born, products have been created, academic journals have been launched, and government initiatives have been undertaken - all in the pursuit of sustainability (Peattie and Crane 2005). While progress has been admittedly slower than some may desire, the emergence and entrance of environmentally concerned mass merchandisers has done much to help with sustainable efforts. To better understand this movement, we incorporate the perspectives of both executives and consumers involved in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry. This research relies on three underlying themes: (1) Conceptual and anecdotal evidence suggests that companies undertake sustainability initiatives for a plethora of reasons, (2) The number of sustainability initiatives continues to increase in the consumer packaged goods industries, and (3) That it is, therefore, necessary to explore the role that sustainability plays in the minds of consumers. In light of these themes, surveys were administered to and completed by 143 college students and 101 business executives to assess a number of variables in regards to sustainability including willingness-to-pay, behavioral intentions, attitudes, willingness-to-pay, and preferences. Survey results indicate that the top three reasons why executives believe sustainability to be important include (1) the opportunity for profitability, (2) the fulfillment of an obligation to the environment, and (3) a responsibility to customers and shareholders. College students identified the top three reasons as (1) a responsibility to the environment, (2) an indebtedness to future generations, and (3) an effective management of resources. While the rationale for supporting sustainability efforts differed between college students and executives, the executives and consumers reported similar responses for the majority of the remaining sustainability issues. Furthermore, when we asked consumers to assess the importance of six key issues (healthcare, economy, education, crime, government spending, and environment) previously identified as important to consumers by Gallup Poll, protecting the environment only ranked fourth out of the six (Carlson 2005). While all six of these issues were identified as important, the top three that emerged as most important were (1) improvements in education, (2) the economy, and (3) health care. As the pursuit and incorporation of sustainability continues to evolve, so too will the expected outcomes. New definitions of performance that reflect the social/business benefits as well as the lengthened implementation period are relevant and warranted (Ehrenfeld 2005; Hitchcock and Willard 2006). We identified three primary categories of outcomes based on a literature review of both anecdotal and conceptual expectations of sustainability: (1) improvements in constituent satisfaction, (2) differentiation opportunities, and (3) financial rewards. Within each of these categories, several specific outcomes were identified resulting in eleven different outcomes arising from sustainability initiatives. Our survey results indicate that the top five most likely outcomes for companies that pursue sustainability are: (1) green consumers will be more satisfied, (2) company image will be better, (3) corporate responsibility will be enhanced, (4) energy costs will be reduced, and (5) products will be more innovative. Additionally, to better understand the interesting intersection between the environmental "identity" of a consumer and the willingness to manifest that identity with marketplace purchases, we extended prior research developed by Experian Research (2008). Accordingly, respondents were categorized as one of four types of green consumers (Behavioral Greens, Think Greens, Potential Greens, or True Browns) to garner a better understanding of the green consumer in addition to assisting with a more effective interpretation of results. We assessed these consumers' willingness to engage in eco-friendly behavior by evaluating three options: (1) shopping at retailers that support environmental initiatives, (2) paying more for products that protect the environment, and (3) paying higher taxes so the government can support environmental initiatives. Think Greens expressed the greatest willingness to change, followed by Behavioral Greens, Potential Greens, and True Browns. These differences were all significant at p<.01. Further Conclusions and Implications We have undertaken a descriptive study which seeks to enhance our understanding of the strategic domain of sustainability. Specifically, this research fills a gap in the literature by comparing and contrasting the sustainability views of business executives and consumers with specific regard to preferences, intentions, willingness-to-pay, behavior, and attitudes. For practitioners, much can be gained from a strategic standpoint. In addition to the many results already reported, respondents also reported than willing to pay more for products that protect the environment. Other specific results indicate that female respondents consistently communicate a stronger willingness than males to pay more for these products and to shop at eco-friendly retailers. Knowing this additional information, practitioners can now have a more specific market in which to target and communicate their sustainability efforts. While this research is only an initial step towards understanding similarities and differences among practitioners and consumers regarding sustainability, it presents original findings that contribute to both practice and research. Future research should be directed toward examining other variables affecting this relationship, as well as other specific industries.

A Study on Determining an Appropriate Power Trading Contracts to Promote Renewable Energy Systems

  • Choi, Yeon-Ju;Kim, Sung-Yul
    • International Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing-Green Technology
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    • v.5 no.5
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    • pp.623-630
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    • 2018
  • The renewable energy systems have been in the spotlight as an alternative for environmental issues. Therefore, the governmental policies are being implemented to spread of promote power generation system using renewable energy in various countries around the world. In addition, Korea has also developed a policy called the power trading contract which can profit from electricity produced from renewable power generation system through Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) and Korea Power Exchange (KPX). As a result, the power trading contracts can trade power after self-consuming in-house by using small-scale renewable power system for residential customers as well as electricity retailers. The power trading contracts applicable as a small-scale power system have a 'Net metering (NM)' and a 'Power Purchase Agreement (PPA)', and these two types of power trading contracts trade surplus power, but payment method of each power trading is different. The microgrid proposed in this paper is based on grid connected microgrid using Photovoltaic (PV) system and Energy Storage System (ESS), that supplied power to residential demand, we evaluate the operation cost of microgrid by power demand in each power trading contracts and propose the appropriate power trading contracts according to electricity demand.

Customer Value Factors Influencing the Continuous Use Intention of Department Store Mobile Apps : Focusing on the Customer of Sinsegae Department Store (백화점 모바일 앱 지속 이용 의도에 영향을 미치는 고객 가치 요인 : 신세계 백화점 이용 고객을 중심으로 )

  • Kim, So-hyun;Choi, Chang-bum
    • Journal of Venture Innovation
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    • v.6 no.4
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    • pp.23-40
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    • 2023
  • This study examines the customer value factors affecting the intention to continue using the mobile app of department stores, which are traditional offline retailers, in the retail industry that is rapidly digitalizing and becoming mobile. This study clarifies multidimensional customer value in three dimensions; functional, convenience, and social. Functional value refers to the integrated channel, and consistent customer experience provided between channels in the omnichannel retail environment, while convenience value is the convenience of saving time and effort save while customers use a mobile app. Social value refers to the improvement of social approval or social self-concept occurring due to the use of products or services related to green marketing within the mobile app of the department store. The influence of each on the dependent variable, the mobile app's continuous use intention, was analyzed by using the three dimensions of customer value as independent variables. Data was collected from customers who have a history of using the mobile app of Shinsegae Department Store in Korea, and a confirmatory analysis was conducted using Smart PLS 4.0. The analysis results showed that all three dimensions of customer value; functional value, convenience value, and social value, had a positive (+) influence on customers' intention to continue using the mobile app, and the influence of functional value had the greatest impact. As functional value appears to be the most important influencing factor due to the omnichannel retail trend by advancement of technology, it suggests that it is important for department stores, and offline retailers, to provide integrated channels. This provides insights into the direction of customer-centered strategy formulation for activating department store mobile apps and suggests basic analytical data for customized services and marketing activities that department stores can effectively meet the changing expectations and demands of customers through new mobile channels rather than existing offline channels.