• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.115-130
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• 2011

Many online stores bring features that can build trust in their customers. More so, the number of products or content services on online stores has been increasing rapidly. Hence, personalization on online stores is considered to be an important technology to companies and customers. Recommender systems that provide favorable products and customer product reviews to users are the most commonly used features in this purpose. There are many studies to that investigated the relationship between social presence as an antecedent of trust and provision of recommender systems or customer product reviews. Many online stores have made efforts to increase perceived social presence of their customers through customer reviews, recommender systems, and analyzing associations among products. Primarily because social presence can increase customer trust or reuse intention for online stores. However, there were few studies that investigated the interactions between recommendation type, product type and provision of customer product reviews on social presence. Therefore, one of the purposes of this study is to identify the effects of personalized recommender systems and compare the role of customer reviews with product types. This study performed an experiment to see these interactions. Experimental web pages were developed with $2{\times}2$ factorial setting based on how to provide social presence to users with customer reviews and two product types such as hedonic and utilitarian. The hedonic type was a ringtone chosen from Nate.com while the utilitarian was a TOEIC study aid book selected from Yes24.com. To conduct the experiment, web based experiments were conducted for the participants who have been shopping on the online stores. Participants were a total of 240 and 30% of the participants had the chance of getting the presents. We found out that social presence increased for hedonic products when personalized recommendations were given compared to non.personalized recommendations. Although providing customer reviews for two product types did not significantly increase social presence, provision of customer product reviews for hedonic (ringtone) increased perceived social presence. Otherwise, provision of customer product reviews could not increase social presence when the systems recommend utilitarian products (TOEIC study.aid books). Therefore, it appears that the effects of increasing perceived social presence with customer reviews have a difference for product types. In short, the role of customer reviews could be different based on which product types were considered by customers when they are making a decision related to purchasing on the online stores. Additionally, there were no differences for increasing perceived social presence when providing customer reviews. Our participants might have focused on how recommendations had been provided and what products were recommended because our developed systems were providing recommendations after participants rating their preferences. Thus, the effects of customer reviews could appear more clearly if our participants had actual purchase opportunity for the recommendations. Personalized recommender systems can increase social presence of customers more than nonpersonalized recommender systems by using user preference. Online stores could find out how they can increase perceived social presence and satisfaction of their customers when customers want to find the proper products with recommender systems and customer reviews. In addition, the role of customer reviews of the personalized recommendations can be different based on types of the recommended products. Even if this study conducted two product types such as hedonic and utilitarian, the results revealed that customer reviews for hedonic increased social presence of customers more than customer reviews for utilitarian. Thus, online stores need to consider the role of providing customer reviews with highly personalized information based on their product types when they develop the personalized recommender systems.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.157-176
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• 2016

For a long time, mobile phone had a sole function of communication. Recently however, abrupt innovations in technology allowed extension of the sphere in mobile phone activities. Development of technology enabled realization of almost computer-like environment even on a very small device. Such advancement yielded several forms of new high-tech devices such as smartphone and tablet PC, which quickly proliferated. Simultaneously with the diffusion of the mobile devices, mobile applications for those devices also prospered and soon became deeply penetrated in consumers' daily lives. Numerous mobile applications have been released in app stores yielding trillions of cumulative downloads. However, a big majority of the applications are disregarded from consumers. Even after the applications are purchased, they do not survive long in consumers' mobile devices and are soon abandoned. Nevertheless, it is imperative for both app developers and app-store operators to understand consumer behaviors and to develop marketing strategies aiming to make sustainable business by first increasing sales of mobile applications and by also designing surviving strategy for applications. Therefore, this research analyzes consumers' mobile application usage behavior in a frame of substitution/supplementary of application categories and several explanatory variables. Considering that consumers of mobile devices use multiple apps simultaneously, this research adopts multivariate probit models to explain mobile application usage behavior and to derive correlation between categories of applications for observing substitution/supplementary of application use. The research adopts several explanatory variables including sociodemographic data, user experiences of purchased applications that reflect future purchasing behavior of paid applications as well as consumer attitudes toward marketing efforts, variables representing consumer attitudes toward rating of the app and those representing consumer attitudes toward app-store promotion efforts (i.e., top developer badge and editor's choice badge). Results of this study can be explained in hedonic and utilitarian framework. Consumers who use hedonic applications, such as those of game and entertainment-related, are of young age with low education level. However, consumers who are old and have received higher education level prefer utilitarian application category such as life, information etc. There are disputable arguments over whether the users of SNS are hedonic or utilitarian. In our results, consumers who are younger and those with higher education level prefer using SNS category applications, which is in a middle of utilitarian and hedonic results. Also, applications that are directly related to tangible assets, such as banking, stock and mobile shopping, are only negatively related to experience of purchasing of paid app, meaning that consumers who put weights on tangible assets do not prefer buying paid application. Regarding categories, most correlations among categories are significantly positive. This is because someone who spend more time on mobile devices tends to use more applications. Game and entertainment category shows significant and positive correlation; however, there exists significantly negative correlation between game and information, as well as game and e-commerce categories of applications. Meanwhile, categories of game and SNS as well as game and finance have shown no significant correlations. This result clearly shows that mobile application usage behavior is quite clearly distinguishable - that the purpose of using mobile devices are polarized into utilitarian and hedonic purpose. This research proves several arguments that can only be explained by second-hand real data, not by survey data, and offers behavioral explanations of mobile application usage in consumers' perspectives. This research also shows substitution/supplementary patterns of consumer application usage, which then explain consumers' mobile application usage behaviors. However, this research has limitations in some points. Classification of categories itself is disputable, for classification is diverged among several studies. Therefore, there is a possibility of change in results depending on the classification. Lastly, although the data are collected in an individual application level, we reduce its observation into an individual level. Further research will be done to resolve these limitations.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.69-76
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• 2019

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of basic value satisfaction on service quality evaluation and customer loyalty and the moderating effect of Bargain-proneness in this process. Specifically, I analyzed the influence of basic value satisfaction, the mediating effect of service quality evaluation, and the moderated mediation effect of Bargain-proneness. Research design, data, and methodology - Data collection for this study was conducted for adults over 18 years of age with shopping experiences in traditional market within a month around the traditional market in the metropolitan area. A total of 250 questionnaire response data was obtained. Hypotheses were tested using SPSS. The PROCESS macro method was used to verify the mediating effect of the service quality evaluation on the relationship between basic value satisfaction and customer loyalty. Hierarchical regression analysis was performed to analyze the moderated mediation effect of the bargain-proneness tendency. Results - Empirical results showed that the basic value satisfaction affected service quality evaluation and customer loyalty. Specifically, it has been found that it directly affects customer loyalty and indirectly influences through service quality evaluation. The moderated mediation effect of the bargain-proneness tendency in the process of basic value satisfaction affecting customer loyalty through service quality evaluation has been verified. In other words, the higher the bargain-proneness tendency, the more influence the basic value satisfaction has on the favorable service quality evaluation. Conclusions - This study contributed to the distribution literature in that it attempted a new empirical study considering the variable 'bargain-proneness tendency', which had not received much academic attention in the past. Furthermore, this study contributed academically in that it presented important moderating variables that should be paid attention in the field of distribution studies. In this study, bargain-proneness was used with a focus on traditional markets, but this variable could play an significant role in future offline distribution studies that should pay attention to meet hedonic needs of shopping. These results suggested that traditional market practitioners should focus on the basic value and that the bargain-prone consumer segment should be considered as a target.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.60 no.1
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• pp.43-55
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• 2010

To pursue youth and agelessness can be regarded as a global trend today. The younger a woman recognizes herself to be, the more sensation seeking tendency and the more active fashion exploratory behavior of younger generation she would show. This study attempted to empirically examine the relationship between sensation seeking behavior and fashion exploratory behavior according to the difference age in women in their 30's to 50s'. After the survey, a total of 480 questionnaires was used for data analysis. The results of this study are as follows, 1. It was found that there was a very high correlation among cognitive ages, and the lower cognitive age a woman had, the higher difference age she showed. 2. Sensation seeking tendency of adult women was shown in two factors of change seeking and artistic sensation seeking, and these factors accounted for 73.99% of the total variances. Fashion exploratory behavior had 4 factors such as fashion leadership, behavior of hedonic shopping, behavior of clothing communication and behavior of clothing purchase with taking a risk, and these four factors accounted for 75.87% of the total variances. 3. The higher difference age and the higher tendency of sensation seeking an adult woman had, the higher fashion exploratory behavior was shown, and the higher the difference age, the higher tendency of change seeking and artistic sensation seeking.

• Journal of Venture Innovation
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.99-111
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• 2023

This study aims to confirm that consumers' satisfaction with online shopping websites has changed to a phenomenon different from the past. In other words, in a situation where the use of e-commerce is expanding worldwide after the pandemic and various types of commerce such as mobile commerce and social commerce are formed, the consumer's information processing and decision-making process are meaningful in examining the behavior that has been changed based on the perceived motivation level of consumers by the new environment according to the consumption value and personal characteristics perceived by the consumer. In other words, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of consumption value and need for cognition on the satisfaction toward online websites as a mediating role in the trust of the website. As a result of testing Hypothesis 1, not only the hedonic value of the consumer for the website but also the utilitarian value had a positive influence on the satisfaction toward the website, and in particular, the utilitarian value showed a relatively greater influence than the hedonic value. However, the negative relationship between the need for cognition and satisfaction was found to be at a significant level under one-sided verification. In Hypothesis 2, only the utilitarian value among the consumption values of 2-1 showed a positive effect on satisfaction through a mediating role of trust. It was confirmed that the utilitarian value among the consumption values was an important factor in the satisfaction toward the website. The significance of this study is that, unlike previous research results, not only consumption value based on senses and emotions but also utilitarian value has a greater influence. Therefore, utilitarian value and need for cognition have a stronger influence on satisfaction if they play a mediating role based on the trust of the website used by consumers. These findings reflect the current market trend of online consumption, and they are helpful in the management and strategy of online websites based on consumer behavior understanding and major factors.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.213-232
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• 2014

Sensitivity to online store stimuli (VMD attributes) and response (online store loyalty) may depend upon consumers' regulatory focus (emotional state). In other words, consumers' sensitivity to online store atmosphere and consequent store loyalty can be influenced by the match between their regulatory focus (promotion focused vs. prevention focused) and the type of the online store VMD benefits Study 1 results indicate consumers have a different evaluation about online store atmosphere depending on their regulatory focus. Promotion-focused consumers were significantly more sensitive to visual appeal and entertainment attributes of online store atmospherics than prevention-focused consumers. Conversely, prevention-focused consumers were significantly more sensitive to security and privacy attributes of online store, than promotion-focused consumers. Study 2 results indicate for promotion-focused shoppers, hedonic value toward online store atmosphere was associated with greater online store loyalty. In contrast, prevention-focused shoppers were influenced more by the utilitarian attributes on online store loyalty than promotion-focused shoppers. The current findings indicate that shoppers with promotion-focused are more easily persuaded by visual and entertainment-oriented online store cues. Conversely, shoppers with prevention-focus are more easily persuaded by safety and privacy-oriented online store cues.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.69-102
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• 2012

Owing to increased number of luxury brand users, both genuine and counterfeit luxury product consumption continues to increase every year. Luxury brand is defined as use or display of a particular branded products which brings the ownership prestige apart from its functional utility(Grossmand and Shapiro 1988). Some luxury brands have imitations sold in marketplace due to their popularity. These imitations or counterfeits have been jumping on the bandwagon of the upturn in sales of their originals. The purpose of our study is to understand consumer's underlying motives to consume luxury brands, genuine and or counterfeits. To do this, we propose functional theories of attitudes, decision-making styles, and life attitudes to form the determining causes for different consumption choices of luxury brands: genuine brands, counterfeit brands, both genuine and counterfeit brands, and no consumption on luxury brands types. In proposed causal pathways, we examine moderated effects of socio-psychological factors to further investigate if consumer profiles would exert influences in causal relationships. From the existing theories of functional attitudes: value-expressive and social-adjustive attitudes, we developed and introduced a new measure of rationality-consumptive attitude. From the existing eight decision-making characteristics of consumer styles inventory(CSI), three measures of high-quality, hedonic-shopping, and price-shopping styles were primarily applied in the study along with newly introduced measure of 'high-price' being added, which makes four total. Seven life attitude measures of life purpose, life control, will to meaning, goal seeking, future mean to fulfill, life satisfaction, and religiosity were applied. Finally, such socio-psychological measures as age, gender, marital status, income, and age-gap between couples were assumed to function as moderators. With 430 valid study samples, ages from 20s to 50s, with more females(316) than males(114), with average personal possessions of 5 genuine and 9 counterfeit luxury brands, we conducted questionnaire survey. Results indicated that social-adjustive function is totally disappeared in the relationship due to current social trend of widespread consumptions on both genuine and counterfeit brands which in turn, make consumers feel less special on wearing or carrying them unlike in the past. Self-expressive function and rationality-consumptive functions act as strong catalysts for genuine brand consumption and counterfeit brand consumption, respectively. On consumers' decision-making styles, high-price sublation is the most powerful indicator anticipating counterfeit consumption, even more powerful than personal incomes. In life attitude, the overall model fit was not validated, and only life control and life satisfaction are proven to be significant on both genuine and counterfeit product consumptions. Employment of socio-psychological factors in the model improved understanding of users further. Young consumers tend to go for genuine products over counterfeits. Consumers in different income groups; low, medium and high, all significantly consume genuine products for reasons of different decision-making styles. The results indicated that consumers whose personal disposition is predisposed to consume products in the form of reflection of his or her personality, go only for genuine brands for quality reason, while consumers who rationally consume products for its function or usability, go only for counterfeits for high-price sublation reason. Meanwhile, both product users support for high-price orientation who are not well off.

• Korean journal of food and cookery science
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.771-779
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• 2008

The purpose of the study was assessing Kochujang sauces(BBQ & Chicken) using a Home Use Test(HUT) focused on England food consumer. To achieve of the purpose, 58 England food consumers were selected by CCFRA's customer database. The qualification of the sample was responsible for the households' main grocery shopping, cooking Oriental/ Far Eastern cuisines at home, enjoying hot/spicy chilli based food and would be willing to buy hot chilli based Oriental sauce. 3 times of HUT were accomplished. The test was continued during 3 weeks, and each test was continued during one week. To check the sensory evaluation results on these sauces, 9 point hedonic scale and JAR(Just About Right) were used. The frequency analysis was adopted for the study. The results of a study were as followed. The overall satisfaction(upper 7point) on BBQ sauce was 60%, and the chicken sauce was 55.1%. The sweetness, hot taste, and BBQ aroma were suitable as a upper 40% using JAR scale. On purchase intention, BBQ & Chicken was slightly increased. These sauces were proper lunch & Dinner time. Also, good for dip, stir fry, and marinade. The result of put to use the sauces on food material as followed. BBQ sauce was proper Chicken(45.5%), vegetable(29.9%), and turkey(19%) in the order named. In case of the chicken sauce was ordered chicken(46.2%), vegetable(27.5%), beef(17.5%).

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.95-102
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• 2019

Purpose - The purpose of the research is to identify the demographic characteristics of the customers with high private label purchase intention. According to the previous research demographics such as gender, age, income, and residence type affect private label purchase intention indirectly through psychographics rather than directly. For instance, higher income group is time pressured, price-insensitive, quality-sensitive, less likely to enjoy shopping utilitarian products, and less likely to be variety-seeking. The main contribution of this research is to verify the results found in the previous empirical foreign research using scanner data and to investigate the differences of the characteristics of private label users between Korea and the foreign countries. Research design, data, and methodology - In order to empirically test the proposed hypotheses, scanner data of a Korean major super center was analyzed. Results - Empirical results show that private labels are more favored by old people over 50s, dwellers in individual house, lower income group, and frequent store visitors. Age of 30s, dwellers in the apartment of 30 pyung, higher income group, and consumers who purchased a large amount are less likely to purchase private labels. Gender turned out not to affect private label purchase. It should be noted that there is a significant multicollinearity among independent variables. Conclusions - The research findings provide managerial implication for retailers' private label strategy. In general, retailers heavily send private label coupons to the customers with high purchase volume. According to the research, however, store visit frequency is much more positively associated with private label purchase than purchase amount. The study has some limitations. The samples are only consumers with private label purchase experience. The data were drawn from one store and only 8 commodity products were used for the analysis. Also, if more demographics were available, a more complete description on the private brand users' profile could have been derived. We propose the following future research. Research using the data including consumers without private label experience, research investigating direction of causality between private label loyalty and store loyalty, and research using hedonic private label products such as TV and PC could be promising.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.599-610
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• 2016

The purposes of this study are to identify the characteristics of limited edition fashion consumers, to analyze their purchase decision-making processes, and to examine negative factors of consumers' recognition toward limited edition fashion products. A qualitative investigation was conducted by doing in-depth interviews with 11 selected consumers in their twenties and thirties who have actively purchased and consumed limited edition fashion products. The results of this study can be summarized as follows. First, there are four sub-categories of appearance management activity, acceptance of fashion trend, information-seeking behavior, and hedonic shopping orientation for the limited edition fashion consumers' characteristics. Second, the purchase decision-making process of limited edition fashion consumers are identified as seven steps: need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, planning and courtship, purchase, post-purchase evaluation, and post-purchase behavior. Courtship/attachment formation and post-purchase behavior are unique steps when compared to general purchase decision-making process. Third, this study identified negative factors of consumers' recognition toward limited edition this study in order to suggest several improvement plans for enterprises using limited marketing. Four sub-categories are examined: outrageous price, tricks of company, fatigue due to purchasing competition, and re-sellers. In conclusion, this study indicates that the purchase decision-making process of limited edition consumers, which involves two distinctive steps including courtship/attachment formation and post-purchase behavior, can be differentiated from general consumers. The results of this study provides preliminary data for further research for in-depth analysis of limited edition consumers.