• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.626-642
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• 2018

Recently, a number of studies have drawn attention to purchasing online game items. Most of the studies are based on the assumption that consumers behave rationally. Accordingly, TRA- or value-based approaches have been mainly employed to understand the online purchases of game items. However, the purchasing behavior of consumers involves not only making rational decisions, but also making irrational decisions. Hence, their purchase behavior is affected by propensities for conspicuous consumption, impulsive consumption, and habitual consumption. Playing games can be highly addictive, and players often display such addictive behaviors. Our study explored both the rational and irrational factors in purchase behavior to understand how they are associated with purchasing game items. A total of 366 pieces of data were collected from Korean online game users through a survey. Regression analyses of the collected data showed that the behavior of buying game items was influenced not only by the intention to purchase which is a rational factor in consumption, but also by such irrational factors as habit, impulse, and ostentation which should be further emphasized in future studies.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.381-395
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• 2009

This study was conducted to investigate effects of self concept of children consumers on consumption propensity of online items according to gender by considering that self, which means a thought on ownself, is expressed as online items in cyber space. Totally, 760 copies of the questionnaire were distributed and 716 ones were finally used as data for analysis in this study. The data were analyzed by using SPSS 14.0 and factorial analysis, Cronbach' ${\alpha}$, t-test, cross tabulation analysis and multiple regression were conducted. The results of this study could be summarized as follows. First, the factorial analysis performed to examine types of self concept found four factorial structures - justness, social, academic and family self. In addition, the factorial analysis done to determine compositional factors of irrational consumption propensity of children consumers showed three factorial structures - impulse buying, conspicuous consumption and imitative consumption. When the effects of personal variables, item-transaction variables and self concept on irrational consumption propensity of children consumers were investigated according to gender, significant factors affecting consumption propensity of both of the males and females were a monthly pocket money, time using the Internet and major transaction items. In addition, parents' permission for purchasing items, justness self and family self were found to be variables affecting consumption propensity in the male children. On the contrary, self concept of female children did not affect irrational consumption propensity.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.146-154
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• 2021

Conspicuous consumption is often investigated in Korea and consumers purchase a product to publicly display economic power or social status. The existing studies argue that brand loyalty and luxury brand preferences escalate conspicuous consumption, and it is important to identify different visual perception to understand irrational consumers' behavior. Car emblem as brands' visual identity represents the brand's image, mission and message. Irrational consumers thus are expected have different visual perception to the emblem or logo. To understand the impact of irrational consumer behavior on visual perception, this study explored how brand loyalty and luxury brand preferences impact on the visual perception of car emblems between Korean domestic brand and imported brand. This study used eye tracking technology to measure the respondents' attention on an emblem of the cars. Eye tracking tools analyze fixations and measure the attention on a specific area of interests (AOI). This study explored the maintaining time and frequency on AOI, as well as explored the size of pupil to identify the respondents' attention on the AOI. In this experiment, the logos of domestic cars (i.e., Hyundai and Kia) and foreign cars (i.e., Mercedes-Benz and BMW) were swapped to see how irrational consumer behavior impact on visual perception of car emblem.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.328-349
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• 2024

In the last decade, Korean culture has progressively facilitated the assimilation of appearance-related norms established by modern Korean society among young generations in Vietnam. Of note, Vietnamese consumers residing in Korea, under the influence of diverse sociocultural factors, are aligning themselves with an ideal standard of Korean beauty through cultural adaptation. This study explores how Vietnamese students internalize Korean beauty standards and the resultant negative behavioral reactions. We investigated the effects of sociocultural pressures (media, in-group, and out-group pressure) on risky appearance management and irrational purchase behavior by mediating sociocultural internalization toward appearance. We tested how the mechanism underlying these variables differs based on how long one has resided in Korea. A total of 213 female participants were surveyed online. The research model was tested using structural equation modeling through AMOS 22.0. The findings show that media and out-group pressure significantly increased sociocultural internalization, which led to consumer behavior in the form of risky appearance management and irrational purchases. The influence of internalization on consumption behavior was stronger for short-term residents of Korea. This study contributes to the literature on acculturation by investigating how foreign consumers accept the host country's ideal beauty standards.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.263-274
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• 1991

This article reports on a study designed to investigate the nature of compulsive-like buying behavior among the normal urban housewives. A previously tested compulsive buying scale was administered to a sample of 566 urban housewives. As predicted by the hypotheses, compulsive buying tendencies correlate negatively with self-esteem and life satisfaction: positively with materialism, early consumption experience, one's susceptibility to social influence, advertising of women journal, irrational credit card usage. But age, education, and family income don't explain compulsive buying tendencies. Several other findngs are reported and discussed. Areas where further research should be done are suggested.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.222-235
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• 2023

In this research, we examined the shifts in determinants influencing the frequency of eco-friendly food purchases pre- and post-COVID-19. Our analysis utilized filtered 2019-2021 Consumption Behavior Survey data from the Korea Rural Economic Institute Food, excluding any irrational responses. Given the nature of the dependent variable, a multinomial logistic regression model was employed with demographic factors, variables pertaining to food consumption behavior, and variables concerning food consumption awareness as predictors. Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, an individual's level of education was observed to positively influence the frequency of eco-friendly food purchases. In contrast, income level and fluctuations in food consumption expenditure did not appear to have a discernible impact on the purchasing frequency of such eco-friendly products. Irrespective of the advent of COVID-19, variables such as the frequency of online food purchases, the utilization of early morning delivery services, dining out frequency, and the intake of health-functional foods consistently demonstrated a positive correlation with the propensity to purchase eco-friendly foods. Overall, consumers prioritizing safety, quality, and nutrition over price, taste, and convenience in their procurement decisions for rice, vegetables, meat, and processed foods exhibit an increased inclination toward the acquisition of eco-friendly food products.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.330-338
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• 1989

The Korean apparel manufacturing industry started to meet domestic demands which had depended on importation in 1950s, growing into one of the export-oriented industries with several Five-Year Economic Development Plans. In spite of the development, inefficient organization of distribution of apparel manufacturing industry which connects production with consumption impedes further development of the industry. This study aims at suggesting desirable distribution system of ladies' apparel, the core of the fashion industry. This researcher interviewed those who are concerned in twenty-eight ladies' apparel manufacturing compaines, analyzing the current state of distribution in the industry and the problems. The results are as follows; 1. Forty-five percent of ladies' apparel is distributed through department stores. Therefore, the department stores need to assume their roles in sales and try to improve the condition and to train professional buyers. 2. The sales network is concentrated on the five biggest cities such as Seoul, Pusan, Taegu, Taechon, and Kwangju, prompting the need to be diversified. 3, Tke existing distribution forms distribution systems have many irrational factors which are aggravnting the rate of goods in stock. 4. The manufacturing companies do not implement studies on distribution. The companies should try to establish clear concepts on production and distribution on their own for better planning skills. 5. Computerized systems need to manage the procedures ranging from ordering, distribution, sales to inventory.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.229-237
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• 2016

The purpose of this paper is to empirically identify whether unit bias exists or not under the flat rate pricing in the Korean mobile telecommunication market and to give the desirable form of pricing plans for minimizing this irrational behaviors. Our results show that with the flat rate pricing consumers tends to make more voice or data traffic over their optimal consumption level, meaning the existence of unit bias in the Korean mobile market. These results imply that under the current pricing plans subscribers may pay higher monthly fee than their optimal cost which maximizes their utility, for using the telecommunications service. Thus, policy makers need to consider adopting mobile operators' segmentation of the flat rate pricing plans for the reduction of subscribers' telecommunications costs and the improvement of consumer welfare.

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.83-105
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• 2017

In contemporary society interest in and consumption of beauty treatment are increasing, raising interest in health and beauty. However, beauty-related laws are becoming factors of hindrance of beauty development. Currently the Public Health Control Act plays a basic role in the beauty art business in Korea, However the contents are in discord with international laws and its definition is not clear. Therefore it is causing conflicts of different occupations and job associations which are similar to art business. Especially, because neither definitions nor policies on beauty care devices exist in the Public Health Control Act, beauty care devices using in foreign countries cannot be used in Korea due to classification as medical devices. Under this circumstance, therefore, beauty care device uses by beauty artists violate the law. The government has tried to solve these irrational regulations. Recently, the Small and Medium Business Administration announced 'the improvement plan of small business and young founders site regulation for public economy recovery' in a ministerial meeting on December 28, 2016. Regulations on policy preparation for skincare devices were inclusive in this announcement. It is the question whether the regulations will be executed or not. Even though beauty industrial competitiveness was presented in the 18th Presidential Council on National Competitiveness in 2009, it was not practiced. The proposal bills for beauty law improvement have been put forth several times since 2000 including an improvement plan for regulating beauty care devices. However, so far there have been no improvements. The damage on the regulation classifying beauty devices as medical devices is not only restricted to skincare. This develops beauty devices and the beauty industry which imports and exports beauty devices. When beauty devices are exported, complicated procedures are unavoidable and when beauty devices are imported, irrational problems like reregistration procedures and costs occur. The reason why an improvement plan has not gone into practice is the resistance of the dermatologists' association. Dermatologists tend to stand positively against harming public health by saying that beauty devices used by beauty artists cause people to suffer side effects. In contrast, anyone who has a licence to use beauty devices is able to use them in foreign countries. It is not only infringement of one's right as a beauty artist but also people's right to receive beauty care services. With this reason, Korean's current law under which beauty devices are ruled as medical devices should be revised with accordance to domestic surroundings. Therefore in order to advance and globalize the beauty industry, the support and cooperation of the Korean government and relevant associations is needed to legislate and revise the beauty devices laws. The relevant associations abandon regional self-centeredness and cooperate to define ranges, size and management of beauty devices for safe use. If no collaboration exists, an arbitration agency should be established to solve the problem.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.49-58
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• 1977

Nutrition counselors in Korea often encounter difficulty in their attempt to change village women's attitudes regarding food taboos which are counter to good eating habits. There are a great many food superstitions which are not due to religious influence, but seem to be related to shape and composition of food. Many expectant mothers superstitiously avoid eating certain foods for fear that they may cause mental or physical abnormality in their babies. As was shown in a previous survey (Mo, 1966)of villages in all provinces except Jeju Island, such superstitions were common among pregnant and lactating mothers. Many food taboos and superstitions based on non-scientific and irrational ideas do exist even in modern society, and are a major obstacle to nutritionally adequate food consumption. A study of food taboos among women of Jeju Island was undertaken from November to December of 1976, these results to be compared as well with those of the previous study. There were 73 items found to be prohibited during pregnancy. Of these, 48.7% were of the deaf group, 17.4% fish, 5.5% eggs, 4.7% cereal, and only 2.2% fruit. Of 252% women respondents, 111 (45% ) abstained from eating chicken, duck, and shark because of the belief that they would cause their babies to be born with gooseflesh or shark skin. Many of them avoided rabbit meat for fear that their babies might be born with harelip. It was also feared that a baby would become disfigured if his mother ate duck, goat, dog meat, chicken or duck eggs, or soup made of bones. A common superstition was that highly spiced or salty foods would cause the fetus to be hairless. Squid and octopus were believed to cause babies to have weak bones, or none at all. Most of these food taboos were associated with fears concerning Physical structure and appearance of unborn babies. Other taboos were associated with fear of undesirable behavioral characteristics. For example, some mothers thought that a baby would pinch or bite the mother's breast during the weaning period, if crab meat were eaten during pregnancy. Unevenly sliced rice cake, loach, snake meat and eel were also believed to cause a baby to be ill-tempered. The findings of this study are remarkably similar to those of the previous study conducted by the authour in 1966. Most of the same food taboos, based on non-scientific and irrational reasons, were found on Jeju Island as on the peninsula, and thor were similarly wide-spread. The results of correlational analysis show that the most significant factors related to prevalence of food taboos, are level of education and religious background. Number of food taboos is correlated with level of education. Also, food taboos are least freqent among the Christian woman. Proper nutrition education should he undertaken in order to encourage intake of protein-rich food, particularly during pregnancy when nutritional needs of mother and fetus are great.