• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.159-189
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• 2012

What attracts consumers to bloggers' reviews? Consumers would be attracted both by the Bloggers' expertise (i.e., knowledge and experience) and by his/her unbiased manner of delivering information. Expertise and trustworthiness are both virtues of information sources, particularly when there is uncertainty in decision-making. Noting this point, we postulate that consumers' motives determine the relative weights they place on expertise and trustworthiness. In addition, our hypotheses assume that tie strength moderates consumers' expectation on bloggers' expertise and trustworthiness: with expectation on expertise enhanced for power-blog user-group (weak-ties), and an expectation on trustworthiness elevated for personal-blog user-group (strong-ties). Finally, we theorize that the effect of credibility on willingness to accept a review is moderated by tie strength; the predictive power of credibility is more prominent for the personal-blog user-groups than for the power-blog user groups. To support these assumptions, we conducted a field survey with blog users, collecting retrospective self-report data. The "gourmet shop" was chosen as a target product category, and obtained data analyzed by structural equations modeling. Findings from these data provide empirical support for our theoretical predictions. First, we found that the purposive motive aimed at satisfying instrumental information needs increases reliance on bloggers' expertise, but interpersonal connectivity value for alleviating loneliness elevates reliance on bloggers' trustworthiness. Second, expertise-based credibility is more prominent for power-blog user-groups than for personal-blog user-groups. While strong ties attract consumers with trustworthiness based on close emotional bonds, weak ties gain consumers' attention with new, non-redundant information (Levin & Cross, 2004). Thus, when the existing knowledge system, used in strong ties, does not work as smoothly for addressing an impending problem, the weak-tie source can be utilized as a handy reference. Thus, we can anticipate that power bloggers secure credibility by virtue of their expertise while personal bloggers trade off on their trustworthiness. Our analysis demonstrates that power bloggers appeal more strongly to consumers than do personal bloggers in the area of expertise-based credibility. Finally, the effect of review credibility on willingness to accept a review is higher for the personal-blog user-group than for the power-blog user-group. Actually, the inference that review credibility is a potent predictor of assessing willingness to accept a review is grounded on the analogy that attitude is an effective indicator of purchase intention. However, if memory about established attitudes is blocked, the predictive power of attitude on purchase intention is considerably diminished. Likewise, the effect of credibility on willingness to accept a review can be affected by certain moderators. Inspired by this analogy, we introduced tie strength as a possible moderator and demonstrated that tie strength moderated the effect of credibility on willingness to accept a review. Previously, Levin and Cross (2004) showed that credibility mediates strong-ties through receipt of knowledge, but this credibility mediation is not observed for weak-ties, where a direct path to it is activated. Thus, the predictive power of credibility on behavioral intention - that is, willingness to accept a review - is expected to be higher for strong-ties.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.53-81
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• 2012

Constructing attractive bundle offers depends on more than an understanding of the distribution of consumer preferences. Consumers are also sensitive to the framing of price information in a bundle offer. In classical economic theory, consumers' utility should not change as long as the total price paid stays same. However, even when total prices are identical, consumers' preferences toward a bundle product could be different depending on the format of price presentation and the locus of price discount. A weighted additive model predicts that the impact of a price discount on the overall evaluation of the bundle will be greater when the discount is assigned to the more important product in the bundle(Yadav 1995). Meanwhile, a reference dependent model asserts that it is better to assign a price discount to a tie-in component that has a negative valuation at its current offer price than to a focal product that has a positive valuation at its current offer price(Janiszewski and Cunha 2004). This paper has expanded previous research regarding price discount presentation format, investigating the reasons for mixed results of prior research and presenting new mechanisms for price discount framing effect. Prior research has hypothesized that bundling is used to sell a tie-in component with an offer price above the consumer's reference price plus a focal product of the same offer price with reference price(e.g., Janiszewski and Cunha 2004). However, this study suggests that bundling strategy can be used for increasing product's attractiveness through the synergy between components even when offer prices of bundle components are the same with reference prices. In this context, this study employed various realistic bundle sets with same price between offer price and reference price in the experiment. Hamilton and Srivastava(2008) demonstrated that when evaluating different partitions of the same total price, consumers prefer partitions in which the price of the high-benefit component is higher. This study determined that their mechanism can be applied to price discount presentation formats. This study hypothesized that price discount framing effect depends not on the negative perception of tie-in component with offer price above reference price but rather on the consumers' perceived consumption benefit in bundle product. This research also hypothesized that preference for low-benefit discount mechanism is that perceived consumption benefit reduces price sensitivity. Furthermore, this study investigated how consumers' concern for quality in a price discount--a factor not considered in previous research--influences price discount framing. Yadav(1995)'s experiment used only one magazine bundle of relatively low quality uncertainty and could not show the influence of perceived uncertainty of quality. This study assumed that as perceived uncertainty of quality increases, the price sensitivity mechanism for assigning the discount to low-benefit will increase. Further, this research investigated the moderating effect of uncertainty of quality in price discount framing. The results of the experiment showed that when evaluating different partitions of the same total price and the same amount of discounts, the partition that discounts in the price of low benefit component is preferred to the partition that decreases the price of high benefit component. This implies that price discount framing effect depends on the perceived consumption benefit. The results also demonstrated that consumers are more price sensitive to low benefit component and less price sensitive to high benefit component. Furthermore, the results showed that the influence of price discount presentation format on the evaluation of bundle product varies with the perceived uncertainty of quality in high consumption benefit. As perceived uncertainty of quality gradually increases, the preference for discounts in the price of low consumption benefit decreases. Besides, the results demonstrate that as perceived uncertainty of quality gradually increases, the effect of price sensitivity in consumption benefit also increases. This paper integrated prior research by using a new mechanism of perceived consumption benefit and moderating effect of perceived quality uncertainty, thus providing a clearer explanation for price discount framing effect.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.1-24
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• 2010

Typically, marketing literature on innovation diffusion has focused on the pre-adoption process and only a few studies explicitly examined consumers' post-adoption behavior of innovative mobile services. Besides, prior use diffusion research has considered the variables that determine the consumers' initial adoption in explaining the post adoption usage behavior. However, behavioral sciences and individual psychology suggest that social influences are a potentially important determinant of usage behavior as well. The purpose of this study is to investigate into the effects of network factor and brand identification as social influences on the consumers' use diffusion or continued usage intention of a mobile service. Network factor designates consumer perception of the usefulness of a network, which embraces the concept of network externality and that of critical mass. Brand identification captures distinct aspects of social influence on technology acceptance that is not captured by subjective norm in situations where the technology use is voluntary. Additionally, this study explores the effect of the use diffusion on the brand switching intention, a generally unexplored form of post-adoption behavior. There are only a few empirical studies in the literature addressing the issue of IT user switching. In this study, the use diffusion comprises of rate of use and variety of use. The research hypotheses are as follows; H1. Network factor will have a positive influence on the rate of use of mobile services. H2. Network factor will have a positive influence on variety of use of mobile services. H3. Network factor will have a positive influence on continued usage intention. H4. Brand identification will have a positive influence on the rate of use. H5. Brand identification will have a positive influence on variety of use. H6. Brand identification will have a positive influence on continued usage intention. H7. Rate of use of mobile services are positively related to continued usage intention. H8. Variety of Use of mobile services are positively related to continued usage intention. H9. Rate of use of mobile services are negatively related to brand switching intention. H10. Variety of Use of mobile services are negatively related to brand switching intention. With the assistance of a marketing service company, a total of 1023 questionnaires from an online survey were collected. The survey was conducted only on those who have received or given a mobile service called "Gifticon". Those who answered insincerely were excluded from the analysis, so we had 936 observations available for a further stage of data analysis. We used structural equation modeling and overall fit was good enough (CFI=0.933, TLI=0.903, RMSEA=0.081). The results show that network factor and brand identification significantly increase the rate of use. But only brand identification increases variety of use. Also, network factor, brand identification and the use diffusion are positively related to continued usage intention. But the hypotheses that the use diffusion are positively related to brand switching intention were rejected. This result implies that continued usage intention cannot guarantee reducing brand switching intention.

• Journal of Venture Innovation
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.135-156
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• 2022

This study attempted to identify the factors affecting entrepreneurial intention and to confirm the moderating effect of social support that plays a positive role in increasing entrepreneurial intention. The subjects of the study were 419 ordinary people, and data were obtained online and analyzed. The analysis method of this study was based on the SPSS statistical program Ver. 24, and a hierarchical regression analysis method was conducted to analyze the moderating effect. The results of hypothesis verification analysis in this study are as follows. First, innovativeness, risk-taking, self-fulfillment, economic motivation, immersion in a drama, drama role model, and indirect experience, all had a significant positive(+) effect on entrepreneurial intention. Second, among the factors affecting entrepreneurial intention, self-fulfillment was found to have the greatest influence. Third, it was confirmed that the moderating effect of social support between various variables and entrepreneurial intention had a significant effect on innovativeness, self-fulfillment, drama role model, and indirect experience, and entrepreneurial intention. The academic value of this study is to confirm the effect of drama characteristic variables on entrepreneurial intention. In addition, it was possible to confirm the moderating effect of social support, which is the total of individual external support. The implication of this study is that the desire for achievement had the greatest influence on entrepreneurial intention. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a desire to achieve in start-up support policies and start-up education. In addition, in light of the ripple effect of TV dramas, drama role model and indirect experience increase entrepreneurial intention, so it was possible to predict its influence on changes in perception of start-ups and entrepreneurs.

• Journal of Venture Innovation
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.41-62
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• 2023

Given that SME workers are the driving force of national competitiveness and the basis and cornerstone of the industry, it is meaningful to study workers' job satisfaction and the factors that affect job satisfaction. In addition to variables related to corporate competitiveness and organizational justice, this study introduced variables such as environmental(E) activities, social(S) activities, and governance(G) activities, which th national government uses as major management evaluation indicators. Therefore, a literature study and empirical analysis were conducted on how self-efficacy affects job satisfaction when workers are faced with a changed work environment. To conduct this study, 300 copies of data were collected from workers in small and medium-sized enterprises and used for analysis. For data analysis, the SPSS statistical program (Ver. 25.0) was used. The study finds, first, that product or service quality and employee competency among corporate competitiveness had a significant positive(+) effect on job satisfaction. Secondly, among ESG management activities, social(S) activities and governance(G) activities were found to have a significant positive(+) effect on job satisfaction. Third, among organizational justice, distribution justice and procedural justice were found to have a positive(+) effect on job satisfaction. Fourth, self-efficacy was found to mediate the effect of product or service quality, employee competency, social(S) and governance(G) activities among ESG management activities, and procedural justice among organizational justice on job satisfaction. The academic value of this study is that it empirically analyzed the factors that ESG management activities affect workers' jobs,. As a result, it was confirmed that workers were satisfied with their jobs by actively showing interest in social(S) activities and governance(G) activities among ESG management activities and participating in corporate management. In addition, workers sensitive to changes in the external environment can become satisfied with their jobs through self-efficacy when SMEs actively enhance corporate competitiveness, execute ESG management activities, and provide a fair organizational culture. Finally, this study suggests that there's a possibility of improving the competitiveness of SMEs through a virtuous cycle created by a change in perception of job conversion and a decrease in turnover.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.105-114
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to analyze the influence of the nation's institutional environment on start-up intention of employees and the mediating role of risk-taking propensity in the relationship between these variables. This study classified the institutional environment into institutional profile regulation, institutional profile norms, and institutional profile recognition. The research data were collected through questionnaires for office workers belonging to domestic companies, and 322 copies of questionnaire data were used for hypothesis verification, except for questionnaires that were omitted or unfaithful. The results of this study are as follows. First, institutional profile regulations and norms were positively related to start-up intention of office workers, while institutional profile cognition had no significant effect on the start-up intention. Second, institutional profile regulations and norms were positively related to risk taking, while institutional profile cognition had no significant effect on risk taking. Finally, risk taking was found to partially mediate the relationship between institutional profile regulation and start-up intention, and completely mediate the relationship between institutional profile norms and start-up intention. The theoretical implications of this study are as follows. First, this study makes a theoretical contribution in that it revealed that the country institutional profile regulation and norms are important prerequisites for start-up intention and risk taking. Next, unlike previous studies, this study makes a theoretical contribution by presenting a start-up intention model of office workers consisting of perception of the institutional environment and risk taking, which is the individual characteristic of entrepreneurs. The practical implications of this study are as follows. First, the government and local governments should strengthen regulations on institutional profiles so that start-ups can be activated. Second, the government and local governments should strengthen the norms for institutional profiles so that start-ups can be activated. Finally, the government, local governments, and educational institutions should devise measures to strengthen the risk taking of start-ups.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.187-200
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• 2023

The purpose of this study is to examine how the start-up education, start-up support system, and start-up mentoring directly and indirectly conducted in universities affects entrepreneurial Intention, and to present programs and directions that can increase the possibility of start-up for college students. This study analyzed the effects of college students' satisfaction with university entrepreneurship education, awareness of the entrepreneurship support system, and entrepreneurship mentoring on entrepreneurial will, and then analyzed how entrepreneurship efficacy affects entrepreneurial will as a moderating effect. The recognition of the start-up support system was divided into the government start-up support policy and the university start-up support project, and start-up mentoring was divided into mentoring function (problem-solving function, networking function, communication function, motivation function) and mentor trust (cognitive trust, emotional trust). Regression analysis was performed on satisfaction with college entrepreneurship education, perception of entrepreneurship support system, entrepreneurship mentoring as independent variables, and willingness to entrepreneurship as dependent variables. In addition, entrepreneurship efficacy was designated as a moderating variable and analyzed. As a result of the study, first, it was found that satisfaction with start-up education had a positive (+) effect on college students' willingness to start a business. Second, among the start-up support systems, university start-up support projects were found to have a positive (+) effect on college students' willingness to start a business. Third, as a result of verifying whether entrepreneurial self-efficacy has a moderating effect on the relationship between college start-up support projects and college students' willingness to start a business while recognizing the start-up support system, it was found to have a moderating effect. The following implications can be derived based on the analysis results of this study. First, efforts to improve start-up education will be needed to increase the satisfaction of start-up education. Second, Through the operation of the start-up counseling center in the university, it will be possible to recognize the education system supported by the university, the university start-up support project that can carry out the indirect experience of start-up, and the government start-up support policy that supports funds. Third, It will be necessary to open a program that can provide start-up mentoring through connection with mentors in the start-up field, such as professors, employees, and senior start-ups in universities. Fourth, It is necessary to develop thorough education on the preparation process of start-ups, start-up special lectures where senior start-ups can indirectly experience the failure of start-ups, and programs for customized start-up education according to college students' major and individual tendencies.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.33-44
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• 2023

Entrepreneurial self-efficacy is an important variable that explains people's attitudes and behaviors toward start-ups. In this study, we focused on individual psychological characteristics variables such as luck in belief and positive cognitive bias that affect entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Among these variables, we paid particular attention to luck in belief. The belief that business success depends on luck is widespread, but scientific verification about it has not been much. The reason for the academic indifference is that luck is a kind of superstition, related to precognition or extrasensory perception, and randomly caused by the external environment. The study of luck began in earnest as a measure to measure luck as an individual characteristic variable such as personality was developed. The purpose of this study is to examine the existing studies on luck in belief and to examine the effect of this luck in belief on positive cognitive bias and entrepreneurial self-efficacy through empirical analysis. For empirical analysis, this study conducted an on-line survey of 400 ordinary people and conducted a structural equation model analysis using AMOS 21.0 to verify the hypothesis. As a result of hypothesis testing, all hypotheses that luck in belief would have a positive effect on positive cognitive bias(self-enhancement bias, illusion of control bias, unrealism optimistic bias) were adopted. The hypothesis that positive cognitive bias(self-enhancement bias, illusion of control bias, unrealistic optimism bias) will have a positive effect on entrepreneurial self-efficacy was also adopted. Additional analysis was conducted to examine the mediating role of positive cognitive bias in the relationship between luck in belief and entrepreneurial self-efficacy, which showed that 'luck in belief→positive cognitive bias →entrepreneurial self-efficacy' were statistically significant. Through this, we confirmed the mediating effect of positive cognitive bias in the relationship between luck in belief and entrepreneurial self-efficacy. In the conclusion, the implications and limitations of the study were presented based on the results of this study.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.49-65
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• 2022

This study conducted an exploratory study based on in-depth interviews to understand the characteristics and capabilities of female entrepreneurs to promote women entrepreneurship. Therefore, in this study, through in-depth interviews with eight female entrepreneurs, the main contents of entrepreneurial attitudes (need for independence, development desire, favorable conditions), start-up entry rate, start-up motivation, start-up activities and constraints were analyzed. As a result, first, it was found that the entrepreneurial attitude of female entrepreneurs has a strong motivation for successful management based on a feeling of self-satisfaction, has characteristics that prioritize independence and self-actualization, and favorable conditions for starting a business are important. Second, it was found that women's individual differences from men and social structural factors had no significant effect on the entry rate of women. Third, it was found that the most important entrepreneurship motivation for women is the spirit of challenge, self-satisfaction, and the desire to balance work and family. Fourth, female entrepreneurs showed little difference in perception between male and female entrepreneurs in terms of resource access, but there was some discrimination in the network. Fifth, the main industries of female entrepreneurs are small businesses, and there is a tendency to be concentrated in industries with low profit margins and low growth and sales. Finally, it was found that barriers to women's entrepreneurship still exist. Based on the results of this study, the following implications are suggested. First, this study is differentiated in that it mainly identified the characteristics of women's experiences and social environments while starting a business and running a business. Second, in the case of female entrepreneurs, there is a need to spread a positive awareness of women entrepreneurship by arguing that the barriers to entrepreneurship unique to women are not high and can be sufficiently overcome. Lastly, although opportunistic start-ups based on women's social experience or management ability in work life are important for women's entrepreneurship, government support policies are needed to promote professional technology start-ups.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.51-76
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• 2022

Identifying the factors that influence the formation of the entrepreneurial intention is important in cultivating entrepreneurs and inducing entrepreneurial innovation in the country. Previous studies have mainly examined the direct effects of social cognition attributes as predictors on entrepreneurial intentions or entrepreneurial activities. However, the fundamental factors that these social cognition attributes are derived from have not been sufficiently addressed in the field of entrepreneurship. Based on social cognitive theory and schema theory, this study assumes that an individual's entrepreneurial experience is an important antecedent factor in forming social cognitive attributes, and reveals the mechanism for how experience forms entrepreneurial intention. To this end, this study analyzes the influence of entrepreneurs' prior experience of entrepreneurial activities on entrepreneurial self-efficacy, opportunity recognition, and fear of failure which are considered to be the main variables that shape entrepreneurial intention. And it analyzes how these factors have a significant effect on entrepreneurship intention. Along with this, the mediating role of these social cognitive attributes is analyzed in order to understand the path that leads from entrepreneurial experience to entrepreneurial intention. This study also suggests how gender moderates the effect of entrepreneurship experience on social cognitive attributes. As a result of the analysis, it was found that entrepreneurial experience increase entrepreneurial self-efficacy and opportunity recognition of entrepreneurs, and decrease the fear of failure. These social perception attribute significantly mediate the relationship between entrepreneurial experience and entrepreneurial intention. This study also found that there are significant moderating effects of gender on the relationship of entrepreneurial experience and both of entrepreneurial self-efficacy and fear of failure. This study also analyzed the impact of the entrepreneurial experience of failure, which corresponds to the detailed experience. Similar to the results of entrepreneurial experience analysis, entrepreneurial experience of failure plays a role in enhancing entrepreneurial self-efficacy. However, its effect on opportunity recognition and fear of failure were not significant. An empirical analysis of data related to 25,047 entrepreneurs from 87 countries, using the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), shows the differences in the formation of individuals' entrepreneurial intentions according to entrepreneurial experience and the mediating role of social cognitive attributes. The study has embodied the social cognitive theory on entrepreneurial intention by shedding light on the variables that are important but alienated for increasing entrepreneurial intention. Moreover, the study enhances the understanding of cognitive processes leading from individual experiences to entrepreneurial intentions. This study also emphasizes the importance of differentiated approach by gender for boosting entrepreneurial intention through analysis of moderating effect of gender.