• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.41-52
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• 2015

Purpose - Given globalization, the new niche market of medical tourism is likely to experience sustainable growth for various reasons, such as aging populations and a shift in the medical consumerism paradigm toward prevention. Importantly, understanding medical customers' behavior is necessary to benefit from a competitive advantage in this industry. The existing research primarily accessed the key factors of medical quality and costs to explain health customers' behavior but is limited in terms of enabling an understanding of the decision process. This limitation exists because, given the intangibility and greater associated risks in the highly professional industry of international medical tourism, most customers lack the knowledge and experience needed to evaluate the central factors-such as the medical competence of health care countries-before purchases. Therefore, they actively search for useful information through various distributions to reduce uncertainty and to make better choices. Interestingly, most of these information channels are associated with word-of-mouth (WOM). However, no evidence is found in the literature to estimate the effect of WOM in the medical tourism field. Thus, this study focuses on WOM to explore its interaction with key medical characteristic factors and the attractiveness of destinations referred to by sources. This study also affects customers' evaluations and, in turn, influences their intention to seek health care services abroad. Research design, data, and methodology - The literature review addressed an interesting research model for estimating the relations among WOM, medical characteristics, attractiveness, and customers' choice intention regarding international health care. In the key economic regions in China, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Shandong, and Guangdong, 2,500 survey questionnaires were distributed to potential customers of different ages, education, and income levels. A resulting 1,717 (68.68 percent of the original 2,500) usable surveys were obtained for analysis. Moderated regression analysis was used to determine the effects of WOM in the decision process regarding international health care destinations. Results - The results indicate that WOM is a good moderator of the relationships between the factors evaluated by sources and customers. More importantly, the WOM effects reflect the factors of tie strength, credibility, and vividness. The results also reveal that, given the moderating role of WOM, the intention of potential Chinese customers to seek the referred health care country varies according to the medical characteristics of medical competency and reputation as evaluated by customers. In contrast, the travel attractiveness of the attractions, facilities, accessibility, and social environment are critical determinants of destination choice intention. Conclusions - The moderating role of WOM has been confirmed through the international healthcare destination selection process. Medical tourism managers should user WOM as an effective marketing tool for industry development. Specially, marketers should consider the effects of WOM determinants, such as tie strength, credibility, and vividness, to develop an effective strategy. Furthermore, this study estimates the factors that affect customers' selection of medical tourism destinations. Health care managers or policy makers should consider a broad variety of variables that may attract more Chinese customers to international health care.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.29-52
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• 2011

A predictable and manageable output is desirable for most businesses. However, it is very difficult to control the quality and quantity of products in the food and agriculture business. Predictable outputs help managers plan their marketing, sales, and inbound and outbound logistics, but these are not easy to achieve in the food and agriculture business. Various industries have adopted different levels of automation and utilization of information systems for quality/quantity control; however e-Commerce of the food and agriculture industry is far behind those of other industries. Today, the food and agriculture industry is supposed to be more integrated than ever in order to reduce risks and improve processing costs, from farm to table. Since its operations including production, processing, storage, distribution, and management are dispersed all over the world, the food and agricultural industries now depend more on IT than other industries. This study attempts to develop a framework to analyze the current situation of agricultural product e-Commerce in Korea, and finds out the actual situation of the farmers operating on-line shopping systems through the developed framework and suggests some improvements.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.549-554
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• 2017

This study conducted a survey on 319 Chinese women in their 20s to 50s living in three large cities in China, with an aim to analyze the influence on the purchasing behavior and satisfaction for Korean cosmetics depending on their complex purchasing tendencies. According to the research, the rational tendency was higher when the subjects were over 40 years old and married, and the impulsive tendency was the highest in those in their 30s. There was no huge difference in regions depending on the two tendencies, while there were statistically significant differences in purchasing period, times and costs when buying cosmetics. In addition, purchasing satisfaction for cosmetics had a positive correlation with purchasing tendencies. The subjects pursued convenience in purchasing as their rational tendency was higher, while they sought the trends as their impulsive tendency was higher. Based on the results, it is expected to maximize purchasing satisfaction of Chinese female consumers depending on their purchasing tendencies, if the Korean cosmetics makers provide reliable quality assurance, product exchange and customer management services. It is also expected to help revitalize the beauty market for China as well as Southeast Asia, if the Korean cosmetics companies implement differentiated marketing strategies targeting the customers in the age group with the impulsive consumption tendency.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.53-74
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• 2012

The bundling of multiple products/services at a set price has become a popular marketing strategy. However, little is known on how effects of bundling strategy influence tourists' evaluation of tour packages. Tourists evaluate a tour package based on the trade-off between the perceived benefits and costs involved in purchasing the tour package. In other words, the perceived value of the tour package influenced whether tourists to purchase a tour package or not. This study tested a tour package based on the theory of bundling, taking a moderating approach with perceived value. The data for this study wascollected by subjects who live Seoul Metropolitan Area and Gyeonggi Province and 4234 respondents, potential tourists to northeastern U.S.A/Canada. Results show that bundling taken by travel agencies include how many product items to put in a tour package and what degree of discount for the tour package. Also explaining functional relationship among product items in the tour package. Result show that tourists expect a discount, large or small, from purchasing a tour package. And the larger the number of products in a tour packages, the larger the discount size, and low functional relationship among items tourists expect to get.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.47-57
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• 2019

New product innovation is a key component of a company's survival and sustained growth. With the rapidly changing market environment and global infinite competition, The importance of innovative new product development is growing. In the domestic entertainment industry, Competition is intensifying, and many companies are focusing on developing innovative new products in order to secure continuous competitive advantage in the era of global infinite competition. The problem is that as the intensity of competition increases and the idol production system develops more and more, The costs of planning and marketing are increasing. The fair trade commission estimated the cost of creating an idol group to be about 1 billion won, and some large entertainment companies claim that the investment cost is about 20 ~ 3 billion won. Lean startup is attracting attention as an innovation framework for sustainable competitive advantage of companies. But, there are not many related studies in Korea despite the growing interest. In particular, Case studies that can help to establish specific strategies are limited. Therefore, this study analyzed the successful case of JYP Entertainment's idol singer TWICE who succeeded in new product innovation and suggested practical implications. Theoretically, This study extended the Lean startup to the entertainment industry and suggested practical implications as the basic data for establishing the innovation strategies for the idol singers of domestic entertainment companies.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.209-217
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• 2024

The purpose of this study is to explore development plans by analyzing social interests and perceptions of jiu-jitsu using big data analysis. Network analysis, centrality analysis, and CONCOR analysis were conducted by collecting data for the last 10 years of major domestic portal sites. First, 'judo' was found to be the most important related word in network analysis, and 'judo' was also an important word in the analysis of dgree centrality. In the closeness centrality analysis, "defender" was the most important word, and "sports" was the most important word in betweenness centrality. Finally, as a result of CONCOR analysis, four clusters (related sports and marketing, jiu-jitsu competitions, belt test, supplies and expenses) were formed. As a conclusion of the study, first, words such as 'judo', 'exercise', 'competition', 'dobok', 'gym', and 'graduation' should be actively used to promote jiu-jitsu.As a conclusion of the study, first, words such as 'judo', 'exercise', 'contest', 'dobok', 'gym', and 'graduation' should be actively used to promote jiu-jitsu. Second, it is necessary to share information on training costs through various routes, to make awareness of the graduation process or method common, and to develop safety products and create a safe training culture. Third, it is necessary to find ways to continuously increase the influx of new trainees by attracting steady competitions.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.10 no.7
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• pp.33-41
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to analyse the state of the energy industry and to determine the efficiency of its functioning on the basis of energy conservation principle and application of innovative technologies aimed at improving the ecological modernisation of agricultural sectors of Kazakhstan. The research methodology is based on an integrated approach of financial and economic evaluation of the effectiveness of the investment project, based on calculation of elasticity, total costs and profitability, as well as on comparative, graphical and system analysis. The current stage is characterised by widely spread restructuring processes of electric power industry in many countries through introduction of new technical installations of energy facilities and increased government regulation in order to enhance the competitive advantage of electricity market. Electric power industry features a considerable value of creating areas. For example, by providing scientific and technical progress, it crucially affects not only the development but also the territorial organisation of productive forces, first of all the industry. In modern life, more than 90% of electricity and heat is obtained by Kazakhstan's economy by consuming non-renewable energy resources: different types of coal, oil shale, oil, natural gas and peat. Therefore, it is significant to ensure energy security, as the country faces a rapid fall back to mono-gas structure of fuel and energy balance. However, energy resources in Kazakhstan are spread very unevenly. Its main supplies are concentrated in northern and central parts of the republic, and the majority of consumers of electrical power live in the southern and western areas of the country. However, energy plays an important role in the economy of industrial production and to a large extent determines the level of competitive advantage, which is a promising condition for implementation of energy-saving and environmentally friendly technologies. In these circumstances, issues of modernisation and reforms of this sector in Kazakhstan gain more and more importance, which can be seen in the example of economically sustainable solutions of a large local monopoly company, significant savings in capital investment and efficiency of implementation of an investment project. A major disadvantage of development of electricity distribution companies is the prevalence of very high moral and physical amortisation of equipment, reaching almost 70-80%, which significantly increases the operating costs. For example, while an investment of 12 billion tenge was planned in 2009 in this branch, in 2012 it is planned to invest more than 17 billion. Obviously, despite the absolute increase, the rate of investment is still quite low, as the total demand in this area is at least more than 250 billion tenge. In addition, industrial infrastructure, including the objects of Kazakhstan electric power industry, have a tangible adverse impact on the environment. Thus, since there is a large number of various power projects that are sources of electromagnetic radiation, the environment is deteriorated. Hence, there is a need to optimise the efficiency of the organisation and management of production activities of energy companies, to create and implement new technologies, to ensure safe production and provide solutions to various environmental aspects. These are key strategic factors to ensure success of the modern energy sector of Kazakhstan. The contribution of authors in developing the scope of this subject is explained by the fact that there was not enough research in the energy sector, especially in the view of ecological modernisation. This work differs from similar works in Kazakhstan in the way that the proposed method of investment project calculation takes into account the time factor, which compares the current and future value of profit from the implementation of innovative equipment that helps to bring it to actual practise. The feasibility of writing this article lies in the need of forming a public policy in the industrial sector, including optimising the structure of energy disbursing rate, which complies with the terms of future modernised development of the domestic energy sector.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.117-148
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• 2005

As this study aimed to examine which influence the nonverbal communication of service provider has upon service performance in terms of service industry, the specific objectives are as follows. First, it tried to examine into the relationship between the nonverbal communication in the service provider, and the emotional attachment. Nonverbal communication is divided into 4 kinds such as physical language, proxemics, paralanguage, and physical appearance. Second, it aimed to examine the relationship between the customer's attachment to the service provider, and the social competence and trust in the service provider. Third, it tried to examine into the relationship of service provider's social competence and trust with the customer satisfaction and with the switching costs. Additionally, it examined the moderating effect in the service type and the service usage period in terms of the model that was presented in this study. Given examining the verified results in these research hypotheses, those are as follows. First, given seeing the relationship between the nonverbal communication and the emotional attachment, it was represented that the physical language, proxemics, and physical appearance, except paralanguage, have significantly positive(+) influence upon emotional attachment. Second, it was indicated that emotional attachment has significantly positive(+) influence upon the social competence and trust in the service provider. Third, the social competence in the service provider had no positive effect(+) on customer satisfaction, and was having significantly positive(+) influence upon the customer's perceived switching barrier. Fourth, it was represented that the customer satisfaction toward the service provider have significantly positive(+) influence upon the switching barrier. Finally, as a result of having verified whether or not the moderating effect in the service type and the service usage period, it was indicated to be produced the difference depending on the service type in the relationships between the physical language and the emotional attachment, between the paralanguage and the emotional attachment, between the emotional attachment and the trust, and between the trust and the switching barrier. Depending on the service usage period, the difference was represented, respectively, in the relationships between the physical language and the emotional attachment and between the physical appearance and the emotional attachment.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.95-114
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• 2008

Recent interests in data mining result from the expansion of the amount of business data and the growing business needs for extracting valuable knowledge from the data and then utilizing it for decision making process. In particular, recent advances in association rule mining techniques enable us to acquire knowledge concerning sales patterns among individual items from the voluminous transactional data. Certainly, one of the major purposes of association rule mining is to utilize acquired knowledge in providing marketing strategies such as cross-selling, sales promotion, and shelf-space allocation. In spite of the potential applicability of association rule mining, unfortunately, it is not often the case that the marketing mix acquired from data mining leads to the realized profit. The main difficulty of mining-based profit realization can be found in the fact that tremendous numbers of patterns are discovered by the association rule mining. Due to the many patterns, data mining experts should perform additional mining of the results of initial mining in order to extract only actionable and profitable knowledge, which exhausts much time and costs. In the literature, a number of interestingness measures have been devised for estimating discovered patterns. Most of the measures can be directly calculated from what is known as a contingency table, which summarizes the sales frequencies of exclusive items or itemsets. A contingency table can provide brief insights into the relationship between two or more itemsets of concern. However, it is important to note that some useful information concerning sales transactions may be lost when a contingency table is constructed. For instance, information regarding the size of each market basket(i.e., the number of items in each transaction) cannot be described in a contingency table. It is natural that a larger basket has a tendency to consist of more sales patterns. Therefore, if two itemsets are sold together in a very large basket, it can be expected that the basket contains two or more patterns and that the two itemsets belong to mutually different patterns. Therefore, we should classify frequent itemset into two categories, inter-pattern co-occurrence and intra-pattern co-occurrence, and investigate the effect of the market basket size on the two categories. This notion implies that any interestingness measures for association rules should consider not only the total frequency of target itemsets but also the size of each basket. There have been many attempts on analyzing various interestingness measures in the literature. Most of them have conducted qualitative comparison among various measures. The studies proposed desirable properties of interestingness measures and then surveyed how many properties are obeyed by each measure. However, relatively few attentions have been made on evaluating how well the patterns discovered by each measure are regarded to be valuable in the real world. In this paper, attempts are made to propose two notions regarding association rule measures. First, a quantitative criterion for estimating accuracy of association rule measures is presented. According to this criterion, a measure can be considered to be accurate if it assigns high scores to meaningful patterns that actually exist and low scores to arbitrary patterns that co-occur by coincidence. Next, complementary measures are presented to improve the accuracy of traditional association rule measures. By adopting the factor of market basket size, the devised measures attempt to discriminate the co-occurrence of itemsets in a small basket from another co-occurrence in a large basket. Intensive computer simulations under various workloads were performed in order to analyze the accuracy of various interestingness measures including traditional measures and the proposed measures.

• 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.