• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.65-76
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• 2015

Purpose - This article aims to present and test a model regarding franchisors' supporting activities that may positively influence franchisees' attitude toward the franchising headquarter and their own business performance. Moreover, the authors examine the moderating effect of competitive intensity between franchisee attitude and business performance. Most previous research focused on behavioral performance measurements such as satisfaction, trust, and commitment. There are few empirical studies that focus on financial performance data because it is difficult to determine a relational mechanism between behavioral and financial performance. Moreover, financial data is confidential and difficult to collect in many cases. However, this study measures financial performance (e.g., sales revenue per square meter) differently than most previous research, which is mostly focused on the behavioral performance measurements. Research design, data, and methodology - To test our hypotheses, we selected 137 franchisee managers who are running chains of one of the foremost bakery franchise brands in South Korea. This study carefully investigated the reliability, content validity, convergent validity, and discriminant validity of the proposed instrument by analyzing the data obtained from the samples. The data was analyzed using the AMOS structural equation modeling program. Results - The results indicated that: non-financial support activities (e.g., information exchange and communication) had a positive impact on the franchisee attitude toward the franchising headquarter. The franchisee attitude in turn had a positive effect on the headquarters' business performance. Furthermore, competitive intensity could enhance the relationship between franchisee attitude toward franchising headquarter and business performance in a local franchise market. However, financial support activities (e.g., rewards and promotional support) and training had no relationship with either franchisee attitude or business performance. Conclusions - This study provides some practical implications to franchisors in terms of franchise operation and store opening strategies. With respect to the franchise operation strategy, franchisors need to focus on non-financial rather than financial support. Most franchisees consider the necessity of financial support activities and not their sufficiency because these activities are specified in their franchise contract. In addition, it is important for franchisees to maintain a positive attitude for the franchise headquarters. The franchisees with a positive attitude for the franchisor can show a high degree of solidarity for various support activities, and it consequently determines franchisees' sales performance. In terms of franchise store opening strategy, this study suggests an additional criterion that can be considered in determining the location of direct and non-direct management stores (e.g., franchisees' stores). In this research, franchise stores located within high level of competitive intensity are shown to have a high relationship between franchisee attitudes of franchisor support activities and business performance compared to the franchisees located within low competitive intensity level. This result shows that opening non-direct franchise stores is more effective than direct stores in higher competitive market situations. Research contribution, implications, and further research directions are discussed at the end of the paper.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.16 no.7
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• pp.77-86
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• 2018

Purpose - In the insurance distribution channel, the salespeople plays a role of representing the company, and recognizes the needs of the customers and plays a role in responding to them. Therefore, their turnover can have a great influence on the company performance. The purpose of this study is to investigate the structural relationship between salespeople's personal - environmental fit and organizational commitment and turnover intention. Research design, data, and methodology - Data collection was conducted a self-filling questionnaire for salespeople for about one month from July 24, 2017 to August 30, 2017. The subjects of the questionnaire were the insurance salespeople who work in the sales line such as K life, S fire. A total of 450 copies were distributed and 432 copies of the questionnaire were used for final analysis. The analysis program used SPSS 22.0 and AMOS 22.0 programs. Analysis method was Frequency Analysis, Reliability & Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Correlation Analysis and Structural Equation Model(SEM). Results - As a result of Hypothesis 1, Person-Supervisor Fit had significant influence only on Continuance Commitment. Person-Job Fit did not have a significant effect on Organizational Commitment. Person-Coworker Fit had a significant effect on Continuance Commitment and Affective Commitment. Person-Organization Fit had a significant impact on Affective Commitment. Therefore, only , , , , were adopted. As a result of Hypothesis 2, Continuance Commitment had a significant effect on turnover intention. Therefore, only was adopted. Conclusions - This study suggests that it is necessary to manage the human resources in the sales field through studies related to salespeople's extension of the research scope and salespeople's turnover intention. Based on the results of this study, the conclusion suggests some implications for the efficient human resources management of insurance companies in sales channels. It is expected that it will be helpful for the salespeople to find out what kind of Person-Environment Fit affects the organizational commitment and how to manage the organizational commitment among the three dimensions of organizational commitment to reduce turnover intention.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.59-68
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• 2019

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to examine the differential mediating effects of three dimensions of buyer trust in the influence of supplier characteristics on the relationship performance. In this study, transaction characteristics were classified into competences and assets. The corporate reputation is considered as intangible assets, the customer-linking capability is considered among the competencies and transaction specific asset is selected from tangible assets. This study is also to examine the moderating effect of technical environment uncertainty in the effects of integrity and benevolence on the intention to continue trading. This study aims to provide a guide on which dimension suppliers should manage and how to improve their trust in order to maintain business with companies in technical environment uncertainty. Research design, data, and methodology - The data for the empirical analysis of this study were obtained by interviewing the 274 purchasing managers of Daegu - Gyeongbuk small and medium enterprises. The items used in this survey were partially modified to fit the characteristics of the B2B industry. The reliability and validity of the variables were analyzed using SPSS 18.0 and AMOS 18.0 programs and hypotheses were verified through the structural equation modeling. Results - In this study, reliability was examined by Cronbach 'α test. Composite Reliability and Average Mean Variance extracted value exceeded the baseline values. As a result of hypotheses testing, the hypothesis that the transaction specific asset will improve the benevolence and that benevolence will improve the intention to continue the transaction were rejected and all the other 9 hypotheses were adopted include 2 moderating hypothesis. Conclusions - This study shows which dimension of trust suppliers should appeal to the buyer according to the uncertainty of the technology environment in order to maintain the transaction with the buyer. competence and integrity are important when technology environment uncertainty is low, and competence and benevolence are important when technical environment uncertainty is high. In order to improve competence, corporate reputation and transaction-specific asset are important. To improve integrity, corporate reputation and customer-linking capability are important. In order to improve benevolence, customer-linking capability is important. And various implications were discussed.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.8
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• pp.97-104
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• 2015

Purpose - This study examines the positive impact of the social distance between producers and users of online content, investigating and analyzing the most popular Web content. In addition, it tries to elicit the matching effect that appears when the individuals'cultural background is consistent with social distance. Research design, data, and methodology - We collected and analyzed actual data about 4,981 videos clips on YouTube, looking at six countries in order to verify the content of this study. Based on the results of the data analysis, the study conducted behavioral measurements on popularity, social distance, culture, and user engagement. The unit of analysis was the content and we collected information about the content producers and the content records. We controlled the views, comments, likes, calendar dates, and ages in the empirical models. The data was collected in 2011, with the records coming from South Korea, Japan, China, U.S., German, and France. A total of 4,980 elements were analyzed in the model. The empirical model estimated is the bivariate negative binomial distribution (NBD) model. Results - It turns out that there is a possibility that the matching effect can be diminished by variables that reflect the psychological involvement of user engagement. This study proposes academic and practical implications based on these research results. This research shows the positive effect of social distance between users and producers on the increased performance of the online content. We find the effect of social distance to be a stronger tendency in collectivism. The collectivists follow their sense of friendship and intimacy in their culture and, the social congruence effect can be found there as well. The effect, however, could erode in a social case where users are motivated by strong intrinsic and psychological factors. In addition, user engagement complicates the process of user decision making regarding the information. Conclusions - This study examines how the differential effects of social distance caused by culture could disappear through user commitment as a complicated user motivation. Some potential implications are as follows. First, a firm in the collectivism culture has to communicate based on the social distance. In fact, most online channels do not have a function that indicates the social distance as measured by favorites or subscribers. This function could help increase the performance of the content in online channels, but this increasing effect can only be found in a collectivist culture. Based on this, the firms have to communicate and announce to users the actual social distance between users and producers. Second, firms should develop a system that discovers the social distance and culture and shows these measures to users and producers, since the congruence effect between social distance and culture is found only for low user engagement. The firms can take the advantage of the congruence effect only for the development of the social distance and culture visualized system.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.105-118
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• 2015

Purpose - Currently, strengthening small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in terms of competitiveness is a key economic issue. However, the problem is that many SMEs lack the internal competence required to cope with a rapidly changing market structure. Such problems can act as an obstacle to economic development, yet most SMEs in Korea are dealing with this problem today. A company's source of competitive advantage is changing from quantity to quality, facility to knowledge, and hardwork to creativity. Under such circumstances, a company should place learning and sharing of knowledge and continuously creating new knowledge as its priority. This study aims to identify the effect of a chief executive officer's (CEO) compassion and forgiveness - positive factors in organizational emotion - on learning organization activities and organizational performance, through a theoretical comparison. Research design, data, and methodology - For this study, SMEs based in Daejeon and Chungcheong area were selected. To secure credibility of the data, the subjects were selected among those who have been working at the business for six months or longer. The survey was conducted for 30 days from March 5, 2015 to April 5, 2015. Both offline and online surveys were conducted. Fifty companies were chosen and 700 questionnaires were distributed, with 506 used for analysis. Fifty subject companies (25 from Daejeon, 10 from Chungnam, 10 from Chungbuk, and five from Sejong) were selected and the objective, target, and survey content were explained to a manager at each company either face-to-face or on the phone. Of the total of 700 questionnaires distributed via mail or e-mail, 78.6% or 550 copies were returned. Excluding 44 insufficient questionnaires, the remainder, 506 questionnaires, were used for analysis. Results - This study analyzed how the CEO's compassion and forgiveness affects learning organization activities and organizational performance. First, compassion of the CEO at the SMEs directly affected the learning organization activities and indirectly affected the organizational performance. Second, forgiveness of the CEO at the SMEs did not affect the learning organization activities and organizational performance directly or indirectly. Conclusions - The study conclusions are as follows. First, CEO compassionate behavior at the SMEs was a significant variable that directly and indirectly affected learning organization activities and organizational performance. Therefore, the CEO of an SME can create a positive organizational atmosphere through compassionate behaviors in the organization. Second, the forgiving behavior of the CEO did not have direct or indirect effects on learning organization activities and organizational performance. However, the reason for a CEO to continue his or her forgiving behavior is because it strengthens employee resilience, commitment, and self-efficacy to protect the organization from negative influences such as layoffs, risks, and wrongdoings. The action of forgiveness does not have direct or indirect effects. However, the CEO shall continue such behavior to strengthen members' physiological resilience, commitment, and self - effectiveness, and to protect the organization from risks including layoff and external negative factors.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.91-102
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• 2015

Purpose - This study aims to build a systematic frame for effective marketing performances by prioritizing product type and pertinent channel that are appropriate for digital channel characteristics. FCB grid model was used to define a product type, and Internet communication satisfaction index was considered as a marketing performance measuring tool for digital channel. Research design, data, and methodology - As systematic understanding for Digital marketing is still unfamiliar to even professional marketer, the hypothesis was established based on preliminary research by conducting a qualitative survey of marketing experts who already experienced digital marketing in the fields as well as existing related study literature. Through a preliminary research, the degree for understanding for digital marketing, current digital marketing (including product/channel mix) execution status, and difficulties for marketers who had experienced digital marketing were figured out. Based on preliminary research, the main part of survey was designed to examine which type of product would be effective for digital marketing and which digital channel would be effective to achieve marketing performance in line with marketing objectives. To collect data, the questionnaire survey was conducted for professional marketers who had experienced digital marketing in 10 different fields including FMCG, cosmetics, distribution industry for one month (July, 10, 2014~Aug, 10, 2014). A total of 90 questionnaire were distributed and 66 questionnaires were used for the analysis, excluding the unanswered and insincere questionnaires. The data were analysed using SPSS ver.18.0. Results - The analysis for product type which is pertinent to digital marketing and prioritization for digital channel per digital marketing performance type could be summarized as followings. First, high involvement buying decision type of product and rational purchasing decision type of product in FCB grid are more effective for digital marketing in terms of marketing performance. Therefore, marketers in field would prioritize considering product type before executing digital marketing. Second, factor for sales increase, potential consumer creation and brand awareness was represented respectively 31.25%, 21.9%, and 20.8% as a result of factor analysis in terms of digital marketing channel performance. Third, effective major digital channel per digital marketing performance factor was differently identified as each digital channel has its own peculiarity. For instance, search engine is more effective for increasing sales while social media such as facebook and Kakaotalk is more effective for encouraging consumer participation. Conclusions - As a result of this study, product type and peculiarity which were pertinently fit to digital marketing were identified by using FCB grid model, and also suggested framework for decision making of digital channel selection in line with marketing objectives for effective marketing performance. It also provided insight to professional marketer which type of product could be effective for digital marketing execution as well as which factors should be measured for digital marketing performance.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.103-111
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• 2015

Purpose - When it comes to first impressions of family restaurants, people basically think of the following factors: cozy, a refreshing space, indoor lighting, atmospheric music, the best-quality service through mutual interactions with employees, birthday events, follow-up customer management, brand image, and many others. Focusing on such family restaurants characteristics, with consumption experience and customer satisfaction determined as mediator variables, this study looks into the selection factors that affect customer loyalty when choosing a family restaurant. Subsequently, the study conducts an empirical analysis of these selection factors with the greatest influence. Research design, data, and methodology - This study analyzed 200 total surveys of family restaurant customers including college students, workers, housewives, and others. The survey was conducted over two weeks in May 2014. For statistical processing, SPSS 21 was used for factor analysis and reliability analysis as well as AMOS for structural equation analysis. In terms of a variable that would influence either consumption experience or customer satisfaction at the restaurants, the study introduced the concept of customer equity. The study designed a model based on a hypothesis developed using the following factors: customer encounter service value, customer convenience value, brand equity, relationship equity, and other factors defined as components of customer equity by Rust et al. (2000) determined as independent variables as well as with customer experience and customer satisfaction set as mediator variables. The hypothesis, after all, assumed that customer loyalty would be positively (+) influenced. Results - The analysis results from the study reported that brand value, customer encounter service value, and relationship value have positive (+) effects on consumption experience and customer satisfaction. However, as for customer convenience value, this turned out not to have a statistically significant influence on consumption experience and customer satisfaction. In regard to a relation between consumption experience and customer satisfaction, the results showed that the former affects the latter, and in terms of intervening variables, both of these appeared to have a positive (+) effect on customer loyalty. Conclusions - This study suggests that family restaurants should look for strategies that focus on how to promote customer relationships. For example, restaurants could try birthday events or discount events to achieve this goal. Since the study ended up realizing relatively low levels of suitability and statistical significance, the path of the study changed. After all, in order to increase suitability and statistical significance, the study had to eliminate factors such as service quality and others and for this reason the study was unable to conduct the analysis as initially planned. In addition, the data samples of the research were mainly gathered from students, which made it hard to say that the analysis was carried out on samples from every different group. Future research should analyze the characteristics of each group of customers for factors affecting customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in the family restaurant chain.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.10 no.11
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• pp.79-88
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• 2012

Purpose - The objective of this paper is to suggest that a company's CRM activities have an effect on customer loyalty in the Korean retail industry. Typically, Korean customers use large local marts with convenience in the absence of any other choice. Therefore, this study aims to shed light on the fact that customers do not break away from their preferred retail stores, either owing to their stringent loyalty (the lie loyalty) or difficulty in turning to alternative choices. Research design, data, methodology - By surveying a sample of 200 hyper-markets through a questionnaire, and excluding dubious and missing responses, I obtained 181 samples to be included in the empirical analysis. The survey was conducted for two weeks during October 2011. AMOS and SPSS18 statistical packages were used for conducting statistical analysis for this study. This paper was developed using the concept of customer equity on CRM, which is known to have a positive impact on customer loyalty through the satisfaction and switching-barrier parameters. The hypothesis of this paper is that customer equity is composed of relationship equity, value equity and brand equity, and that the relationship equity variable has positive effects on the value equity and brand equity amongst other types of customer equity. Moreover, customer equity influences customer loyalty through parameters including customer satisfaction and switching costs in the Korean retail industry. Results - According to the results of the analysis, it was confirmed that relationship value had a positive effect (+) on all variables, including the perceived QoS (Quality of Service), store brand images, economic value, and store convenience. It was also confirmed that the assumption that the perceived QoS (Quality of Service), economic value, and store convenience had a positive effect on customer satisfaction was shown to be statistically significant, with a p-value below 0.05. Only the store brand value variable had an effect on the switching-cost variable with respect to the causal sequence of the variables, including the perceived QoS, store brand value, economic value, and store convenience. The remaining variables did not seem to influence the switching-cost variable. On the other hand, another effect showed that customer satisfaction had a statistically significant influence on the switching-costs variable. Moreover, the customer satisfaction and switching-cost variables also had a statistical influence on customer loyalty. Conclusions - The CRM activities had an influence on various variables (including perceived QoS, perceived economic value, store brand value, and store convenience) pertaining to customer values. Customer satisfaction and switching-cost had some effects on customer loyalty as a parameter. This confirms that stringent loyalty exists with respect to customer loyalty in the retail industry. The fact that the variable had such a statistically significant influence on the switching-cost and store brand equity variables means that consumers react to the reputation of a brand, confidence about the store, and quality confidence. The implications of this study in the retail industry should be further extended to devise strategies for customer retention.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.884-892
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• 2003

This study was conducted to optimize the water homogenization process of mandarin orange peel for colored rice. Four variables were used to determine the optimum conditions for homogenization speed, time, temperature, and water volume with a five level central composite design and response surface methodology. The process was optimized using the combination of EI and b values of rice coated with water extract of the mandarin orange peel. The effect of water volume was the most significant compared to the other variables on the quality of water homogenate. The regression polynomial model was a suitable (p>0.05) model by lack-of-fit analysis showing high significance. To optimize the process, based on surface response and contour plots, individual contour plots for the response variables were superimposed. The optimum conditions for manufacturing water extract from mandarin orange was with 8,500 rpm homogenization speed, 2.8 min time, $53^{\circ}C$ temperature, and 42 mL water volume with the maximum of restricted variables of EI above 400 and h value above 24.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.107-116
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• 2019

Purpose - Why, why is it difficult to predict the appropriateness of self-employment, and what are the countermeasures and policy proposals to overcome. This study intends to further develop the field of statistical variables. It is necessary to overcome the limitation of existing proper scale research in Korea. We need to find statistical variables that can determine the appropriateness of self-employment in Korea. These efforts will be helpful in evaluating OECD countries and statistics and developing domestic economic indicators. Research design, data, and methodology - It is the discovery of statistical indicators and complementary indicators that have not been revealed in previous studies. Therefore, we sought to find new statistical parameters based on the statistics of the Korea National Statistical Office, the Bank of Korea, and overseas OECD statistics. (Proper Size of Adequacy) is defined as the specific gravity or number of the self-employed in Korea, which is shown as "Out Put" by statistical analysis of STATA panel statistical data. It is possible to further develop variables such as gross domestic product, gross national product, economic growth rate, unemployment rate, income tax rate, consumer price, tax level, exports, import amount, bill default I want to dig. Results - In addition to expanding economic indicators that can be explained by self-employment determinants, we have developed a variety of methods such as linear and non-linear (U-shaped, inverted U-shaped). It is the improvement of the self-employment determinants and the analysis method to estimate the appropriate scale. Conclusions - The proposed contents are reflected in self - employment appropriateness evaluation data and hope to help the government to select the policy support and to evaluate the government business after the policy support. These efforts are expected to be of great help to operators operating their own businesses, and to government and related institutional practitioners who support them. In this way, self-employment will be created in accordance with the Korean situation, where the happy life of all the people becomes the premise and the inclusive economic activities are guaranteed. It will improve the method of analyzing proper scale of small business owners and self-employed in Korea.