• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.7-25
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• 1997

Building the competitive advantage of Korean multi level marketing(MLM) companies is an important task when American multi-level marketing companies has successfully made inroads into Korean market. In this study, we search for the efficient marketing strategies for the MLM companies through a survey of distributors and consumers. The results indicate that the MLM companies must first deal with their image problem and improve their product quality and physical distribution system.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.11 no.12
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• pp.742-752
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• 2011

Multi-Level Marketing distribution process to reduce occurs in a number of the distribution costs to consumers of reducing its profits outside the area subject to the non-store or stores is the way to a special sale. Japan for the multi-level marketing Article 33 of the Act on Specified Commercial Transactions at or below the regulatory chain is defined as dealers. However, unlike other legislative attention two -dimensional chain for sales transactions are regulated. A chain of Japanese regulations on sales transactions, the definition is very specific and detailed regulations, and the chain is specifically for sales transactions in detail how to take regulatory and regulatory relief of pre- and post- regulatory focus, and the streamlining of regulatory aimed at restrictions on how the implications of such a large country.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.77-98
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• 2017

This research explores two key facets of behavior (reward point accrual and redemption) that consist of a loyalty program. It focuses on assessing the impact of accrual effort level on three types of redemption behavior: speed, unit size, and hedonic preference at the individual level by using large scale transaction data from a multi-vendor loyalty program providing flexible environment for point accrual and redemption. Findings from this research demonstrate that customers tend 1) to speed up point redemption, 2) to enlarge the size of redeemed points, and 3) to prefer utilitarian rewards as the level of effort at the accrual stage of reward point increases.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.5-19
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• 2019

Purpose - The purpose of this research is to investigate the factors contributing to sustainable competitive advantage for multi-level marketing (MLM) firms in Malaysia. The selected variables in this study are company image, product innovation, leadership, distributor rewards system and distributor training system. Research design, data, and methodology - Quantitative research method is employed with collected sample size of 398 respondents using judgmental sampling technique. Normality and reliability test were performed in the first stage utilizing SPSS 22 and Confirmatory Factory Analysis (CFA) and variance analysis were obtained in the subsequent stage, following up with the overall fit of the measurement model, Structural Equation Model (SEM) using AMOS 22 with maximum likelihood estimation to assess the internal consistency, convergent validity and discriminant validity. Results - The research findings show that company image, leadership, distributor rewards system and distributor training system were supported and are factors affecting the sustainable competitive advantage of MLM companies in Malaysia. However, in this study, product innovation was not supported but this result does not depict that it is trivial and inconsequential in maintain sustainable advantage. Conclusion - Companies can build sustainable competitive advantage by focusing on these contributing factors. Several other comments and implications were brought to light and discussed in the paper.

• Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.79-114
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• 2018

Although former scholarly studies mostly focus on exploring leadership effectiveness under the traditional hierarchical leader-subordinate relationship, the research of leadership performance for non-hierarchical organizational structures, particularly the mediating factors of higher-order goals, trust-in-leader, and self-efficacy have been ignored. This study, therefore, makes an attempt to ascertain the impacts of transformational leadership on the performance of subordinates through the mediating effects of higher-order goals, trust-in-leader, and self-efficacy and the differences of these effects in the context of multi-level marketing (MLM). Like the small-sample studies adopted by Barling, Weber, and Kelloway [1996], Barling, Slater, and Kelloway [2000] and Bass, Avolio, Jung, and Berson [2003], this study adopts a sample of 123 MLM distributors of an MLM company in Hong Kong, with a high response rate of 80.4%. The results indicate that the mediating effect of self-efficacy between transformational leadership and performance is significant under non-hierarchical organizational structures such as MLM in China.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.91-111
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• 2005

As the environments of world economy have been changed so rapidly, the conditions of marketing and distribution also have been altered. In korea distribution industry has been changed according to the introduction of various patterns of distribution and marketing. Among them the emerging of network marketing, same meaning with multi-level marketing in this research, is a important phenomenon of distribution industry in Korea. Not only it contributes the progress of national economy, especially distribution industry, but also it includes some limitations and criticism from the dissenters. In this paper, the clear definitions and characteristics of network marketing are suggested. And the current situations of network marketing in this country has been analyzed and compared, The future perspectives and problems of this network marketing have been diagnosed and classified for the future development and contribution for national economy. The various alternatives for the future development of network marketing have been studied and suggested in terms of each role of this industry such as distributers, consumers and government. Though this paper has a small contribution, it contains many limitations for research. Therefore it suggest future directions for further research.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.36 no.9
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• pp.75-91
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• 1998

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the multi-level marketing(MLM) on consumer by examing the degree of damage and the consumers's satisfaction with MLM as well as the overall realities of MLM including the degree of the recognition and the distribution route of the commodities. We analyzed 256 cases which had experienced with MLM among 430 questionnaires collected. The resulted are as follows. 1) Consumers showed a lack of knowledge about MLM regardless of experiencing it. And they were recognized positively with the quality and the availability of the commodities. Expendables such as kitchen utensils and cosmetics were the most favored articles. 2) Transactions with no written contract were the most frequent damage to the consumers, followed by no price-tag and the marketer's refusal of exchange or refund. 3) When we compared the degree of consumer's satisfaction with MLM to the ordinary distribution in terms of the price, quality of goods and the service offered, the consumers were satisfied with the quality of the commodities, though their whole impressin of MLM was not so much favorable.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.21-47
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• 2019

This study empirically examines the synergy effect of a corporate-level loyalty program on customer equity (CE) known as the lifetime value of current and future customers (Blattberg et al. 2009). A corporate-level loyalty program refers to a company-wide integration loyalty program at the corporate-level in which subsidiaries (multi-divisions) participate as program members. It does not merely examine whether there is an integration effect of a corporate-level loyalty program from the CE perspective, but it provides practical implications for a firm's strategic focus by identifying which value creation channels (i.e., acquisition, retention, and cross-selling), brand characteristics (i.e., size of the customer base before integration, diversity of products, and sales channel type), and consumer characteristics (i.e., customer relationship stage, transaction amount before integration, transaction period, and number of purchased brands) are affected the most by the synergy effect.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.33-57
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• 2005

After 1990's, many multi-level marketing companies lave been introduced in Korea. These MLM companies operate their stores as same way as general retailing stores. The major characteristics of these MLM companys' store is that their main customers are distributors who sell the purchased merchandise to another customers. Many studies about merchandise display in general retailing stores were reported. But, there was less research about merchandise display in these special type stores such as MLM companys' stores. This paper investigates the effects of merchandise display on distributor's merchandise selection in channel flow of multi-level marketing company. For this purpose, we formulated four hypotheses about display variance in quantity, height, location, and related merchandise to analyze the effect of merchandise display methods in MLM companys' stores. The experiment had been proceeded in three stores in a MLM company for 6 weeks and the sales data were collected by POS. The methods to analyze the data were used ANOVA and T-test. Findings of this study are as follows; First, there was no effect to store sale by the interaction effect between merchandise display method and scale of store. Second, scale of store affected considerably the volume of sales of each store according to main effect analysis. Third, display variance in quantity, height, and location did not affect store sale. In the related merchandise display, however, sale in all store was increased. Fourth, in additional analysis considering merchandise display only, display variance in both height and location affected their sale in large scale store. Based on the above results, we may predict merchandise display can affect sale in MLM companys' store as well as general retailing stores. Therefore if MLM company has large scale store, it should consider merchandise display methods in its stores.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.617-632
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• 2014

Purpose: This study aims to explore the relationship between the focal firm's interdepartmental cooperation and new product development (NPD) performance with focus on the moderating effect of environmental uncertainty. The basic hypothesized model is that there are positively associated relationships. Methods: The proposed research model was tested using structural equation modeling with 601 responses from multi-functional and multiple respondents in Korean manufacturing firms. Multi-group SEM analyses were conducted to explore the degree to which the hypothesized model was equivalent for different levels of environmental uncertainty. Results: Interdepartmental cooperation between R&D and production is positively associated with NPD performance under both higher and lower environmental uncertainties, while one between R&D and marketing is positively associated under only higher environmental uncertainty. Conclusion: This paper determined that NPD performance is positively correlated with R&D-production cooperation in a focal firm, and the relationship between R&D-marketing cooperation and NPD performance is positively moderated by level of environmental uncertainty. Consequently, this study suggests that it is always important for firms to put much effort on R&D-production cooperation for a better NPD performance, while R&D-marketing cooperation should be enhanced especially under higher environmental uncertainty than lower.