Mediating Effect of Information Sources and Platform Characteristics in E-commerce: A Comparison between Korea and China
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- Journal of Korea Trade
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- 제26권7호
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- pp.185-202
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- 2022
Purpose - As overseas direct purchase transactions using e-commerce increase, the scale and scope of international trade are diversified, and the transaction volume using online platforms in e-commerce is increasing. The e-commerce market share will become more important because it is not only a medium connecting B2C, but also because it will expand the scope of trade. This study aims to reveal the factors that influence purchase intention according to Korean-Chinese consumers in e-commerce. In addition, the study has comprehensively confirmed the influence between each factor in the e-commerce environment by integrating and analyzing the characteristic factors of online information sources and platforms in one structural equation. Finally, the study confirmed that there is a significant difference in the influence relationship between Korean and Chinese consumers. Through this, the study will contribute to content production in the e-commerce market according to the target market and the expansion of the mutual entry of Korea and China. Design/methodology - This study aims to confirm the mediating effect of the details of the online information source characteristics and platform characteristics when the perceived quality affects purchase intention. It is confirmed that the factors affecting Korean and Chinese consumers differ. Findings - It was confirmed that differences exist according to the group of Korean or Chinese consumers for the entire research model. In the case of Korean consumers, the mediating factors when perceived quality affects purchase intention are expertise, reliability, entertainment, informativity, and convenience; in the case of Chinese consumers, the factors are expertise and informativity. Originality/value - This study proved that Korean and Chinese consumers cannot be regarded as having the same characteristics, and therefore, strategies aimed at each e-commerce market should be differentiated. In addition, although previous studies on online information sources and platform characteristics were not integrated, this study confirmed a significant influence relationship among the factors that could affect purchase intention in the actual e-commerce environment.
본 연구의 목적은 중소기업 국제화 연구의 선행연구에 대한 체계적 문헌고찰이다. 대외의존도가 높은 우리나라 경제 특성상 국제화는 중소기업에 선택이 아닌 필수적인 경영으로 요구받고 있다. 이에, 중소기업의 해외 진출과 국제화와 관련된 연구는 주요 학회지(KCI등재지)를 중심으로 최근 20년간 400여 편 이상 게재되었다. 이러한 관심에 비교해 우리 기업의 해외 진출에 대한 문헌고찰은 미흡하다. 이에 중소기업의 국제화 연구와 관련된 발표학회지 중심으로 국제화 연구에서 선행연구로 활용한 연구 동향을 분석하였다. 연구대상은 중소기업의 국제화로 정의하고 RISS(학술연구정보서비스)를 통해 키워드인 '국제화', '글로벌', '수출', '해외진출', '이론' 등으로 검색하였다. 분석기법은 체계적 문헌고찰 방식을 활용하여 국내 학술지 76편을 분석했다. 국제연구주제와 성격에 따라 국제화 동인과 과정 및 국제화 성과, 국제화 지원의 4대 영역의 동태적 관점으로 분류하였다. 연구결과 가장 활발한 분야는 국제화 성과연구에 집중되어 있음을 확인하였다. 본 연구는 한국 중소기업의 국제화라는 생태계에서 체계적 문헌고찰을 통해서 선행연구를 분석했다는 학술적 의미가 있으며, 중소기업의 국제화를 연구를 준비하는 연구자에게 이론적 배경을 제시하는 실무적 시사점이 있다.
Franchising is one of the fastest growing types of business. It is already popular and well-known in the U.S., and has been growing in many other countries including Korea. Furthermore, many Korean franchising companies have expanded their business overseas actively. According to the data by the Ministry of Industry and Resource, 82 companies out of a sample of 500 franchising companies are already operating in many foreign countries and 48% of them have started their foreign business since 2006. This clearly indicates the fast growing current trend of foreign operation by Korean franchising companies. In spite of the fast growing trend of foreign expansion in the industry, academic research on internationalization of franchising companies is extremely difficult to find. Accordingly, academic research on the issue is necessary and urgent in Korea. Among the various research questions on internationalization of franchising business, this study intends to investigate the difference in organizational factors between the franchising companies doing foreign operation and those doing business only domestically. More specifically, this research has the following purposes. First, considering the lack of theoretical basis of previous studies, resource-based theory and agency theory are employed as the theoretical bases. Second, this study explains the difference in internationalization based on organizational factors such as company size, history and growth rate. Third, the five hypotheses regarding the difference in organizational factors are presented and tested empirically, which is the first attempt in the area of this topic. Finally, the study attempts to clarify the conflicting implications among theories regarding some organizational factos such as growth rate. As the theoretical background, resource-based theory and agency theory are discussed. According to resource-based theory, a firm can grow continuously when it has competence and resource, and also the ability to develop them. The competence and resource can include capital, human resource, management skill, market information, ability to manage risk, etc. Meanwhile, agency theory views the relationship between franchisor and franchisee as an agency relationship. In agency theory, bonding capability and monitoring capability are the two key factors which promote internationalization of franchising companies. Based on the two theories, a conceptual model is designed. The model consists of two groups of variables. One is organizational factors including size, history, growth rate, price bonding and geographic dispersion. The other is whether a franchising company is operating overseas or not. We developed the following five research hypotheses basically describing the relationship between organizational factors and internationalization of franchising companies. H1: The size of franchising companies operating overseas is larger than that of franchising companies operating domestically. H2: The history of franchising companies operating overseas is longer than that of franchising companies operating domestically. H3: The growth rate of franchising companies operating overseas is higher than that of franchising companies operating domestically. H4: The price bonding of franchising companies operating overseas is higher than that of franchising companies operating domestically. H5: The geographic dispersion of franchising companies operating overseas is wider than that of franchising companies operating domestically. Data for the analyses are obtained from 2005 Korea Franchise Survey data co-generated by Ministry of Industry and Resource, GS1 Korea, and Korea Franchise Association. Out of 2,804 population companies, 2,489 companies are excluded for various reasons and 315 companies are selected as the final sample. Prior to hypotheses tests, validity and reliability of the measures of size, history, growth rate and price bonding are examined for further analyses. Geographic dispersion is not validated since it is measured using nominal data. A series of independent sample T-tests is used to find out whether there exists any significant difference between the companies internationalized and those operating only domestically for each organizational factor. Among the five factors, size and geographic dispersion show significant difference, growth rate and price bonding do not reveal any difference and, finally, history factor shows conflicting results in the difference depending on how to measure it.