• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.173-193
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• 2019

Reward-based crowdfunding is a funding platform that allows funds to be raised to early operators who have lack of funds, and is seen as an outstanding infrastructure that is going to lead the fourth industrial revolution in that it is a field of realization of new technologies and creative ideas by start-ups. Reward-based crowdfunding has grown in line with the trend of the fourth industrial revolution, and funding success cases are taking place in various industries that culture/art to technology/IT, including as a new means of knowledge management in a rapidly changing industrial environment. The study focused on the fact that consumer's donation purposes may also vary depending on the category of projects classified as reward-based crowdfunding. Because consumer payment decisions and motivation of consumer purchasing behavior are classified according to the purpose of purchase, the previous papers that the goal gradient effect that the main motivation of consumer donation for reward-based crowdfunding introduced vary depending on project category of utilitarian and hedonic. In this study, consumer's daily donation data is collected by Indiegogo which is a leading reward-based crowdfunding company using web-crawling and the model was defined as propensity score matching (PSM) and random effect model. The results showed that the goal gradient effect occurred in utilitarian project category, but no goal gradient effect for the hedonic project category. Furthermore, this paper developed the study of motivation of consumer donation and contributes theoretical foundation by the results consumer donation may vary depending on the project category; also, this paper has implications for an effective marketing strategy depending on the project category leaves real meaning to the projector.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.33-50
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• 2019

This study investigates the decision-making processes of Iranian women in their twenties who purchased Hallyu beauty and fashion products. We conducted ten in-depth interviews of Hallyu enthusiasts who previously purchased Hallyu products. Interviewees were recruited using a snowball sampling technique based on nonprobability sampling. Interviews were conducted in the 1:1 in-depth interview format for one hour of each interview from April 11, 2017, to May 14, 2017, using semi-structured questionnaires, and recorded with consent. Our analysis of the characteristics of consumption behaviors of the women used seven steps of the purchase decision-making process. This study used interviews to analyze the following questions. Research Question 1. What is the decision process for Iranian women's consumer products purchase? Research Question 2. What are the characteristics and meaning of each stage of Iranian women's consumer decision-making process? Data collection in this study was limited to participants in their twenties; however, this research will be helpful for future Hallyu and Iranian consumer analysis. A follow-up study should examine the purchasing decisions of women in additional age groups in order to generalize the results.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.191-216
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• 2021

How an individual construes one's future influences everyday decisions. For example, savings and impulsive purchasing, which is highly familiar with our life, are related to future time perception. Drawing on the idea of future self-continuity, the perceived connectedness between the current and future self, this study demonstrated whether media images with various age ranges influence a sense of connectedness with one's future self as well as impatience. Furthermore, the study measured whether these relationships were moderated by the positivity of older adults and an individual's dispositional optimism in general. Results showed that watching various images of people with a wide range of age (from the 20s to 90s) in social media increased young adults' (the 20s) self-continuity and decreased their intention of impatient consumption. This effect was also moderated by the degree to which the participants perceive aging positively.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.229-251
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• 2022

Online reviews are useful for other consumers to make reasonable purchase decisions by providing previous buyers' experiences. However, when online reviewers are biased, online reviews do not accurately reflect the true quality of the product. Therefore, we investigated the characteristics of reviewers with underreporting bias to cope with the problem of declining reliability of online reviews. In this context, this study attempted to examine the characteristics of reviewers with underreporting bias using 14,165 reviews of Steam, an online game platform. As a result of the analysis, reviewers with underreporting bias mainly write reviews positively, write reviews within a short period from the game release date, but tend to write reviews after playing games for longer time, and write reviews when purchasing high-priced games. Since this study has explored the characteristics of reviewers showing underreporting bias, it will be meaningful as a basic study to cope with the problem caused by underreporting bias.

• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.35-50
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• 2023

Purpose: This study aims to uncover the mechanism of how initial fees are determined in the restaurant franchise business. Since the initial fees can be considered as a price of utilizing business models and operational knowledge of a certain franchise brand, it is critical to understand the fee decision-making process based on the strategic pricing theories. Therefore, this study investigates the influence of operational value on the determination of initial franchise fees grounded on a value-based pricing strategy. The Operational value is specifically categorized into profitability, growth, and stability of the franchise system. Research design, data, and methodology: The data used were collected through franchise disclosure documents and brand equity index provided by Korea Management Association Consulting. Data from 44 franchise restaurants during 2018 to 2021 are included in the sample. The panel dataset was analyzed by using generalized least squares estimation with R-Studio. Results: Profitability and stability positively influence initial franchise fees. However, growth did not influence initial franchise fees. Conclusions: The results of the study demonstrate that the operational value plays a critical role in determining the franchise fees. Specifically, franchisees recognize how much revenue a franchise system generates for them (i.e., profitability) and how stable the entire system is for operating business (i.e., stability) when they make purchasing decisions for franchise. The findings extend the pricing literature by applying pricing theories in the franchise fee context. Also, the study contributes to franchising and restaurant management literature by providing knowledge of how franchise fees are determined.

• Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.81-99
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• 2024

Live commerce, a rapidly growing sector, facilitates real-time interaction between streamers and consumers about specific products. This business model aids rational purchasing decisions by offering visual demonstrations of product usage. This study aims to identify potential uncertainties faced by consumers in live commerce and propose strategies to mitigate these uncertainties for streamers and platforms. A research hypothesis was formulated based on prior studies and tested through surveys conducted on consumers aged 20 and above with live commerce experience. The study revealed that a streamer's credibility (trustworthiness, expertness, and reputation) significantly impacts purchase intention by mitigating uncertainty. The platform's return policy also interacted with product uncertainty, influencing consumer purchase intention. These findings provide a roadmap for creating a tailored service strategy for live commerce platforms, focusing on reducing uncertainty in the product purchase process.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.263-283
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• 2024

Users' comments after online shopping are critical to product reputation and business improvement. These comments, sometimes known as e-commerce reviews, influence other customers' purchasing decisions. To confront large amounts of e-commerce reviews, automatic analysis based on machine learning and deep learning draws more and more attention. A core task therein is sentiment analysis. However, the e-commerce reviews exhibit the following characteristics: (1) inconsistency between comment content and the star rating; (2) a large number of unlabeled data, i.e., comments without a star rating, and (3) the data imbalance caused by the sparse negative comments. This paper employs Bidirectional Encoder Representation from Transformers (BERT), one of the best natural language processing models, as the base model. According to the above data characteristics, we propose the F_MixBERT framework, to more effectively use inconsistently low-quality and unlabeled data and resolve the problem of data imbalance. In the framework, the proposed MixBERT incorporates the MixMatch approach into BERT's high-dimensional vectors to train the unlabeled and low-quality data with generated pseudo labels. Meanwhile, data imbalance is resolved by Focal loss, which penalizes the contribution of large-scale data and easily-identifiable data to total loss. Comparative experiments demonstrate that the proposed framework outperforms BERT and MixBERT for sentiment analysis of e-commerce comments.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.356-371
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• 2024

Novel meat-inspired products, such as cell-cultivated meat and meat analogues, embrace environmental sustainability, food safety and security, animal welfare, and human health, but consumers are still hesitant to accept these products. The appearance of food is often the most persuasive determinant of purchasing decisions for food. Producing cultivated meat and meat analogues with similar characteristics to conventional meat could lead to increased acceptability, marketability, and profitability. Color is one of the sensorial characteristics that can be improved using color-inducing methods and colorants. Synthetic colorants are cheap and stable, but natural pigments are regarded as safer components for novel food production. The complexity of identifying specific colorants to imitate both raw and cooked meat color lies in the differences in ingredients and methods used to produce meat alternatives. Research devoted to improving the sensorial characteristics of meat analogues has noted various color-inducing methods (e.g., ohmic cooking and pasteurization) and additives (e.g., lactoferrin, laccase, xylose, and pectin). Additionally, considerations toward other meat components, such as fat, can aid in mimicking conventional meat appearance. For instance, the use of plant-based fat replacers and scaffolds can produce a marked sensory enhancement without compromising the sustainability of alternative meats. Moving forward, consumer-relevant sensorial characteristics, such as taste and texture, should be prioritized alongside improving the coloration of meat alternatives.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.49-58
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• 2010

Corporate social responsibility has become a very important issue for researchers (Greenfield, 2004; Maignan & Ralston, 2002; McWilliams et al., 2006; Pearce & Doh 2005), and many consider it necessary for businesses to define their role in society and apply social and ethical standards to their businesses (Lichtenstein et al., 2004). As a result, a significant number of retailers have adopted CSR as a strategic tool to promote their businesses. To this end, this study sought to discover U.S. consumers' attitudes and behavior in ethical purchasing and consumption based on their subjective perception and evaluation of a retailer. The objectives of this study include: 1) determine the participants awareness of retailers corporate social responsibility; 2) assess how participants evaluate retailers corporate social responsibility; 3) examine whether participants evaluation process of retailers CSR influence their attitude toward the retailer; and 4) assess if participants attitude toward the retailers CSR influence their purchase behavior. This study does not focus on actual retailers' CSR performance because a consumer's decision making process is based on an individual assessment not an actual fact. This study examines US college students' awareness and evaluations of retailers' corporate social responsibility (CSR). Fifty six college students at a major Southeastern university participated in the study. The age of the participants ranged from 18 to 26 years old. Content analysis was conducted with open coding and focused coding. Over 100 single-spaced pages of written responses were collected and analyzed. Two steps of coding (i.e., open coding and focused coding) were conducted (Esterberg, 2002). Coding results and analytic memos were used to understand participants' awareness of CSR and their ethical purchasing behavior supported through the selection and inclusion of direct quotes that were extracted from the written responses. Names used here are pseudonyms to protect confidentiality of participants. Participants were asked to write about retailers, their aware-ness of CSR issues, and to evaluate a retailer's CSR performance. A majority (n = 28) of respondents indicated their awareness of CSR but have not felt the need to act on this issue. Few (n=8) indicated that they are aware of this issue but not greatly concerned. Findings suggest that when college students evaluate retailers' CSR performance, they use three dimensions of CSR: employee support, community support, and environmental support. Employee treatment and support were found as an important criterion in evaluation of retailers' CSR. Respondents indicated that their good experience with a retailer as an employee made them have a positive perception and attitude toward the retailer. Regarding employee support four themes emerged: employee rewards and incentives based on performance, working environment, employee education and training program, and employee and family discounts. Well organized rewards and incentives were mentioned as an important attribute. The factors related to the working environment included: how well retailers follow the rules related to working hours, lunch time and breaks was also one of the most mentioned attributes. Regarding community support, three themes emerged: contributing a percentage of sales to the local community, financial contribution to charity organizations, and events for community support. Regarding environments, two themes emerged: recycling and selling organic or green products. It was mentioned in the responses that retailers are trying to do what they can to be environmentally friendly. One respondent mentioned that the company is creating stores that have an environmentally friendly design. Information about what the company does to help the environment can easily be found on the company’s website as well. Respondents have also noticed that the stores are starting to offer products that are organic and environmentally friendly. A retailer was also mentioned by a respondent in this category in reference to how the company uses eco-friendly cups and how they are helping to rebuild homes in New Orleans. The respondents noticed that a retailer offers reusable bags for their consumers to purchase. One respondent stated that a retailer uses its products to help the environment, through offering organic cotton. After thorough analysis of responses, we found that a participant's evaluation of a retailers' CSR influenced their attitudes towards retailers. However, there was a significant gap between attitudes and purchasing behavior. Although the participants had positive attitudes toward retailers CSR, the lack of funds and time influenced their purchase behavior. Overall, half (n=28) of the respondents mentioned that CSR performance affects their purchasing decisions making when shopping. Findings from this study provide support for retailers to consider their corporate social responsibility when developing their image with the consumer. This study implied that consumers evaluate retailers based on employee, community and environmental support. The evaluation, attitude and purchase behavior of consumers seem to be intertwined. That is, evaluation is based on the knowledge the consumer has of the retailers CSR. That knowledge may influence their attitude toward the retailer and thus influence their purchase behavior. Participants also indicated that having CSR makes them think highly of the retailer, but it does not influence their purchase behavior. Price and convenience seem to surpass the importance of CSR among the participants. Implications, recommendations for future research, and limitations of the study are also discussed.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.541-551
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• 2012

In our previous work, we reported consumers' perceptions of body shape and weight control. In an ongoing effort, we analyzed the purchasing behavior, intake patterns, future purchasing decisions, and degree of satisfaction in individuals consuming dietary formula for weight control (DF) or heath/functional foods (HFFs) by using the same survey questions. Portfolio analysis for marketing strategy was also investigated. Subjects were divided into two groups according to consumption of DF or HFF during the previous year : DF group (n = 89) and HFF group (n = 110). Average intake frequency was $1.7{\pm}0.7$ per day for HFFs and $1.5{\pm}0.9$ per day for the DF, and the most prevalent form was pill (58.2%) for HFFs and bar (42.7%) for DF. Duration of intake was $3.1{\pm}2.3$ months for HFFs versus $3.9{\pm}3.5$ months for DF. The average degree of satisfaction was $3.6{\pm}0.6$ on a 5-point scale, meaning 'relatively satisfied'. For the weight control method to be used in the future, 44.5% of the HFF group selected 'HFFs' while 47.2% of the DF group selected 'DF', showing a tendency to use the current product type in the future. The average planned period for the intake was $3.8{\pm}3.7$ months for HFFs and $3.0{\pm}2.4$ months for DF (p < 0.05). The HFF group emphasized efficacy, functional ingredients of the products, reliable products, and higher satisfaction, whereas the DF group emphasized the added materials in addition to weight control effects.