• Asia Marketing Journal
• /
• v.14 no.2
• /
• pp.65-96
• /
• 2012

Brand has received much attention from considerable marketing research. When consumers consume product or services, they are exposed to a lot of brand related stimuli. These contain brand personality, brand experience, brand identity, brand communications and so on. A special kind of new crisis occasionally confronting companies' brand management today is the brand related rumor. An important influence on consumers' purchase decision making is the word-of-mouth spread by other consumers and most decisions are influenced by other's recommendations. In light of this influence, firms have reasonable reason to study and understand consumer-to-consumer communication such as brand rumor. The importance of brand rumor to marketers is increasing as the number of internet user and SNS(social network service) site grows. Due to the development of internet technology, people can spread rumors without the limitation of time, space and place. However relatively few studies have been published in marketing journals and little is known about brand rumors in the marketplace. The study of rumor has a long history in all major social science. But very few studies have dealt with the antecedents and consequences of any kind of brand rumor. Rumor has been generally described as a story or statement in general circulation without proper confirmation or certainty as to fact. And it also can be defined as an unconfirmed proposition, passed along from people to people. Rosnow(1991) claimed that rumors were transmitted because people needed to explain ambiguous and uncertain events and talking about them reduced associated anxiety. Especially negative rumors are believed to have the potential to devastate a company's reputation and relations with customers. From the perspective of marketer, negative rumors are considered harmful and extremely difficult to control in general. It is becoming a threat to a company's sustainability and sometimes leads to negative brand image and loss of customers. Thus there is a growing concern that these negative rumors can damage brands' reputations and lead them to financial disaster too. In this study we aimed to distinguish antecedents of brand rumor transmission and investigate the effects of brand rumor characteristics on rumor spread intention. We also found key components in personal acceptance of brand rumor. In contextualist perspective, we tried to unify the traditional psychological and sociological views. In this unified research approach we defined brand rumor's characteristics based on five major variables that had been found to influence the process of rumor spread intention. The five factors of usefulness, source credibility, message credibility, worry, and vividness, encompass multi level elements of brand rumor. We also selected product involvement as a control variable. To perform the empirical research, imaginary Korean 'Kimch' brand and related contamination rumor was created and proposed. Questionnaires were collected from 178 Korean samples. Data were collected from college students who have been experienced the focal product. College students were regarded as good subjects because they have a tendency to express their opinions in detail. PLS(partial least square) method was adopted to analyze the relations between variables in the equation model. The most widely adopted causal modeling method is LISREL. However it is poorly suited to deal with relatively small data samples and can yield not proper solutions in some cases. PLS has been developed to avoid some of these limitations and provide more reliable results. To test the reliability using SPSS 16 s/w, Cronbach alpha was examined and all the values were appropriate showing alpha values between .802 and .953. Subsequently, confirmatory factor analysis was conducted successfully. And structural equation modeling has been used to analyze the research model using smartPLS(ver. 2.0) s/w. Overall, R² of adoption of rumor is .476 and R² of intention of rumor transmission is .218. The overall model showed a satisfactory fit. The empirical results can be summarized as follows. According to the results, the variables of brand rumor characteristic such as source credibility, message credibility, worry, and vividness affect argument strength of rumor. And argument strength of rumor also affects rumor intention. On the other hand, the relationship between perceived usefulness and argument strength of rumor is not significant. The moderating effect of product involvement on the relations between argument strength of rumor and rumor W.O.M intention is not supported neither. Consequently this study suggests some managerial and academic implications. We consider some implications for corporate crisis management planning, PR and brand management. This results show marketers that rumor is a critical factor for managing strong brand assets. Also for researchers, brand rumor should become an important thesis of their interests to understand the relationship between consumer and brand. Recently many brand managers and marketers have focused on the short-term view. They just focused on strengthen the positive brand image. According to this study we suggested that effective brand management requires managing negative brand rumors with a long-term view of marketing decisions.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.61-118
• /
• 2008

The purpose of this research is to construct research framework for international franchising based on existing literature and to identify research components in the framework. Franchise can be defined as management styles that allow franchisee use various management assets of franchisor in order to make or sell product or service. It can be divided into product distribution franchise that is designed to sell products and business format franchise that is designed for running it as business whatever its form is. International franchising can be defined as a way of internationalization of franchisor to foreign country by providing its business format or package to franchisee of host country. International franchising is growing fast for last four decades but academic research on this is quite limited. Especially in Korea, research about international franchising is carried out on by case study format with single case or empirical study format with survey based on domestic franchise theory. Therefore, this paper tries to review existing literature on international franchising research, providing research framework, and then stimulating new research on this field. International franchising research components include motives and environmental factors for decision of expanding to international franchising, entrance modes and development plan for international franchising, contracts and management strategy of international franchising, and various performance measures from different perspectives. First, motives of international franchising are fee collection from franchisee. Also it provides easier way to expanding to foreign country. The other motives including increase total sales volume, occupying better strategic position, getting quality resources, and improving efficiency. Environmental factors that facilitating international franchising encompasses economic condition, trend, and legal or political factors in host and/or home countries. In addition, control power and risk management capability of franchisor plays critical role in successful franchising contract. Final decision to enter foreign country via franchising is determined by numerous factors like history, size, growth, competitiveness, management system, bonding capability, industry characteristics of franchisor. After deciding to enter into foreign country, franchisor needs to set entrance modes of international franchising. Within contractual mode, there are master franchising and area developing franchising, licensing, direct franchising, and joint venture. Theories about entrance mode selection contain concepts of efficiency, knowledge-based approach, competence-based approach, agent theory, and governance cost. The next step after entrance decision is operation strategy. Operation strategy starts with selecting a target city and a target country for franchising. In order to finding, screening targets, franchisor needs to collect information about candidates. Critical information includes brand patent, commercial laws, regulations, market conditions, country risk, and industry analysis. After selecting a target city in target country, franchisor needs to select franchisee, in other word, partner. The first important criteria for selecting partners are financial credibility and capability, possession of real estate. And cultural similarity and knowledge about franchisor and/or home country are also recognized as critical criteria. The most important element in operating strategy is legal document between franchisor and franchisee with home and host countries. Terms and conditions in legal documents give objective information about characteristics of franchising agreement for academic research. Legal documents have definitions of terminology, territory and exclusivity, agreement of term, initial fee, continuing fees, clearing currency, and rights about sub-franchising. Also, legal documents could have terms about softer elements like training program and operation manual. And harder elements like law competent court and terms of expiration. Next element in operating strategy is about product and service. Especially for business format franchising, product/service deliverable, benefit communicators, system identifiers (architectural features), and format facilitators are listed for product/service strategic elements. Another important decision on product/service is standardization vs. customization. The rationale behind standardization is cost reduction, efficiency, consistency, image congruence, brand awareness, and competitiveness on price. Also standardization enables large scale R&D and innovative change in management style. Another element in operating strategy is control management. The simple way to control franchise contract is relying on legal terms, contractual control system. There are other control systems, administrative control system and ethical control system. Contractual control system is a coercive source of power, but franchisor usually doesn't want to use legal power since it doesn't help to build up positive relationship. Instead, self-regulation is widely used. Administrative control system uses control mechanism from ordinary work relationship. Its main component is supporting activities to franchisee and communication method. For example, franchisor provides advertising, training, manual, and delivery, then franchisee follows franchisor's direction. Another component is building franchisor's brand power. The last research element is performance factor of international franchising. Performance elements can be divided into franchisor's performance and franchisee's performance. The conceptual performance measures of franchisor are simple but not easy to obtain objectively. They are profit, sale, cost, experience, and brand power. The performance measures of franchisee are mostly about benefits of host country. They contain small business development, promotion of employment, introduction of new business model, and level up technology status. There are indirect benefits, like increase of tax, refinement of corporate citizenship, regional economic clustering, and improvement of international balance. In addition to those, host country gets socio-cultural change other than economic effects. It includes demographic change, social trend, customer value change, social communication, and social globalization. Sometimes it is called as westernization or McDonaldization of society. In addition, the paper reviews on theories that have been frequently applied to international franchising research, such as agent theory, resource-based view, transaction cost theory, organizational learning theory, and international expansion theories. Resource based theory is used in strategic decision based on resources, like decision about entrance and cooperation depending on resources of franchisee and franchisor. Transaction cost theory can be applied in determination of mutual trust or satisfaction of franchising players. Agent theory tries to explain strategic decision for reducing problem caused by utilizing agent, for example research on control system in franchising agreements. Organizational Learning theory is relatively new in franchising research. It assumes organization tries to maximize performance and learning of organization. In addition, Internalization theory advocates strategic decision of direct investment for removing inefficiency of market transaction and is applied in research on terms of contract. And oligopolistic competition theory is used to explain various entry modes for international expansion. Competency theory support strategic decision of utilizing key competitive advantage. Furthermore, research methodologies including qualitative and quantitative methodologies are suggested for more rigorous international franchising research. Quantitative research needs more real data other than survey data which is usually respondent's judgment. In order to verify theory more rigorously, research based on real data is essential. However, real quantitative data is quite hard to get. The qualitative research other than single case study is also highly recommended. Since international franchising has limited number of applications, scientific research based on grounded theory and ethnography study can be used. Scientific case study is differentiated with single case study on its data collection method and analysis method. The key concept is triangulation in measurement, logical coding and comparison. Finally, it provides overall research direction for international franchising after summarizing research trend in Korea. International franchising research in Korea has two different types, one is for studying Korean franchisor going overseas and the other is for Korean franchisee of foreign franchisor. Among research on Korean franchisor, two common patterns are observed. First of all, they usually deal with success story of one franchisor. The other common pattern is that they focus on same industry and country. Therefore, international franchise research needs to extend their focus to broader subjects with scientific research methodology as well as development of new theory.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
• /
• v.5 no.1
• /
• pp.1-35
• /
• 1969

Attempts were made to obtain the fundamental knowledge on the quantitative constitution status of leaves and stem of elongating node-part, and the relationships between these morphological characteristics along with the nitrogen contents of leaves and grain yield were examined varing application amounts of nitrogen in rice plant. I. The agronomic characteristics of leaves and nodes of elongation node-part (4-node parts from the top of stem) were observed at heading stage with 20 leading rice varieties of Kang Won district. The results are summarized as follows: 1. Leaf area magnitude of the flag and the fourth leaf was smaller than that of the second and the third with the average value of flag leaf 18.61 $cm^2$, the second leaf 21.84 $cm^2$, the third 21.52 $cm^2$ and the fourth 18.56 $cm^2$. The weight of leaf blade showed an isotonic tendency with the magnitude of leaf area with the value of the flag leaf 97.0 mg, the second leaf 117.1 mg, the third 115.4 mg, and the fourth 95.3 mg. The weight of each leaf sheath was remarkably larger at the higher node-part than at the lower node-part of the stem with the value of flag leaf sheath 176.3 mg, the second 163.7 mg, the third 163.4 mg and the fourth 123.9 mg. Accordingly, the total leaf weight of each part was larger at the second and the third leaf than at the first and the fourth. Total plant weight of each part (weight of leaf blade, leaf sheath, and culm) also was larger at the middle node-part. 2. Coefficients of variation for the varietal differences of the morphological characteristics of elongating node-part were 12.75% for the leaf area, 15.29% for the weight of leaf blade, 15.90%, for the weight of leaf sheath, 11.42% for the weight of internode, 15.45% for the leaf weight (leaf blade ＆ leaf sheath) and 13.24% for the straw weight. And these coefficient values of the most characteristics were, on the whole, smaller at the second and the third node-part than at the first and the fourth node-part, but the coefficient value of the internode weight was rather small at the third and fourth node-part. 3. Constitutional ratio of each plant organ to the total plant weight in term of dry matter weight (excluding head and root wight) was 39.2% for the leaf sheath, 34.2% for the culm, 26.6% for the leaf blade. And ocnstitutional ratio of leaf sheath in term of dry matter weight was larger at the higher position in contrast with that of culm. 4. Average weight ration of leaf blade to culm, leaf sheath to culm, leaf blades to sheath and the leaf blades to culm plus leaf sheath were 77.7 %, 114.5%, 67.9% and 36.2%, respectively. With regard to the position of the plant organ, the weight ratio of leaf blade to culm and that of leaf sheath to culm were larger at higher part in contrast with that of leaf blade to leaf sheath. 5. Generally, there founded deep relationships between grain yield and each morphological characteristics of plant organ of elongating node-part as follows; Correlation coefficient between total area of 4 leaves (from flag to the fourth leaf) and grain yield was ${\gamma}$=0.666$^{**}$ In regard to the position of leaves, correlation coefficient values of flag, the second, the third and the fourth leaf were ${\gamma}$=0.659$^{**}$, ${\gamma}$=0.609$^{**}$, ${\gamma}$=0.464$^{*}$ and ${\gamma}$=0.523$^{*}$, respectively. Correlation coefficient between total weight of leaf blades and the grain yield was ${\gamma}$=0.678$^{**}$. In regard to the position of leaves, that of flag leaf was ${\gamma}$=0.691$^{**}$, and ${\gamma}$=0.654$^{**}$ for the second leaf, ${\gamma}$=0.570$^{**}$ for the third, and ${\gamma}$=0.544$^{**}$ for the fourth. Correlation between the weight of leaves (blade weight plus sheath weight) and the grain yield showed similar values. In the relationship between plant weight and grain yield there also was significant correlation, but with highly significant value only for the first node-part. There appeared correlation between total weight of leaf sheath and grain yield with the value of ${\gamma}$=0.572$^{**}$ and in regard to the position of each leaf sheath the values were ${\gamma}$=0.623$^{**}$ for the flag leaf, ${\gamma}$=0.486$^{**}$ for the second leaf, ${\gamma}$=0.513$^{**}$ for the third, ${\gamma}$=0.450$^{**}$ for the fourth. However, there was no significant correlation between culm weight and grain yield. 6. With respect to in gain yield, varietal differences in magnitude of leaf area, weight of leaf blade, leaf weight per unit area, weight of leaf sheath, culm weight, total leaf and stem weight were larger in the case of high yielding varieties and decreased in accordance with decreasing yield. And this tendency also was shown in the varietal differences of magnitude of each part. Variation in magnitude of each part for the leaf area, weight of leaf blade, culm weight was significantly small in high yielding varieties compared to low yielding varieties. 7. Plant constitutional ratio of each organ of the elongating node-part in term of weight magnitnde varied to som extent according to varieties indicating leaf blade 27.6%, leaf sheath 39.5%, culm 32.9% in the case of high yielding varieties, leaf blade 25.5%, leaf sheath 38.1%, culm 36.4% in the case of low yielding varieties, and medium yielding varieties showed intermadiate values. 8. Far higher values of the weight ration of leaf blade to culm and leaf sheath to culm were given to the high yielding varieties compared to low yielding varieties. And medium yielding varieties showed intermadiate values. II. Effects of application rate of nitrogen on the morphological characteristics of the elongating node-part, nitrogen content of leaf blade, and their relation with the grain yield of the rice were observed with 3 rice varieties; Shin No.2, Shirogane, and Jinheung varying application amounts of nitrogen as 8kg, 12kg and 16kg per 10 are. 1. As for the variation of morphological magnitude s affected by the amounts of nitrogen application, total leaf area (4 leaves from the flag leaf) increased to 16.5% at 12kg N plot, and about 30% at 16kg N polt compared to 8kg N plot and total weight of leaf blade also increased to similar extent, respectively, in contrast with weight of leaf sheath increasing 4.9% and 7.8%, respectively. However, the weight of culm decreased to 1.5% and 11.2%at the 12kg N plot and 16kg N plot, respectively, and these decreasing rate was noted at the nodes of lower part. 2. As for the verietal differences in variation of morphological magnitude as affected by the amount of nitrogen fertilization, leaf area coefficient value of variation of the total leaf area was 15.40% for Shin No. 2, 12.87% for Shirogane, and 10.99% for Jinheung. With respect to the position of nodes, the largest variation of leaf blade magnitude was observed at the fourth for Shin No. 2, the second for Shirogan, and flag leaf for Jinheung. And there also was an isotonic varietal difference in the weight of leaf blade. Variation in total culm weight showed varietal differences with the coefficient value of 7.72% for Shin No.2, 12.11% for Shirogane, and 0.94% for Jinheung. There also was varietal differences in the variation according to the position of nodes. 3. Variation of each elongating node-part related to the fertilization amount decreased with the increase of fertilization amount in the items of leaf area, weight of leaf sheath, culm weight, but weight of leaf sheath varied more at heavier fertilization than at others. 4. Constitutional ratio of each organ excluding head also varied with fertilization amount; constitutional ratio of leaf blade increased much with the increasing amount of fertilization in contrast with the response of culm eight. However, constitutional ration of the weight of leaf sheath was not much affected. 5. Lower value of the ration of leaf blade to culm was given to the 8kg N per 10 are plot, and the ratio of leaf blade to leaf sheath decreased with the increasing amount of fertilization in contrast with the increase in the ratio of leaf sheath to culm. however, the ration of leaf blade to culm plus leaf sheath decreased. 6. With the increase of nitrogen fertilization, leaf area, weight of leaf blade and leaf sheath increased. Accordingly, grin yield also increased to some extent. It was noted that culm weight was changed inversely to the changes in grain yield, but the degree of this variation varied with varietal characteristics. 7. Nitrogen content of leaves at heading and fruiting stage varied with the fertilization amount, and average nitrogen content of leaves of the varieties used 2.19%, 2.49% and 2.74% at the plot of 8kg N, and 12kg N and 16kg N per 10 are, respectively, at heading time, and 0.80%, 0.92% and 1.03% at each plot at fruiting stage. Thus, nitrogen content of leaves increased much with the increasing amount of fertilization, and higher value was given to the leaves on the higher position of elongating node-part. 8. There also was variation of nitrogen content of leaves in accordance with the varieties. However higher grain yield was obtained from the plants retaining higher nitrogen content in leaves at heading or fruiting stage.