• Industry Promotion Research
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.79-86
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• 2021

Due to the change in the demographic structure, the problem of low birth rate and aging population leads to a serious decrease in human resources, and the necessity of introducing foreign workers is increasing. This study believes that the introduction of foreign workforce is the most effective to expand the working-age population in the era of low birthrate and aging, when demographic changes begin in earnest, and to this end, it sought to devise measures to improve the legal system for migrant workers. As a result of this study, first, the legal system for migrant workers should be unified and improved. It is necessary to establish or unify management agencies so that the 「Immigration Control Act」 and the 「Labor Act」 can establish a cooperative relationship. Second, the 「Immigration Control Act」 should be revised to make it easier for migrant workers to find employment. It is necessary to positively review the employment permit system and acquisition of nationality. Third, there should be no equity or discrimination against migrant workers. Under the principle of mutual benefit, employers and migrant workers should not be equally discriminated against. Fourth, the social insurance system must be added to the legal system of migrant workers. Therefore, the legal system should be reorganized so that migrant workers are not discriminated against in various insurance systems including the four major social insurance systems. In conclusion, the problem of low birthrate and aging population has become a serious social problem due to changes in the demographic structure, and the decrease in the possible generation population has reached a level of concern. The importance of migrant workers' employment and work environment is increasing. Nevertheless, related legal and institutional problems still exist, and measures to improve the legal system for migrant workers are needed.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.141-163
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• 2017

The purpose of this study to analyze the relationship among three characteristics of O2O commerce and extended goal-directed behavior(EGB) model(trust, desire and intention to use). From June to July in 2015, the questionnaires were sent to Chinese customers using O2O commerce. Among 494 questionnaires gathered, 433 valid ones are analyzed using SPSS and AMOS. Among ten research hypotheses derived from prior research and the research model, eight hypotheses are tenable, while the rest hypotheses are untenable. Online features of mobility and Offline features of service quality. The Online features of mobility bring consumers convenience but also has some latent customer privacy issue. On other hand, because of the untenable hypothesis, there is inconformity between online service and offline service, and customer have distrust on the O2O commerce. To achieve continuous online consumption, offline businesses need to improve their service. The perceived quality of selling company exerts a significant effect on the customers' reliability for the brand equity of open market company and selling company, such as the brand awareness of the open market, open market image, brand awareness of selling company, and the perceived quality of selling company. Thus, selling company should improve self-brand service and quality in order to improve customers' reliability. In addition, the consumer characteristics of attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control are all tenable. These results mean that O2O commerce is a favorite way of consumption by Chinese consumers.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.53-77
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• 2013

As advertising and promotions are categorized as operating expenses, managers tend to reduce marketing budget to improve their short term profitability. Gauging the value and accountability of marketing spending is therefore considered as a major research priority in marketing. To respond this call, recent studies have documented that financial market reacts positively to a firm's marketing activity or marketing related outcomes such as brand equity and customer satisfaction. However, prior studies focus on the relation of marketing variable and financial market variables. This study suggests a channel about how marketing activity increases firm valuation. Specifically, we propose that a firm's marketing activity increases the level of the firm's product market information and thereby the dispersion in financial analysts' earnings forecasts decreases. With less uncertainty about the firm's future prospect, the firm's managers and shareholders have less information asymmetry, which reduces the firm's cost of capital and thereby increases the valuation of the firm. To our knowledge, this is the first paper to examine how informational benefits can mediate the effect of marketing activity on firm value. To test whether marketing activity contributes to increase in firm value by mitigating information asymmetry, this study employs a longitudinal data which contains 12,824 firm-year observations with 2,337 distinct firms from 1981 to 2006. Firm value is measured by Tobin's Q and one-year-ahead buy-and-hold abnormal return (BHAR). Following prior literature, dispersion in analysts' earnings forecasts is used as a proxy for the information gap between management and shareholders. For model specification, to identify mediating effect, the three-step regression approach is adopted. All models are estimated using Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods to test the statistical significance of the mediating effect. The analysis shows that marketing intensity has a significant negative relationship with dispersion in analysts' earnings forecasts. After including the mediator variable about analyst dispersion, the effect of marketing intensity on firm value drops from 1.199 (p < .01) to 1.130 (p < .01) in Tobin's Q model and the same effect drops from .192 (p < .01) to .188 (p < .01) in BHAR model. The results suggest that analysts' forecast dispersion partially accounts for the positive effect of marketing on firm valuation. Additionally, the same analysis was conducted with an alternative dependent variable (forecast accuracy) and a marketing metric (advertising intensity). The analysis supports the robustness of the main results. In sum, the results provide empirical evidence that marketing activity can increase shareholder value by mitigating problem of information asymmetry in the capital market. The findings have important implications for managers. First, managers should be cognizant of the role of marketing activity in providing information to the financial market as well as to the consumer market. Thus, managers should take into account investors' reaction when they design marketing communication messages for reducing the cost of capital. Second, this study shows a channel on how marketing creates shareholder value and highlights the accountability of marketing. In addition to the direct impact of marketing on firm value, an indirect channel by reducing information asymmetry should be considered. Potentially, marketing managers can justify their spending from the perspective of increasing long-term shareholder value.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.113-136
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• 2011

Product harm crises can distort long standing favorable equality perceptions, tarnish a company's reputation, cause major revenue and market-share losses, lead to costly product recalls, and devastate a carefully nurtured brand equity. However, in spite of the devastating impact of product-harm crises, little systematic research exists to asses its marketing consequences. So, this study focuses on the negative publicity about companies and their products. Namely, this study presented how inclusion effect supported the relationship between negative publicity and consumers' response, market performance. According to the results, after negativity publicity was happened, it was appeared that the negativity image spread into other product lines(spillover effect; inclusion effect). Also, when they contact with the negative publicity, respondents negatively evaluated both production evaluation and corporate evaluation. And, in that case of the products with negativity publicity, compared with refutation strategy(defense strategy<study 2>), improving strategy(correction notice) had positive influence on recovery of sales, product evaluation, and corporate evaluation. Finally, as the reaction time toward negativity publicity was faster, the market performance got worse. Especially, according to two-way interaction, when the reaction time was fast, the difference between refutation strategy(defense strategy<study 2>) and improving strategy was not existed in product evaluation and corporate evaluation. However, when the reaction time was late(after a month), improving strategy had more positive evaluation than defense strategy in product evaluation, and corporate evaluation.

• Korean small business review
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.85-102
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• 2009

With the continued globalization of world markets, transfer pricing has become one of the dominant sources of controversy in international taxation. Transfer pricing is the process by which a multinational corporation calculates a price for goods and services that are transferred to affiliated entities. Consider a Korean electronic enterprise that buys supplies from its own subsidiary located in China. How much the Korean parent company pays its subsidiary will determine how much profit the Chinese unit reports in local taxes. If the parent company pays above normal market prices, it may appear to have a poor profit, even if the group as a whole shows a respectable profit margin. In this way, transfer prices impact the taxable income reported in each country in which the multinational enterprise operates. It's importance lies in that around 60% of international trade involves transactions between two related parts of multinationals, according to the OECD. Multinational enterprises (hereafter MEs) exert much effort into utilizing organizational advantages to make global investments. MEs wish to minimize their tax burden. So MEs spend a fortune on economists and accountants to justify transfer prices that suit their tax needs. On the contrary, local governments are not prepared to cope with MEs' powerful financial instruments. Tax authorities in each country wish to ensure that the tax base of any ME is divided fairly. Thus, both tax authorities and MEs have a vested interest in the way in which a transfer price is determined, and this is why MEs' international transfer prices are at the center of disputes concerned with taxation. Transfer pricing issues and practices are sometimes difficult to control for regulators because the tax administration does not have enough staffs with the knowledge and resources necessary to understand them. The authors examine transfer pricing practices to provide relevant resources useful in designing tax incentives and regulation schemes for policy makers. This study focuses on identifying the relevant business and environmental factors that could influence the international transfer pricing of MEs. In this perspective, we empirically investigate how the management perception of related variables influences their choice of international transfer pricing methods. We believe that this research is particularly useful in the design of tax policy. Because it can concentrate on a few selected factors in consideration of the limited budget of the tax administration with assistance of this research. Data is composed of questionnaire responses from foreign firms in Korea with investment balances exceeding one million dollars in the end of 2004. We mailed questionnaires to 861 managers in charge of the accounting departments of each company, resulting in 121 valid responses. Seventy six percent of the sample firms are classified as small and medium sized enterprises with assets below 100 billion Korean won. Reviewing transfer pricing methods, cost-based transfer pricing is most popular showing that 60 firms have adopted it. The market-based method is used by 31 firms, and 13 firms have reported the resale-pricing method. Regarding the nationalities of foreign investors, the Japanese and the Americans constitute most of the sample. Logistic regressions have been performed for statistical analysis. The dependent variable is binary in that whether the method of international transfer pricing is a market-based method or a cost-based method. This type of binary classification is founded on the belief that the market-based method is evaluated as the relatively objective way of pricing compared with the cost-based methods. Cost-based pricing is assumed to give mangers flexibility in transfer pricing decisions. Therefore, local regulatory agencies are thought to prefer market-based pricing over cost-based pricing. Independent variables are composed of eight factors such as corporate tax rate, tariffs, relations with local tax authorities, tax audit, equity ratios of local investors, volume of internal trade, sales volume, and product life cycle. The first four variables are included in the model because taxation lies in the center of transfer pricing disputes. So identifying the impact of these variables in Korean business environments is much needed. Equity ratio is included to represent the interest of local partners. Volume of internal trade was sometimes employed in previous research to check the pricing behavior of managers, so we have followed these footsteps in this paper. Product life cycle is used as a surrogate of competition in local markets. Control variables are firm size and nationality of foreign investors. Firm size is controlled using dummy variables in that whether or not the specific firm is small and medium sized. This is because some researchers report that big firms show different behaviors compared with small and medium sized firms in transfer pricing. The other control variable is also expressed in dummy variable showing if the entrepreneur is the American or not. That's because some prior studies conclude that the American management style is different in that they limit branch manger's freedom of decision. Reviewing the statistical results, we have found that managers prefer the cost-based method over the market-based method as the importance of corporate taxes and tariffs increase. This result means that managers need flexibility to lessen the tax burden when they feel taxes are important. They also prefer the cost-based method as the product life cycle matures, which means that they support subsidiaries in local market competition using cost-based transfer pricing. On the contrary, as the relationship with local tax authorities becomes more important, managers prefer the market-based method. That is because market-based pricing is a better way to maintain good relations with the tax officials. Other variables like tax audit, volume of internal transactions, sales volume, and local equity ratio have shown only insignificant influence. Additionally, we have replaced two tax variables(corporate taxes and tariffs) with the data showing top marginal tax rate and mean tariff rates of each country, and have performed another regression to find if we could get different results compared with the former one. As a consequence, we have found something different on the part of mean tariffs, that shows only an insignificant influence on the dependent variable. We guess that each company in the sample pays tariffs with a specific rate applied only for one's own company, which could be located far from mean tariff rates. Therefore we have concluded we need a more detailed data that shows the tariffs of each company if we want to check the role of this variable. Considering that the present paper has heavily relied on questionnaires, an effort to build a reliable data base is needed for enhancing the research reliability.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.31-68
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• 1990

The concentration of economic power takes the form of one or a few firms controlling a substantial portion of the economic resources and means in a certain economic area. At the same time, to the extent that these firms are owned by a few individuals, resource allocation can be manipulated by them rather than by the impersonal market mechanism. This will impair allocative efficiency, run counter to a decentralized market system and hamper the equitable distribution of wealth. Viewed from the historical evolution of Western capitalism in general, the concentration of economic power is a paradox in that it is a product of the free market system itself. The economic principle of natural discrimination works so that a few big firms preempt scarce resources and market opportunities. Prominent historical examples include trusts in America, Konzern in Germany and Zaibatsu in Japan in the early twentieth century. In other words, the concentration of economic power is the outcome as well as the antithesis of free competition. As long as judgment of the economic system at large depends upon the value systems of individuals, therefore, the issue of how to evaluate the concentration of economic power will inevitably be tinged with ideology. We have witnessed several different approaches to this problem such as communism, fascism and revised capitalism, and the last one seems to be the only surviving alternative. The concentration of economic power in Korea can be summarily represented by the "jaebol," namely, the conglomerate business group, the majority of whose member firms are monopolistic or oligopolistic in their respective markets and are owned by particular individuals. The jaebol has many dimensions in its size, but to sketch its magnitude, the share of the jaebol in the manufacturing sector reached 37.3% in shipment and 17.6% in employment as of 1989. The concentration of economic power can be ascribed to a number of causes. In the early stages of economic development, when the market system is immature, entrepreneurship must fill the gap inherent in the market in addition to performing its customary managerial function. Entrepreneurship of this sort is a scarce resource and becomes even more valuable as the target rate of economic growth gets higher. Entrepreneurship can neither be readily obtained in the market nor exhausted despite repeated use. Because of these peculiarities, economic power is bound to be concentrated in the hands of a few entrepreneurs and their business groups. It goes without saying, however, that the issue of whether the full exercise of money-making entrepreneurship is compatible with social mores is a different matter entirely. The rapidity of the concentration of economic power can also be traced to the diversification of business groups. The transplantation of advanced technology oriented toward mass production tends to saturate the small domestic market quite early and allows a firm to expand into new markets by making use of excess capacity and of monopoly profits. One of the reasons why the jaebol issue has become so acute in Korea lies in the nature of the government-business relationship. The Korean government has set economic development as its foremost national goal and, since then, has intervened profoundly in the private sector. Since most strategic industries promoted by the government required a huge capacity in technology, capital and manpower, big firms were favored over smaller firms, and the benefits of industrial policy naturally accrued to large business groups. The concentration of economic power which occured along the way was, therefore, not necessarily a product of the market system. At the same time, the concentration of ownership in business groups has been left largely intact as they have customarily met capital requirements by means of debt. The real advantage enjoyed by large business groups lies in synergy due to multiplant and multiproduct production. Even these effects, however, cannot always be considered socially optimal, as they offer disadvantages to other independent firms-for example, by foreclosing their markets. Moreover their fictitious or artificial advantages only aggravate the popular perception that most business groups have accumulated their wealth at the expense of the general public and under the behest of the government. Since Korea stands now at the threshold of establishing a full-fledged market economy along with political democracy, the phenomenon called the concentration of economic power must be correctly understood and the roles of business groups must be accordingly redefined. In doing so, we would do better to take a closer look at Japan which has experienced a demise of family-controlled Zaibatsu and a success with business groups(Kigyoshudan) whose ownership is dispersed among many firms and ultimately among the general public. The Japanese case cannot be an ideal model, but at least it gives us a good point of departure in that the issue of ownership is at the heart of the matter. In setting the basic direction of public policy aimed at controlling the concentration of economic power, one must harmonize efficiency and equity. Firm size in itself is not a problem, if it is dictated by efficiency considerations and if the firm behaves competitively in the market. As long as entrepreneurship is required for continuous economic growth and there is a discrepancy in entrepreneurial capacity among individuals, a concentration of economic power is bound to take place to some degree. Hence, the most effective way of reducing the inefficiency of business groups may be to impose competitive pressure on their activities. Concurrently, unless the concentration of ownership in business groups is scaled down, the seed of social discontent will still remain. Nevertheless, the dispersion of ownership requires a number of preconditions and, consequently, we must make consistent, long-term efforts on many fronts. We can suggest a long list of policy measures specifically designed to control the concentration of economic power. Whatever the policy may be, however, its intended effects will not be fully realized unless business groups abide by the moral code expected of socially responsible entrepreneurs. This is especially true, since the root of the problem of the excessive concentration of economic power lies outside the issue of efficiency, in problems concerning distribution, equity, and social justice.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.301-308
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• 2018

This study explores an analytical mathematical model designed to estimate the optimal debt ratio of the Korean automobile industry, which has a more significant effect on the national economy than that of other industries, and attempts to estimate the optimal debt ratio based on objective data. The analytical model is based on ROA and ROE which uses the debt ratio as an independent variable and employs ROS, TAT, and NFCL as the related parameters. Regarding the NFCL, the optimal debt ratio is usually defined as the debt ratio that maximizes the ROA and ROE and is calculated using analytical procedures, such as by adding an equation that considers the debt ratio and the linearity relationship to the analytical model. This is because the optimal debt ratio can be calculated reliably by making use of an estimated value within a certain range, which is derived from more than two calculations rather than a single estimation starting from one calculation formula. In this study, for the estimation of the optimal debt ratio, the ROA and ROE are expressed as a quadratic equation with the debt ratio as the independent variable. Using this analysis procedure, the optimal debt ratio obtained using the data from the Korean automobile industry over a sixteen year period, which would optimize the profitability of the Korean automobile industry, was found to be 188% of the debt ratio in the ROA and 213% of the debt ratio in the ROE. This result was obtained by overcoming the problem of the reliability of the estimation value in spite of the limitations of the logical theory of this study, and can be interpreted as meaning that maintaining a debt ratio of 188% to 213% can enhance the profitability and reduce the risks in the Korean automobile industry. Furthermore, this indicates that the existing debt ratio of the Korean automobile industry is lower than the optimal value within the estimated range. Consequently, it is necessary for corporations to change their future debt ratio policies, given that the purpose of debt ratio management is to maintain safety and increase profitability, and to take into account the characteristics of the specific industry.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.203-217
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• 2018

The research objective of this study is to analyze the aspects of small group decision-making process based on reading news reports in the context of the socio-scientific issues (SSI) activity related to climate change. Twenty-two high school students from Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, were asked to read two news reports on the UN climate change conferences and take a stance on joining the Paris Agreement both as an individual and as a small group. The news reports were analyzed in terms of genre, discourse, and style adapting the critical discourse analysis (CDA) and the decision-making processes of the small groups were examined on recognizing a problem and evaluating alternatives and decisions. The results from analyzing the news reports denoted that the Paris agreement is not only related to finding ideal solutions to climate change, but rather, connected to political or economic interests and power relationship. In the stage of recognizing a problem, meanwhile, different frames which students recognize the Paris agreement and discourses in the foreground of the news reports were the critical causes in terms of identifying the problem. In the stage of evaluating alternatives and decisions, the equity and fairness were the criteria for the small group discussions. This study implies the necessity of the scientific literacy instruction to develop the ability to critical reading in the context of the SSI.

• The Korean Journal of Financial Management
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.25-51
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• 2008

In this paper, we analyse empirically the fixed asset investment smoothing of working capital of firms listed on Korea Securities Market. The main results of this study can be summarized as follows. Firms will seek to lower long-term cost by smoothing fixed asset investment and maintaining stationary investment with working capital. Working capital is not only an important use of fund, but also a source of liquidity that should be used to smooth fixed asset investment relative to cash flow shocks if firms face financial constraints. Working capital investment is more sensitive than fixed asset investment to cash flow fluctuations. If firms face financial constraints, working capital investment will compete with fixed asset investment for the limited pool of available cash flows. So, fixed asset investment will have negative relationship with working capital investment. However, criticism that the positive correlation between cash flows and fixed asset investment could arise simply because cash flows is proxy variable for investment demand. Finally, controlling for the fixed asset investment smoothing effects of working capital results in a much larger estimate of the long run impact of financial constraints. Financial constraints is measured by dividend payout ratio and market access level. Fazzari et al. (1988), Fazzari and Petersen (1993), and Faulkender et al. (2008) emphasize that low dividend firms or market unaccessible firms are more likely to face financial constraints, and rarely make use of new equity issuing. The results from empirical analysis show that financial constraints can be better explained using 'adjustment cost' concept. Specifically, the results show that financial constraints exist and that in order to measure financial constraint effects more succinctly, fixed asset investment smoothing effects with working capital should be considered.

• (The) Korean Journal of Advertising
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• v.27 no.8
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• pp.59-90
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• 2016

Consumers demand that corporates fulfill their social responsibility by exerting influence over not only economical values but also social values in markets. Given such a social mood, most corporates are actively engaging in Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR) activities, and marketing scholars continue to study the effects of such CSR activities. Numerous such studies examined the relationship between CSR activity and brand equity. Moreover, virtually, a majority of these studies focused on consumer responses to CSR activity from an individual brand perspective. In a situation in which brand management must consider the spillover effects of brands, firms holding various brands should consider these spillover effects when they establish CSR activity strategies. Therefore, we examine the effects of CSR activity using a comprehensive approach that considers the hierarchy of brands. Additionally, we develop a new perspective on fit that has been used as a major influence on the effects of CSR activity. We argue that the mixed results of the impact of fit regarding the effect of CSR activities is attributed to the influence of connections among brands based on the hierarchy of brands. We then examine the effect of two types of CSR activity strategies that reflect the relativity of fit. The results reveal that there was no difference in impact of the two strategies based on unique roles and traits of corporate brand and effects of low fit. Also, we found that the corporate brand focused strategy creates a greater change in consumers' attitudes than does an individual brand focused strategy in the case of a particular brand. This finding is meaningful because it indicates that a hierarchy of brands may relatively reduce the impact of the role of fit, unlike general arguments from previous related research. Second, the spillover effects from the CSR activities of individual sub-brands belonging to the same corporate brand were confirmed. Therefore, we clearly verified the role of the hierarchy of brands. Although both strategies cause changes in consumer attitude toward brands engaged in CSR activity, overall, a corporate brand focused strategy turned out to be more effective than an individual brand focused strategy because of the spillover effects of brands. Third, this study verified the effect of a corporate brand focused strategy through a moderating effect analysis of the degree of association between individual brands and corporate brand. Given these results, we identified a moderating role in the degree of association and the changes in consumer attitudes toward both main brands engaged in CSR activities and other different individual brands, which were caused by the spillover effects of brands. Finally, this study addresses implications and limitations.