• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.51-89
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• 2007

INTRODUCTION Due to the high broadband internet penetration rate and its group-oriented culture, various types of online communities operate in Korea. This study use 'Uses and Gratification Approach, and argue that members' usage-needs satisfaction with brand community is an important factor for promoting community commitment. Based on previous studies identifying the effect of brand image on consumers' responses to various marketing stimuli, this study hypothesizes that brand image can be a moderate variable affecting the relationship between usage-needs satisfaction with brand community and members' commitment to brand community. This study analyzes the influence of usage-needs satisfaction on brand community commitment and how apparel brand image affects the relationships between usage-needs satisfactions and community commitments. The hypotheses of this study are proposed as follows. H1-3: The usage-needs satisfaction of apparel brand community (interest, transaction, relationship needs) influences emotional (H1), continuous (H2), and normative (H3) commitments to apparel brand communities. H4-6: Apparel brand image has a moderating effect on the relationship between usage-needs satisfaction and emotional (H4), continuous (H5), and normative (H6) commitments to apparel brand communities. METHODS Brand communities founded by non-company affiliates were excluded and emphasis was placed instead on communities created by apparel brand companies. Among casual apparel brands registered in 6 Korean portal sites in August 2003, a total of 9 casual apparel brand online communities were chosen, depending on the level of community activity and apparel brand image. Data from 317 community members were analyzed by exploratory factor analysis, moderated regression analysis, ANOVA, and scheffe test. Among 317 respondents answered an online html-type questionnaire, 80.5% were between 16 to 25 years old. There were a total of 150 respondents from apparel brand communities(n=3) recording higher-than-average brand image scores (Mean > 3.75) and a total of 162 respondents from apparel brand communities(n=6) recording lower-than-average brand image scores(Mean < 3.75). In this study, brand community commitment was measured by a 5-point Likert scale: emotional, continuous and normative commitment. The degree of usage-needs satisfaction (interest, transaction, relationship needs) was measured on a 5-point Likert scale. The level of brand image was measured by a 5-point Likert scale: strength, favorability, and uniqueness of brand associations. RESULTS In the results of exploratory factor analysis, the three usage-needs satisfactions with brand community were classified as interest, transaction, and relationship needs. Brand community commitment was also divided into the multi-dimensional factors: emotional, continuous, and normative commitments. The regression analysis (using a stepwise method) was used to test the influence of 3 independent variables (interest-needs satisfaction, transaction-needs, and relationship-needs satisfactions) on the 3 dependent variables (emotional, continuous and normative commitments). The three types of usage-needs satisfactions are positively associated with the three types of commitments to apparel brand communities. Therefore, hypothesis 1, 2, and 3 were significantly supported. Moderating effects of apparel brand image on the relationship between usage-needs satisfaction and brand community commitments were tested by moderated regression analysis. The statistics result showed that the influence of transaction-needs on emotional commitment was significantly moderated by apparel brand image. In addition, apparel brand image had moderating effects on the relationship between relationship-needs satisfaction and emotional, continuous and normative commitments to apparel brand communities. However, there were not significant moderate effects of apparel brand image on the relationships between interest-needs satisfaction and 3 types of commitments (emotional, continuous and normative commitments) to apparel brand communities. In addition, the influences of transaction-needs satisfaction on 2 types of commitments (continuous and normative commitments) were not significantly moderated by apparel brand image. Therefore, hypothesis 4, 5 and 6 were partially supported. To explain the moderating effects of apparel brand image, four cross-tabulated groups were made by averages of usage-needs satisfaction (interest-needs satisfaction avg. M=3.09, transaction-needs satisfaction avg. M=3.46, relationship-needs satisfaction M=1.62) and the average apparel brand image (M=3.75). The average scores of commitments in each classified group are presented in Tables and Figures. There were significant differences among four groups. As can be seen from the results of scheffe test on the tables, emotional commitment in community group with high brand image was higher than one in community group with low brand image when transaction-needs satisfaction was high. However, when transaction-needs satisfaction was low, there was not any difference between the community group with high brand image and community group with low brand image regarding emotional commitment to apparel brand communities. It means that emotional commitment didn't increase significantly without high satisfaction of transaction-needs, despite the high apparel brand image. In addition, when apparel brand image was low, increase in transaction-needs did not lead to the increase in emotional commitment. Therefore, the significant relationship between transaction-needs satisfaction and emotional commitment was found in only brand communities with high apparel brand image, and the moderating effect of apparel brand image on this relationship between two variables was found in the communities with high satisfaction of transaction-needs only. Statistics results showed that the level of emotional commitment is related to the satisfaction level of transaction-needs, while overall response is related to the level of apparel brand image. We also found that the role of apparel brand image as a moderating factor was limited by the level of transaction-needs satisfaction. In addition, relationship-needs satisfaction brought significant increase in emotional commitment in both community groups (high and low levels of brand image), and the effect of apparel brand image on emotional commitment was significant in both community groups (high and low levels of relationship-needs satisfaction). Especially, the effect of brand image was greater when the level of relationship-needs satisfaction was high. in contrast, increase in emotional commitment responding to increase in relationship-needs satisfaction was greater when apparel brand image is high. The significant influences of relationship-needs satisfaction on community commitments (continuous and normative commitments) were found regardless of apparel brand image(in both community groups with low and high brand image). However, the effects of apparel brand image on continuous and normative commitments were found in only community group with high satisfaction level of relationship-needs. In the case of communities with low satisfaction levels of relationship needs, apparel brand image marginally increases continuous and normative commitments. Therefore, we could not find the moderating effect of apparel brand image on the relationship between relationship-needs satisfaction and continuous and normative commitments in community groups with low satisfaction levels of relationship needs, CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS From the results of this study, we draw several conclusions; First, the increases in usage-needs satisfactions through apparel brand communities result in the increases in commitments to apparel brand communities, wheres the degrees of such relationship depends on the level of apparel brand image. That is, apparel brand image is a moderating factor strengthening the relationship between usage-needs satisfaction and commitment to apparel brand communities. In addition, the effect of apparel brand image differs, depending on the level and types of community usage-needs satisfactions. Therefore, marketers of apparel brand companies must determine the appropriate usage-needs, depending on the type of commitment they wish to increase and the level of their apparel brand image, to promote member's commitments to apparel brand communities. Especially, relationship-needs satisfaction was very important factor for increasing emotional, continuous and normative commitments to communities. However the level of relationship-needs satisfaction was lower than interest-needs and transaction-needs. satisfaction. According to previous study on apparel brand communities, relationship-need satisfaction was strongly related to member's intention of participation in their communities. Therefore, marketers need to develope various strategies in order to increase the relationship- needs as well as interest and transaction needs. In addition, despite continuous commitment was higher than emotional and normative commitments, all types of commitments to apparel brand communities had scores lower than 3.0 that was mid point in 5-point scale. A Korean study reported that the level of members' commitment to apparel brand community influenced customers' identification with a brand and brand purchasing behavior. Therefore, marketers should try to increase members' usage-needs satisfaction and apparel brand image as the necessary conditions for bringing about community commitments. Second, marketers should understand that they should keep in mind that increasing the level of community usage needs (transaction and relationship) is most effective in raising commitment when the level of apparel brand image is high, and that increasing usage needs (transaction needs) satisfaction in communities with low brand image might not be as effective as anticipated. Therefore, apparel companies with desirable brand image such as luxury designer goods firms need to create formal online brand communities (as opposed to informal communities with rudimentary online contents) to satisfy transaction and relationship needs systematically. It will create brand equity through consumers' increased emotional, continuous and normative commitments. Even though apparel brand is very famous, emotional commitment to apparel brand communities cannot be easily increased without transaction-needs satisfaction. Therefore famous fashion brand companies should focus on developing various marketing strategies to increase transaction-needs satisfaction.

• The Journal of Korean Society for School & Community Health Education
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• v.4
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• pp.117-139
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• 2003

The purpose of this research lies in presenting logical viability for the measures that curtail access to lewd Internet contents by middle school students amidst the reality in which lewd contents are circulated freely through the Internet, a medium that the middle school students find most easy to access. In order to establish right form of awareness towards sex, this research identified the ways they access the lewd Internet contents, their reaction after the exposure to those contents, their knowledge of sex, their concerns regarding sex and their accessibility to sexual activities in order to conduct a comparative analysis on the relationship between lewd Internet contents and their awareness of sex. First, realities of accessing lewd Internet contents and reactions according to the demographics of middle school students There isa significant difference in the experience of accessing lewd Internet contents in terms of gender. Mostly, male students tend to access the contents more. As for the way they access the lewd Internet contents, both male and female students replied that they access through spam mail of lewd nature. Thus, measures to address this problem are needed urgently. As to when they first accessed the lewd contents, most of the research subjects replied that they accessed either in elementary school period or in the early middle school period. This shows that most of the students got exposed to lewd contents even before they could establish positive, correct awareness of sex. Thus, there is a risk that they may formulate wrong kind of sexual awareness. Accordingly, it is necessary to develop measures through focused sex education. Students are divided into two groups according to the time they spend on the contents averagely: those who spend over one hour and those who spend less than an hour on the lewd contents. If the students spending longer hours are not to be checked and properly guided, it may lead to increasing cases of sexual delinquencies due to their wrongly formed awareness of sex. When the question of existence(non-existence) of guardian was addressed, students with both parents tend to access the lewd Internet contents in a more diverse manner and tend to access more compared to those students from single parent or no-parent families. Accordingly, guardians need to pay attention to how their children are using the Internet. Second, awareness of sex depending on the middle school students' demographics In case of sexual knowledge, middle school students shows relatively high level of knowledge. In particular, female students are found more knowledgeable than male students, and the students in upper years are more knowledgeable as well. As a result, this research recommends that the students in lower years should be guided with more basc and detailed information, while those in upper years need to be taught to form and express their own thoughts and attitudes and to build up independence on this matter. In case of worries about sex, both male and female students don't worry too much about it. However, male students are more concerned about sex than female students in a more diverse ways. As for the differences by academic year, concerns for sex increase, as students get older. Accordingly, sex education that helps establish sound perception of the opposite sex and that focuses on the etiquettes that one must adhere to at the presence of the opposite sex need to be conducted against middle school students. In case of accessibility to sex, male students manifest higher tendency than female students. As for the differences by academic year, those in the first and second years show higher accessibility than those in their third year. In general, younger students tend to be more open-minded toward sex. Accordingly, students in lower academic years need to undergo basic knowledge oriented sex education, whereas those in upper academic years need to undergo discussion centered sex education where they subject to questions regarding their attitude and opinion. Third, relationship between the reactions after the exposure to the lewd Internet contents and their awareness of sex As the frequency of contact with lewd Internet contents increases, awareness of sex increases as well. Thus, the lewd Internet contents contribute to the increase in students' concern for sex as well as increase in accessibility to sex, which eventually become barriers to students' establishment of a healthy perception of sex. Reactions to sex after the exposure to lewd Internet contents and awareness of sex indicate a significant correlation. However, negative correlation is manifested with knowledge of sex. Thus, it is possible to know that the greater access to lewd Internet contents does not necessarily translate into increase in knowledge of sex. However, the study showed there is a correlation between concerns for sex and the level of accessibility to sex. In more detail, the more reactions to the contents they show, the more concerns for sex they have and the more positively they take acceptability to sex. Moreover, it is necessary to develop necessary measures since textbooks today do not include measures needed to address the lewd Internet contents. Given the above findings, it is necessary to continue to complement structural measures in order to prevent easy access of lewd Internet contents by middle school students. Moreover, it is necessary to be considerate of the students so that they themselves can form a healthy Internet culture and grow up within positive framework for the sex education.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.33-41
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• 2010

In the age of globalization, effective and efficient corporate management is becoming more important as domestic and international business circumstances changes. In the middle of endless changes in business circumstances, fast reaction to customers and market, and offering customized goods and service became essential. In this respect, CRM designed to utilize customer information scientifically and systematically, has become an essential system and marketing strategy to enhance corporate competitiveness. CRM has placed the importance of customers in the front of marketing and has focused every process and business minds on customers. Recent change in the market and the trend of establishing and introducing CRM system has lead us to concentrate on the introduction of CRM in the financial institutions. This study searched for several views about CRM in academic and industrial papers. Through theoretical approach on CRM, the background of the introduction of CRM, the purpose of CRM, the characteristic and application of CRM, and the expected effect of CRM will be discussed. This study is focused on financial institutions where CRM is widely used. And through documents about examples of the introduction of CRM, the status of the establishment of domestic CRM and the necessity and trend of CRM will be discussed. Also the problem of CRM in the financial institutions and the improvement of CRM in domestic banks will be analyzed. When discussing CRM in the financial area, customers are the main source of corporate profit and through relationship management with the customers enhancing loyalty and maximizing profit can be obtained. Especially in CRM in financial institutions, maintaining existing customers makes higher profit ratio, so repurchasing and cross selling becomes important for obtaining lifetime value of existing customers who contribute to most of the profit of corporations. As a result, CRM should be completely customer oriented. CRM in financial institutions is not merely marketing work, but organizational competence which is made up of standardized work process through total process integration inside the corporation. Corporations which plan to introduce CRM should analyze the characteristics and conditions of corporations and establish purpose and strategy of CRM. And they need long term view to find out the factors which best fit for the introduction of CRM. To enable this, strategy composed of daily marketing activity and CRM concept is necessary. Also continued improvement through drill and training for operating organization should be followed to maintain CRM well. And corporate culture must settle customer as the center of corporate value. The race for introducing and improving CRM has already begun. CRM should not be regarded as a choice. It should be accepted as something essential. In this reality financial institutions should solve subdivision problem of customers and necessity of customers with the mind of 'customer's profit is my profit'. Customer focused management should not be emphasized only by words. Efforts like viewing from the customer's point must be nurtured to provide methods to help customers. That is, we should not just follow what is done in foreign countries. We should solve the problem of our customers according to the situation of our country, our industry, our corporation. Then we can gain the trust of customers, and the value derived from the customers will become the background of CRM which will lead the corporation to success.

• The Journal of Art Theory & Practice
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• no.14
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• pp.53-83
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• 2012

This thesis is a study of artistic measures and climate refugees, based on Hack's World Climate Refugee Camp project. According to Hack, climate refugees appeared with the process of globalization. Hack claimed that the people who put climate refugees in danger are the industrialized nations, and therefore, their rejection of refugees is nonsense. He also stated that the fundamental solution would be the active participation of such nations. Thus, he travels around the world, encouraging participants and globalizing his project. Interestingly, the practical participation method of his climate calamity project is divided into four methods, which are all related to realizing the danger and presenting various solutions. First, the aesthetic of survival: the reason Hack focused on the warming trend and claimed that we have to accept the climate refugees as refugees comes from the thought that we are all potential refugees, and the anxiety that climate refugees may cause war in the end. The solution Hack found for surviving in such a world is to create "refugee camps" to notify people about the seriousness of climate change, and to put the "aesthetic for survival" in action. Second, a relation-oriented relationship: communication between Hack and the participants was done in various ways. They are experiencing a bond and emotions of an interrelationship through their actions in the experimental field, experiencing a new form of art, which they were not able to experience in a museum. Third, a utopian measure: Hack's utopian measure started from the fear of dystopia but Hack still believes that it is not only a dream, but that it can be realized. He claims that even though the start may be feeble, it is possible to rescue children from starvation and to treat climate refugees as proper human in the end, when communication and cooperation is done the right way and properly. Fourth, the aesthetic of global relation, the internet: the new solution Hack is trying on the internet is to make more people participate in his project. It is fate that "human are the wrongdoer and the victim at the same time", but according to Hack's opinion, social disaster can be avoided through effort and it is optimistic that we can give form to the culture revolution we are experiencing now. Hack's project illustrated the importance of daily life, compared to art inside a museum, through active participation of the people and opened up a new method of art through realistic responses to disasters. This is distinctive from the past exhibitions, where artists gave shape and form to ideals and an imaginary world, in that it shows that the artist and audience aim for creating a community-like structure, just like Bourriaud's art method. Hack's project of climate calamity illustrates that installation and action art is not only an art genre which shows installation and activities, but that it can include social and political issues and that it can be completed with the help of participants, consequently becoming a genre of modern art. Hack raises a question about art's identity through various descriptions. Artists as planners, who base their artworks on their subjectivity or the characteristics of a specific period, the people as participants, the duet of art work and play, human and human, and further, human and nature. The practical participation method, as a measure for "disaster", reveals the new art of the 21st century within Hack's artworks. Even though there are several problems with Hack's usage of art as a measure for disaster, it will actively open up a new page for the 21st century's art with the theme of disaster.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.705-720
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to shed light on the meaning and value of interest (in Korean 'Jae-mi') in science education through literature analysis. Literature analyses were conducted on literature related to interest in various fields such as Korean language, psychology, philosophy, and education. Specifically, this study discussed the meaning of interest, the characteristics of the context of experiencing interest, the educational value of interest in science education, and the direction of science education to realize the value of interest. First, it was found that interest is an experience of emotional activation that can be felt through interaction with a specific object, and it is an emotional experience caused by the complex combination of various psychological factors, which is oriented sense, relationship, self, and object. Second, to understand the context of experience of interest, we conducted a topic modeling analysis with 1173 research articles related to interest. As a result of the analysis, it was confirmed that the context of interest is closely related with playfulness. And we addressed that this kind of playfulness is also found in science. Third, the educational values of interest in science education were discussed. In science education, fun is not only an instrumental value to induce science learning behavior, it is also one of the universal experiences that learners feel lively in science teaching-learning, and driving force of individual students' emotional development related to science. The students' active attitude to feel interest lead to creative thinking and action. Finally, we argued that the interest that should be aimed in science education should be active interest and experienced at trial and error, not passive interest induced by external stimuli. And science education culture should be encouraged to respect those who enjoy science. In particular, this study discussed the importance of each student's unique interest experience based on the philosophy of philosopher Deleuze (1976).

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.21 no.8
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• pp.150-162
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• 2021

Companies have recently become increasingly interested in corporate entrepreneurship to establish a core employment policy in order to secure and maintain core employees and to foster an innovation-oriented organizational culture. Therefore, The purpose of this study is to empirically analyze the causal relationship between core employment policies and the team leader's the perceived internal process organizational competency and job satisfaction, and to investigate whether corporate entrepreneurship has a moderation effect. Non-financial service industries including ICT companies were subject of the study and human capital corporate panel(HCCP) was utilized. The samples were 367 team leaders from 79 domestic companies. This study also applied Multi-Level Analysis(HLM), which simultaneously analyzes variables at both the individual level and the organizational level in order to improve the accuracy of the study. According to the result of the study analysis, core employment policies have a positive(+) impact on the perceived internal process organizational competency and job satisfaction. In addition, the moderation effect of corporate entrepreneurship was verified during the process when core employment policies influence the two outcome variables. corporate entrepreneurship was found to have a moderation effect that strengthens the influence on job satisfaction, but the moderation effect on the perceived internal process organizational competency was not statistically significant. These results confirm that organizational cultural factors such as corporate entrepreneurship are important influence variables in the process of influencing individual-level variables such as core employment policies. Academically, It suggests that in order to enhance the effectiveness of company strategies in respect of human resource management such as core employment policies, it is important to foster a cultural environment that suits the industry and characteristics of the organization. In addition, it suggested that companies in need of new innovation need to utilize corporate entrepreneurship.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.261-282
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• 2021

As the MZ generation, who values work-life balance, became a member of the organization, leader-oriented leadership centered on goal achievement and company profit made it difficult to achieve good results in the organization in the mid-to long-term. The company must strengthen the leadership that can be helpful for the self-leadership where the members of the organization move on their own and the organizational culture that enhances the employees' job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Therefore, this study analyzed the effect of the team leader's servant leadership on the team member's self-leadership and organizational effectiveness. In addition, it was studied whether the executive officer's emotional leadership interacted with the team leader's servant leadership and had a moderating effect on the team member's self-leadership. Also, the difference in path coefficient between the MZ generation and the non-MZ generation was verified. To this end, the research model was statistically verified using the PLS (Partial Least Square) structural equation. A survey was collected from 357 team members among office workers online. As a result of the analysis, the team leader's servant leadership had a significant effect on organizational effectiveness and team member's self-leadership. Also, in the relationship between the team leader's servant leadership and the team member's self-leadership, the emotional leadership of the executive officer had a positive (+) moderating effect. The MZ generation differed from the non-MZ generation in the path where the team leader's servant leadership positively affected the self-leadership of the team member and the path where the team leader's self-leadership had a mediating effect between the team leader's servant leadership and organizational effectiveness. The results of this study will suggest various theoretical and practical implications so that executive officers, team leaders, and team members within the company can develop leadership that increases organizational effectiveness in their respective positions.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.157-194
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• 2008

The popularity of communities on the internet has captured the attention of marketing scholars and practitioners. By adapting to the culture of the internet, however, and providing consumer with the ability to interact with one another in addition to the company, businesses can build new and deeper relationships with customers. The economic potential of online communities has been discussed with much hope in the many popular papers. In contrast to this enthusiastic prognostications, empirical and practical evidence regarding the economic potential of the online community has shown a little different conclusion. To date, even communities with high levels of membership and vibrant social arenas have failed to build financial viability. In this perspective, this study investigates the role of various kinds of influencing factors to online community loyalty and basically suggests the framework that explains the process of building purchase loyalty. Even though the importance of building loyalty in an online environment has been emphasized from the marketing theorists and practitioners, there is no sufficient research conclusion about what is the process of building purchase loyalty and the most powerful factors that influence to it. In this study, the process of building purchase loyalty is divided into three levels; characteristics of community site such as content superiority, site vividness, navigation easiness, and customerization, the mediating variables such as self congruency, consumer experience, and consumer to consumer interactivity, and finally various factors about online community loyalty such as visit loyalty, affect, trust, and purchase loyalty are those things. And the findings of this research are as follows. First, consumer-to-consumer interactivity is an important factor to online community purchase loyalty and other loyalty factors. This means, in order to interact with other people more actively, many participants in online community have the willingness to buy some kinds of products such as music, content, avatar, and etc. From this perspective, marketers of online community have to create some online environments in order that consumers can easily interact with other consumers and make some site environments in order that consumer can feel experience in this site is interesting and self congruency is higher than at other community sites. It has been argued that giving consumers a good experience is vital in cyber space, and websites create an active (rather than passive) customer by their nature. Some researchers have tried to pin down the positive experience, with limited success and less empirical support. Web sites can provide a cognitively stimulating experience for the user. We define the online community experience as playfulness based on the past studies. Playfulness is created by the excitement generated through a website's content and measured using three descriptors Marketers can promote using and visiting online communities, which deliver a superior web experience, to influence their customers' attitudes and actions, encouraging high involvement with those communities. Specially, we suggest that transcendent customer experiences(TCEs) which have aspects of flow and/or peak experience, can generate lasting shifts in beliefs and attitudes including subjective self-transformation and facilitate strong consumer's ties to a online community. And we find that website success is closely related to positive website experiences: consumers will spend more time on the site, interacting with other users. As we can see figure 2, visit loyalty and consumer affect toward the online community site didn't directly influence to purchase loyalty. This implies that there may be a little different situations here in online community site compared to online shopping mall studies that shows close relations between revisit intention and purchase intention. There are so many alternative sites on web, consumers do not want to spend money to buy content and etc. In this sense, marketers of community websites must know consumers' affect toward online community site is not a last goal and important factor to influnece consumers' purchase. Third, building good content environment can be a really important marketing tool to create a competitive advantage in cyberspace. For example, Cyworld, Korea's number one community site shows distinctive superiority in the consumer evaluations of content characteristics such as content superiority, site vividness, and customerization. Particularly, comsumer evaluation about customerization was remarkably higher than the other sites. In this point, we can conclude that providing comsumers with good, unique and highly customized content will be urgent and important task directly and indirectly impacting to self congruency, consumer experience, c-to-c interactivity, and various loyalty factors of online community. By creating enjoyable, useful, and unique online community environments, online community portals such as Daum, Naver, and Cyworld are able to build customer loyalty to a degree that many of today's online marketer can only dream of these loyalty, in turn, generates strong economic returns. Another way to build good online community site is to provide consumers with an interactive, fun, experience-oriented or experiential Web site. Elements that can make a dot.com's Web site experiential include graphics, 3-D images, animation, video and audio capabilities. In addition, chat rooms and real-time customer service applications (which link site visitors directly to other visitors, or with company support personnel, respectively) are also being used to make web sites more interactive. Researchers note that online communities are increasingly incorporating such applications in their Web sites, in order to make consumers' online shopping experience more similar to that of an offline store. That is, if consumers are able to experience sensory stimulation (e.g. via 3-D images and audio sound), interact with other consumers (e.g., via chat rooms), and interact with sales or support people (e.g. via a real-time chat interface or e-mail), then they are likely to have a more positive dot.com experience, and develop a more positive image toward the online company itself). Analysts caution, however, that, while high quality graphics, animation and the like may create a fun experience for consumers, when heavily used, they can slow site navigation, resulting in frustrated consumers, who may never return to a site. Consequently, some analysts suggest that, at least with current technology, the rule-of-thumb is that less is more. That is, while graphics etc. can draw consumers to a site, they should be kept to a minimum, so as not to impact negatively on consumers' overall site experience.