• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.95-115
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• 2011

Food service is the major part of franchise business in Korea, accounting for 69.9% of the brands in the market. As the food service industry becomes mature, many franchisees have struggled to survive in the market. In general, consumers have higher levels of expectation toward service quality of franchised outlets compared that of (non-franchised) independent ones. They also tend to believe that franchisees deliver standardized service at the uniform food price, regardless of their locations. Such beliefs seem to be important reasons that consumers prefer franchised outlets to independent ones. Nevertheless, few studies examined the impact of qualify features of franchisees on customer satisfaction so far. To this end, this study examined the characteristics of various quality features of franchisees in the food service industry, regarding their relationship with customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction. The quality perception of heavy-users was also compared with that of light-users in order to find insights for developing differentiated marketing strategy for the two segments. Customer satisfaction has been understood as a one-dimensional construct while there are recent studies that insist two-dimensional nature of the construct. In this regard, Kano et al. (1984) suggested to categorize quality features of a product or service into five types, based on their relation to customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction: Must-be quality, Attractive quality, One-dimensional quality, Indifferent quality, and Reverse quality. According to the Kano model, customers are more dissatisfied when Must-be quality(M) are not fulfilled, but their satisfaction does not arise above neutral no matter how fully the quality fulfilled. In comparison, customers are more satisfied with a full provision of Attactive quality(A) but manage to accept its dysfunction. One-dimensional quality(O) results in satisfaction when fulfilled and dissatisfaction when not fulfilled. For Indifferent quality(I), its presence or absence influences neither customer satisfaction nor dissatisfaction. Lastly, Reverse quality(R) refers to the features whose high degree of achievement results in customer dissatisfaction rather than satisfaction. Meanwhile, the basic guidelines of the Kano model have a limitation in that the quality type of each feature is simply determined by calculating the mode statistics. In order to overcome such limitation, the relative importance of each feature on customer satisfaction (Better value; b) and dissatisfaction (Worse value; w) were calculated following the formulas below (Timko, 1993). The Better value indicates how much customer satisfaction is increased by providing the quality feature in question. In contrast, the Worse value indicates how much customer dissatisfaction is decreased by providing the quality feature. Better = (A + O)/(A+O+M+I) Worse = (O+M)/(A+O+M+I)(-1) An on-line survey was performed in order to understand the nature of quality features of franchisees in the food service industry by applying the Kano Model. A total of twenty quality features (refer to the Table 2) were identified as the result of literature review in franchise business and a pre-test with fifty college students in Seoul. The potential respondents of our main survey was limited to the customers who have visited more than two restaurants/stores of the same franchise brand. Survey invitation e-mails were sent out to the panels of a market research company and a total of 257 responses were used for analysis. Following the guidelines of Kano model, each of the twenty quality features was classified into one of the five types based on customers' responses to a set of questions: "(1) how do you feel if the following quality feature is fulfilled in the franchise restaurant that you visit," and "(2) how do you feel if the following quality feature is not fulfilled in the franchise restaurant that you visit." The analyses revealed that customers' dissatisfaction with franchisees is commonly associated with the poor level of cleanliness of the store (w=-0.872), kindness of the staffs(w=-0.890), conveniences such as parking lot and restroom(w=-0.669), and expertise of the staffs(w=-0.492). Such quality features were categorized as Must-be quality in this study. While standardization or uniformity across franchisees has been emphasized in franchise business, this study found that consumers are interested only in uniformity of price across franchisees(w=-0.608), but not interested in standardizations of menu items, interior designs, customer service procedures, and food tastes. Customers appeared to be more satisfied when the franchise brand has promotional events such as giveaways(b=0.767), good accessibility(b=0.699), customer loyalty programs(b=0.659), award winning history(b=0.641), and outlets in the overseas market(b=0.506). The results are summarized in a matrix form in Table 1. Better(b) and Worse(w) index indicate relative importance of each quality feature on customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction, respectively. Meanwhile, there were differences in perceiving the quality features between light users and heavy users of any specific franchise brand in the food service industry. Expertise of the staffs was labeled as Must-be quality for heavy users but Indifferent quality for light users. Light users seemed indifferent to overseas expansion of the brand and offering new menu items on a regular basis, while heavy users appeared to perceive them as Attractive quality. Such difference may come from their different levels of involvement when they eat out. The results are shown in Table 2. The findings of this study help practitioners understand the quality features they need to focus on to strengthen the competitive power in the food service market. Above all, removing the factors that cause customer dissatisfaction seems to be the most critical for franchisees. To retain loyal customers of the franchise brand, it is also recommended for franchisor to invest resources in the development of new menu items as well as training programs for the staffs. Lastly, if resources allow, promotional events, loyalty programs, overseas expansion, award-winning history can be considered as tools for attracting more customers to the business.

• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.33-43
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• 2018

Purpose - In hotel industry, quality of leader-member exchange(LMX) relationship is very critical, because it impacts on the employee's work attitude and behaviors. Thus, this research examines the effect of LMX on employee loyalty in the context of hotel business and identifies mediating roles of work stressors, work role performance in the relationship between LMX and employee loyalty. This research suggests the guidelines for how hotel leaders should manage their employees and build employee loyalty that improve management and business performance. Research design, data, and methodology - This study tests the structural relationship between LMX, work stressors, work role performance, and employee loyalty. Work role performance divide into three sub-dimensions such as individual task proficiency, individual task adaptivity, and individual task proactivity. In order to examine the purposes of this research, research model and hypotheses were developed. All constructs were measured with multiple items developed and tested in the previous studies. The data were collected from 113 franchise hotel employees and were analyzed using SPSS 22.0 and SmartPLS 3 program. Result - The findings of this research are as follows. First, leader-member exchange(LMX) have significant positive impacts on work stressors, work role performance, and employee loyalty. Second, work stressors have significant negative impacts on work role performance and employee loyalty. Third, work role performance has significant positive impact on employee loyalty. Conclusions - The outcomes of this research indicate that hotel leaders should focus on the dyadic relationship with their employees how to improve employee productivity through LMX relationship. In turn, the quality of this relationship influences employees's work attitudes and behaviors. As a result of increasing job demands in hotel business which relies heavily on human resources, the hotel leader must find ways to prevent or reduce stressors and associated strains. If hotel employees perceive the high quality of LMX relationship, they improve their work role performance which influences loyalty. Therefore, the hotel leaders should develop monetary or non-monetary reward system for the employees and, make an efforts to have unique social exchange relationships with employees.

• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.17-31
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• 2022

Purpose: With the development of the Internet, consumers can quickly access the electronic word-of-mouth. Consumers seek to reduce uncertainty by referring to the opinions of other consumers about products and services when making purchase decisions. In the food service industry, evaluating a restaurant before an actual visitation is difficult. Therefore, electronic word-of-mouth is important to interact with the customer in restaurants. as it can be used as an exchange of information in which consumers participate and interact with other customers. This study was conducted to verify how online word-of-mouth characteristics (Consensus, Vividness, Neutrality) on attitudes and visit intention from the perspective of social exchange theory. And it was performed to verify the structural relationship between short-term visit intention, mid-term visit and long-term visit intention. Research design, data, and methodology: A survey was conducted on customers who have visited restaurants. Of a total of 312 responses, 306 responses were used, excluding insincere responses and missing values for factors analysis. SPSS 25.0 and AMOS 25.0 were used for statistical analysis, and hypothesis testing was conducted after verifying the validity and reliability of the questionnaire items. Result: The result of the analysis showed that, consensus and neutrality have a positive effect on attitude but not much on vividness. In addition, consensus, vividness, and neutrality have no effect on the short-term visit intention. Finally, the short-term visit intention has a positive effect on mid-term visit intention, and mid-term visit intention has a positive effect on long-term visit intention. Conclusions: Based on the results, this study suggested that it is necessary to have practical implications for marketing and monitoring restaurant reviews in consideration of the characteristics of electronic word-of-mouth. When managing electronic-word-of-mouth, it is necessary to manage the consensus and neutrality is essential to provide sufficient information about the restaurant. The focus should not only be on vividness, such as photos and videos. In addition, restaurants should also provide a good experience for first-time visitors as the short-term visit intention positively affects mid-term and long-term visit intention.

• Culinary science and hospitality research
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• v.23 no.8
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• pp.173-183
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to investigate the causal relationship between new brand awareness and new brand awareness according to type of restaurant menu purchase information. This study will provide basic research data on viral marketing strategy through online marketing of restaurant companies. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of information obtained through blog information and SNS advertisement on word effect (information acceptance and information transfer) and to investigate the effect of word of mouth effect on consumers' purchase intention. A total of 206 samples were used for this analysis and regression analysis was performed using SPSS 18.0. The results of the study are as follows. First, experience type, timely relevance and consensus among the characteristics of blog information affect information acceptance. Experience, and accuracy are affecting information delivery. Second, information discomfort among the characteristics of SNS advertising information influences the acceptance of information. Information, entertainment and trust are affecting information dissemination. Third, information acceptance and information diffusion affect purchase intention.

• The Southeast Asian review
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.49-91
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• 2011

Since mid of 1990's Vietnamese food had been advanced in Korea, the franchises and branches of the Vietnam food restaurant remarkably has grown in numbers. It was estimated that the number of Vietnamese food franchise was not less than 30's and the market size of food industry would be around 200 million dollars in Korea. While the interests and study on the globalization of Korean food had been recently increasing, the Southeast Asian food, especially Vietnamese food which had significantly taken place as one kind of food service had few academic approaches to research on the current situation and transition on Vietnamese food in Korea. This study is an experimental attempt to inquire for the Vietnamese food culture and the Vietnamese food in Korea. Through the field research at local(Vietnamese) restaurant, the interviews with the local residents and questionnaire survey on the Vietnamese food from Korean customers, the article examined the 'Southeast Asian Phenomena' in Korea by tracing the origins and pathway how Vietnamese food could be established in Korean food market. In addition, it tries to prove that current growth of Vietnamese food in Korea could be extend and explicated as real 'Vietnamese Phenomena'.

• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.27-39
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• 2018

Purpose - Recently, the mobile application field has been receiving astronomical attention from the past few years due to the growing number of mobile app downloads and withal due to the revenues being engendered. Especially delivery apps by mobile service market is experiencing rapid growth and competition is intensifying. Therefore, delivery apps' choice attributes has become important as a strategy for survival of franchise firms. Based on previous studies, this research proposed the theoretical framework about the structural relationships among customer satisfaction, trust and revisit intention on delivery apps' choice attributes. Research design, data, and methodology - This study examines the structural relationship between choice attributes of using the delivery app, satisfaction, trust, and revisit intention. More specifically, this study has been examined from the perspective of Generation Y who is enjoying electronic commerce and shopping with mobile phone. In this model, choice attributes of delivery app consists of three sub-dimensions such as service quality, system quality, interaction quality. So as to test the purposes of this study, research model and hypotheses were developed. After excluding 24 invalid respondent questionnaires, 201 valid questionnaires were coded and analyzed using frequency, confirmatory factor analysis, correlations analysis, and structural equation modeling with SPSS 21 and SmartPLS 3.0. Result - The results of the study are as follows. First, service quality and interaction quality had positive effects on satisfaction, and interaction quality had positive effects on trust, but system quality did not have a significant effect on both satisfaction and trust. Second, satisfaction had positive effects on both trust and revisit intention. Third, trust had positive effects on revisit intention. Conclusions - The implications of this study are following as: From the theoretical perspective, this study confirms the effect of delivery apps' choice attributes on satisfaction, trust, and revisit intention. In addition, it is significant that we examined the influence of choice attributes of delivery apps on their attitudes and behaviors of Generation Y familiar with mobile environment. Through this study, we hypothesized that the attributes of service quality and interaction quality of delivery apps have a significant effect on customer satisfaction, and this can be expected to provide meaningful implications for the development of franchise restaurant industry. To encourage continuous repurchase through customer satisfaction, franchise companies need to establish various strategic alliances with delivery app companies and new growth engines by providing diverse and high-quality services to customers in the smart age.

• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.41-51
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• 2018

Purpose - In franchise system, how to build the relationship between the franchisor and franchisee through influence strategy is very important, because it affects on the long-term orientation like recontract intentions. Thus, this study examines the effect of mandatory influence strategy on relationship satisfaction, relationship trust, and recontract intentions in the context of food-service franchise industry. This study suggests the guidelines on how franchisor uses their influence strategy on franchisee to maintain and increase the recontract intentions. Research design, data, and methodology - This study examines the structural relationship between mandatory influence strategy, relationship satisfaction, relationship trust, and recontract intentions from the franchisee's perspective. Mandatory influence strategy divide into three sub-dimensions such as request, legalistic plea, threat. In order to test the purposes of this study, research model and hypotheses were developed. Every constructs were measured by multiple items tested and developed in the previous research. Also, the constructs utilized in this research are measured using 7-point scales anchored by "1=strongly disagree" and 7=strongly agree". The data were collected from 496 owner and owner manager franchisees and were analyzed using SPSS 21.0 and Smart PLS 3.0. program. Analysis of frequency was conducted to identify the demographics and general characteristics of the survey subjects. In order to measure the reliability and validity of the measurement tools, confirmatory factor analysis and correlation analysis were conducted and structural model analysis was conducted to verify the proposed research model. Result - The results of this study are as follows. First, this research found that mandatory influence strategy is positively related to relationship satisfaction and relationship trust, but not to recontract intention directly. Second, this research also found that the full mediating role of relationship satisfaction and relationship trust between the mandatory influence strategy and recontract intention. Conclusions - The findings of this research indicate that franchisor should use properly mandatory influence strategy to improve recontract intentions through relationship satisfaction and relationship trust. Due to the nature of food-service franchise industry, which needs high relationship quality, franchisor must manage their franchisee using influence strategy in order to improve satisfaction and trust. If franchisee perceives higher relationship quality, they will show higher intention to recontract. At the end of this paper, limitations and future research directions were suggested.

• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.31-43
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• 2018

Purpose - This study examines the role of foodservice franchisee's perceived justice(distributive, procedural, and interactional) in developing long-term orientation to franchisor and investigate the mediating role of cohesiveness and relationship satisfaction in the relationship between franchisee's perceived justice and long-term orientation to franchisor. Research design, data, and methodology - We collected data from managers and owners in foodservice franchisees located in Seoul, Korea. Among a total of 500 questionnaires, 500 questionnaires were returned. After excluding 36 invalid respondent questionnaires, 496 valid questionnaires(response rate of 99.2%) were analyzed using frequency, confirmatory factor analysis, correlations analysis, and structural equation modeling with SPSS 21 and SmartPLS 3.0. Result - The findings of this study are as follows: First, distributive justice and interactional justice had positive effects on cohesiveness, but procedural justice did not. Second, distributive justice and interactional justice had positive effects on relationship satisfaction, but procedural justice did not. Third, cohesiveness and relationship satisfaction had positive effects on franchisee's long-term orientation to franchisor. Conclusions - The implications of this study are as follows. First, this study found that procedural justice can create a high cohesiveness and identification of franchisee and also maintain a cooperative relationship with the franchisor. Second, this findings suggest that the perceived distributional and interactional justice can improve the satisfaction with the franchisor and thus positively influence the intention to maintain the relationship and the intention to recontract. Third, the results of this study indicate that the cohesiveness of franchisees can play a pivotal role to improve their satisfaction with the franchisor and pursue mutual development by continuously maintaining stable business relationship with franchisor. The findings of this study are subject to at least three limitations. First, the research subject is limited to the food service franchise shops in Seoul area, so the sample was not nationally representative of the franchise stores. Second, the perceived fairness is measured only from the point of view of the franchisee, and this study has a limitation to examine the difference between the perceived franchisee's and franchisor's justice. Third, Future research needs to identify more closely the relationships between perceived fairness and long-term orientation by gathering specific quantitative data such as the renewal rate and the business performance.

• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.85-108
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• 2014

This study provides the information about size, financial structure, profitability and growth of franchisors using financial data(asset, liability, equity, sales volume, operating income and net income) in uniform franchise offering circular of fair trade commission. The data were collected from 1,050 franchisors in various business fields: fast food, family restaurant, bakery, agriculture & fishery and liquor shop in the uniform franchise offering circular in 2012 and 2011. Results of this study are as follows: For company size, median of total assets was KRW 675 million and the accumulated median assets rate was 0.48%, but the accumulated median company numbers were 49.9%, which showed small size. For financial structure, 525 companies were below 200% debt ratio, while 314 (29.9%) companies were in over 200% debt, and 211 (20.1%) companies were impaired in capital. These also showed financial structure was vulunerable. For profitability, median of ROA for total companies were only 4.72%, which showed low profitability. For growth, median of growth rate for sales were 7.57% per year, which showed mature industry. In overall, the results showed franchisors should improve their financial status.

• Culinary science and hospitality research
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• v.23 no.7
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• pp.1-10
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• 2017

This study proposed SNS big data analysis method of food service industry in the 4th industrial revolution. This study analyzed the keyword of the fourth industrial revolution by using Google trend. Based on the data posted on the SNS from January 1, 2016 to September 5, 2017 (1 year and 8 months) utilizing the "Social Metrics". Through the social insights, the related words related to cooking were analyzed and visualized about attributes, products, hobbies and leisure. As a result of the analysis, keywords were found such as cooking, entrepreneurship, franchise, restaurant, job search, Twitter, family, friends, menu, reaction, video, etc. As a theoretical implication of this study, we proposed how to utilize big data produced from various online materials for research on restaurant business, interpret atypical data as meaningful data and suggest the basic direction of field application. In order to utilize positioning of customers of restaurant companies in the future, this study suggests more detailed and in-depth consumer sentiment as a basic resource for marketing data development through various menu development and customers' perception change. In addition, this study provides marketing implications for the foodservice industry and how to use big data for the cooking industry in preparation for the fourth industrial revolution.