• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.225-239
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• 2014

An effect of reward program related to promotional activity has the limitation of being concentrated on a short-term performance or of inducing temporary re-purchase. Accordingly, this study verified the influence of reward method upon consumers' response recovery centering on interactive effects of reward timing and reward intensity, in order to expand a research of dissatisfaction situation. As for the objective of this study, first, the aim is to verify the difference in the influence of economic, non-economic, and combined rewards, which are reward methods of dissatisfaction situation, upon consumers' cognitive response recovery and emotional response recovery. Second, the aim is to confirm a moderating role of reward timing and reward intensity in the effect of consumers' response recovery according to reward methods. To design a research, the perfect factor design between subjects in 3X2X2 was used. As a result of major research, first, there was a difference in the influence upon consumers' response recovery depending on reward methods. Second, the influence of reward method upon consumers' response recovery had a difference depending on reward timing. Third, the influence of reward method upon consumers' response recovery had a difference depending on reward intensity. Consumers' response recovery level was confirmed to have the greatest influence in the combined reward. This study has a significance in newly applying the reward timing, in the dissatisfaction situation which is addressed in the general reward program. Through this study, the aim was to support the empirically analytical results of prior researches and to expand its role in several angles.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.331-342
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• 2009

The purposes of this study were to provide the apparel companies with a effective marketing strategy by identifying the present condition of loyalty programs and designing the type of reward and the timing of reward, and to investigate the effects of loyalty programs on customers' satisfaction and loyalty. The experimental study was conducted to examine the relationship between loyalty programs and performances. The experiment, which adopted a scenario methodology, was a 2(type of rewards)${\times}$2(timing of rewards) between subjects factorial design. The sample was based on 362 college students. The data analysis was completed on the basis of SPSS 12.0 package, using descriptive analysis, frequency, factor analysis, Cronbach's a, ANOVA, and regression analysis. The following results were found in this research. First the respondent's recognition of reward(benefit, reserve fund, experience) was not relatively high. Second, the interaction effect of type of rewards and timing of rewards on the loyalty programs' satisfaction(p<.01) and customer loyalty(p<.001) was significant, but that on customer satisfaction was not significant. Finally, loyalty programs' satisfaction positively affected customer satisfaction and loyalty. The implications of the research and directions for future researchers were discussed.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.163-171
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• 2006

This paper introduces the research progress on the artificial brain in the Telerobotics and Control Laboratory at KAIST. This series of studies is based on the assumption that it will be possible to develop an artificial intelligence by copying the mechanisms of the animal brain. Two important brain mechanisms are considered: spike-timing dependent plasticity and dopaminergic plasticity. Each mechanism is implemented in two coding paradigms: spike-codes and rate-codes. Spike-timing dependent plasticity is essential for self-organization in the brain. Dopamine neurons deliver reward signals and modify the synaptic efficacies in order to maximize the predicted reward. This paper addresses how artificial intelligence can emerge by the synergy between self-organization and reinforcement learning. For implementation issues, the rate codes of the brain mechanisms are developed to calculate the neuron dynamics efficiently.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.123-139
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• 2005

Until now, There are many studies of reward program effect about retaining current customers. But main goal of this study is acquiring new customer in competitive environment. We also reveal strategic framework for maximizing acquisition of new customer. For increasing customer loyalty of non-use brand, we'd better to give Out My Own reward non-user immediately and for increasing customer loyalty of use brand we'd better to give In My own Brand user accumulatively. Implication of the results for markets and future research are discussed

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.527-540
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• 2012

We examined the effect of delayed and immediate rewards on short- and long-term memory performance depending on the level of stress. It has been demonstrated that delaying feedback during memory tasks could lead to better retention than presenting it immediately (a.k.a., feedback delay benefit or delay-retention effect). In this study, we manipulated stress level(high-stress or low-stress), reward-timing(delayed or immediate reward), reward-existence(500 or 0 won) and retrieval-timing(delayed or immediate memory test). On the high-stress learning condition, one week later, the number of correct answers with delayed-rewards were significantly more than that of delayed-no-rewards but there was not any difference between immediate-rewards and immediate-no-rewards. On the other hand, in the high-stressful immediate memory test, immediate-rewards only had a positive effect on memory performance. The results indicated that delayed rewards improved long-term memory performance by promoting memory consolidation and the sensitivity to rewards was higher under the high-stress condition.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.242-252
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• 2011

The purpose of the study was to investigate customer loyalty programs of diverse types of retailers. As offline retailers, department store and discount store retailers were examined, and as nonstore retailers, online store and TV home shopping retailers were investigated. Types of customer loyalty programs were analyzed based on Dowling and Uncles'(1997) loyalty program framework which included two schemes, types of reward(direct versus indirect rewards) and timing of reward(immediate versus delayed rewards). The study found that different types of retailers utilized different types of loyalty programs: Department store used all the type of rewards, discount store focused on direct/immediate rewards, online store retailers used direct/delayed rewards and/or direct/immediate rewards, and TV home shopping retailers focused on direct/delayed rewards. The study provided diverse managerial and academic implications.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.39-63
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• 2012

Previous studies of reward programs have generally focused on designing the best programs for consumers and suggested that consumers' perception of the value of reward programs can vary according to the type of reward program (e.g., hedonic vs. utilitarian and direct vs. indirect) and its timing (e.g., immediate vs. delayed). These studies have typically assumed that consumers' preference for reward programs has a positive effect on brand loyalty. However, Dowling and Uncles (1997) pointed out that this preference does not necessarily foster brand loyalty. In this regard, the present study verifies this assumption by examining the effects of consumers' perception of the value of reward programs on their brand loyalty. Although reward programs are widely used by online shopping malls, most studies have examined the conditions under which consumers are most likely to value loyalty programs in the context of offline shopping. In the context of online shopping, however, consumers' preferences may have little effect on their brand loyalty because they have more opportunities for comparing diverse reward programs offered by many online shopping malls. That is, in online shopping, finding attractive reward programs may require little effort on the part of consumers, who are likely to switch to other online shopping malls. Accordingly, this study empirically examines whether consumers' perception of the value of reward programs influences their brand loyalty in the context of online shopping. Meanwhile, consumers seek utilitarian and/or hedonic value from their online shopping activity(Jones et al., 2006; Barbin et al., 1994). They visit online shopping malls to buy something necessary (utilitarian value) and/or enjoy the process of shopping itself (hedonic value). In this sense, reward programs may reinforce utilitarian as well as hedonic value, and their effect may vary according to the type of reward (utilitarian vs. hedonic). According to Chaudhuri and Holbrook (2001), consumers' perception of the value of a brand can influence their brand loyalty through brand trust and affect. Utilitarian value influences brand loyalty through brand trust, whereas hedonic value influences it through brand affect. This indicates that the effect of this perception on brand trust or affect may be moderated by the type of reward program. Specifically, this perception may have a greater effect on brand trust for utilitarian reward programs than for hedonic ones, whereas the opposite may be true for brand affect. Given the above discussion, the present study is conducted with three objectives in order to provide practical implications for online shopping malls to strategically use reward program for establishing profitable relationship with customers. First, the present study examines whether reward programs can be an effective marketing tool for increasing brand loyalty in the context of online shopping. Second, it investigates the paths through which consumers' perception of the value of reward programs influences their brand loyalty. Third, it analyzes the effects of this perception on brand trust and affect by considering the type of reward program as a moderator. This study suggests and empirically analyzes a new research model for examining how consumers' perception of the value of reward programs influences their brand loyalty in the context of online shopping. The model postulates the following 10 hypotheses about the structural relationships between five constructs: (H1) Consumers' perception of the value of reward programs has a positive effect on their program loyalty; (H2) Program loyalty has a positive effect on brand loyalty; (H3) Consumers' perception of the value of reward programs has a positive effect on their brand trust; (H4) Consumers' perception of the value of reward programs has a positive effect on their brand affect; (H5) Brand trust has a positive effect on program loyalty; (H6) Brand affect has a positive effect on program loyalty; (H7) Brand trust has a positive effect on brand loyalty; (H8) Brand affect has a positive effect on brand loyalty; (H9) Consumers' perception of the value of reward programs is more likely to influence their brand trust for utilitarian reward programs than for hedonic ones; and (H10) Consumers' perception of the value of reward programs is more likely to influence their brand affect for hedonic reward programs than for utilitarian ones. To test the hypotheses, we considered a sample of 220 undergraduate students in Korea (male:113). We randomly assigned these participants to one of two groups based on the type of reward program (utilitarian: transportation card, hedonic: movie ticket). We instructed the participants to imagine that they were offered these reward programs while visiting an online shopping mall. We then asked them to answer some questions about their perception of the value of the reward programs, program loyalty, brand loyalty, brand trust, and brand affect, in that order. We also asked some questions about their demographic backgrounds and then debriefed them. We employed the structural equation modeling (SEM) method with AMOS 18.0. The results provide support for some hypotheses (H1, H3, H4, H7, H8, and H9) while providing no support for others (H2, H5, H6, H10) (see Figure 1). Noteworthy is that the path proposed by previous studies, "value perception → program loyalty → brand loyalty," was not significant in the context of online shopping, whereas this study's proposed path, "value perception → brand trust/brand affect → brand loyalty," was significant. In addition, the results indicate that the type of reward program moderated the relationship between consumers' value perception and brand trust but not the relationship between their value perception and brand affect. These results have some important implications. First, this study is one of the first to examine how consumers' perception of the value of reward programs influences their brand loyalty in the context of online shopping. In particular, the results indicate that the proposed path, "value perception → brand trust/brand affect → brand loyalty," can better explain the effects of reward programs on brand loyalty than existing paths. Furthermore, these results suggest that online shopping malls should place greater emphasis on the type of reward program when devising reward programs. To foster brand loyalty, they should reinforce the type of shopping value that consumers emphasize by providing them with appropriate reward programs. If consumers prefer utilitarian value to hedonic value, then online shopping malls should offer utilitarian reward programs and vice versa.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.4268-4289
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• 2020

Advanced traffic signal timing method plays very important role in reducing road congestion and air pollution. Reinforcement learning is considered as superior approach to build traffic light timing scheme by many recent studies. It fulfills real adaptive control by the means of taking real-time traffic information as state, and adjusting traffic light scheme as action. However, existing works behave inefficient in complex intersections and they are lack of feasibility because most of them adopt traffic light scheme whose phase sequence is flexible. To address these issues, a novel adaptive traffic signal timing scheme is proposed. It's based on actor-critic reinforcement learning algorithm, and advanced techniques proximal policy optimization and generalized advantage estimation are integrated. In particular, a new kind of reward function and a simplified form of state representation are carefully defined, and they facilitate to improve the learning efficiency and reduce the computational complexity, respectively. Meanwhile, a fixed phase sequence signal scheme is derived, and constraint on the variations of successive phase durations is introduced, which enhances its feasibility and robustness in field applications. The proposed scheme is verified through field-data-based experiments in both medium and high traffic density scenarios. Simulation results exhibit remarkable improvement in traffic performance as well as the learning efficiency comparing with the existing reinforcement learning-based methods such as 3DQN and DDQN.

• Journal of Service Research and Studies
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.57-78
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• 2016

The purpose of this research is to study how service recovery activities influence customers' commodity churning in the media telecommunication industry(CATV industry). Put it differently, we tried to identify this change of commodity churning rates by the stages of service failures, by which we intend to emphasize the importance of service recoveries. Korean media telecommunication market has already been saturated; customers tend to move to bigger major companies with better customer care increasingly. As once customers gone never returns, CRM functions are being reinforced over the time. We were able to have the following results. First, turning rates, for those experienced service failure, who were dissatisfied with service recovery activities are 2~5 times (monthly average turning rates are 1.3%) higher than those satisfied. Secondly, active service recovery activities at the customer's service request after experiencing service failure lowered churning rates significantly. The most effective timing is service recovery activities pre-recovery stage. Thirdly, reward activities after service recovery activities at the immediate recovery stage is more effective than service recovery at the arranged recovery schedule and reward activities after customer's expressing churning intension. The implications of this study are that firms should engage in service recovery activities at the time of identifying service failures, prior to customer's expressing churning intention, which means relatively lower ROI for the service recovery activities than the times of customers' expressing churning intention.

• Journal of Service Research and Studies
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.125-138
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• 2022

This study has examined the effect of cognitive resource on purchase intention of scarcity products according to the level of need for cognitive closure. In order to find out the effect on purchase intention for products that are presented a shopping environment is supposed, where various timing of consumer promotion reward exist, and where consumers can easily access and experience a lot of cognitive changes. the effect of how these two influences are adjusted according to the level of need for cognitive closure (NFCC). The study divide into two experiments. Research analyzes the behavioral differences of consumers for scarcity message products according to cognitive resource level with a moderating effect of NFCC. As a result of the study, Research according to the level of cognitive resource, when applied scarcity message product showed a negative effect of the cognitive resource (self-regulating resource) depletion level on the purchase intention of high-involvement product with scarcity message (Hypothesis 1). Consumers' purchase intention for limited products was higher at the non-depleted level than at the cognitive resource depletion level, and this difference was found statistically significant. Next, as a result of examining the difference according to the level of NFCC, the difference in the influence of cognitive resource level on purchase intention of scarcity products was found to be statistically significant where the NFCC was low (Hypothesis 2).