• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
• /
• v.8 no.4
• /
• pp.403-412
• /
• 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic has a great impact in various ways. It changes the normal routine of lives and businesses. Many businesses encounter tremendous financial pressure, some of them lay off workers or choose to close down. According to the statistics, e-commerce experiences a four-fold growth in sales during the pandemic period. There is an urgency for firms to digitalize their businesses to respond to the change in the landscape of purchasing patterns of consumers. The purpose of this study is to understand the success of a few popular apparel brands in digital businesses. This is a qualitative research, and secondary data is collected for the analysis. The findings reveal that all of them engage in omni-channel methods in digitizing their businesses while utilizing other forms of technologies in their product and operational management. All selected firms agree with the importance of digital business, and omni-channel retailing is their choice. In these unprecedented times, the sustainable success of the apparel firms in digital businesses requires a flexible and innovative approach and a commitment to achieving operational excellence. Continuous renewal and digital transformation are needed so that these companies have the capabilities to adapt to changes and reap the benefits of a satisfactory organizational performance.

• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.13 no.6
• /
• pp.79-86
• /
• 2015

Purpose - The cosmetics industry is a traditional high value-added industry in terms of the domestic demand, small batch production systems, exclusive competition, and raw materials highly dependent on overseas countries as well as an oligopolistic market structure. However, new foreign brands and growing consumer awareness of inexpensive products, has triggered a shift. In line with changing lifestyles and the polarization of consumption, the industry faces a new market structure. Among its key characteristics is the cosmetics industry's numerous distribution channels (i.e., department stores, door-to-door sales, online shopping malls, brand shops, and discount stores). Therefore, the study of its distribution channels is essential. Research design, data, and methodology - The study analyzed channel distribution power divided into coercive and non-coercive power. The factors of coercive power included: unilateral request of an increase in commissions, interference in sales by taking advantage of a superior status, unilateral buck-passing at the time of a problem, unilateral request to stop sales activities, and a unilateral business contract; the factors of non-coercive power included favorable payment conditions, offers of various kinds of information, policy on commission reduction, pride in market entrance, and promotion support. In addition, the mediating variable "interdependence" was applied to the execution of department store (or mart) power and their shop conflicts and satisfaction to examine direct and indirect influential power. The methodology was a survey of managers of cosmetics shops in department stores (or marts). The questionnaire, based on a five-point Likert scale, included questions about basic personal information, execution of power, interdependence, conflict, and satisfaction. The study distributed 198 questionnaires and collected 131. Ten questionnaires with missing or hard to analyze data were excluded. Thus, 121 copies were analyzed. Results - According to the analysis, the execution of coercive power by department stores (or marts) did not affect interdependence, but the execution of non-coercive power did. Interdependence did not influence conflict, but did affect satisfaction. Additionally, the analysis revealed direct influential power: the execution of coercive power positively affected conflict and negatively influenced satisfaction; the execution of non-coercive power positively affected satisfaction. Conclusions - To offer suggestions for distribution business relations in the cosmetics industry, this study investigated how the execution of power by department stores (or marts) affected their shops. More specifically, it examined how much the execution of both coercive power and non-coercive power influenced conflict and satisfaction, and analyzed the mediating role of interdependence. In line with previous study results in various areas, coercive power was shown to be the source of conflict, leading to a decrease in satisfaction, whereas non-coercive power significantly positively influenced satisfaction. Moreover, non-coercive power increased interdependence, which led to greater satisfaction. As a result, interdependence had a mediating effect on non-coercive power and satisfaction. Based on the results, department stores (or marts) should look for improvements plans that increase interdependence. Such plans could alleviate conflict with the shops, increasing their satisfaction.

• Journal of agriculture & life science
• /
• v.50 no.5
• /
• pp.239-249
• /
• 2016

The direct sale of agricultural products is an alternative distributional channel which can provide satisfactions to both producers and consumers by reducing marketing cost through a direct connection between them. Due to this role, there has been rising interest in farmers' direct selling of agricultural products. However, the direct selling by farmers expose many problems and obstacles, because farmers should take a role as a middleman when they directly sell their products. This study tries to identify the obstacles from farmers who started the direct sales, and suggested a direction of e-business education programs being in place by RDA for the purpose of promoting farmers' direct sales. Suggestions of e-business education is needed to enhance education programs such as improving personal capability, cooperative work between farmers, expending programs what farms want.

• Journal of Distribution Research
• /
• v.11 no.2
• /
• pp.29-57
• /
• 2006

While a number of studies have recognized the importance of environment of channel systems and consequences of changed environment, only limited studies have dealt with this issue theoretically and practically. The purpose of this study is to empirically validate whether one dimension of environment, called dynamism, has an influence on the relationship characteristics such as transaction specific investment opportunism and conflict or not: further, it is designed to delve into whether these relationship characteristics have any influence on one crucial relationship quality, 'trust' and its two constituent dimensions - credibility and benevolence. In order to provide empirical validation, a survey was conducted to 163 sales office managers at a major newspaper publisher in Korea. An analysis of the data retrieved from this survey indicated that while environmental dynamism has a positive influence on the publisher's opportunism and conflict perceived by the sales office managers, it did not show a direct influence on the transaction specific investment made by the publisher. Furthermore, while publisher's transaction specific investment had a positive influence on the credibility and the benevolence respectively, publisher's opportunism and level of sales office conflict had a negative influence on the credibility and the benevolence respectively. Currently, a publisher is facing an unprecedentedly dynamic environment. This study should provide ample implications for the publisher in establishing trust, which is a crucial condition in developing and maintaining a long-term successful relationship with its sales offices.

• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.4 no.1
• /
• pp.27-51
• /
• 2006

This study is to understand the existing relation-marketing based on a result that social-relationship in market can effect on customer's action with expanding the seller-purchaser relationship, and understanding purchaser-purchaser relationship in the community. The result of this study could be summarized as below: First, the customer-sales person friendly relationship effects respectively on customer satisfaction and loyalty. Second, friendly relationship of customers effects on customer satisfaction and loyalty. Third, customers' satisfaction and trust increases customers loyalty. Considering that they could cause others to re-buy, friendly word of mouth, recommendations, we should know improving customers loyalty about a company(department store) is very important. This study presents not only customers and sales clerks relationship but also developing customer-customer relationship is important as well. From the viewpoint, this study gives the following strategic tactics to companies. First, customer's relationship with sales clerk is not able to be built in a short time unlike discount or gifts. Second, relationship around customers effects on loyalty of the department store, over the relationship of simple customer-sales clerk. Finally, companies, to make a relationship like fabric, should escape a two-level channel, a company to a customer, then recognize a three-level channel, a company to a friendly customer to a neutral or a unfriendly customer. That means a business should use the positive to make the negative or the neutral change their behavior to it.

• The Journal of Society for e-Business Studies
• /
• v.6 no.3
• /
• pp.1-16
• /
• 2001

In this paper, we introduced a POS(Point of Sale) system for a wallpaper company. We designed the database schema for the POS system, and proposed various application areas of the POS system. Especially, we discussed such application areas as inventory control, marketing, product development, and distribution channel. The quality of product management is enhanced by precise ABC inventory control and safety stock control. Marketing strategies can be more precisely established, and their effects can be measured. The development time can be shortened and new products can be developed based on the real market demands. Distributors can improve their management quality using precise sales data.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
• /
• v.32 no.3
• /
• pp.168-177
• /
• 2009

The proliferation of the internet and electronic commerce has given the manufacturers the opportunity of direct marketing. This study analyzes the decision of manufacturers regarding whether to sell the products through independent sales company or to sell the products to the consumer directly. To do this, a new demand function is proposed and sub and super games are modeled and analyzed based on the demand function. By analyzing the Nash equilibria, it is shown that the manufacturers' decision of direct or indirect marketing not only depends on the competitiveness between the products but the absolute and relative marketing capabilities of the manufacturers. It is also shown that, in some cases, the manufactures have incentive to rise the competitiveness between the products to maximize the channel profit.

• International Commerce and Information Review
• /
• v.7 no.3
• /
• pp.177-191
• /
• 2005

This paper makes a valuable contribution to understanding how the Internet may interface with existing channels to export markets. It classifies the market and firm-level capabilities that may have an impact on how effectively firms can use a virtual channel to export markets(VECs). The most important findings of the paper are that it matters less what function the Internet serve-whether it provides information, tries to build interactive relationships or is used to sell products or services- than hoe fufills its role. Finally, the Internet can facilitate direct channels to market. Export sales ability is essential, and is more important the length of time spent exporting. The Internet to add value to existing export channels.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
• /
• v.13 no.3
• /
• pp.23-39
• /
• 2003

Recently, many organizations in various industries have introduced e-business for the purpose of adding value to their business. But, the e-business model has not existed before and so, it is difficult to analyze clear effectiveness. It frequently does not live up to an organization's expectations. It is due to an absence of environmental changes analysis in the new model, not by a new model itself. System Dynamics(SD) may provide effective results as a tool of analysis for the new model. This research shows the analysis of the effects of a simulated e channel model, which was expanded from existing channel modeling with actual data in basic materials industries. The results show average prices increasing by auction process on the e-market and an increase in sales. So, by increasing the speed of sale revolution stock expenses are reduced. Additionally, we applied a possible scenario to the developed simulation model and investigated strategic issues to draw desirable strategies with market changes.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.22 no.1
• /
• pp.224-239
• /
• 2022

Despite an impressive growth of online sales, the bricks-and-mortar bandwagon still remain high-profile in the realm of consumer channel switching behavior. Different from the existing research exploring the consumer switching behavior from the offline to the online retailer, this study is an effort to investigate why and when do consumers switch from the online to the offline channel by applying the push-pull-mooring framework. Thus, structural equation modeling and SPSS were used to test the established hypotheses. The results, as expected, show that both push factors (i.e., perceived risk and dissatisfaction) and pull factors (alternative attractiveness and perceived ownership) are positively related to a consumer's intention to switch from the online to the offline channel. Moreover, all of expected interactions between push factors and mooring factors (i.e., switching costs, variety seeking, and subjective norms), and between pull factors and mooring factors are supported, except for the interactions between push factors and switching costs as well as between pull factors and subjective norms. Finally, implications and limitations are discussed.