• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.565-573
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• 2013

This study focused on the cultural differences between South Korea and the U.S. in terms of male consumers' sex role attitude and its influence on grooming and apparel shopping behavior. Purposive samples of American and South Korean males aged between 20 and 40 years were surveyed. The sample sizes were 219 and 233 for American and South Korean consumers, respectively. The data were analyzed by structural equation modeling and ANOVA using SPSS 12.0 and AMOS 14.0. The results indicated that only grooming was influenced by the perceived femininity in the case of South Korean men; however, the model for American men indicated a significant positive influence of femininity on grooming and recreational apparel shopping behavior. In other words, American male consumers who perceive themselves feminine were more likely to be engaged in grooming and recreational apparel shopping behavior. On the other hand, for South Korean men, recreational apparel shopping behavior was not influenced by their sex role attitude, or whether they considered themselves feminine or masculine. This means that recreational apparel shopping behavior is a gender-specific behavior in the U.S., but not in South Korea. The findings of this study indicated that culture has influence on consumers' approach to shopping and appearance. South Korean male consumers were more likely to acknowledge themselves as being feminine, enjoy apparel shopping and grooming compared to American male consumers.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.17 no.11
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• pp.63-72
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• 2019

Purpose: Black Friday is a globally used as a promotion event. A lot of South Korean retailers also have used it as their promotion concepts. But South Korean Consumers' response to Black Friday has never been investigated academically. This study examined Black Friday shopping of South Korean consumers, including experiences, perceptions, motives and shopping mechanism. Research design, data and methodology: To verify the purposes of this research, a survey was conducted with 462 participants. This study analyzed descriptive features of experiences, perceptions and motives and developed and tested the model of shopping mechanism. Results: South Korean consumers perceive Black Friday as one of the credible marketing tactics offering a big price discount. They have generally positive perceptions and shopping experiences toward Black Friday. The key motive of Black Friday shopping is for saving cost. In addition, for South Korean consumers, perceived deal value, perceived innovativeness, saving cost motive and fun motive are important antecedents of shopping on Black Friday, and attitude toward Black Friday plays a mediating role between antecedents and shopping behavior. Conclusions: The findings of this study provide practical and theoretical insight to understand the impact of Black Friday in South Korea.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.96 no.5
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• pp.533-538
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• 2007

This study was conducted in the spring of 2005 through personal interviews to examine the opinions of forest products manufacturers and consumers about the perspective of forest certification in South Korea and to characterize those consumers who expect the activation of a forest certification system in South Korea. Study results indicated that consumers showed more positive aspect for the activation of forest certification than forest products manufacturers. Respondents who had a negative view for establishing a forest certification system in South Korea pointed out a lack of customers' demand for certified wood products as the most important reason. Results also showed that, even when a forest certification system would be introduced as a possible policy for helping to attain sustainable forest management, it would take at least 5 to 10 years to establish a forest certification system in South Korea. To facilitate the establishment of the system, many respondents suggested that an increased public awareness of forest certification systems was the most required precedent condition, and government for manufacturers and forest management association for consumers had to certify forest management practices as a competent organization. A profile of consumers who expected the activation of a forest certification system would describe in relative terms as the highly educated female who interviewed in the city of Seoul and of the 20 age bracket. Although there were an increased public awareness and positive prospective of forest certification by consumers and forest products manufacturers, it is required to arouse much more interest of consumers about the system.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.143-150
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• 2012

Competition in global pork markets has increased as trade barriers have opened as a result of free trade agreements. Japanese prefer both loin and Boston butt, while Chinese prefer pork offal. Frozen pork has increased in terms of imports into China. Japanese consumers consider pork meat origin along with pork price when making purchase decisions. While the Chinese prefer a strong tasting pork product, South Korean consumers show very strong preferences to pork that is higher in fat. Therefore, South Korean consumers have a higher demand for pork belly and Boston butt. Consequently, the supply and demand of pork in Korea is hardly met, which means that importation of high fat parts is inevitable. In Korea there is lower preference toward low fat parts such as loin, picnic shoulder, and ham. During the economic depression in South Korea there have been observable changes in consumer preferences. There remains steep competition among the pork exporting countries in terms of gaining share in the international pork market. If specific consumer preferences would be considered carefully, there is the possibility to increase the amount of pork exported to these countries.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.413-429
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• 2023

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to investigate the determinants of consumers' inflation expectations using consumers' inflation perceptions and the sub-components of consumer price index (CPI) basket in South Korea based on a consumer survey conducted by the Bank of Korea (BOK). Design/methodology/approach - Using Carroll's (2003) epidemiological model, we analyzed data from January 2013 to January 2023, resulting in a data set of 121 observations for both inflation perceptions and inflation expectations. This study focuses only on aggregate inflation expectations and perceptions because of data availability from the BOK. Findings - Professionals' forecasts play a major role in forming consumers' inflation expectations, whereas the actual headline CPI and consumers' inflation perceptions do not. These results remain robust when including the sub-components of the CPI basket in the analysis. Research implications or Originality - It would be the most efficient way to suppress professionals' expected inflation in fighting against a substantial spike in consumers' inflation expectations. To guide consumers' inflation expectations based on BOK's inflation targeting, the bank needs to consider professionals' forecasts in devising monetary policies.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.33-51
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• 2019

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to provide practical implications for Korean companies searching for new market opportunities. From the experimental analysis, the impact of country image on product-country image and purchase intention of Korean products are measured. In addition, this study disaggregates the impacts of country image and product-country image and purchase intention among ethnic groups in South Africa for searching further useful implications. Design/methodology - To examine South African consumers' country image and product-country image towards Korean products, data were collected between June and July 2019 through an online questionnaire, and 335 questionnaires were used for analysis. Firstly, the multivariate analysis was conducted to examine the general tendency of South African consumers' perceptions of country image to Korea, product-country image, and purchase intention among three ethnic group consumers. Then in order to verify the country image model and hypotheses of the study, we analyzed the structural models for each of the three ethnic groups and compared the sizes of the path coefficients for each groups. To compare the difference of path coefficients across ethnic groups, configural invariance, metric invariance, and scalar invariance tests were conducted sequentially. Findings - In the black and white ethnic groups, the country image had a statistically significant impact on product-country image, but it did not affect the purchase intention to Korean products. The product-country image showed a statistically significant impact on the purchase intention to Korean products in both ethnic group. However, in the coloured ethnic group consumer, the country image had a significant effect on the product-country image, but it did not affect the purchase intention of Korean products. In addition, the product-country image did not have a significant influence on the purchase intention of coloured ethnic group consumers unlike black and white ethnic group consumers. The results of this study suggest that even though differences in terms of the impact of CoI on PCI and PI were investigated for the sample of white, coloured, and black respondents, the groups seemed to respond in a reasonably comparable manner. Originality/value - South Africa occupies more than 20% of Africa's total GDP in sub-Saharan Africa and is a hub for Southern African logistics as a hub for Korean companies to enter Africa. However, it is rare to find a study focused on the determinants of consumer behavior in South Africa. In particular, this study disaggregates the impacts of country image and product-country image on consumer behavior across ethnic groups in South Africa. Therefore, this study could provide practical implications for Korean firms which desire to diversify their export markets and pioneer future markets.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.175-184
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• 2017

Despite growing interest in Korean foods, South-east Asian consumers' perception and acceptance of Korean foods have not been well elucidated. This study was conducted to understand South-east Asian Muslim consumers' perception and acceptance of Korean foods and the association with their food neophobia level. Ninety-three Muslim consumers (mean ages 25.2, men 35.5%, women 64.5%) from Malaysia (72%), Indonesia (16.1%), and Singapore (11.9%) rated their degree of food neophobia as well as recognition and acceptance of representative Korean menu items. Background data such as duration of stay and Korean food consumption habits were collected. Overall, participants perceived Korean foods positively (4.04 on a 5-point hedonic scale). Most well-recognized Korean foods were gimbap and bulgogi, whereas less-known spicy foods such as ojingoe deopbap were most liked among items that were actually consumed. A neophobic group rated Korean foods less favorably than neutral and neophilic groups (p<0.05). Future studies are required to identify whether or not South-east Asian Muslim consumers' food neophobia is formed under the influence of religious regulations or reflect individual consumers' personal traits.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.96 no.2
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• pp.183-188
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• 2007

This study was carried out to examine the perceptions of consumers and forest product manufacturers in South Korea about forest certification and to identify their willingness-to-pay for certified products by personal interviews. Sixteen percent of interviewees knew and heard about forest certification. However, fifty-six percent of interviewees had an intention to participate in forest certification system. The consumers' group can be described in relative terms as the male of 30 age bracket. The average price premium charged to consumers was higher than one paid to manufacturers, and thus manufacturers are willing to include the additional costs for certified products.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.513-526
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• 2013

In an effort to protect consumers' rights to information and to promote their freedom of choice, the South Korean government has been enforcing a policy called the cosmetics full ingredients list system since 2008, which requires cosmetics manufacturers to list all of the ingredients used in their products. This policy aims to assist consumers in identifying the causes of possible side effects of cosmetic products. This study uses consumers' demographic information addition to their cosmetics purchase and usage characteristics to learn about consumers' attitudes and utilization intentions and the influence of information from the cosmetics full ingredients list. This study was conducted through a questionnaire based survey administered to women above the age of 20 years across South Korea who use cosmetic products. The questionnaire was distributed to 300 members on the panel of M Brain, an online research institute. The findings of this study are as follows: (1) The level of knowledge on cosmetics' ingredients positively affected the consumers' attitude and utilization intention of information on the cosmetics full ingredients list. (2) The higher the utilization intention for information, the more often consumers checked the packaging of goods. This implies that habitual behavior, such as checking information, leads to increasing intention to utilize of new information. (3) The brand, as a decision-making factor, negatively affected consumers' attitudes regarding information.

• Journal of the Korea Furniture Society
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.8-17
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• 2018

Economic crisis in 2008 has changed South Korean market including furniture related field. Owing to Subprime Mortgage Crisis, new economic order, in other words, New Normal was established. Low growth rate, low interest, high unemployment rate, high risks, regulation strengthening, and all that sort of negative things have became generalized. South Korean economy has developed drastically since the Korean War, however recent economic crisis and Internet and smart phone have leading roles in shaping new consumption market. In a way, furniture market has expanded despite economic recession. Total service for housing is suited to South Korean consumers and shortened Product Life Cycle induces consumers to buy more furniture. In addition, Internet and smart phone allow people to show off their private spaces to unspecified masses. As a result, consumer prefers inexpensive and expendable furniture. It is certain that furniture market makes quantitative growth, but qualitative sides are questionable. Even though the study is focused on the existent circumstances, It will help to find out the proper ways of future furniture market in South Korea.