• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.1-18
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• 2010

Recent rapid growth of Super-Supermarket(SSM) may be the last process of penetration of big retailers' into the grocery market where small supermarkets have dominated for the past several decades. Anti-SSM movement led by small supermarket owners is mainly due to the fear of shaky viability. The authors believe that the ultimate solution should be strengthening the competitiveness of small retailers. This study concludes that satisfying customers will make small retailers more sustainable. The study suggests the improvement of merchandising and customer services. In particular, the study performed an ideation survey for developing services suitable for supermarket customers. The study suggests service alternatives optimal for small retailers through confirmation survey of 300 consumers.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.29-64
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• 2011

Given the current situation that there are a lot of rapid change in retail environment and have to offer more customized services to consumers, it is possible for Super Supermarket(SSM hereinafter) to get those. Thus it is explored whether perceived quality affected the customer satisfaction and in turn, the customer satisfaction affected the repurchase intention in SSMs. Especially we investigated the moderate effect of income, age, the number of family members on the relationship between customer satisfaction and repurchase intention. We used the method of structural equation modeling to test hypotheses. As a result, 5 out of 7 hypotheses are statistically significant and partially supported in moderate effects. The results of this study imply that mangers in SSMs have to improve those positive factors that were revealed significant. And given the fact that main customers in SSMs are those who live near and is a nuclear family, they should offer high quality goods and services relevant to them.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.41-64
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• 2006

The research is focused on planning the politic direction and on establishing an activating planning for retailer shops such as traditional market, super supermarket, discount store in Daejeon. The empirical study shows that the consumers most satisfied with discount store, meanwhile least with traditional market. Especially, it is proved that parking facility is the most important factor affecting consumer's satisfaction. This study also suggests some important strategic implications through IPA (important- performance analysis). Those are, first, the traditional market needs to improve for six categories of IPA factors, however the super supermarket for four, and the discount store for three. Second, the discount store has eight prominent advantages of the factors, however the super supermarket has seven, and the traditional market has five. Finally, the traditional market has to concentrate facility improvement for consumer's convenience in the long term.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.41-49
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• 2013

Purpose - Currently, the distribution environment has been changing rapidly because of the advent of super-supermarkets (SSM),which adopt the "price break" and "lowest price" strategies. Specifically, a diversification of the distribution environment allowed customers to reasonably decide where to shop. With a broadened range of criteria governing the choice of a store, determining changes in the distribution environment should be based on customer satisfaction surrounding the service levels of SSMs. This study examines the effects of service quality and product quality of SSMs on customer satisfaction levels, and analyzes whether these factors affect customers' revisit intention directly. Research design and methodology - A survey method was used and 127 SSM customers responded to the questionnaires that were developed to measure service quality, product quality, customer satisfaction, and store revisit intention. A multi-regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses. Results - Except hypothesis 2, the other seven hypotheses were supported. Hypothesis 2 suggested a positive relationship between product factors and customer satisfaction. Conclusions - This study found a systematic effect of service factors and product factors on customer satisfaction and word-of-mouth, and consequently on store revisit intention.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.394-406
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• 2011

The retailing industry in Korea has developed with new store formats: supermarket, convenient store, discount Store, and super-super market. Also, there are confrontation and conflict between them, becoming a national issue. This study reviews the existing literatures in Korean geography of retailing and consumption and attempts to set forth the future research themes and topics. The review shows that the existing literatures disproportionately focus on location, diffusion, and market area of the new store formats. The future research themes and topics includes the marketplace combined with recreation, donation, environment-friendliness, or social welfare; marketplace as a part of global production and distribution system; expansion of marketplace into homes which are longstanding private space; spatial structure of retailing at various geographical scale.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.11 no.11
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• pp.83-88
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• 2013

Purpose - This study focused on consumers' perception about regulations for sales enforced by national and local governments in Korea. The study examined the relationship between perceived regulatory restrictions and subjective well-being (SWB), and perceived regulatory restrictions and shopping value, respectively. Research Design, Data, and Methodology - Data were collected from 135 college students and consumers in Gyeonggi Province to verify the relationships, moderating effects, and mediating effects, thus testing the theoretical model and its hypotheses. Results - First, consumers' positive perception of regulatory restrictions enabled enhancement of their SWB. Second, consumers' positive perception of regulatory restrictions had no significant positive influence on hedonic value but had a significant positive influence on utilitarian value. Third, utilitarian value exhibited a full mediating effect on the relationship between regulatory restrictions and SWB. Conclusion - This study showed that consumers' positive win-win attitude is based on social norms. Further, we expect that consumers experiencing discomfort due to regulatory restrictions resolve this by going to other distributors. Finally, to increase distributors' competitiveness and consumers' utilitarian value, it is suggested that distributors require a variety of marketing strategies.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.10 no.11
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• pp.61-70
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• 2012

Purpose - The entry of Super Supermarkets (SSM), operated by large corporations, into the retail distribution market weakens the competitive power of local supermarkets (SM) and their families leading to a rapid collapse of the local-SM market. Accordingly, this is a very sensitive and urgent issue in Korean society and politics. Therefore, the government is required to take steps to activate a local-SM market and regain the loyalty of their customers. However, in spite of the urgent need of a comparative study on the advantages and competitive power of local-SM in relation to the SSM, little research has been done on this issue to date. One purpose of this study is to analyze the differences in store characteristics of the local SM and SSM, and to explore the relationships amongst various store characteristics, such as consumption emotion, relation quality, and store loyalty between store types to provide an efficient solution to activate a local-SM market. Research design, data, methodology - To analyze the differences in the evaluation of store characteristics between store types, and to test the moderator and mediator effects, data were collected from 488 customers in Seoul, Incheon,and Gyeonggi Province. The theoretical model consists of four hypotheses, and data was processed to test these using factor analysis, t-test, regression analysis, hierarchical regression, and the three step regression proposed by Baron and Kenny. Results - First, the analysis shows that local-SM customers evaluate location characteristic factors significantly higher compared to SSM customers. However, SSM customers evaluate quality of merchandise, sales promotion activities, and store environment significantly higher. Yet, there are no significant differences in the evaluation of consumption emotion, relation quality,and store loyalty between the store types. Second, the analysis of moderator effects of the store type show that sales promotion and store atmosphere factors have a significantly negative moderating effecton positive consumption emotion, while positive consumption emotion has a significantly positive moderating effect on absorption of relation quality, while there are no significant moderating effects between consumption emotion and store loyalty. Third, while both trust and absorption of relation quality are partially mediated between consumption emotion and store loyalty, only absorption is partially mediated between positive consumption emotion and store loyalty. There are no significant mediating effects of absorption between negative consumption emotion and store loyalty. Conclusions - We strongly recommend that location restrictions on entrance of SSM into local-SM market should either be further strengthened or sustained for the activation of the local store market. Government should strengthen financial support to improve the quality of merchandise, sales promotion, employee education, store environment of the local-SM by providing appropriate business consulting. Moreover, the result implies that the owners of alocal-SM should take measures to increase customers' absorption and store loyalty, such as store cleanliness, maintaining a delightful atmosphere at the store, and training employees on attitudes towards customers. As this study is restricted within Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi Province, care needs to be taken in generalizing the interpretation and application to the national level.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.187-197
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• 2014

The objective of this study is to analyze the travel behaviors of customers accessing to three different types of shopping facilities - traditional markets(TM), hyper markets(HM), and super supermarkets(SSM) - and also to find out the most desirable location for each type of shopping facilities that encourage sustainable transportation and smart urban growth. It also demonstrates what mode has the highest percentage of modal split and what is the access distance for public transport mode by each shopping facilities (SSM: 84.5% walking and 667m, TM: 20.1% bus and 1.6km, HM : 46.2% private car and 4.2km). Among TM, HM, and SSM, statistically significant differences are found in terms of mode choices and other associated travel behaviors. The research findings are expected to contribute to finding future urban planning and transportation solutions that promote walking and public transit uses for shopping trips and thus help support green transportation and sustainable urban growth.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.43-53
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• 2014

Purpose - This study suggested a practical model for super supermarkets (SSMs) and small- and medium-sized stores to grow together. Super centers expanded their business. However, after the retail distribution law was revised in 2009, mutual cooperation between large and small enterprises resulted in social issues and people raised the issue of profitability. Research design, data, and methodology - This study investigated cases of regulation over distribution in Japan, France, and other countries to reveal implications and recommendations. Results - This study demonstrated how SSM and middle and small supermarkets could grow together by franchising and using cooperative society law. Franchising was a mutual growth model whereby the franchiser provided franchisees with large enterprise systems and utilities while franchisees could provide the franchiser with local information. They could thus build trust in each other to facilitate a mutual growth model. Further, the voluntary franchise system's model facilitated the mutual growth model. Conclusions - This study demonstrates that the franchise system and cooperative society could constitute an ideal model whereby large enterprises and middle and small stores could rely upon each other and grow together.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.553-561
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• 2013

This study examined the food purchasing behavior of rural housewives in Bibong-myeon, Hwaseong. The survey targeted grocery shopping for the home, in particular by housewives. The type of grocery store frequented, age, socioeconomic factors, and ease of purchase were compared with interests in health foods. One super supermarket (SSM), three supermarkets (SM), and four convenience stores were examined in the research area, whereas a large-scale discount store and grocery stores were also examined outside the research area. The grocery store visiting rate was 61.5% in the research area and 38.5% in the other area. The SSM (62.7%) and SM (29.9%) in the research area and LDS (57.1%) and SSM (16.7%) in the other area were most frequently visited. Major purchasing products greatly differed according to the grocery store type. Major foods purchased in the SSM were grain, meat, and fish. Major foods purchased in the LDS and SM were processed products and vegetables, respectively. The LDS visiting frequency was 41.7% for 2-3 times per month and 41.7% for <1 time per month. The means of transport were mostly by private car (87.5%), whereas the SSM was visited 1-2 times per week 53.1% of the time by foot. In addition, various grocery stores are absent in rural areas and it is therefore important to find other methods to assess the food environment of rural areas. In future research, it will be necessary to design various ways to perform food environment research.