• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.367-390
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• 2008

Consumer's concerns over beef safety are increasing according to resuming U.S. beef import. And a few beef producers have converted into organic beef recently. This organic beef must have taste, nutrition and safety that consumers demand for. Korean organic beef should be gone on sale at the shop under direct management of producer's organizations or the special shop for Environmentally friendly products. So they should win consumers' confidence for beef safety and transparency in producing and marketing process.

• International Journal of Costume and Fashion
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.19-37
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• 2015

Expanding upon Zhang and Kim's (2013) study involving Chinese consumers, this study investigated key factors that influence U.S. consumers' attitude towards purchasing luxury fashion goods and purchase intent and examined what similarities and differences exist between the two consumer groups in relation to the key factors. A total of 414 respondents completed the online survey questionnaire. Structural Equation Modeling was utilized to analyze data. Brand consciousness, materialism, fashion innovativeness, and fashion involvement were significant factors that affect U.S. consumers' attitude towards luxury fashion goods. Overall, the findings of the current study were greatly inconsistent with Zhang and Kim's Chinese study. The inconsistency provides vital implications to luxury fashion retailers by showing that one size does not fit all and one strategy does not fit all markets.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.801-807
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• 2007

The objectives of this study were to develop Korean dishes acceptable for quick-service Korean food restaurant franchising operations in the U.S. and to test consumer preferences of 6 Korean dishes developed. One hundred American consumers evaluated beef(Bulgogi), pork(Jeyuk-bokkeum), chicken(Dagkalbi), noodles with seasoned vegetables(Japchae), braised tofu(Dubujorim), and stir-fried kimchi (Kimchi-bokkeum). Consumer preferences for color and aroma of the three dishes(Bulgogi, Jeyuk-bokkeum and Dagkalbi) were not different with most indicating they liked these attributes. Bulgogi was preferred over Dagkalbi and Jeyuk-bokkeum was least acceptable. Consumers rated the flavor of the Bulgogi from a little too mild to just right while both the Dagkalbi and Jeyuk-bokkeum were rated from just right to too strong. Overall acceptance was inversely related to spiciness. Bulgogi and Dagkalbi were ranked significantly higher than Jeyuk-bokkeum with Bulgogi receiving a slightly higher score. Overall acceptance was higher for the Japchae than the Kimchi-bokkeum. Dubujorim was intermediate and not preferred or disliked more than either of the others. Consumers rated the flavor of the Japchae and the Dubujorim higher than the Kimchi-bokkeum, indicating that the flavor of the Kimchi-bokkeum was too strong. Almost half indicated both the Dubujorim and Kimchi-bokkeum were slightly or much too hot. The Japchae and the Dubujorim were ranked equally high and significantly higher than the Kimchi-bokkeum. We suggest that control of spiciness is a main factor to develop Korean dishes acceptable for quick-service Korean food restaurant franchising operations in the U.S.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.103-113
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• 2012

In the U.S. where Direct-to-Consumer Advertising (DTCA) of prescription medications is permitted, spending on DTCA has been accelerating. As a result, it has been an issue of intense public policy attention regarding whether DTCA is beneficial to the public by promoting a healthy lifestyle. Most of the literature concerning DTCA focuses on its impact on demand and empirical evidence regarding its impact on health-related behavior is scant. This study uses a database of DTCAs for high blood cholesterol, hypertension, diabetes, and overweight treatment medications that have appeared in nationally circulated U.S. consumer magazines during 2000 to 2004 and the Simmons National Consumer Survey in order to compute the level of individual advertising exposure and examines whether those who are exposed to DTCA are more likely to engage in regular exercise and diet control. The study finds evidence that for those with chronic conditions, greater exposure to DTCA leads to less exercise but more diet control. By therapeutic class level, exposure to DTCA leads to less exercise for those with hypertension and who are overweight, whereas those with high blood cholesterol are more likely to engage in regular exercise. Looking into differential responses by socioeconomic status, those with less education are more likely to engage in exercise after being exposed to DTCA. The results imply that the effects of DTCA vary by therapeutic class. In order to enhance the benefits of DTCA, it is important to closely monitor the messages in DTCA and require it to include messages that promote lifestyle change should it be a part of the treatment.

• International Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.31-49
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• 2004

The purposes of the study were to examine the trend of undergraduate students' knowledges and attitudes toward elderly and aging traits, and to present the influence of undergraduate students' attitudes. The subjects were 494 undergraduate students. Statistics used such as frequency, Percentage, Mean, Standard Deviation, Cronbach's ${\alpha}$, t-test, Duncan test, ANOVA and Stepwise Multiple Regression Analysis. The results of this study were as follow: 1) Undergraduate students' knowledge level toward the elderly was low, and undergraduate students' attitudes level was middle. 2) There were meaningful differences in attitudes level according to sex, living together with elderly (the present time), living together with elderly (the past time), the presence of grandfather. It also had a significant correlation to the undergraduate students' knowledge. 3) The variables which affected the undergraduate students' attitudes were knowledge, sex, present co-residency with grandparents, past co-residency with grandparents, the presence grandfather, period of co-residency with grandparents that were explained about $24\%$. Among variables, knowledge of elderly was a very important variable on undergraduate students' attitudes.

• International Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.81-95
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• 2008

This paper examined the impact of psychological characteristics of consumers on household debt decisions. With the use of the Heckit models (the traditional approach to the selection problem) this study undertook an empirical study of the influence of a wide range of factors on financial decisions. This study used U.S. household-level data that offers detailed information on household debt, expectations about future income, expectations about future economic conditions, the amount of financial risk the respondent was willing to take, and the amount of time allotted for planning family savings and spending. This study showed that respondents with both substantial financial risk tolerance and positive expectations about future income were likely to have larger household debt showing that researchers and policy-makers need to consider consumer sentiment and preference measures in modeling behavior in credit markets. Additional results showed that household debt is significantly related to two key economic variables: income and net worth.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.604-615
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• 2012

Despite the increasing recognition of the value of emotions and younger consumers in luxury market segments, little research has focused on the role consumer characteristics and emotions play in younger consumers' commitment to luxury brands. Drawing on the identity-motivation model and the idea of self-construal, this study identifies the contributing factors of younger consumers' commitment to luxury fashion brands. Specifically, this study examines the role of consumer characteristics (i.e., self-construal), the self-expressiveness of brands, and emotional factors (i.e., brand love and brand attachment) in developing consumer-brand relationships. The proposed model was tested with college students in the U.S., which supplied a representative group of younger consumers of luxury fashion brands. The data were collected using web-based surveys and analyzed using structural equation modeling method. The results showed that consumers who were characterized with interdependent self-construal had positive perceptions of self-expressive luxury fashion brands. Furthermore, the perception of self-expressive brands promotes the consumers' brand love of and brand attachmentto luxury fashion brands. Also, while both improved brand commitment, brand attachment had a greater impact on brand commitment than brand love. This study contributes to the literature by identifying driving forces of younger consumers' brand commitment. It also provides managerial implications for luxury fashion brands.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.1121-1133
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• 2011

Fair trade has received increasing attention from ethical consumers in the North Trans-Atlantic world. It is a movement establishing alternative trading organizations to ensure minimal returns, safe working conditions, and to provide continuity in the trading relationship for disadvantaged producers, especially women and indigenous people in the South. Despite of the growing fair trade movement in the U.S. and Europe, it is still in the introductory stage in Korea. Although fair trade has gained some attention because of the efforts of activists, most Korean consumers are still unaware of it. This paper is divided into four sections including an introduction and conclusions. In section two, I analysed sales of the fairly traded products and the websites of the fairly traded products sellers. In section three, I proposed two effective recommendations for the better marketing and promotion strategies of fairly traded products. One proposal is for providing consumer information, like fair trade certificates, consumer campaigns, and consumer information of the fair trade sellers' websites analyses. The other is for establishing the infrastructure to promote the consumption of fairly traded products such as consumer education, corporate social responsibility, social enterprise, fair trade town and school, and networking. This study is relavant to academics, non-profit fair trade organizations, manufacturers, retailers and governments.

• Asian Journal of Business Environment
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.5-11
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• 2015

Purpose - The purpose of this research is to identify how idiocentric consumers and allocentric consumers respond to retail store environments and how such responses affect their consumer behaviors in a sustainable consumption setting. Method - Data were collected from 422 U.S. adult consumers via a web-based survey. Two store settings were created, perceptually related (eco-friendly clothing displayed with greenery)or perceptually-unrelated (eco-friendly clothing displayed without greenery), and consumers were asked to take the survey based on the given store setting. Results - Allocentric consumers perceived a product and its display environment were related whereas idiocentric consumers perceived the two were unrelated. Also, the former exhibited higher purchase intentions when the product and store environment were related (eco-friendly clothing displayed with greenery), but the latter did when the two were unrelated (eco-friendly clothing displayed without greenery). Conclusions - This research suggests that retailers should consider consumer self-concept at personal-level when implementing marketing strategies. This research also demonstrates that consumers are influenced by store environment in relation to their self-concept and that self-concept can be temporarily modified by various stimuli such as visual displays.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.275-287
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• 2017

The recent Great Recession of 2008 was a period of sharp economic decline throughout the late 2000s. All socio-demographic groups were impacted by the economic downturn, however, Hispanic households were particularly hard hit. It is not a recent phenomenon that minority groups often have greater problems related to credit and debt repayments. A better understanding of these racial/ethnic differences in credit and debt has been hindered by the propensity of many studies to pool all racial/ethnic minorities together and compare them to white households. Using a Heckman-type selection model with a combination of the 2010 and 2013 Survey of Consumer Finances datasets to study household debt repayment problems, we found that racial/ethnic groups have been differently impacted by the recent Great Recession in terms of debt repayment problems. Hispanic households were less likely to hold debt; however, those with debt were just as likely as white households and African American households to be delinquent in repayments. This finding is contrary to prior research that indicated Hispanics with debt were less likely than white and African American households to be delinquent on repayments prior to the Great Recession of 2008. We propose possible explanations for the increase in debt repayment problems, that includes increased assimilation into the U.S. culture of credit use, the circumstance of being more recent home buyers prior to the decline, and living in states that suffered the greatest decline in housing value.