• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.45-53
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• 2013

Purpose - The environment-friendly agricultural product market in Korea sees continual high growth. Recently, the Korean government has been actively fostering environment-friendly agriculture as an engine of future growth. Korean people have increasingly become more health-conscious and interested in food safety issues. Many distribution and retailing companies have responded with various promotional activities. However, most of these are not strategic and appear to have unsatisfactory outcomes. The main purpose of this paper is to suggest effective marketing strategies for environment-friendly agricultural products. To achieve this aim, the study empirically investigates the effects of consumer characteristics and trust on the purchase intention of environment-friendly agricultural products. Research design, data, methodology - Based on the theory of planned behavior, and previous studies related to the purchase intention and consumption of environment-friendly agricultural products, we set up five study hypotheses. These related to the demographic characteristics of consumers, purchase intention, and behavior of the products. We then set up a study model and four study hypotheses relating to health consciousness, environmental consciousness, consumer trust level, purchase intention, and behavior of the products. The data were collected using a questionnaire given to consumers living in Seoul and southern Geonggi Province. The final sample size is 403 and mean age is 44.3. SPSS 15.0 for Windows and Amos 7.0 were used as statistical analysis tools. Meaningful results were derived using frequency analysis, correlation analysis, a t-test, and structural equation modeling. Results - Empirical results of this research are as follows. (1) First, it is shown that consumers consider such attributes as intimacy and health to be important when they buy environment-friendly agricultural products. (2) We also found that consumers recognize the value of environment-friendly agricultural products as high, but their trust level as low. (3) Consumer groups consisting of married couples, with higher education, higher income, and higher age are shown to have a higher intention of buying environment-friendly agricultural products than any other consumer group. (4) It is estimated that the level of consumer trust positively affects the purchase intention of environment-friendly agricultural products. The path coefficient (.138) between consumer trust and purchase intention is statistically significant at the α = .05 level. (5). It is also estimated that environmental consciousness positively affects purchase intention. The path coefficient (.245) between environmental consciousness and purchase intention is statistically significant at the α = 0.05 level. The standardized path coefficients of consumer trust and environmental consciousness with purchase intention are .556 and .288 respectively. Therefore, consumer trust affects purchase intention more than environmental consciousness. (6) Finally, purchase intention is estimated to positively affect purchase behavior. Conclusions - Based upon empirical results, this research suggests that marketers of environment-friendly agricultural products should focus more on increasing consumer trust levels, emphasizing the training and education of employees. The government also should pay attention to a standardized certification system for environment-friendly agricultural products. Marketers of environment-friendly agricultural products should consider the consumer groups of married couples, with higher education, higher income, and higher age as a major target segment.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2004.08a
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• pp.620-626
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• 2004

For general nonlinear processes, it is difficult to control with a linear model-based control method and nonlinear controls are considered. Among the numerous approaches suggested, the most rigorous approach is to use dynamic optimization. Many general engineering problems like control, scheduling, planning etc. are expressed by functional optimization problem and most of them can be changed into dynamic programming (DP) problems. However the DP problems are used in just few cases because as the size of the problem grows, the dynamic programming approach is suffered from the burden of calculation which is called as 'curse of dimensionality'. In order to avoid this problem, the Neuro-Dynamic Programming (NDP) approach is proposed by Bertsekas and Tsitsiklis (1996). To get the solution of seriously nonlinear process control, the interest in NDP approach is enlarged and NDP algorithm is applied to diverse areas such as retailing, finance, inventory management, communication networks, etc. and it has been extended to chemical engineering parts. In the NDP approach, we select the optimal control input policy to minimize the value of cost which is calculated by the sum of current stage cost and future stages cost starting from the next state. The cost value is related with a weight square sum of error and input movement. During the calculation of optimal input policy, if the approximate cost function by using simulation data is utilized with Bellman iteration, the burden of calculation can be relieved and the curse of dimensionality problem of DP can be overcome. It is very important issue how to construct the cost-to-go function which has a good approximate performance. The neural network is one of the eager learning methods and it works as a global approximator to cost-to-go function. In this algorithm, the training of neural network is important and difficult part, and it gives significant effect on the performance of control. To avoid the difficulty in neural network training, the lazy learning method like k-nearest neighbor method can be exploited. The training is unnecessary for this method but requires more computation time and greater data storage. The pH neutralization process has long been taken as a representative benchmark problem of nonlin ar chemical process control due to its nonlinearity and time-varying nature. In this study, the NDP algorithm was applied to pH neutralization process. At first, the pH neutralization process control to use NDP algorithm was performed through simulations with various approximators. The global and local approximators are used for NDP calculation. After that, the verification of NDP in real system was made by pH neutralization experiment. The control results by NDP algorithm was compared with those by the PI controller which is traditionally used, in both simulations and experiments. From the comparison of results, the control by NDP algorithm showed faster and better control performance than PI controller. In addition to that, the control by NDP algorithm showed the good results when it applied to the cases with disturbances and multiple set point changes.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.113-132
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• 2007

Price rigidity involves prices that do not change with the regularity predicted by standard economic theory. It is of long-standing interest for firms, industries and the economy as a whole. However, due to the difficulty of measuring price rigidity and price adjustments directly, only a few studies have attempted to provide empirical evidence for explanatory theories from Economics and Marketing. This paper proposes and validates a research model to examine different theories of price rigidity and to predict what variables can explain the observed empirical regularities and variations in price adjustment patterns of Internet-based retailers. I specify and test a model using more than 3 million daily observations on 385 books, 118 DVDs and 154 CDs, sold by 22 Internet-based retailers that were collected over a 676-day period from March 2003 to February 2005. I obtained a number of interesting findings from the estimation of our logit model. First, quality seems to play a role-I find that both price levels as proxies for store quality, and information on the quality of a product consumers have, affect online price rigidity. Second, greater competition(i.e., less industry concentration) leads to less price rigidity(i.e., more price changes) on the Internet. I also find that Internet-based sellers more frequently change the prices of popular products, and the sellers with broader product coverage change prices less frequently, which seem due to economic forces faced by these Internet-based sellers. To the best of my knowledge, this research is the first to empirically assess price rigidity patterns for multiple industries in Internet-based retailing, and attempt to explain the variation in these patterns. I found that price changes are more likely to be driven by quality, competitive and economic considerations. These results speak to both the IS and economics literatures. To the IS literature these results suggest we take economic considerations into account in more sophisticated ways. The existence and variation in price rigidity argue that simplistic assumptions about frictionless and completely flexible digital prices do not capture the richness of pricing behavior on the Internet. The quality, competitive and economic forces identified in this model suggest promising directions for future theoretical and empirical work on their role in these technologically changing markets. To the economics literature these results offer new evidence on the sources of price rigidity, which can then be incorporated into the development of models of pricing at the firm, industry and even macro-economic level of analysis. It also suggests that there is much to be learned through interdisciplinary research between the IS, economics and related business disciplines.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.12 no.11
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• pp.101-111
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• 2014

Purpose - This study aims to verify the construct of the service quality suitable to the characteristics of the business center, to develop the scale that can measure the service quality objectively, compare the diverse business centers in Korea, and present desirable methods of business center management and operation. Research design, data, and methodology - In the first stage, literature research and focus group interviews with current users and actual business experts of business centers were conducted. In addition, 69 early stage scale items were derived. In the second stage, a Delphi survey was conducted on the experts of business and academic circles. The measurement items in the early stage were supplemented and revised. The content validity rate (CVR) of 69 measures was computed and then the experts' opinions were used. As a result, the business center service quality scale, made up of 9 organizing factors and 36 measurement items, was constructed. In the third stage, a survey was conducted on the occupants who were currently using the business center. It was to confirm if the developed business center service quality scale could be actually utilized. The data of 435 samples collected were used. To refine the scale items, the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted repeatedly. Results - The business center service quality scale, made up of 8 factors and 33 items, was developed again. The 8 factors are reliability, speed, kindness, specialty, responsibility, appearance, convenience, and public interest. The reliability coefficient (Cronbach's Alpha) of each factor is greater than .7. Thus, it was confirmed that there was reliability in the measurement items. Further, the model suitability was verified using the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and the convergent validity and the discriminant validity were verified. This proved the construct validity. Through this process, the Korea Business Center Service Quality Scale was developed. Based on factor analysis, the developed business center service quality (BCSQ) scale consists of 4 aspects, 8 factors, and 33 items, comprising the "process quality" aspect: reliability (3 items), speediness (4 items), kindness (3 items) factors, the outcome quality aspect: expertise (3 items), responsibility (5 items) factors, the environment quality aspect: appearance (5 items), convenience (3 items) factors, and the public interest aspect: public interest (7 items) factor. However, according to CFA, the BCSQ scale consists of a total of 4 aspects, 8 factors, and 33 items, comprising the "process quality" aspect: reliability (3 items), speediness (3 items), kindness (3 items) factors, the outcome quality aspect: expertise (2 items), responsibility (4 items) factors, the environment quality aspect: appearance (3 items), convenience (2 items) factors, and the public interest aspect: public interest (3 items) factor. Conclusions - The BCSQ scale could serve as a diagnostic tool that will allow business center managers to determine service areas that are weak and in need of attention, and to improve the service quality of the business center.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.11 no.12
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• pp.25-37
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• 2013

Purpose - The structure of retailing has changed as retailers develop markets in response to business environment changes. This study aims to analyze the general situation of retailers in order to predict future global strategy using case studies of overseas expansion strategy and the Metro Group's global strategy. Research design, data, and methodology - The backgrounds to the new retail business model and retailer classification are analyzed as theoretical data. In addition, the key success point of the Metro Group's "cash and carry" strategy is analyzed as is the Metro Group's global CFAR (collaborative planning, forecasting, and replenishment) strategy. Finally, the plan for cooperation and precise forecasting under the Metro Group's supply chain management are analyzed from the promotion environment viewpoint. Related materials analyzed included the 2012 annual report, the Metro Group's web page, and a video interview with the executive in charge of global strategy and the new market development department. Some data were revised to avoid disrupting essential aspects of the case studies. Results - The important finding was that the Metro Group could be a world-class retail company with its successful global expansion strategy. The Metro Group's global strategy's primary goal is to have a leading business position in Eastern and Western Europe. The "cash and carry" strategy is highest priority in its overseas expansion strategy. Moreover, the Metro Group has standardized product planning capacity, which could be applied in various countries with different structural and cultural backgrounds. This is the main reason that the Metro Group could rapidly become successful in the Eastern Europe and Asian markets through its structural overseas expansion strategies. In addition, the Metro Group emphasizes the importance of supply chain management. Conclusions - First, retailers should create additional value through utilizing the domestic market, market power, and economies of scale to launch a global strategy to maximize benefits from diversification. Second, the political, economic, and cultural background of the target country needs to be understood to successfully implement the overseas expansion strategy. Third, the main factor of successful cooperation with a local partner is how quickly the company gains total understanding of the business resources and core competence of its partner. All organizations should focus on the achievement of goals in order to successfully operate the partnership. Fourth, retailers should improve their business, financial and organizational structure. Moreover, the work processes and company culture should also be improved to respond strongly in the competitive global market. Fifth, the essential point of a successful retail business is the control capacity of its branding and format. The retailer could avoid forecasting errors through supply chain management by perfectly distributing the actual amount of its inventory. In addition, the risks along the supply chain are effectively shared between the supply chain partners. Finally, the central tendency of the market is to gain in strength with this taking place across all parts of the business.

• Journal of Applied Tourism Food and Beverage Management and Research
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.79-110
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• 2001

Tourist Destination is based on tourism attractions. Components of Tourism attraction are included tourism resources, entertainment facilities, transportation, accommodation, infrastructure, assistance facilities & service, hospitality, information facilities & service, and retailing & service. Tourism resources of them is the key to determine destination development pattern, because tourism attraction that attract tourists is based on tourism resources. Therefore, there are need to study what is tourism attraction of destination at the view of tourists and what is destination development pattern based on it to develop tourism attraction that is able appeal tourists. The purpose of this study is to examine what effect of tourism attraction affects destination development pattern. This study defined Haeundae, Kwanganri, Songjung, Taejongdae in Pusan, Korea as research areas. Research data were collected from 300 respondents by a simple random sampling method. A final 284 usable questionaries were used for empirical analysis after data purification process. Reliability and validity of the scale on the tourism attraction, destination image, and facility needs have been evaluated using Cronbach $\alpha$, item-total correlations. This study analyzed the factors of the tourism attraction and destination images. The result obtained that tourism attraction is divided relaxation attraction, local activity attraction, culture . nature attraction and touring circuit attraction, and destination image is divided culture . urban attractiveness, touring attractiveness, local . stay attractiveness, convenience of travel and relativeness for destination investigated. ANOVA and regression (stepwise) were used to test hypotheses. Based on the results of hypotheses testing, major findings of the empirical research are as follow : 1. The tourism attraction and destination image are significantly different, but facility needs are not significantly by destinations (e. g. Haeundae, Kwanganri, Songjung, Taejongdae) . 2. Destination development pattern is a(fact by the tourism attraction in partial. In case of Haeundea, relaxation attraction take effect partially spa, history and marine/spa tourism. 3. The destination development pattern is influenced by the destination image in partial. In case of Kwanganri, the natural . activity attractiveness and urban tourism images have been found as influential factors that affect marine tourism. 4. The destination images are influenced the physical attributes in literature review, but the destination image are taken effect partially the tourism attraction in this study. 5. Destination development pattern are influenced by the tourism attraction and the destination image partially. This research has provided a variety of practical suggestions. Especially, it was suggested that the destination have appeal to tourists by strengthening attraction and improving weakness. Also, we need to specialize destination in same destination development pattern.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.16 no.12
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• pp.105-113
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• 2018

Purpose - This research is intended to suggest ways to enhance customers' satisfaction with service recovery. For this purpose, this study investigated the relationships among perceived justice (distributive, procedural, interactional justice) of service recovery efforts, perceived authenticity of service recovery efforts, the intention to follow advice, and the satisfaction with service recovery. Research design, data, and methodology - This research developed a structural equation model in which the perceived justice (distributive, procedural, interactional justice) and the perceived authenticity are predictors, the satisfaction with service recovery is a dependent variable, and the intention to follow advice is a moderator between the perceived justice (distributive, procedural, interactional justice) and the satisfaction with service recovery. Data were collected from visitors of fast food restaurants in Seoul, Gyeonggi province, and Kangwon province. A total of 330 questionnaires were distributed and 295 responses were collected indicating a response rate of 89.3%. After deleting data having missing value, 288 samples were used for analysis. SPSS 21.0 and AMOS 21.0 were used to test the reliability, validity, model fit, and hypotheses. Results - Empirical results showed that perceived justice, perceived distributive justice, and perceived authenticity had a positive influence on the satisfaction with service recovery. These results indicated that the more highly customers perceived the justice, distributive justice and the authenticity of service recovery efforts, the more they were satisfied with service recovery. And these influences were moderated by the intention to follow advice. Specifically, influences of the perceived justice, the perceived distributive justice, and the perceived authenticity on the satisfaction with service recovery were bigger for people with high intention to follow advice than people with low intention to follow advice. Conclusions - This research contributed to the service recovery literature by showing how perceived justice (distributive, procedural, interactional justice) and perceived authenticity influence satisfaction with service recovery. Moreover, current study introduced the intention to follow advice as moderator of this influence and revealed the moderation role of the intention to follow advice between the perceived justice (distributive, procedural, interactional justice) and the satisfaction with service recovery. Managerially, these results suggested retailing companies some ways to recover from service failure.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.31 no.12
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• pp.1682-1688
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• 2007

The effects of cultivar and DAPs on the lignin content and dyeability of the kenaf fibers were investigated. Four kenaf fiber samples were prepared from two cultivars, Tainung 2 and Everglades 41, and their 60 and 120 DAPs(days after planting) for the experiments. The lignin contents of the kenaf fibers of Tainung 2(T2) and Everglades 41(E41) were $11.29{\sim}12.78%$. Both T2 and E41 kenaf fibers had comparable amount of lignin, and klason lignin of the fibers was $2.5{\sim}3$ times as much as much as acid-soluble lignin. In both T2 and E41, 120 DAPs kenaf have 1% more lignin than 60 DAPs kenaf. The moisture regains of the four kenaf fiber samples were almost the same as $10.25{\pm}0.05%$. The absorbances of residual solution after dyeing for $1{\sim}180$ minutes with Red 81 at maximum wavelength 520 nm and Green 26 at 600 nm were measured. Comparing to Green 26, the dyeing rate of Red 81 was rapid and equilibrium state was reached in 12 minutes. The CIE $L^*,\;a^*, \;b^*,\;{\Delta}E$ and K/S values of the kenaf fibers dyed with Red 81 and Green 26 were measured as well. The dye exhaustion ratio of 60 DAPs kenaf was higher than that of 120 DAP.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.1682-1694
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• 2007

There are a lot of factors working to facilitate the decline of Korea's traditional markets including large-scale discount stores, convenience stores, businesses of new types such as non-store retailing, and fiercer competitions among retail shops. The changes to the business environment are never favorable to them, either; the consumers have developed more diverse tastes and altered their purchasing styles; and the trading areas around traditional markets have withdrawn in size and power as new towns attract more businesses. In a word, every factor and situation seems to push traditional markets down the slope. Reacting to the problems, the Korean government enacted and enforced the "Special Law for the Promotion of Traditional Markets and Shopping Streets" to provide proper financial and management support. The shop owners of traditional markets formed merchants and prosperity associations and took various initiatives to increase the competitive edge of their traditional markets. All those efforts on the part of the government and the merchants, however, do not seem to be enough to revive traditional markets. This study set out to compare and analyze the management of shop owners of traditional markets based on the support projects by the government, to conduct an empirical research and analysis of their management conditions, and to suggest a better policy model by making improvements for the government's support system and making revisions to the current directions.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.16 no.12
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• pp.69-80
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• 2018

Purpose - Our primary goal of this study is to investigate the positive relationship between female managers' self-determined motivations (i.e., RAI: relative autonomy index) and job performances with the mediation of their job creativity in service industries. This study also examines the moderating role of creative efficacy on the relationship between female managers' self-determined motivations and creativities. Finally, based on mediation and moderation hypotheses, we also tested moderating effect of creative efficacy on the mediation effect of job creativity. Research design, data, and methodology - Drawing on SDT(Self-determination theory) and COR(conservation of resources) theories, we developed three research hypotheses. Service female managers from a several service organizations(i.e. banking, retailing, and restaurant/hospitality service) in South Korea were surveyed using self-administered instrument for data collection. A total of 331 usable questionnaires were obtained after list-wise deletion. To test reliability and validity of measurement model, we employed the CFA(confirmatory factor analysis) using M-plus 8.1 Software. Also, internal consistency was tested by Cronbach's α. We, furthermore, used the SPSS PROCESS MACRO 2.16, which was suggested by Hayes (2013; 2015), to test mediation, moderation, and moderated mediation. Results - Our results revealed that self-determined motivation and job performance were positively and fully mediated by job creativity. Furthermore, the positive relationship between female managers' self-determined motivations and job creativities was stronger when their creative self-efficacies were high than when it was low. In addition, female managers' creative self-efficacies also amplified the positive relationship between their self-determined motivations and job performances with the mediation of job creativity. Conclusions - Our research empirically elaborated the previous model of self-determined motivation and manager/female creativity literature by presenting the findings that female managers' self-determined motivations significantly influence their job performances via job creativity and that creative self-efficacy effectively strengthen these positive impacts. Also, our research offered new insight for practitioners (i.e. top service managers) by suggesting that they may enhance female service managers' job performance if they pay more attention to employee creativity in service marketing.