• Information Systems Review
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.59-77
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• 2016

Although various recommendation techniques have been applied to the e-commerce market, few studies compare the intent to use these techniques from the customer's perspective. In this paper, we conduct a comparative analysis of customers' intention to use five recommendation techniques widely adapted by online shopping malls and focus on the differences in purchasing electronic goods and apparel products. The recommendation techniques are as follows: best-seller recommendation, merchandiser recommendation, content-based recommendation, collaborative filtering recommendation, and social recommendation. Additionally, we examine which factors influence customer intent to use the recommendation services. Data were collected through a survey administered to 220 e-commerce users with prior experience with recommendation services. Collected data were examined using analysis of variance and regression analysis. Results indicate statistically significant differences in customers' intention to use recommendation services according to the recommendation technique. In particular, the best-seller recommendation technique is preferred when purchasing electronic goods, whereas the content-based recommendation technique is preferred for apparel purchases. Factors such as personal characteristics and personality, purchasing tendency, as well as perception of the product or recommendation service affect a customer's intention to use a recommendation service. However, the influence of these factors varies depending on the recommendation technique. This study provides guidelines for companies to adopt appropriate recommendation techniques according to product categories and personal characteristics of customers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.32 no.10
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• pp.1497-1508
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• 2008

The objective of this study is to identify the types of relationship quality of department store fashion consumers. This study also aims to look at if consumers form different type of relationship quality with various relation partners. In this study, qualitative research was conducted on 25 female consumers to come to a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of fashion consumers' diverse loyal relationships. Fashion consumer's relationship quality consisted of 'self attachment', 'symbolic', 'trust', 'intimacy', 'compensational bind', and 'habitual alternative'. 6 relationship quality dimensions were distinguished according to each dimension's emotional involvement level and conscious activeness level of consumers. While self attachment was classified as emotional and active relationship quality, compensational bind and habitual alternative were typical relationship quality types of fashion store loyalty such as department store loyalty, thus classified as inertial and cognitive relationship quality type. This study might provide a useful direction to apparel brands and retailers in finding out which relationship quality type is more effective for differentiated marketing strategies.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.62 no.5
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• pp.108-124
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to examine the political and social statements through fashion design, by comparing with more activated statements in the general design area. To achieve this, the documentary study and practical case study have been executed. First of all, the meaning of design politics was defined and the cases of design practice of political and social statements were reviewed and classified historically. Traditionally, designs have been inextricably linked with political authorities and ideologies. As propaganda, it has been used for power authority to seize power and maintain dominance. On the contrary, they could be an instrument to resist and criticize against contemporary power authority and dominant. Next, the political and social statements were traced historically through fashion design on the basis of the two previously reviewed categories. And then, comparing political and social statements between design and fashion design, the contents and ways of their expressions were similar. In design, there were more various ways when the designers were leading collective behavior, but in fashion design, there were more leading voices of socio-political organizations and resistant counter culture groups. Now, new trends are rising constantly where individual designers' creations express many different socio-political beliefs. This study which inquires designers' political and social involvement will be helpful in making people rethink the social role of fashion design and encouraging conscious fashion design activism.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.50-65
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• 2014

This study investigates the effect of demographics and materialism on the consumers's attitudes and clothing purchase behaviors. The subjects compose of 302 college students living in Yunnam, China. The mean, ANOVA, factor analysis, Duncan test were used for statistics analysis. According to our results, the factors of materialism, symbolic consumptions, and attitude toward fashion luxury products are identified: three factors of materialism (success symbols, practical living, and happiness pursuing), three factors of symbolic consumption (conspicuous, hedonic, communication), and five factors of attitudes toward fashion luxury products (quality, involvement, ostentation, luxurious aspect, pleasure). Among the demographics, gender, income, social stratification, father's education and job influenced the symbolic consumption, and desire's fashion luxury products. In addition, gender, income, social stratification, father's education and job influence the clothing selection standards and the extent of using fashion informations. Lastly, symbolic consumption, attitudes toward fashion luxury products, and apparel purchasing behaviors all proven to be significantly different among the 3 groups of materialism.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.33
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• pp.105-115
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• 1997

The fashion clothing market is changing due to the appearance of new consumer group. And the import of foreign brand clothing is highly increasing. The purpose of this study is to help the domestic apparel companies set better market-ing strategy by studying the relation between fashion ivolvement and the purchase be-havior of foreign brand clothing. Subjects were 498 new generation women living Seoul metropolitan area. Data were obtained by questionnaire and analyzed by SPSS package. The main findings of this study are as follows; 1. The result of factor-analysis of the fashion involvement's variables were classified into 8 factors. 2. Consumer's main purpose of buying new clothes were To coordinate clothes with each other' 3. Consumers evaluated every clothing factors: color fit etc of foreign brand very highly except the price. 4. The factor that consumers consider most when choosing clothes is color design fit de-tail texture and brand knowledge in order. 5. the advertizing method that consumers care the most was shop and window display. 6. 'Because design and color are good' were the most important factor as motive of buying foreign brand clothing. 7. Most consumers still bought domestic brand clothing. 7. Most consumers still bought domestic brand clothing. 8. Monthly income and purchase of foreign brand were positively related 9. All variables 2of fashion involment were positively related with the purchase of foreign brand 10. Consumers with higher monthly income did not care much about 'Weather or occasion' when buying clothes. And consumers living in Kangnam(compared with consumers linving in Kangbuk) cared more about personality and bought more foreign brand. 'Social and econ-omic status' were highly related with monthly income residence and purchase of foreign brand clothing 11. Older consumers cared more about color figure texture and fit than younger con-sumer. Monthly income were positively re-lated with design color and figure. Residence were highly related with color and figure. Pur-chase of foreign brand clothing were positively related with design color figure and fit. 12. Younger consumers cared more about brand knowledge. And the purchase of foreign brand clothing were positively related with de-sign detail and brand knowledge. 13. Consumers with foreign brand's purchase experience showed negative relation between ;foreign brand's purchasing experience' and 'Weather or occasion' 14. Consumers with no foreign brand's pur-chasing experience showed negative relation between fashion innovativeness and figure. 15. Consumers with no foreign brand's pur-chasing experience showed positive relation between fit and fashion opinion exchange. The study shows that colors is most import-ant factor in purchasing clothes. And imported brands are very strong in terms of proposing various and unique colors. not all brands succeeded in Korea. Those brands that failed to group consumers have the following problems. Therefore it is critical to review the above factors when importing the foreign brand.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.50 no.7
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• pp.181-193
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• 2000

The purpose of this study was to establish the marketing strategy, that strengthens the brand royalty of their own in apparel industry and that can induce consumer's brand switching against competitive brand. This might be done by suggesting influencing factors on the brand switching for fashion goods. This study was classified into theoretical and experimental study Experimental study was done, using the survey to prove the models for consumers' responses to brand switching by the theoretical study. The survey was conducted through two preliminary questionnaires. It was used as a criterion to prove the validity of the main survey and analyse the reliability. It analyzed at last five hundred ninety-two women in the age of twenty to thirty years odd who live in Seoul and the suburban of Seoul. Followings are the summary of the results revealed through the experimental study. First, brand switching behavior of consumers far formal dress was attributed to two extremes the inner motivation of variety seeking tendency and communication contact, complex variety seeking group, true variety seeking group, derived variety seeking group, and variety avoiding group. Second, the structure of low dimension related fashion according to factor analysis, which affects brand switching, was composed to involvement in 5-dimension, information search in 3-dimension. Based on the results of this study the types of brand switching in fashion goods can be classified by the variety seeking tendency. as inner motivation, and level of contact communication as a outside stimuli. In addition this study showed a correlation among the factors for brand switching related to variables of fashion.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.252-265
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• 2010

Most luxury fashion brands have a strong brand identity and the product design characteristics of a brand are critical factors that influence brand identity. The design of products influence brand identity and play an important role in the choice by consumers in which brand to purchase. This study investigates the impact design characteristics of luxury brands on brand attitudes as well as purchase intentions in the examination of the differences in the impact influence by product category and consumer characteristics. The product design of brands was evaluated and measured by innovative and traditional characteristics. The product categories were divided into apparel, bags, shoes, and accessories. The consumer characteristics used in this study are fashion involvement, age, income, and the amount of money used for purchasing fashion products. Sample brands, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Hermes, Burberry, and Gucci, were extracted from the Intel-brand's Luxury Brand Ranking 2008 and pilot tested for appropriateness. The data collected from 120 luxury consumers and 92 samples were statistically analyzed with SPSS 15.0, reliability test, factor analysis, ANOVA, frequency test, regression, and t-test. The findings are as follow. First, luxury brands were divided into two groups by innovative design characteristics and traditional design characteristics; innovative design characteristics show a significant influence on brand attitude and purchase intention. Second, only fashion related behavior factors among consumer characteristics became moderators when design characteristics influenced brand attitude and purchase intention. Third, the differences in purchase intention affected by design characteristics were found in bags, shoes, and accessories category. It is necessary for luxury brands to focus on innovative design characteristics and to specify the different needs of consumers through fashion related behavioral factors. This research will be useful to luxury brands in designing products and planning marketing strategies by offering specific information for luxury brand consumers.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.73-88
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• 2001

The purpose of this study was to analyze the consumers' acceptance of the new changes in fashion trend and to project the future possibility of them based on the result of the analysis. It was identified in the review of fashion trend that the major change in the recent fashion trend was the turning of focus from 'Minimalism-influenced' to 'Maximalism-influenced'. Total 176 of Korean women, who preferred 'Minimalism-influenced' or 'Maximalism-influenced' style, were sampled and asked to response on a self-report questionnaire with stimuli developed for this study. According to the respondents’ acceptance and preference of either one of the two streams, each respondent was allocated to one of the two groups which were named as 'Minimal-preference group' or 'Maximal-preference group'. The reasons of their preference, traits in trend-related attitude and demographic variables of both groups were analyzed and compared. The degree of clothing involvement and fashion leadership of Maximal-preference group, who accepted the new trend, were found to be significantly higher than those of Minimal-preference group. Maximal-preference group had significantly higher level of income and expenditure on fashion than Minimal-preference group. The motives and reasons for their acceptance of each stream were also analyzed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.33 no.12
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• pp.1897-1909
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• 2009

This large-scale research project contributes to the theory development in the importance of clothing to the self and in the way that older persons might age successfully by fulfilling the need for self-actualization by incorporating a primary resource environment, such as clothing into their self-system. This paper presents one research objective from a lager project that explores the correlations among the Proximity of Clothing to Self (PCS), age identity (subjective or perceived age), and self-actualization (the highest level of human needs). A mail survey design was applied to this study. In November 2004, two questionnaires, Clothing: A Resource for Successful Aging? (to measure PCS, age identity, and demographic variables) and Personal Orientation Inventory (to measure self-actualization), were sent to 1,700 older persons in the U.S. and 195 completed usable questionnaires were returned (12% response rate). This research discovered that the age identity of older persons did not relate with PCS except for those 85 years and over. There were negative correlations among subscales of PCS and self-actualization. This result can be interpreted as that an older person who has not met the highest level of needs yet, can use clothing as a facilitator or need satisfier to meet a higher level of Self-Actualization (SA). Correlation analyses also revealed that older persons in the age category of 75 to 84 years were different from those in the category of 65 to 74 years and 85 years and over. This result implies that older persons in this age category are undergoing more psychological transitions than those in other categories. Further research is necessary to explore the relationship of several SA subscales with various clothing variables such as clothing interest, clothing involvement, or clothing satisfaction.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.59-69
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• 2010

Green or an environmental consciousness has been a major issue for businesses and government offices, as well as consumers, worldwide. In response to this movement, the Korean government announced, in the early 2000s, the era of "Green Growth" as a way to encourage green-related business activities. The Korean fashion industry, in various levels of involvement, presents diverse eco-friendly products as a part of the green movement. These apparel products include organic products and recycled clothing. For these companies to be successful, they need information about who are the consumers who consider green issues (e.g., environmental sustainability) as part of their personal values when making a decision for product purchase, use, and disposal. These consumers can be considered as eco-sumers. Previous studies have examined consumers' purchase intention for or with eco-friendly products. In addition, studies have examined influential factors used to identify the eco-sumers or green consumers. However, limited attention was paid to eco-sumers' disposal or recycling behavior of clothes in comparison with their green product purchases. Clothing disposal behaviors are ways that consumer can get rid of unused clothing and in clue temporarily lending the item or permanently eliminating the item by "handing down" (e.g., giving it to a younger sibling), donating, exchanging, selling, or simply throwing it away. Accordingly, examining purchasing behaviors of eco-friendly fashion items in conjunction with clothing disposal behaviors should improve understanding of a consumer's clothing consumption behavior from the environmental perspective. The purpose of this exploratory study is to provide descriptive information about Korean eco-sumers who have ecologically-favorable lifestyles and behaviors when buying and disposing of clothes. The objectives of this study are to (a) categorize Koreans on the basis of clothing disposal behaviors; (b) investigate the differences in demographics, lifestyles, and clothing consumption values among segments; and (c) compare the purchase intention of eco-friendly fashion items and influential factors among segments. A self-administered questionnaire was developed based on previous studies. The questionnaire included 10 items of clothing disposal behavior, 22 items of LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) characteristics, and 19 items of consumption values, measured by five-point Likert-type scales. In addition, the purchase intention of two eco-friendly fashion items and 11 attributes of each item were measured by seven-point Likert type scales. Two polyester fleece pullovers, made from fabric created from recycled bottles with the PET identification code, were selected from one Korean brand and one US imported brand among outdoor sportswear brands. A brief description of each product with a color picture was provided in the survey. Demographic variables (i.e., gender, age, marital status, education level, income, occupation) were also included. The data were collected through a professional web survey agency during May 2009. A total of 600 final usable questionnaires were analyzed. The age of respondents ranged from 20 to 49 years old with a mean age of 34 years. Fifty percent of the respondents were males and about 58% were married, and 62% reported having earned university degrees. Principal components factor analysis with varimax rotation was used to identify the underlying dimensions of the clothing disposal behavior scale, and three factors were generated (i.e., reselling behavior, donating behavior, non-recycling behavior). To categorize the respondents on the basis of clothing disposal behaviors, k-mean cluster analysis was used, and three segments were obtained. These consumer segments were labeled as 'Resale Group', 'Donation Group', and 'Non-Recycling Group.' The classification results indicated approximately 98 percent of the original cases were correctly classified. With respect to demographic characteristics among the three segments, significant differences were found in gender, marital status, occupation, and age. LOHAS characteristics were reduced into the following five factors: self-satisfaction, family orientation, health concern, environmental concern, and voluntary service. Significant differences were found in the LOHAS factors among the three clusters. Resale Group and Donation Group showed a similar predisposition to LOHAS issues while the Non-Recycling Group presented the lowest mean scores on the LOHAS factors compared to the other segments. The Resale and Donation Groups described themselves as enjoying or being satisfied with their lives and spending spare-time with family. In addition, these two groups cared about health and organic foods, and tried to conserve energy and resources. Principal components factor analysis generated clothing consumption values into the following three factors: personal values, social value, and practical value. The ANOVA test with the factors showed differences primarily between the Resale Group and the other two groups. The Resale Group was more concerned about personal value and social value than the other segments. In contrast, the Non-Recycling Group presented the higher level of social value than did Donation Group. In a comparison of the intention to purchase eco-friendly products, the Resale Group showed the highest mean score on intent to purchase Product A. On the other hand, the Donation Group presented the highest intention to purchase for Product B among segments. In addition, the mean scores indicated that the Korean product (Product B) was more preferable for purchase than the U.S. product (Product A). Stepwise regression analysis was used to identify the influence of product attributes on the purchase intention of eco product. With respect to Product A, design, price and contribution to environmental preservation were significant to predict purchase intention for the Resale Group, while price and compatibility with my image factors were significant for the Donation Group. For the Non-Recycling Group, design, price compatibility with the factors of my image, participation to eco campaign, and contribution to environmental preservation were significant. Price appropriateness was significant for each of the three clusters. With respect to Product B, design, price and compatibility with my image factors were important, but different attributes were associated significantly with purchase intention for each of the three groups. The influence of LOHAS characteristics and clothing consumption values on intention to purchase Products A and B were also examined. The LOHAS factor of health concern and the personal value factor were significant in the relationships with the purchase intention; however, the explanatory powers were low in the three segments. Findings showed that each group as classified by clothing disposal behaviors showed differences in the attributes of a product, personal values, and the LOHAS characteristics that influenced their purchase intention of eco-friendly products. Findings would enable organizations to understand eco-friendly behavior and to design appropriate strategic decisions to appeal eco-sumers.