• The Journal of Society for e-Business Studies
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.279-299
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• 2013

The problem of choosing the right product that will best fit a consumer's taste and preferences extends to the field of electronic commerce. However, e-commerce has been able to create a technological proxy for the social filtering process, known as online recommender systems (RSs). RSs aid users in filtering products and decisions on matters relating to personal taste. RSs have the potential to support and improve the quality of the decisions consumers make when searching for and selecting products and services online. However, most previous research on RSs has focused on the accuracy of the algorithms, with little emphasis on user interface and perspectives. This study identified transparency and feedback as possible ways to effectively evaluate RSs from the user's perspective. Thus, this research focused on examining and identifying the roles of transparency and feedback in recommender systems and how they affect users' attitudes toward the system. Results of the study showed that both transparency and feedback positively and significantly affected perceived trust, perceived value of the process, and perceived enjoyment. Furthermore, we found that perceived trust, perceived value of the process, and perceived enjoyment positively and directly affected users' intentions to use/reuse a recommender system.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.10 no.10
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• pp.177-185
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• 2012

This study started why do consumers use the counterfeit goods. We executed the pretest through the depth interview, and made an purchase motivation scale, useful satisfaction and dissatisfaction factor scale of counterfeit goods. We found out having the recognition difference of China consumers about these. The results is as follows. First, Counterfeit use motivation ostentation, economic efficiency, satisfaction, and the practicality of four was All counterfeit motivation had a significant impact on attitudes. Second, the personal satisfaction and economic satisfaction as two counterfeit satisfaction factors were Counterfeit products personal satisfaction factors showed a significant influence on the attitude. Also the purchase of counterfeit economic satisfaction had a significant positive impact. Third, counterfeit dissatisfaction factors were personal, social and material factors of dissatisfaction into three Significant influence attitude toward counterfeit products is a factor. Purchase of personal dissatisfaction factors also had a significant impact. These findings made it possible for in-depth understanding of the behavior and culture in China of counterfeit consumer use. The results of this study has provided data that can be utilized in the future counterfeits reduce the use of public awareness campaigns.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.27-52
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• 2010

It is not new that today's business organizations are expected to exhibit ethical and moral management and to carry out social responsibility as a good corporate citizen. Since South Korea emerged as a newly industrialized country during the 1980s, Korean corporations have become active in carrying out their social responsibility as a good corporate citizen to society. In spite of the short history of corporate social responsibility, Korean companies have actively participated in corporate philanthropy. Corporations' significant donations to various social causes, no-lay-off policies, corporate volunteerism and green marketing are evidences of their commitment to corporate citizenship. Corporate social responsibility is now an essential management practice whereby corporation can strengthen its sustainable value creation processes by enhancing the trust assets underlying the relationships between the business and the stakeholders. Much of the conceptual work in the area of corporate social responsibility(CSR) has originated from researches conducted in the management field. Carroll(1979) proposed that corporations have four types of social responsibilities: economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic responsibility. Most past research has investigated CSR and its impact on consumers' attitudes toward the corporations and corporate performances. Although there exists a large body of literature on how consumers perceive and respond to CSR, the majority of past studies were conducted in the United States. The stability and applicability of past findings need to be tested across different national/cultural settings, especially since corporate social responsibility is a reflection of implicit conformation with the expectations and criticism that society may have toward a corporation(Matten and Moon, 2004). In this study, we explored whether people in Korea perceive CSR of Korean corporations in the same four dimensions as done in the United States and what were the measurement items tapping each of these four dimensions. In order to investigate the dimensions of CSR and the measurement items for CSR perceived by Korean people, nine focus group interviews were conducted with several stakeholder groups(two with undergraduate students, two with graduate students, three with general consumers, and two with NGO groups). Scripts from the interviews revealed that the Korean stakeholders perceived four types of CSR which are the same as those proposed by Carroll(1979). However we found CSR issues unique to Korean corporations. For example for the economic responsibility, Korean people mentioned that the corporation needed to contribute to the economic development of the country by generating corporate profits. For the legal responsibility, Koreans included the "corporation need to follow the consumer protection law." For the ethical responsibility, they considered that the corporation needed to not promote false advertisement. In addition, Koreans thought that an ethical company should do transparent management. For the philanthropic responsibility, people in Korea thought that a corporation needed to return parts of its profits to the society for the betterment of society. The 28 items were developed based on the results of the nine focus group interviews, while considering the scale developed by Maignan and Ferrell(2001). Following the procedure proposed by Churchill(1979), we started by developing an item poll consisting of 28 items and purified the initial pool of items through exploratory, confirmatory factor analyses. 176 samples were sued for this analysis. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed on the 28 items in order to verify the underlying four factor structure. Study 1 provided new measurement items for tapping the Korean CSR dimensions, which can be useful for the future studies exploring the effects of CSR on Korean consumers' attitudes toward the corporations and corporate performances. And we found the CSR scale(17 items) has good reliability, discriminant validity and nomological validity. Economic Responsibility: "XYZ company continuously improves the quality of our products", "XYZ company has a procedure in place to respond to customer complaint", "XYZ company contributes to the economic development of our country by generating profits", "XYZ company is eager to hire people". Legal Responsibility: "XYZ company's products meet legal standards", "XYZ company seeks to comply with all laws regulating hiring and employee benefits", "XYZ company honors contractual obligations to its suppliers", "XYZ company's managers try to comply with the law related to the business operation". Ethical Responsibility: "XYZ company has a comprehensive code of conduct", "XYZ company does not promote a false or misleading advertisement", "XYZ company seems to conduct a transparent business", "XYZ company does a fair business with its suppliers or sub-contractors". Philanthropic Responsibility: "XYZ company encourages partnerships with local businesses and schools", "XYZ company supports sports and cultural activities", "XYZ company gives adequate contributions to charities considering its business size", "XYZ company encourages employees to support our community". Study 2 was condusted for comprehensive validity. 655 samples were used for this anlysis. Collected samples were tested by factor analysis and Crnbach's Alpha coefficiednts and were found to be satisfactory in terms of validity and reliability. Furthermore, fitness of the measurement model was tested by using conformatory factor analysis. χ²=880.73(df=160), GFI=0.891, AGFI=0.854, NFI=0.908, NNFI=0.913, RMR=0.059, RMESA=0.070. We hope that CSR scale could greatly facilitate research on Corporate social resposibility, it is by no means the final answer.

• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.29-47
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• 2005

In this study. we tried to provide basic materials for teachers to develop consumer's guide of internet shopping for middle and high school students through surveying their Purchase realities, clothing purchase behaviors. and clothing purchase attitudes when they use internet shopping mall. The questionaires were distributed to middle and high school students in Seoul, Daegu, Kyunggi, Chungbuk, Chungnam, Kyungbuk, and Kyungnam November, 2004. The followings are the results of this study. First, clothing items which were bought in internet shopping malls were shirts. shoes, pants, bags in order and they were below $20,000\~30,000$ won. Main payment method used was sending money to seller's account. Second, clothing purchase satisfaction degree was comparatively high but the satisfaction degree for the compensation policy was low. If they had any claims for the products. they were likely to behave more actively than passively. Third. returned items were shirts, pants, shoes in order which are the same as purchasing items and they were due to the size and the difference between the products recognised by computer screen and the real products. The $89.0\%$ of the subjects who have purchased clothing through internet expressed high intention to purchase in the future through internet. Forth the degree of attitude toward the internet shopping concerned with clothing purchase was high in the factor of 'convenience of shopping', especially they thought that the purchase through internet had the advantage of varieties and prices. The significant differences were found (1) in the experience of purchase and clothing purchase through internet according to their regions. school years, allowances per month, (2) in the purchased items through internet according to only their sexes, and (3) in the desired Purchase items through internet according to school years, their sexes. regions. The more frequently the middle and high school students use internet, the more goods they purchase through internet, especially the portion of the purchased clothing is getting bigger year by year. This suggests that we need to develope well-organized programs to teach good consumer's attitude to the middle and high school students when they purchase through internet.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.208-218
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• 2010

Internet has grown fast and become one of the most important retail channels now. Various types of Internet retailers, hereafter etailers, have been introduced so far and as one type of Internet shopping mall, 'surrogate Internet shopping mall' has been prosperous and attracting consumers in the domestic market. Surrogate Internet shopping mall is a unique type of etailer that globally purchases well-known brand goods that are not imported in the market, completes delivery in the favor of individual buyers, and collects fees for these specific services. The consumers, who are usually interested in purchasing high-end and unique but not eligible brands, have difficulties to purchase these items overseas directly from the retailers or brands in other countries due to worries of payment failure and no address available for their usually domestic only delivery. In Korea, both numbers of surrogate Internet shopping malls and the magnitude of sales have been growing rapidly up to more than 430 active malls and 500 billion Korean won in 2008 since the population of consumers who want this agent shopping service is also expending. This etail business concept is originated from 'surrogate-mediated purchase' and this type of shopping agent has existed in many different forms and also in wide ranges of context level for quite a long time. As marketers face their individual buyers' representatives instead of a direct contact with them in many occasions, the impact of surrogate shoppers on consumer's decision making has been enormously important and many scholars have explored various range of agent's impact on consumer's purchase decisions in marketing and psychology field. However, not much rigorous research in the Internet commerce has been conveyed yet. Moreover, since as one of the shopping agent surrogate Internet shopping malls specifically connect overseas brands or retailers to domestic consumers, one specific character of the mall's, image of surrogate buying country, where surrogate purchases are conducted in, may play an important role to form consumers' attitude and purchase intention toward products. Furthermore it also possibly affects various dimensions of perceived risk in consumer's information processing. However, though tremendous researches have been carried exploring the effects of diverse dimensions of country of origin, related studies in Internet context has been rarely executed. There have been some studies that prove the positive impact of country of origin on consumer's evaluations as one of information clues in product manufacture descriptions, yet studies detecting the relationship between country image of surrogate buying origin and product evaluations rarely undertaken regarding this specific mall type. Thus, the authors have found it well-worth investigating in this specific retail channel and explored systematic relationships among focal constructs and elaborated their different paths. The authors have proven that country image of surrogate buying origin in the mall, where surrogate malls purchase products in and brings them from for buyers, not only has a positive effect on consumers' product evaluations including attitude and purchase intention but also has a negative effect on all three dimensions of perceived risk: product-related risk, shipping-related risk, and post-purchase risk. Specifically among all the perceived risk, product-related risk which is arisen from high uncertainty of product performance is most affected (${\beta}$= -.30) by negative country image of surrogate buying origin, and also shipping-related risk (${\beta}$= -.18) and post-purchase risk (${\beta}$= -.15) get influenced in order. Its direct effects on product attitude (${\beta}$= .10) and purchase intention (${\beta}$= .14) are also secured. Each of perceived risk dimension is proven to have a negative effect on purchase intention through product attitude as a mediator (${\beta}$= -.57: product-related risk ${\rightarrow}$ product attitude; ${\beta}$= -.24: shipping-related risk ${\rightarrow}$ product attitude; ${\beta}$= -.44: post-purchase risk ${\rightarrow}$ product attitude) as well. From the additional analysis, the paths of consumers' information processing are shown to be different based on their levels of product knowledge. While novice consumers with low level of knowledge consider only perceived risk important, expert consumers with high level of knowledge take both the country image, where surrogate services are conducted in, and perceived risk seriously to build their attitudes and formulate decisions toward products more delicately and systematically, which is in line with previous studies. This study suggests several pieces of academic and practical advice. Precisely, country image of surrogate buying origin does affect on consumer's risk perceptions and behavioral consequences. Therefore a careful selection of surrogate buying origin is recommended. Furthermore, reducing consumers' risk level is required to blossom this new type of retail business whether its consumer are novices or experts. Additionally, since consumer take different paths of elaborating information based on their knowledge levels, sophisticated marketing approaches to each group of consumers are required. For novice buyers strong devices for risk mitigation are needed to induce them to form better attitudes and for experts selections of better and advanced countries as surrogate buying origins are advised while endorsement strategy for the site might work as a reliable information clue to all consumers to mitigate the barriers to purchase goods online. The authors have also explained that the study suffers from some limitations, including generalizability. In future studies, tests of and comparisons among different types of etailers with relevant constructs are recommended to broaden the findings.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.199-207
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• 2010

For us, there is virtually no distinction between being a responsible citizen and a successful business... they are one and the same for Wal-Mart today." ~ Lee Scott, al-Mart CEO after the 2005 Katrina disaster; cited in Green to Gold (Esty and Winston 2006). Lee Scott's statement signaled a new era in sustainability as manufacturers and retailers around the globe watched the world's largest mass merchandiser confirm its intentions with respect to sustainability. For decades, the environmental movement has grown, slowly bleeding over into the corporate world. Companies have been born, products have been created, academic journals have been launched, and government initiatives have been undertaken - all in the pursuit of sustainability (Peattie and Crane 2005). While progress has been admittedly slower than some may desire, the emergence and entrance of environmentally concerned mass merchandisers has done much to help with sustainable efforts. To better understand this movement, we incorporate the perspectives of both executives and consumers involved in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry. This research relies on three underlying themes: (1) Conceptual and anecdotal evidence suggests that companies undertake sustainability initiatives for a plethora of reasons, (2) The number of sustainability initiatives continues to increase in the consumer packaged goods industries, and (3) That it is, therefore, necessary to explore the role that sustainability plays in the minds of consumers. In light of these themes, surveys were administered to and completed by 143 college students and 101 business executives to assess a number of variables in regards to sustainability including willingness-to-pay, behavioral intentions, attitudes, willingness-to-pay, and preferences. Survey results indicate that the top three reasons why executives believe sustainability to be important include (1) the opportunity for profitability, (2) the fulfillment of an obligation to the environment, and (3) a responsibility to customers and shareholders. College students identified the top three reasons as (1) a responsibility to the environment, (2) an indebtedness to future generations, and (3) an effective management of resources. While the rationale for supporting sustainability efforts differed between college students and executives, the executives and consumers reported similar responses for the majority of the remaining sustainability issues. Furthermore, when we asked consumers to assess the importance of six key issues (healthcare, economy, education, crime, government spending, and environment) previously identified as important to consumers by Gallup Poll, protecting the environment only ranked fourth out of the six (Carlson 2005). While all six of these issues were identified as important, the top three that emerged as most important were (1) improvements in education, (2) the economy, and (3) health care. As the pursuit and incorporation of sustainability continues to evolve, so too will the expected outcomes. New definitions of performance that reflect the social/business benefits as well as the lengthened implementation period are relevant and warranted (Ehrenfeld 2005; Hitchcock and Willard 2006). We identified three primary categories of outcomes based on a literature review of both anecdotal and conceptual expectations of sustainability: (1) improvements in constituent satisfaction, (2) differentiation opportunities, and (3) financial rewards. Within each of these categories, several specific outcomes were identified resulting in eleven different outcomes arising from sustainability initiatives. Our survey results indicate that the top five most likely outcomes for companies that pursue sustainability are: (1) green consumers will be more satisfied, (2) company image will be better, (3) corporate responsibility will be enhanced, (4) energy costs will be reduced, and (5) products will be more innovative. Additionally, to better understand the interesting intersection between the environmental "identity" of a consumer and the willingness to manifest that identity with marketplace purchases, we extended prior research developed by Experian Research (2008). Accordingly, respondents were categorized as one of four types of green consumers (Behavioral Greens, Think Greens, Potential Greens, or True Browns) to garner a better understanding of the green consumer in addition to assisting with a more effective interpretation of results. We assessed these consumers' willingness to engage in eco-friendly behavior by evaluating three options: (1) shopping at retailers that support environmental initiatives, (2) paying more for products that protect the environment, and (3) paying higher taxes so the government can support environmental initiatives. Think Greens expressed the greatest willingness to change, followed by Behavioral Greens, Potential Greens, and True Browns. These differences were all significant at p<.01. Further Conclusions and Implications We have undertaken a descriptive study which seeks to enhance our understanding of the strategic domain of sustainability. Specifically, this research fills a gap in the literature by comparing and contrasting the sustainability views of business executives and consumers with specific regard to preferences, intentions, willingness-to-pay, behavior, and attitudes. For practitioners, much can be gained from a strategic standpoint. In addition to the many results already reported, respondents also reported than willing to pay more for products that protect the environment. Other specific results indicate that female respondents consistently communicate a stronger willingness than males to pay more for these products and to shop at eco-friendly retailers. Knowing this additional information, practitioners can now have a more specific market in which to target and communicate their sustainability efforts. While this research is only an initial step towards understanding similarities and differences among practitioners and consumers regarding sustainability, it presents original findings that contribute to both practice and research. Future research should be directed toward examining other variables affecting this relationship, as well as other specific industries.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.61-86
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• 2002

The number of people who perform their banking business on Internet has been increasing drastically during the recent period and the trend still continues. Banks and other types of financial institutions are now competing intensely with each other in attracting customers to this new innovative banking service. The marketers in charge of formulating and implementing the strategies for this new banking business need to understand the behavioral factors as well as the technical factors in order to succeed in attracting more customers to this new service. products. A deep understanding as to why and how the customers are adopting the new service developed on information technology is a prerequisite for a successful marketing effort. The purpose of this dissertation is to find out what factors are playing important roles in the customers'decision related to the adoption of the Internet banking services. The focus of the research is threefold. First. by testing the hypotheses proposed by the Technology Adoption Model, a well-known theory in the IT-related behavioral science, an analysis was made as to which factors are more important in affecting the attitudes and adoption of the Internet banking on the part of customers. Secondly, an analysis was made as to whether the three criteria of the Technographics- -the attitude toward new technology, level of income, and the motivational factor- -are useful as the criteria for segmenting the Korean users of the online banking. Thirdly, an analysis was made as to whether each customer group segmented by the criteria of the Technographics reveal a differential decision process and thus requires a differential approach strategywise.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.169-182
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• 2003

The present study attempts to investigate the knowledge, belief, attitude and behavior of healthcare major students and non-healthcare counterparts concerning their oral hygiene. The purpose is to provide basic data for positive oral health activities to the students with non-healthcare major, who tend to have insufficient information on oral hygiene. A survey was conducted to 400 students in K college in Incheon from May 1-30, 2003. A total of 384 surveys were analyzed using the SPSS program Version 10.0. The result is as follows: 1. There was a statistically significant difference in the knowledge on oral hygiene between the healthcare(M=3.08) and non-healthcare(M=2.78) students(pE0.05). 2. As for the beliefs and attitudes toward oral health behaviors, 56.9% of the healthcare students and 60.6% of non-health care counterparts responded "moderate" to the question asking if they liked tooth-brushing. The reason they liked tooth-brushing were cleanliness(60.3% of healthcare and 71.9% of non-healthcare students). They didn't like brushing their teeth because they felt it was a nuisance(60.6% of healthcare and 54.5% of non-healthcare students). 90.6% of healthcare students and 90.1% of their non-healthcare counterparts said they wanted to keep their oral health intact. Most of the subjects seemed to acquire information on oral hygiene through mass media(62.2% of healthcare and 55.3% of non-healthcare students). The persons who give them oral health information are their friends or neighbors(26.8% of healthcare and 22.8% of non-healthcare students), and dental hygienists were the last in the list of the sources of information(3.4% of healthcare and 2.5% of non-healthcare students). 3. Their oral health behaviors were also considered, 64.4% of the healthcare students and 53.7% of the non-healthcare counterparts brush their teeth once or twice a day, 51.4% of the former brush their teeth for 2 minutes and 44.8% of the latter for 3 minutes. Some of them use oral health measures other than tooth-brushing(13.3% of healthcare and 14.3% of non-healthcare students). Not many of them used oral health products(6.6% of healthcare and 5.9% of non-healthcare), and the difference was statistically significant(pE0.05). The largest number of healthcare students brush their teeth right before going to bed(29.9%), while their counterparts do it after breakfast(25.8%)

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.1155-1161
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• 2003

A three-year (2000-2002) survey on consumer's awareness and perception of genetically-modified (GM) foods was conducted on random samples of Korean consumers. More than 65% of the respondents were exposed to some information related to GM foods. The greatest benefit of the development of GM foods was thought to be their remedy of potential food shortages in the future. More than 90% of Korean consumers wanted GM foods to be labeled. About 18% of the respondents would buy GM foods voluntarily, whereas over 46% would not until they knew more about the product. Only 39% of Korean consumers were found to have realized that food items origination from plants contained genes. More consumers responded that they would not buy herbicide-resistant GM soybean and buy vitamin-enriched GM soybean instead. Many Korean consumers appeared to make decisions of acceptance or rejection of GM foods not on the basis of biotechnology, but on the basis of the word(s) used to describe the products, such as herbicide and vitamin. Only 4% of Korean consumers responded that GM foods were the greatest threat to the safety of Korean foods.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.47-54
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• 2011

This paper presents exploratory research on consumer awareness and attitudesabout organic food, for which consumer demand continues to increase the paper also assesses consumers' organic food distribution channel preferences. By conducting a literature review, a case study has been carried out in order to glean customer behavior, market condition and typesof distribution channels, and development of specialty stores for organic foods. The early research indicates that consumer awareness and customer attitudes toward organic food are mostly positive however, organic food's high price, as well as a lack of organic food stores, cause a negative effect on consumers' purchase intention. Secondly, the U.S. organic food retail channel consists of such mainstream supermarket/grocery stores and leading natural and organic food supermarket chains as Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, and Sunflower Farmers Market. For the current retail distribution of organic food in Korea, off-line stores are composed of direct management stores and franchise chains. Most of the organic food retail distribution operates through the Internet shopping mall, and are commonly located at retail distribution centers as multi-channel, shop-in-shop stores. Moreover, unlike in the U.S., association and consumers' cooperatives (Co-Ops), and such other member-direct retail stores as Hansallim, iCOOP, Nature Dream,and online shopping malls, are all active in Korea. Thirdly, as a result of an analysis of the present state of the organic food retail channel, as well as building a case for organic food specialty stores, the distinctive featuresand rapid growth of such unique organic food stores as Whole Foods Market, or Trader Joe's successful downsizing strategies, as well as Sunflower Farmers Market low-price approach, show steady industry growth. Moreover, as a result of a case studyof such domestic representative organic food specialty stores as "Olga" and "Chorokmaeul," a similar management style to the United States' "Whole Foods Market" and "Trader Joe's," respectively, can be seen. Similar to the U.S. market, Korean organic food markets should also implement active retail distribution opportunities, allowing consumers to select from various diverse and differentiated choices. In order to accomplish this goal, it is necessary to prepare such measures as sustaining reasonable prices, securing various suppliers for unique products,and improving consumer trust through advertisement strategies that are suitable for each company's branding processes.