• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.10 no.12
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• pp.25-34
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• 2012

Purpose - This study examines college students' perceived choice attributes in traditional markets and the relationship quality. We study the relationships between attributes that common people look for while choosing a store (e.g., product, service, advertising, and atmosphere), consumption emotion, consumer's value, and relationship quality. Research design, data, methodology - In order to verify the relationship between choice attributes and relationship quality, and moderating (i.e., consumption emotion) and mediating effects (i.e., customer value), we collected data from 202 consumers in Gyeonggi province to test the theoretical model and its hypotheses. For this purpose, this study, utilized an empirical methodology. Results - First, contrary to the previous research findings involving college students, this study observed that four factors of store choice attributes at a traditional market were important to consumers in heightening the relationship quality. Specifically, product (β = .608, p < .01), service (β = .351, p < .01), advertising (β = .237, p < .01), and atmosphere (β = .425, p < .01) are significantly related to relationship quality. Second, consumers selected product (β =. 521, p < .01) as the most important attribute. Atmosphere (β = .254, p < .01) and service division (β = .148, p < .05), in this order, are the other important factors in this regard. However, advertising (β = -.112, p = .100) is not statistically significant. To improve and develop the relationship quality with consumers, traditional markets should ensure supply of suitable products and goods, improve store atmosphere by modernizing facilities, and educate merchants to improve their services. Third, the results of the moderating effects, although marginally statistically significant, suggest that for the consumers with low consumption emotion for traditional markets, an affirmative experience of products and store atmosphere heightens their values. In addition, the consumers having low consumption emotion who could promote consumer values were found to improve and develop a marginally significant relationship quality. Finally, the study revealed that the consumer's value exhibited a complete mediation effect in the relationships between service and relationship quality, and advertising and relationship quality and a partial mediation effect in the relationships between product and relationship quality, and atmosphere and relationship quality. Conclusions - Consumer satisfaction is important to increase the competitiveness of traditional markets, and products and store atmosphere are important attributes to increase the relationship quality. Specifically, merchants should supply different products, modernize their facilities, and improve store atmosphere to compete in traditional markets. In addition, traditional markets should provide value and competitive prices to attract consumers, and should maximize the consumer's value and promote the consumption emotion. Traditional markets should evolve to accommodate changes in the consumer's value and invest in not only functional elements but also symbolic elements.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.85-91
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• 2016

Purpose - Prior research has suggested that consumers typically prefer to have a larger number of options. However, preference of assortment size may depend on how depleted resources in consumers' mind are. Reduced capacity for self-regulation by resource depletion makes people rely on more intuitive and less effortful decision processing. When they are mentally depleted, people are likely to focus on the choice difficulty from large assortment, which leads to preference for the small assortment when they make a decision. It could be an important question potentially how being in a depleted mode through effortful self-regulation will influence on the evaluation of assortment size. To answer this questioner, we hypothesized that being engaged in self-regulation, as compared with not being engaged in self-regulation, will influence on the evaluation of product assortment size such as attractiveness, difficulty of choice, and anticipated regret. Research design, data, and methodology - In this study, we first manipulated self-regulatory resource availability using a self-regulation task (i.e., instructing participants to solve Sudoku puzzle vs. to solve diagram cube by filling any diagrams that they prefer into cube instead of number) and asked to indicate the difficulty of the tasks available to them ("How much difficulty did you feel when you complete the task?") Next, participants were asked to imagine that they were planning to buy a laptop at one of the two stores (small assortment: 6 options vs. large assortment: 30 options), both offering good quality of products. After reading the product descriptions, participants were instructed to consider all the information and choose a store that they would like to shop. Finally we measured the choice difficulty, evaluation of product assortments, and anticipated regret on a 7-point scale. We conducted two-way ANOVA in testing the main hypothesis that depleted consumers will show poorer subsequent self-control than non-depleted consumers when they make a decision in large assortment. Results - Compared with non-depleted participants, depleted participants showed the bigger difference from the degree of choice difficulty and product attractiveness between large and small assortments, but the result revealed only a significant interaction effect of resource depletion and assortment size on choice difficulty. Also depleted participants showed the smaller difference from the degree of anticipated regret between large and small assortments than non-depleted participants. Conclusion - Depleted individuals by a prior task are relatively effortless and intuitive form of choosing products so that they try to avoid making effortful trade-offs among choice difficulty such as large assortment, compare with non-depleted individuals. However, for anticipated regret, non-depleted individuals in small assortment anticipate more regret by excluding or at least restricting the possibility of buying attractive items or another kind of potential items than depleted individuals, regardless less choice difficulty in small option. To sum up, it is important to note that individuals are influenced by self-regulatory resources and their self-regulatory conditions contribute to the overall positive or negative impact of product assortment on choice.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.17-26
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• 2009

As the lifestyle of consumers changes and the need for various products increases, new products are being developed in the market. Each household owns various home appliances which are purchased through the choice of a decision maker. These appliances include not only large-sized products such as TV, refrigerator, and washing machine, but also small-sized products such as microwave oven and air cleaner. There exists latent correlation among possession of home appliances, even though they are purchased independently. The purpose of this research is to analyze the effect of demographic factors on the purchase and possession of each home appliances, and to derive some relationships among various appliances. To achieve this purpose, the present status on the possession of each home appliances are investigated through consumer survey data on the electric and energy product. And a multivariate probit(MVP) model is applied for the empirical analysis. From the estimation results, some appliances show a substitutive or complementary pattern as expected, while others which look apparently unrelated have correlation by co-incidence. This research has several advantages compared to previous literatures on home appliances. First, this research focuses on the various products which are purchased by each household, while previous researches such as Matsukawa and Ito(1998) and Yoon(2007) focus just on a particular product. Second, the methodology of this research can consider a choice process of each product and correlation among products simultaneously. Lastly, this research can analyze not only a substitutive or complementary relationship in the same category, but also the correlation among products in the different categories. As the data on the possession of home appliances in each household has a characteristic of multiple choice, not a single choice, a MVP model are used for the empirical analysis. A MVP model is derived from a random utility model, and has an advantage compared to a multinomial logit model in that correlation among error terms can be derive(Manchanda et al., 1999; Edwards and Allenby, 2003). It is assumed that the error term has a normal distribution with zero mean and variance-covariance matrix ${\Omega}$. Hence, the sign and value of correlation coefficients means the relationship between two alternatives(Manchanda et al., 1999). This research uses the data of 'TEMEP Household ICT/Energy Survey (THIES) 2008' which is conducted by Technology Management, Economics and Policy Program in Seoul National University. The empirical analysis of this research is accomplished in two steps. First, a MVP model with demographic variables is estimated to analyze the effect of the characteristics of household on the purchase of each home appliances. In this research, some variables such as education level, region, size of family, average income, type of house are considered. Second, a MVP model excluding demographic variables is estimated to analyze the correlation among each home appliances. According to the estimation results of variance-covariance matrix, each households tend to own some appliances such as washing machine-refrigerator-cleaner-microwave oven, and air conditioner-dish washer-washing machine and so on. On the other hand, several products such as analog braun tube TV-digital braun tube TV and desktop PC-portable PC show a substitutive pattern. Lastly, the correlation map of home appliances are derived using multi-dimensional scaling(MDS) method based on the result of variance-covariance matrix. This research can provide significant implications for the firm's marketing strategies such as bundling, pricing, display and so on. In addition, this research can provide significant information for the development of convergence products and related technologies. A convergence product can decrease its market uncertainty, if two products which consumers tend to purchase together are integrated into it. The results of this research are more meaningful because it is based on the possession status of each household through the survey data.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.33-49
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• 2014

Environmental concern has been an important issue for a few decades, and the extent of consumer demand for eco-friendly consumption has been increased. This study seeks to investigate consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) a premium for eco-friendly cosmetics. This study evaluates how much more a consumer is willing to pay for eco-friendly cosmetics and examines significant factors influencing consumers' WTP for eco-friendly cosmetics. Consumers' WTP is measured using four different ecofriendly cosmetics: low-priced skin care cosmetics, low-priced makeup cosmetics, high-priced skin care cosmetics, and high-priced makeup cosmetics. This study uses the contingent valuation method (CVM) to estimate consumer's WTP for eco-friendly cosmetics. Survey questions were designed using both dichotomous choice and payment card method of CVM. Through face to face interviews and on-line surveys, the data were collected from women between 20 and 49 years old residing in Seoul and Kyeonggi area, Korea, in May 2010. A total of 226 questionnaires (132 from interviews and 94 from on-line) were included for the analytical sample in this study. The data were analyzed using descriptive analysis, T-test and Log-Logit analysis. The findings are as follows: First, the WTP measured by dichotomous choice method was estimated using the Log-Logit analysis. The results showed that the estimated WTP for low-priced skin care cosmetics was 19,152 won, which was 27.7% higher than the reference price, 15,000 won. For low-priced makeup cosmetics, the estimated WTP was 18,524 won, and its green premium was 21.0%. The estimated WTP for high-priced skin care cosmetics was 59,128 won, which was 18.3% higher than the reference price, 50,000 won. For high-priced makeup cosmetics was 57,666 won, and its green premium was 15.3%. Second, the WTP measure by payment card method was estimated using descriptive analysis. The results showed that the respondents were willing to pay 17,955 won for low-priced skin care cosmetics, which was 19.7% higher than the reference price, 15,000 won and 17,595 won for low-priced makeup cosmetics, which was 17.3% higher than the reference price. For high-priced skin care cosmetics, the average WTP was 56,950 won which was 13.9% higher than the reference price, 50,000 won. For high-priced makeup cosmetics, the average WTP was 55,650 won, which was 11.3% higher than the reference price. Overall, the WTP was higher in order of low-priced skin care, low-priced makeup, high-priced skin care, and high-priced makeup. It means that consumers decide degree of premium based on the price and the attributes of eco-friendly products. Third, the findings showed that age, monthly income, and having children or not were statistically significant factors that influenced consumers' willingness to pay for eco-friendly cosmetics. Other explanatory variables such as education, marital status, job, purchase experience of eco-friendly products, and environmental concerns did not show any statistical significance. The major contribution of this study is the investigation of the value of green attributes of the products by using CVM. Unlike most previous researches, this research used two methods of CVM, the dichotomous choice and the payment card, so it enhanced the reliability of research. According to this study, consumers showed price sensitivity when they pay green premium. These findings can be used as useful information to establish marketing strategies for green cosmetics.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.8
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• pp.122-132
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• 2019

This study investigated the effects of preference reversal according to product characteristics and situation. To investigate the relationship between consumer preference reversal and selection change, three research problems were set up and multiple logistic regression analysis was performed considering categorical dependent variables. The results showed that the decrease in preference for the medical service products and general manufacturing products had a significant effect on selection change and selection delay. In addition, we found that selection change according to the importance of attributes in the medical service product was more sensitive than the general product, while selection change according to the preference reversal was higher in general products. This study examined the causal relationship between choices by illuminating the preference concept as the central value of consumers from a different viewpoint than the existing preference and preference inversion research. In addition, the results of this study suggest that it can include not only selective change according to preference reversal, but also alternatives such as selective delay.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.49-65
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• 2017

Financial products entail either gains or losses, and customers' psychological reaction to these gains and losses affect the selection of the financial products. This study explains the financial customers' behavior by introducing consumers' psychological variables such as loss aversion and construal levels. According to the construal level theory, people use more abstract and higher levels of construal to represent objects that are more distant on psychological distance. Based on extant research about loss aversion and construal levels, this study proposes two hypotheses and test the hypotheses. The experimental study examines how loss aversion affects the choice between deposit products and fund products in short-term and long-term investment situations. In the long-term condition the respondents prefer fund products to deposit products, whereas in the short-term condition the respondents have showed the opposite result. Also, the effects of loss aversion on preferences for financial products have interacted with the time horizon of investments. Implications and limitations are discussed to establish more effective marketing strategies based on the results of this study.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.57-64
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• 2018

Purpose - With the rapid economic development, great changes have happened in the Chinese beer market. The scale of imported beer is increasing. However, the sales of native Chinese beer decrease in recent years. It is because more Chinese customers prefer beer with unique attributes than those with lower prices. In order to take an advantage in this market, practitioners should develop new products to satisfy Chinese customers. Scholars have also focused on beer characteristics to estimate consumers' behavior for improving the development of beer industry. However, most studies are theoretically centered on marketing strategy management or general understanding of the market. It is not enough for us to explain customers' consumption patterns. Some empirical research did attempt to find out beer attributes that may influence their choice behavior. However, they failed to verify what can increase customers' utility through a new product. More importantly, few evidences can be found in the literature. Therefore this study explores the major characteristics of imported beer which may associate with customers' preferences. Research design, data, and methodology - With the results of literature review and focus group interview, we found out four main imported beer attributes and the levels of each factor. A pre-test is constructed to check the problems in the questionnaire protocol. With the results of pre-test, the revised questionnaire is processed among customers who have purchased and had imported beer in China regions such as Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Guangdong and so on. The choice-based conjoint analysis is applied to analyze the useful data of 205. Results - Results indicate that choice-based conjoint analysis is the effective method to estimate customers' choice behavior. Results also indicate that country of origin, price, taste, and package affect customers' preference and the importances of imported beer attributes are significantly different. Conclusions - Country of origin, price, taste, and package are important for customers to make an imported beer choice decision. Marketers should consider these determinants and their importance to develop new products. Moreover, choice-based conjoint analysis should be the useful method for practitioners to develop a new product of imported beer for sustainable business in the competitive industry.

• Proceedings of the Korean Operations and Management Science Society Conference
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.161-164
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• 2006

The sales of consumer durables are composed of first time purchases and replacement purchases. Since the sales for most mature durable products are dominated by replacement sales, it is necessary to develop a model incorporating replacement component of sales in order to forecast total sales accurately. Several single product diffusion models incorporating replacement demand have been developed, but research addressing the multi-product diffusion models has not considered replacement sales. In this paper, we propose a model based on consumer choice behavior that simultaneously captures the diffusion and the replacement process for multi-product relationships. The proposed model enables the division of replacement sales into repurchase by previous users and transition purchase by users of different products. As a result, the model allows the partitioning of the total sales according to the customer groups (first-time buyers, repurchase buyers, and transition buyers), which allows companies to develop their production and marketing plans based on their customer mix. We apply the proposed model to the Korean automobile market, and compare the fitting and forecasting performance with other Bass-type multi-product models.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.67-80
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• 2014

The objective of the study is to investigate factors affecting consumers' purchase intention toward imported organic agricultural products. To accomplish the goal of the study a consumer survey was administered for randomly selected households residing in capital area. Results show that the more consumers trust a safety of domestic products and a certification system, the less they purchase the imported products. In addition, it is demonstrated that educated consumers are relatively less reluctant to imported organic agricultural products. Finally, an improvement of domestic certification system, decrease of price of environmentally friendly agricultural products, and aggressive promotion are required to enhance the competitiveness of the domestic environmentally friendly agricultural products.

• Journal of Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.267-273
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• 2001

While forecasting sales of a new product is very difficult, it is critical to market success. This is especially true when other products have a highly negative influence on the product because of competition effect. In this paper, we develop a choice-based competitive diffusion model and apply to the case where two digital mobile telecommunication services, that is, digital cellular and PCS services, compete. The basic premise is that demand patterns result from choice behavior, where customers choose a product to maximize their utility. In comparison with Bass-type competitive diffusion models, our model provides superior fitting and forecasting performance. The choice-based model is useful in that it enables the description of such competitive environments and provides the flexibility to include marketing mix variables such as price and advertising.