• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.53-67
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• 2009

For the last decades, service quality has been studied as one of the most important tools for a service company to compete with the other companies. Based on these past researches, it has been agreed that the service quality is a basic and powerful tool to create the competitive advantage. Due to similar reason, many service marketing practitioners have been also focused on the service quality to retain the existing consumers and collect the new consumers. However, service quality is subjectively perceived by individual consumers. Consumer evaluation of service quality can be different from each other. Especially consumers with one life-style may evaluate the service quality differently from the consumers with the other life-styles. Therefore we need to know whether there are differences in service quality perception on the categories of life-style. Life-style refers to a distinctive mode of living in its aggregate and broadest sense. It embodies the patterns that were developed and emerged from the dynamics of living in a society. Since the concept of life-style and its relationship to marketing was introduced in 1963 by William Lazer, methods of measuring the life-style and their application have been developed. Life-style has been usually used to segment the marketplace because it offers marketers a unique and important view of the market. When Life-style is combined with clustering methods, life-style segmentation can generate identifiable whole persons rather than isolated fragment. Life-style segmentation begins with people instead of products and classifies them into different life-style types, each characterized by a unique style of living based on a wide range of activities, interests, and opinions(Plummer, 1974). In this study we applies the life-style segmentation based on the AIO(Activities, Interests, and Opinions) to the consumers of the large discount stores. In Korea, the large discount store market has entered into maturity stage so that the market differentiation strategy is becoming a more critical issue to the marketing practitioners. One of the most important tools to differentiate from the competitors in large discount store market is continuously to provide service of better quality than competitors. This study tries to find answers about the following questions: 1) How can we categorize the consumer life-styles in the large discount store? 2) What are the characteristics of the categorized groups? 3) Are there any differences in service quality perception among the consumers with different life-styles 4) Are there any differences in consumer behavior among them in the large discount store? For the purpose, we collected survey data from consumers and analyzed the data with the SPSS package where we had $X^2$-test, factor analysis, ANOVA, MANOVA, and cluster analysis. The survey was made during one month in the April of 2008. Among the collected 306 copies of questionnaires, 281 copies were chosen as the effective samples for empirical analysis except 25 copies with wrong responses. To identify the life-style patterns, we used the measures employed by Kim and Kwon(1999), where 44 items on a seven-point scale were used to measure factors of the life-style patterns. The Principal Component Method was used for factor extraction, and the VARIMAX orthogonal factor rotation was employed. The 7 items showing low factor loading were eliminated. The results of the factor analysis suggested that nine factors of the life-style patterns were identified as follows: 1) the equality-of-sexes and pursuit-of-independence tendency 2) self-management tendency 3) sociable tendency 4) self-display tendency 5) degree of a dilettante life 6) pursuit-of-information tendency 7) bargain hunter tendency 8) TV preference tendency 9) pursuit-of-leisure tendency. Next, after the K-means cluster analysis was performed with nine factors of the life-style patterns, the life-styles of the respondents were classified into four groups which are named as the 'progressive practicality-oriented group', 'positive success-oriented group', 'sociable ostentation-oriented group', 'stable conservation-oriented group'. The analysis results for usage behavior between the market segments showed statistically significant differences in the frequency of usage, duration time in the store, consumer satisfaction, and loyalty. Also, we tried to investigate whether the large discount store consumers differently perceive the quality of service based upon the types of life-style. To measure the service quality of large discount store, we adapted several measurement models measuring the service quality such as SERVPERF, BCP, R-SERVPERF, R-BCP. MANOVA and One-Way ANOVA were performed to confirm the difference in service quality perception based on the market segments. The results have also shown significant differences between life-style types in service quality perception. These findings show that the large discount store marketers should consider consumer life-style as one of the most important market segments for marketing and understand the difference in service quality perception between life-style types. Our findings give important implications to marketers of large discount stores as well as life-style researchers. First, this study showed there were significant differences in consumer's service quality perception and usage behavior between the types of life-style. It provides evidence that the life-style approach can be a important basis in segmenting the large discount store market and will make consumers perceive the service quality high. Second, most previous researches on service quality have been in aggregate level. However, our results imply that the future research on service quality have to focus on segment level.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.39-48
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• 2011

One of the major reasons for fierce competition among firms is that they strive to increase their own market shares in the same market with similar and apparently undifferentiated products in terms of quality and perceived benefit. Due to such changes in the marketing environment, differentiated after-sales service and diversified promotion strategies have become more important in the race to gain a competitive advantage. Price discount is one of the popular promotion strategies that most retailers use, especially to increase sales, but offering a price discount does not always lead to the expected result. If marketers apply an identical price-promotion strategy without considering the characteristic differences in products and consumer preferences, the discounted price itself may make people skeptical about the quality of the product. Moreover, the changes in perceived value may appear differently depending on factors such as consumer involvement. This implies that variables such as the level of consumer involvement, brand loyalty, and external reference prices, in reality, would have different effects on how consumers perceive the value of price discounts. The variables that affect consumers' perceived values and buying decisions are diverse and complicated. Several studies have examined the effects of such variables as external reference price, selling price, and brand on consumers' perceived value of products. Results have not shown consistent patterns. Therefore, we must note that the factors affecting consumers' value perceptions and buying behaviors are diverse and that the results of studies on the same dependent variable come out differently depending on what that variable is. This study focused on the level of consumer involvement as a salient variable that supposedly affects the perceived value of a product, willingness to buy, and search intentions. We tried to examine whether a price discount affects the perceived value-such as perceived acquisition value and perceived transaction value-in different ways depending on the level of consumer involvement. In addition, we proposed managerial implications that marketers need to consider as a whole, for instance, product attributes, brand loyalty, and involvement and then established a differentiated pricing strategy, case by case, in order to effectively enhance consumers' perceived values. As a result, we found that perceived transaction value positively affects perceived acquisition value and when discounting the price of a high-involvement product enhances the consumer's willingness to buy, but perceived acquisition value does not affect the search intentions significantly. In the case of discounting prices of low-involvement products, on the other hand, the perceived transaction value has a positive effect on the willingness to buy, but the negative effect of perceived acquisition value on the search intentions was not significant. We suppose that people doubt a product's quality because of a declined perceived quality derived from a price discount. Even though the price discount enhanced the transaction value, people eventually increased their level of searching for additional product information. From the results of this study, we suggest that marketers ought to establish an appropriate value-enhancing strategy based on the understanding of which perceived value consumers rely on more when they conduct purchasing behavior because consumers perceive the degree of importance of acquisition value or transaction value differently, depending on their level of involvement.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.45-58
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• 2018

As information and communication technologies (ICTs) become more advanced, consumers are able to experience retailing activities such as searching for products and services in online retail shops and for Internet-exclusive branded contents. Specifically, fashion retailers are facing the need to develop more novel experiential design than one another to maximize customers' experience in Internet websites and secure sustainable competency. Confirming methods of organic integration of experiential and visual features of both online and mobile channels is an important aspect of the study of extended consumers' interfaces of retail channels. Mehrabian and Russell's stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) paradigm and Sugiyama and Andree's attention, interest, search, action, and share (AISAS) model were used for this research. Specifically, the present study considered the effect of e-commerce website features on consumers' emotional reactions (pleasure and arousal) and the consequent impact on online consumer behaviors (search, action, and share). Hence, plus the self-reported survey methods, each subject's psychophysiological indicators (i.e., pleasure and arousal) were measured to obtain more objective and reliable data and to redeem the results of the self-reported survey. Findings revealed the implications of the e-commerce website feature by comprehending the S-O-R paradigm and AISAS model and extending the understanding of the role of variables associated with comprehended frameworks based on psychophysiological data.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2015.10a
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• pp.645-647
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• 2015

IoT (Internet of Things) technology has immense potential in our modern society. Generally when used in a consumer electronics environment, the IoT can continue to work more efficiently than the conventional method of home appliances. In order to use the IOT device's effectively in the environment, we need to determine the relationship between all device's based on their state and priority and compare it to find the suitable device based on the state and priority. In this paper I have done research on Wi-Fi devices in a network environment and I have observed relationships between them. Also I have proposed an algorithm to determine the device status and priority. This determines high-priority devices and they are identified on the basis of the state of the device associated with a particular operation and proceeds further.

• KIEAE Journal
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.11-18
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• 2003

The purpose of this study was to find out awareness of the environment-friendly planning elements for residential unit space among practitioners. The respondents in this questionnaire survey were 140 practitioners in architecture and interior design field. The major findings of this study were as follows; most of the respondents were aware of the impact of indoor built environment on residents' wellness. In addition, the survey respondents viewed that the factors for planning environment-friendly high-rise apartments were represented by gardening and energy-saving while their perception on the concept excluded comprehensive components affecting residents' life quality. Over 50% of respondents had an experience of applying environment-friendly planning elements in their works, and high frequency appeared on the general planning elements which had been applied special awareness as pro-environmental features. The respondents considered environment-friendly planning elements as important. Specially, space planning and system were considered more likely important in interior design field. In application of environment-friendly planning elements, cost, lack of consumers' awareness of and underdevelopment of environment-friendly materials were of concern. Therefore, the consumer's cognition needs to be improved for wide application about environment-friendly planning element, and then consumers are willing to pay additional construction cost of environment-friendly apartments. At the same time, the current practice that housing developers pass the additional cost on to residents needs to be changed. Then, the quality of life in high-rise residential settings can be improved. More importantly, the exchange and development of the reliable information on environment-friendly planning elements need to be made, and technical support and long-term policy for the development are required. This research showed current status of knowledge and practice in sustainable planning of unit apartment and proved basic information for future direction.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.178-185
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• 2021

The emergence of social networks has led to the flourishing of a new golden era of branding, which is a challenge for companies due to the need for creative positioning of companies with an emphasis on building trust and loyalty to the brand. Consumers are becoming more demanding and due to a wide range of products in different markets, make demands that are more stringent on companies. The goal of this article was to study the main trends of branding and advertising on social networks to develop a new approach to brand promotion. Methodology. The quantitative and qualitative research design was used to determine the main trends in branding and advertising on social networks. The methodology included the following methods: 1) analysis of the relationship between brand value and brand content strategy, 2) content analysis of the content of companies in social networks on the example of 10 world-famous brands with the highest value. The results allowed forming the criteria of effective content and communication: simplicity of content and simplicity of communication, lack of direct advertising of products, emphasis on global socio-economic problems and social orientation, unobtrusive communication, content creativity, indirect information about the product or work, the history of the company's development through various tools. The main content strategies of brands are defined: storytelling strategy; strategy of informing about the history of the company's development; entertainment and information strategy; strategy of joint interaction with the audience through the involvement of wellknown influencers or users of products. The theoretical and practical value of the results is confirmed by the conceptualization of the main content strategies of world-famous brands, which are pioneers in new ways to build relationships with users through social networks. The research proposes to use a customer-oriented approach to brand promotion. This means studying consumer behavior and predicting possible changes in behavior, which determines the level of interaction with the brand, the content strategy of the brand, and its effectiveness.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.49-59
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• 2011

Although the South Korean organic food market is in the infancy compared to other industrialized countries, Korean consumers'interest in organic food and retail stores devoting space to organic products have been rapidly increasing. Despite the fact of organic food popularity, the term "organic" is interpreted differently by individuals. As opposed to the US, Japan and the EU where have operated an integrated organic food labelling system, Korea has adopted complex organic labelling systems regulated by several different government bodies. As a result, complicated food labelling standards make consumers confused when purchasing organic foods. Furthermore, in terms of country of origin (COO), it is argued by a lot of researchers that COO effects vary from product to product and from country to country; moreover, other informational cues such as brand and price can influence COO effects. In modern society, COO labelling has been complicated, due to the sourcing, manufacturing and market locations of merchandise spread over the world. Accordingly, the evaluation of COO effects has become complex. In order to examine these issues, a quantitative research was selected to classify the commonfeatures of organic food consumers and construct statistics such as the extent to which people are aware of organic food and COO labellingvia a questionnaire which took place in two cities in Korea with a cluster sample of 161 organic food purchasers. As for the data analysis, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), T-tests, bivariate crosstatulations with Cramer's V were conducted,depending on the characteristics of variables and the assumptions the research data need to fit. It has been concluded that in general, Korean organic consumers comprehend the term "organic"in a closer way to the general concept rather than technical term, thus people do not appreciate environmentally labels which include organic food labels, although marital status influence the degree of label awareness, regardless of gender, age, education level and so on. Regarding COO effects on organic food, home organic products were Korean consumers'first choice over those from industrialized countries and developing nations. Specifically, in processed organic product category, domestically cultivated and processed organic products were absolutely preferred to leading national brands produced with imported ingredients and international brands. However, due to a lack of checks of ingredients' COO, consumers tend to purchase a leading national organic food brand, believing that it is a pure organic food sourced domestically. As a consequence, this research has suggested some important managerial implications and future research directions. In order to prevent consumer confusion when buying organic foods, it should be noted that consumers do not comprehend the organic food certifications, due to complicated labelling systems for organic produce and processed organic foods. Therefore, government bodies related to organic food distribution have to know consumers' perception of organic food labels and the significance of customer-oriented labels and reestablish labelling standards. Similarly, public advertising should be followed to raise public awareness of the labelling to enable customers to have the correct information. In addition, not only international marketers but also domestic marketers need to understand COO images and also the influence COO of ingredients has on the image of an organic product.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.63-92
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• 2012

This study investigated consumer intention to use a location-based mobile shopping service (LBMSS) that integrates cognitive and affective responses. Information relevancy was integrated into pleasure-arousal-dominance (PAD) emotional state model in the present study as a conceptual framework. The results of an online survey of 335 mobile phone users in the U.S. indicated the positive effects of arousal and information relevancy on pleasure. In addition, there was a significant relationship between pleasure and intention to use a LBMSS. However, the relationship between dominance and pleasure was not statistically significant. The results of the present study provides insight to retailers and marketers as to what factors they need to consider to implement location-based mobile shopping services to improve their business performance. Extended Abstract : Location aware technology has expanded the marketer's reach by reducing space and time between a consumer's receipt of advertising and purchase, offering real-time information and coupons to consumers in purchasing situations (Dickenger and Kleijnen, 2008; Malhotra and Malhotra, 2009). LBMSS increases the relevancy of SMS marketing by linking advertisements to a user's location (Bamba and Barnes, 2007; Malhotra and Malhotra, 2009). This study investigated consumer intention to use a location-based mobile shopping service (LBMSS) that integrates cognitive and affective response. The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship among information relevancy and affective variables and their effects on intention to use LBMSS. Thus, information relevancy was integrated into pleasure-arousal-dominance (PAD) model and generated the following hypotheses. Hypothesis 1. There will be a positive influence of arousal concerning LBMSS on pleasure in regard to LBMSS. Hypothesis 2. There will be a positive influence of dominance in LBMSS on pleasure in regard to LBMSS. Hypothesis 3. There will be a positive influence of information relevancy on pleasure in regard to LBMSS. Hypothesis 4. There will be a positive influence of pleasure about LBMSS on intention to use LBMSS. E-mail invitations were sent out to a randomly selected sample of three thousand consumers who are older than 18 years old and mobile phone owners, acquired from an independent marketing research company. An online survey technique was employed utilizing Dillman's (2000) online survey method and follow-ups. A total of 335 valid responses were used for the data analysis in the present study. Before the respondents answer any of the questions, they were told to read a document describing LBMSS. The document included definitions and examples of LBMSS provided by various service providers. After that, they were exposed to a scenario describing the participant as taking a saturday shopping trip to a mall and then receiving a short message from the mall. The short message included new product information and coupons for same day use at participating stores. They then completed a questionnaire containing various questions. To assess arousal, dominance, and pleasure, we adapted and modified scales used in the previous studies in the context of location-based mobile shopping service, each of the five items from Mehrabian and Russell (1974). A total of 15 items were measured on a seven-point bipolar scale. To measure information relevancy, four items were borrowed from Mason et al. (1995). Intention to use LBMSS was captured using two items developed by Blackwell, and Miniard (1995) and one items developed by the authors. Data analyses were conducted using SPSS 19.0 and LISREL 8.72. A total of usable 335 data were obtained after deleting the incomplete responses, which results in a response rate of 11.20%. A little over half of the respondents were male (53.9%) and approximately 60% of respondents were married (57.4%). The mean age of the sample was 29.44 years with a range from 19 to 60 years. In terms of the ethnicity there were European Americans (54.5%), Hispanic American (5.3%), African-American (3.6%), and Asian American (2.9%), respectively. The respondents were highly educated; close to 62.5% of participants in the study reported holding a college degree or its equivalent and 14.5% of the participants had graduate degree. The sample represents all income categories: less than $24,999 (10.8%), $25,000-$49,999 (28.34%), $50,000-$74,999 (13.8%), and $75,000 or more (10.23%). The respondents of the study indicated that they were employed in many occupations. Responses came from all 42 states in the U.S. To identify the dimensions of research constructs, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) using a varimax rotation was conducted. As indicated in table 1, these dimensions: arousal, dominance, relevancy, pleasure, and intention to use, suggested by the EFA, explained 82.29% of the total variance with factor loadings ranged from .74 to .89. As a next step, CFA was conducted to validate the dimensions that were identified from the exploratory factor analysis and to further refine the scale. Table 1 exhibits the results of measurement model analysis and revealed a chi-square of 202.13 with degree-of-freedom of 89 (p =.002), GFI of .93, AGFI = .89, CFI of .99, NFI of .98, which indicates of the evidence of a good model fit to the data (Bagozzi and Yi, 1998; Hair et al., 1998). As table 1 shows, reliability was estimated with Cronbach's alpha and composite reliability (CR) for all multi-item scales. All the values met evidence of satisfactory reliability in multi-item measure for alpha (>.91) and CR (>.80). In addition, we tested the convergent validity of the measure using average variance extracted (AVE) by following recommendations from Fornell and Larcker (1981). The AVE values for the model constructs ranged from .74 through .85, which are higher than the threshold suggested by Fornell and Larcker (1981). To examine discriminant validity of the measure, we again followed the recommendations from Fornell and Larcker (1981). The shared variances between constructs were smaller than the AVE of the research constructs and confirm discriminant validity of the measure. The causal model testing was conducted using LISREL 8.72 with a maximum-likelihood estimation method. Table 2 shows the results of the hypotheses testing. The results for the conceptual model revealed good overall fit for the proposed model. Chi-square was 342.00 (df = 92, p =.000), NFI was .97, NNFI was .97, GFI was .89, AGFI was .83, and RMSEA was .08. All paths in the proposed model received significant statistical support except H2. The paths from arousal to pleasure (H1: ${\ss}$=.70; t = 11.44), from information relevancy to intention to use (H3 ${\ss}$ =.12; t = 2.36), from information relevancy to pleasure (H4 ${\ss}$ =.15; t = 2.86), and pleasure to intention to use (H5: ${\ss}$=.54; t = 9.05) were significant. However, the path from dominance to pleasure was not supported. This study investigated consumer intention to use a location-based mobile shopping service (LBMSS) that integrates cognitive and affective responses. Information relevancy was integrated into pleasure-arousal-dominance (PAD) emotional state model as a conceptual framework. The results of the present study support previous studies indicating that emotional responses as well as cognitive responses have a strong impact on accepting new technology. The findings of this study suggest potential marketing strategies to mobile service developers and retailers who are considering the implementation of LBMSS. It would be rewarding to develop location-based mobile services that integrate information relevancy and which cause positive emotional responses.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.33 no.12
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• pp.1991-2001
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• 2009

This study provides basic information that is needed to build marketing strategies related to consumer brand-switching, through the investigation of consumer motivations for brand-switching, as determined by the types of fashion products. The study was implemented by a descriptive survey method using a questionnaire. The survey was conducted during the period of May $11^{th}$ through July $5^{th}$ 2008. A total of 184 completed responses were analyzed. All respondents were from the Seoul area and between the ages of 20 and 31. Factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha coefficients, one-way ANOVA and Duncan test were employed for the analysis of data. Significant differences were found in brand-switching motives according to the types of fashion products. For clothing, shift behavior occurred more often in conjunction with the attributes of the products itself, such as design, color, price, size, and fiber content. In general, clothes more than shoes, were likely subject to brand-switching most often on the basis of situational factors. On the other hand, for shoes, more brand-switching activities occurred because of non-product attributes, such as discounts, coupons, desire for a change, and wearing of friends. In light of the results, there is a need to differentiate brand related marketing strategies with respect to clothing and shoes. For clothing, efforts focusing on the improvement of the product attributes will be more effective in minimizing brand-switching. There is also a need to improve instructions for increasing the product understanding of salespersons as well as the ability to give advice in accordance with personal consumer characteristics. With regard to shoes, greater efforts should be given to promotional activities, and the desire of consumers for a change in order to prevent brand-switching of customers.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.30-37
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• 2012

In this study, we studied solar cell and fuel cell. To estimate the technology competitiveness, we used patent analysis using patent information and delphi method. For patent analysis, PII indicating the impact of patent was used. Also to analysis PII, citations data of registered and published patent were used from 2001 through 2010 in the United States, Japan, South Korea and the European Patent Office. And the delphi method results of the 'International trend analysis on the Green Energy Technology and the establishment of international cooperation models(2009)' were cited to estimate the technology level. According to the analysis results, Korea's patent registration growth rate was fairly high, but the patent impact and technology levels were significantly lower than in the United States, Japan and Germany. Especially in the solar cell, United States's PII is 1.8, but Korea's PII is 0.2. And the technology level of United States is 7 to 8, but Korea's is 5 to 6. Therefore, to improve technology competitiveness, Korea need to enhance the core technology R&D, and set up the consumer-oriented R&D strategy for commercialization from R&D planning phase. In this study, we analysed competitiveness of renewable energy which is not actively discussed. But there are limitations of the study because we used the result of past research and patent data in the past 10 years. Therefore to accurate research the period of patent data should be extended. Finally diverse indicators for measuring the technology competitiveness should be researched and developed.