• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.89-97
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• 2010

This study researches the effects of common features on a no-choice option with respect to regulatory focus theory. The primary interest is in three factors and their interrelationship: common features, no-choice option, and regulatory focus. Prior studies have compiled vast body of research in these areas. First, the "common features effect" has been observed bymany noted marketing researchers. Tversky (1972) proposed the seminal theory, the EBA model: elimination by aspect. According to this theory, consumers are prone to focus only on unique features during comparison processing, thereby dismissing any common features as redundant information. Recently, however, more provocative ideas have attacked the EBA model by asserting that common features really do affect consumer judgment. Chernev (1997) first reported that adding common features mitigates the choice gap because of the increasing perception of similarity among alternatives. Later, however, Chernev (2001) published a critically developed study against his prior perspective with the proposition that common features may be a cognitive load to consumers, and thus consumers are possible that they are prone to prefer the heuristic processing to the systematic processing. This tends to bring one question to the forefront: Do "common features" affect consumer choice? If so, what are the concrete effects? This study tries to answer the question with respect to the "no-choice" option and regulatory focus. Second, some researchers hold that the no-choice option is another best alternative of consumers, who are likely to avoid having to choose in the context of knotty trade-off settings or mental conflicts. Hope for the future also may increase the no-choice option in the context of optimism or the expectancy of a more satisfactory alternative appearing later. Other issues reported in this domain are time pressure, consumer confidence, and alternative numbers (Dhar and Nowlis 1999; Lin and Wu 2005; Zakay and Tsal 1993). This study casts the no-choice option in yet another perspective: the interactive effects between common features and regulatory focus. Third, "regulatory focus theory" is a very popular theme in recent marketing research. It suggests that consumers have two focal goals facing each other: promotion vs. prevention. A promotion focus deals with the concepts of hope, inspiration, achievement, or gain, whereas prevention focus involves duty, responsibility, safety, or loss-aversion. Thus, while consumers with a promotion focus tend to take risks for gain, the same does not hold true for a prevention focus. Regulatory focus theory predicts consumers' emotions, creativity, attitudes, memory, performance, and judgment, as documented in a vast field of marketing and psychology articles. The perspective of the current study in exploring consumer choice and common features is a somewhat creative viewpoint in the area of regulatory focus. These reviews inspire this study of the interaction possibility between regulatory focus and common features with a no-choice option. Specifically, adding common features rather than omitting them may increase the no-choice option ratio in the choice setting only to prevention-focused consumers, but vice versa to promotion-focused consumers. The reasoning is that when prevention-focused consumers come in contact with common features, they may perceive higher similarity among the alternatives. This conflict among similar options would increase the no-choice ratio. Promotion-focused consumers, however, are possible that they perceive common features as a cue of confirmation bias. And thus their confirmation processing would make their prior preference more robust, then the no-choice ratio may shrink. This logic is verified in two experiments. The first is a $2{\times}2$ between-subject design (whether common features or not X regulatory focus) using a digital cameras as the relevant stimulus-a product very familiar to young subjects. Specifically, the regulatory focus variable is median split through a measure of eleven items. Common features included zoom, weight, memory, and battery, whereas the other two attributes (pixel and price) were unique features. Results supported our hypothesis that adding common features enhanced the no-choice ratio only to prevention-focus consumers, not to those with a promotion focus. These results confirm our hypothesis - the interactive effects between a regulatory focus and the common features. Prior research had suggested that including common features had a effect on consumer choice, but this study shows that common features affect choice by consumer segmentation. The second experiment was used to replicate the results of the first experiment. This experimental study is equal to the prior except only two - priming manipulation and another stimulus. For the promotion focus condition, subjects had to write an essay using words such as profit, inspiration, pleasure, achievement, development, hedonic, change, pursuit, etc. For prevention, however, they had to use the words persistence, safety, protection, aversion, loss, responsibility, stability etc. The room for rent had common features (sunshine, facility, ventilation) and unique features (distance time and building state). These attributes implied various levels and valence for replication of the prior experiment. Our hypothesis was supported repeatedly in the results, and the interaction effects were significant between regulatory focus and common features. Thus, these studies showed the dual effects of common features on consumer choice for a no-choice option. Adding common features may enhance or mitigate no-choice, contradictory as it may sound. Under a prevention focus, adding common features is likely to enhance the no-choice ratio because of increasing mental conflict; under the promotion focus, it is prone to shrink the ratio perhaps because of a "confirmation bias." The research has practical and theoretical implications for marketers, who may need to consider common features carefully in a practical display context according to consumer segmentation (i.e., promotion vs. prevention focus.) Theoretically, the results suggest some meaningful moderator variable between common features and no-choice in that the effect on no-choice option is partly dependent on a regulatory focus. This variable corresponds not only to a chronic perspective but also a situational perspective in our hypothesis domain. Finally, in light of some shortcomings in the research, such as overlooked attribute importance, low ratio of no-choice, or the external validity issue, we hope it influences future studies to explore the little-known world of the "no-choice option."

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.79-108
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• 2007

In this study, we measured customers' perception of organization citizenship behaviors of employees which are known as the important factor for improving performance of companies, and examined the path relationship among related variables such as service quality, customer satisfaction, trust, and positive word of mouth. Although there have been many studies of OCB in the marketing field, the majority of these studies measured employee's OCB from the organization's perspective. This study has extended the prior studies by measuring employee's OCB from the customer's perspective. Customers of beauty salons and public houses were researched such that OCB may be applied to more various customer contact situations. The result is as follows. First, employees's OCB had a direct effect on perceived service quality and trust, and had an indirect effect on customer satisfaction. It means that customers evaluate the service quality of employees and trust frontline employees when they observed employees helping other organizational members, orientated customer facilitation beyond the regulated role and showed positive attitudes for their organization. As a result, customers feel more satisfied. Secondly, OCB had an indirect effect on positive word of mouth through mediation of service quality, satisfaction, and trust. Finally, consumer facilitation had the largest effect on consumer attitude among three dimensions of OCB-consumer facilitation, organization involvement, and sportsmanship. We understood the relationship between frontline employee's OCB and customer attitudes, and the necessity of multidimensional approach in measuring employee's OCB from the customer's perspective.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.195-211
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between leisure time and time pressure based on time availability perspective and gender perspective. For this purpose, this study examined the use of leisure time and the level of time pressure according to gender and gender role attitudes and investigated the relationship between leisure time and time pressure focusing on gender differences in the moderating effect of gender role attitudes. The sample for the study was drawn from the Time Use Survey data collected by Korean National Statistical Office in 2009. Two cases were gathered from each of the samples who are married, aged over 20, presently working and raising preschoolers, which makes 3,150 cases in the total. The major findings are as follows. First, the differences of leisure time between groups according to gender role attitude are not significant, but gender differences are significant. Men's leisure time is more than women's leisure time. Secondly, people with progressive gender role attitudes have higher time pressure than people with conservative gender role attitudes. By the gender groups, women's time pressure is higher than men's time pressure. Thirdly, men's time pressure is decreasing as leisure time increases, but effect of leisure time on women's time pressure is not significant. Women with progressive gender role attitudes have higher time pressure than women with conservative gender role attitudes. On the other hand, influence of gender role attitudes on men's time pressure is not significant. Fourthly, only male group has a significant moderating effect of gender role attitudes in the relationship between leisure time and time pressure. In other words, time pressure of men with conservative gender role attitudes is decreasing more sharply than men with progressive gender role attitudes as leisure time increases. In contrast, increased leisure time does not relieve women's time pressure even though they have conservative gender role attitudes. These results show that men's time pressure can be interpreted in the time availability perspective, while women's time pressure can be described in gender perspective.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.325-341
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• 2010

A study on what kind of problems young consumers experience in buying and using mobile phone services with a comprehensive and consumers oriented perspective is needed. Through this acknowledgement, we investigated (i) the degree of consumer problems that young consumers experience in purchasing and using mobile phone services, and (ii) the related variables that affect experiences of this consumer problem. The parents of the teenagers were also included in the survey because they experience the same problems young consumers' experience in buying and using mobile phone services. Data were gathered through an internet survey (www.embrain.com) and a total of 699 samples from 350 parents and 349 youths using mobile phone services were analysed. The results are as follows. First, the teenagers and parents' experience level of young consumers' problems were generally high experiencing similar kinds of problems. Second, parents experienced more young consumers' problems than the teenagers in buying and using mobile phone services, especially in misuse and abuse of the phones. Third, among the teenagers, the monthly usage fee music or game usage, the number of changes in mobile phone service operators, the number of replacement mobile phones and the gender had a significant effect on consumers' problems of mobile phone services. Among the parents, the monthly usage fee, music or game usage, confirmation of the bill, and the gender of their child were significant consumer problems. Based on results of our survey the direction of consumer policy and education was suggested for teenagers and their parents.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.11-28
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• 2009

This study is intended to make a tool which can identify how consumers consume by presenting a concept of "consumption style" and by developing the scale to measure it. In order to study the scope and meaning of consumption for modern consumers, "the meaning of consumption" was theoretically considered. Based on it, the concept and perspective of 'consumption style'was formed and then the scale for measuring it was developed. To develop the scale, the scale was formed by extracting questions through a literature survey, and verifying validity through experts' opinion. Then, the final scale was developed by conducting a questionnaire survey for consumers. A preliminary 150- item scale was developed through a literature review. 1000 consumers responded to an online survey using the preliminary scale. This research was made with the intention of not only supplying the academic data on the consumer's "consumption style" but also understanding the consumer's basic behavior patterns. Then A series of tests, such as test-retest, item-to-total correlation, Cronbach's reliability coefficient and factor analysis, were conducted using the survey data. The final scale with 68-items was constructed in the end. The "consumption style" Scale for Consumers consisted of 4 factors.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.22 no.8
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• pp.1099-1110
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• 1998

The perceived quality is a concept considered from the consumer's perspective. So it is differ from the objective determination of product quality. Thus the consumer perception of quality is a subjective judgement of an individual and an overall feeling on the characteristics which includes the product's reliability, performance and so on. In terms of product perception, consumers utilize the product cues in evaluating the product's quality before the purchase and the cues reflecting the quality can be classifisied into intrinsic and extrinsic ones. When the quality perception is limited to the purchase situation, purchase decision dependent on surrogate indicators such as price, are inclined to increase due to the lack of information. Therefore in this study the perceived quality of apparel is controled to the purchase situation in order to examine the consumer's reaction to the price cues and for the convenience of the exploratory investigation. As a result of the empirical study, consumers show differences in quality and value perceptions to the product with the same price depending on the perception whether the price is high or low. The apparel quality evaluation process goes through the steps of "product attributes - perceived quality - perceived value - purchase intention".

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.27-32
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• 2019

Purpose - The business model is a method of creating corporate value, in existing "classification of business model", limitations and redundancy phenomena are applied when a new type flows in, and as consumer's purchasing decision of consumer behavior 5 steps. The classification schemes can be used for more accurate data analysis by proposing a new mapping technique in the fourth industry. Research design, data, and methodology - It was far more classified on the business model (BMS by BDS), and so on. Designing the new horizons of logistics, marketing, methodology by reclassifying these existing data to new useful data with the old methods, in order to analyze the areas where the problem has been raised for the point that the existing methods are not suitable configured. This will be applicable to the system of quaternary industry from the perspective of the buyer. Results - The mapping results of the consumer purchase decision were as follows,the 1^st stage (interest) was 23.73%, 2^nd stages (publicity) 33.90%, 3^rd stages (sales) 13.56%, 4^th stages (decision) 11.86%, 5^th stages (repurchaser) 16.95%. This verified that "the business model can be classified through "BMS by BDS". Conclusions - This structural classification is the basis of logistics marketing in the 4th industry, and proposes a innovative and effective model of constructing theory.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.15-22
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• 2015

Purpose - Transparency, seller reputation, and website security are considered to be important factors that influence online customer purchasing decisions in China. This paper empirically examines the relative influence of Taobao.com on customers' online purchasing decisions. Research design, data, and methodology - We perform structural equation analysis, with a sample of 306 observations. The data comes from consumers' real transaction experiences from a specific website. This gives the results of our study more generalizability than studies using subjects who are not asked to engage in real transactions. Results - The results of this study reveal that perceived security and perceived reputation are critical factors affecting consumer trust and perceived transparency is most closely associated with purchase intention. Conclusions - The findings suggest that perceived transparency plays a significant role in increasing online consumer's purchase intention. The knowledge of the relative impacts of these factors and their roles in the customer transaction experience will be useful in developing customized sales strategies. The results of this study reveal that perceived transparency exerts a stronger effect than perceived reputation on consumer purchase intentions.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.207-220
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• 2010

This study is intended to create a tool which can identify the concept of consumption life level and to develop a standardized scale to measure consumption life level. Based on it, the concept and perspective of consumption life level was formed and then the scale for measuring it was developed. To develop the scale, the scale was firstly formed by extracting questions through a literature survey, and verifying validity through experts' opinions. Then the final scale was developed by conducting a questionnaire survey for consumers. A preliminary 27-item scale was developed through a literature review. 1000 consumers responded to an online survey using the preliminary scale. This research was made with the intention of not only supplying academic data on the consumer's consumption life level but also understanding the consumer's basic behavior patterns. Then a series of tests: test-retest, item-to-total correlation, and Cronbach's reliability coefficient and factor analysis were conducted using the survey data and the final 20-item scale was constructed in the end. The consumer's consumption life level scale consisted of 4 factors.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.25
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• pp.7-33
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• 2011

In this paper we attempt to read a film by Haejoon LEE entitled 'Castaway on the moon' from the Bauman's modernity perspective that draws our attention to uncomfortable problems relative to wastes and wasted lifes in the global consumer society we all live in. The so-called consumer society is a post-modern society designed according to the following two criteria: on the one hand, beauty and ugliness and on the other hand, competence and incompetence. Classified as ugly as well as incompetent in this society, the two heros in this film are condemned to live their lifes isolated. Miss Kim is confined to her small room while Mr. Kim is exiled to an uninhabited island called 'Bamsum' in the Han River. In these spaces, neither inside nor outside, they perform what we would like to call 'surplus act', using wastes at their disposal. In this paper we ask ourselves whether or not this act is able to challenge the two criteria and the solidarity of the two wasted lifes can bring about change in the consumer oriented society. As well as Bauman, Agamben will help us approach this question from a theoretical point of view.