• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.69-77
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• 2003

The goal of this study was to examine which factors influence consumers' demands to reveal the identity of GMO(Genetically Modified Organism) food, risk perception, and decision-making to purchase it. Consumers perceived its risk, and demanded labeling to identify it. Not many consumers wanted to buy GMO food. The results also revealed as follows. First, the level of demand to label for identifying GMO food were high among female consumers, consumers with negative attitude, and consumers severly perceived its risk. The level of perceived risk was high among consumers who were old and had high income, exercised their own healthy programs, showed negative attitude toward GMO food, and demanded strongly for labelling. Second, old consumers, consumers with high income, consumers concerning more about health, consumers with negative attitude and strong demand to label for identifying GMO food were more likely to perceive risk highly for GMO food. Third, consumers' attitudes and the level of perceived risks for GMO food significantly influenced the decision-making to purchase GMO food. However, other variables turned out not to affect consumers' decision-making to purchase it.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.61-77
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• 2000

World Wide Web(Web) supports bi-directional communication between corporations and consumers. In the year of Electronic Commerce, close relationships with consumers are more emphasized for corporations. Nowadays, corporations compete with corporations which are located in whole world through the media called Internet. In this competitive environment, to attract consumers' attentions, it is required to develope corporations' Web sites in the way to stimulate consumers' purchase intentions. To verify the elements needed to stimulate consumers' purchase intentions factors which influence consumers' purchase intentions were analyzed. Adaptation, shopping convenience and assurance-reliability were found to be positive factors for consumers' purchase intentions. It was also found that consumers' purchase intentions in electronic commerce market are influenced by previous shopping experiences. Consumers who have previous shopping experiences are mainly influenced by good delivery systems and shopping environments while who have no experiences are influenced by consumers' risks such as performance risk and personal and privacy risk when they intend to purchase products or services.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.95-111
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• 2005

This study utilized representative data and categorized consumer groups by the style of purchase behavior, and examined the differences in consumers' evaluation for their consumption life and socio-demographic variables. The results of this study are summarized below First, the level of satisfaction for consumption life and evaluation of consumption level were in medium. The evaluation for society's consumption behavior was negative and did not agree that consumers' own behaviors are rational, but others' are conspicuous. The trend of consumers' conspicuous behavior and fashion-focused behavior were severe, but consumers' rationality was low. Second, males were more likely to be in rationality, but females were in both rationality and fashion-focused behaviors. Single consumers were more likely to follow fashion-based behavior, but married consumers prefer name-brand products and more likely to show conspicuous consumption. Low education was more related with convenience-focused behavior and rationality, but high education was more related with fashion-focused behavior and irrationality. Young consumers were more likely to show fashion-focused behavior, but old consumers follow convenience-focused behavior. Third, the level of satisfaction for consumption life was the highest in rational consumers, but low in consumers focused on name-brand products and on conspicuous consumption. The evaluation of consumption level was low in rational consumers and consumers focused on convenience, but high in consumers focused on name-brand products and on fashion. Rational consumers were more likely to evaluate society's consumption behavior negatively, and consumers focused on convenience were more likely to disagree for the discrepance in the evaluation of consumption behavior between consumers themselves and others.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.61-74
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• 2008

This research aims to examine and analyze behavior of consumers in pursuit of safety the basis of data Korea Consumer Agency in 2007 2,000 male and females older than 20 years old in Korea. In particular, this study investigates the impact of and life styles of consumers in pursuit of safety. Results of this research could be summarized as follows. First of all, Korean consumers tend to place emphasis on factors such as price and freshness rather than safety in the purchase of vegetables, meats, rice, and fruit.Second, the safety consciousness of consumers is high among female young consumers among consumers showing intermediate positions for the issue of opening domestic markets for foreign agricultural products. Third, this study also examines the impact of life styles on consumers' behavior in pursuit of safety. Such behavior is high among consumers emphasizing values on family and current consumption and showing negative attitudes opening domestic markets for imported foreign agricultural products. Finally, behavior in pursuit of safety is high among female, high school graduated, family-oriented consumers and valuing leisure and showing negative attitudes opening domestic markets for foreign agricultural products. However, safety consciousness of consumers do not generate direct impact on patterns of pursuing safety.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.683-693
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• 2010

The aim of the present study is to investigate the complex shopping behavior of clothing consumer groups classified by the level of economic shopping orientation. Using a self-administered questionnaire, 260 respondents rated their economic shopping orientation, hedonic shopping orientation, convenient shopping orientation, store selection criteria, clothing interest, gender, age, and other demographic characteristics. A total of 248 questionnaires were analyzed. The results are as follows. First, economic consumers showed more hedonic and convenient shopping orientation than uneconomic consumers. In addition, economic consumers valued various store selection criteria. These implied that economic consumers show more complex clothing shopping behavior than uneconomic consumers. Second, as the result of comparing complex shopping behavior of economic consumers and uneconomic consumers by their characteristics such as clothing interest, gender, and age, economic consumers were found to show more complex shopping behavior than uneconomic consumers regardless of the consumer characteristics. Among them, economic consumers with higher clothing interest or in adult age particularly showed more complex shopping behavior. Furthermore, economic consumers with different consumer characteristics showed quite different aspects in their complex shopping behavior. Third, uneconomic consumers showed relatively simple, impulsive, and price-apathetic shopping behavior.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.17-32
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• 1994

The main purpose of this study is to assess the housewives' perception to the salespersons' delivery of information at a department store and to assess how much they wan to get information through them. In this regard 410 consumers of housewives living in Seoul are randomly selected from April 7 to 28 in 1992. The major results are as follows: Firstly consumers generally seem to think much of salespersons' ability and to need salespersons' close explanation and advice. In this regard salespersons are respected as the consumer information sources whereas the degrees of reliability and satisfaction are relatively low. And, thus, salespersons does not influence much on consumers' decision to purchase. Secondly, consumers require information from salespersons. Therefore salespersons should provide informations to consumers so that salespersons will be available informants to consumers. Thirdly recognition on the presense salespersons is the major variable which influenced on consumers' requirement for information. The more positive recognition raises consumers' requirement for information and hence needs more available salespersons as informants to consumers. Consequently salespersons are expected to be professionals to meet the consumers' demand.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.47-55
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• 2015

Purpose - The objective of this study is to verify whether there are differences between Korean and Chinese consumers in the importance of the attributes such as shopping value and loyalty in social commerce. With the purpose of finding out these differences, the following questions are set up as research questions. First, will there be a difference between Korea and China in the importance of attributes of social commerce? Second, will there be a difference between Korean and Chinese consumers in shopping value? Third, will there be a difference between Korean and Chinese consumers in their loyalty? Research design, data, and methodology - The researchers collected data through self-administered questionnaires from Korean and Chinese consumers who had used social commerce within the past six months before answering the questionnaire. First, for social commerce users in Korea, comprising male and female university students in Chungcheong, a questionnaire was circulated. For social commerce users in China, university students within Beijing were surveyed. Responses to 336 questionnaires were used, excluding those with no answers or unreliable answers. Data coding and data cleaning were used. SPSS 18.0 was used. First, exploratory factor analysis is done to verify the validity of testing tools, and Cronbach's α coefficient is used to verify credibility. For factor analysis, the Varimax method is used. To verify the internal consistency reliability of each factor, the Cronbach's α coefficient is used to verify the credibility. Second, a T-test is done to verify differences between Korean and Chinese consumers for the importance of attributes. Third, ANOVA (Analysis of variance) is done to verify differences between Korean and Chinese consumers in shopping value and loyalty. Results - When Korean and Chinese consumers use social commerce, first, the importance of the attributes of social commerce is affected by four factors; playfulness and economic factors are more important to Korean consumers than Chinese consumers. As for informativeness factors, including product information and quality, and buyer comments, there was no confirmed difference between Korean and Chinese consumers. The convenience factor is more important to Chinese consumers than Korean consumers. Second, the factors affecting shopping value for Korean and Chinese consumers were hedonic shopping value and rational shopping value. To see the difference between Korean and Chinese consumers in shopping value factors, a t-test is conducted. As a result, in the rational shopping value factors of social commerce, Korean consumers scored higher than did Chinese consumers. These results were verified to be meaningful through statistics. In the hedonic shopping value factor of social commerce, Korean consumers scored higher than Chinese consumers. These results showed a significant difference. Third, loyalty in social commerce is higher for Chinese consumers than for Korean consumers. However, there is no difference in loyalty depending on sex. Conclusion - These results will hopefully be valuable and used in the future by Korean companies that wish to enter the Chinese social commerce market.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.66 no.3
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• pp.75-92
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• 2016

The purpose of this study was to prove how sociocultural perspective of obesity, differences in consumers' perception of body and attitudes of accepting obesity affected individuals' clothing behaviors through cross-cultural studies. The data collected were composed of 612 Korean and US consumers in the 20's and 30's that had experiences in purchasing plus-size products. The results were as follows. First, BMI index was lower in Korean consumers than the US consumers, but Korean consumers received more stress from being overweight compared to the US consumers, and had a more negative attitude about their body. Second, although Korean consumers had lower BMI index and degrees of obesity than US consumers, they were severely stressed by obesity and were found to have a higher level of dissatisfaction with their bodies. Third, Korean consumers responded more sensitively to obesity and had a tendency to display a more negative attitude regarding obesity, and a more passive dependence on clothing. Forth, differences in the body shape were reflected even in wearing evaluation, and US consumers showed a more positive attitude toward evaluations of size suitability and fitness. Fifth, the plus-size market for Korean consumers was still not active, and most products purchased were generic brands obtained from online shopping malls through the Internet. However, in the case of the US, in which the ratio of obese people is high and the plus-size market is growing, consumers were purchasing plus-size brands through various distribution online and offline channels. Sixth, Korean consumers were less satisfied than US consumers with shops, sizes and fitness; however, they were more satisfied with design factors. Finally, it is expected that this study can offer practical implications for marketers and product developers running plus-size market for young obese consumers in their 20 and 30s.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.481-490
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• 2010

The shock of melamine-contained food has been known with the incident of hospitalization or death of infants at the age of 11-month old in China. The purpose of this study was to examine consumers' risk perception, attitude and purchase behavior of melamine-contained food which recently came to the fore as a social issue, focusing on the relationship between consumers' attitude and purchase behavior based on physical risk, social risk, psychological risk, financial risk, consumers' attitude and purchase behavior. Study findings are as follows. First, the four factors of risk perception of melamine-contained food were significantly different by consumers. Consumers regarded social risk as most significant and it was followed by financial risk and psychological risk. And they regarded physical risk as most insignificant. Second, as for the difference of risk perception by demographic features, such factors as gender, age, marital status and schooling had no statistically significant influence. Third, the potential risk of melamine-contained food had a negative influence upon consumers' attitude and purchase behavior. In addition, consumers' attitude and purchase behavior were decided by perceived risks. This finding implies that consumers' attitude can accompany with negative or positive behavior and consumers' behavior can be related to social, financial and physical risks. Because the risk perception of melamine-contained food can cause consumers' distrust about all kinds of food in general, domestic manufacturers of milk product-contained confectionery and food can be harmed. In order to overcome this problem and make consumers purchase all the milk products and milk-contained food without fear, governmental agencies must reestablish systems with which the safety of imported raw materials and its processing can be insured and manufactures must improve the quality of products in a diverse and discriminative manner. This study seems to be meaningful in that it examined consumers' risk perception of melamine-contained food, a current social issue, and then looked into the influence of risk perception upon consumers" attitude and behavior, thus presenting the strategy of reestablishing the system of relationship between consumers and business entities in a desirable manner.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.517-526
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• 2022

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The increased consumers' interests in health and food safety have increased the demand for organic foods. Many studies have been performed on consumers' purchase intentions for organic foods and their influencing factors, and various studies have shown that the prices of organic foods and the consumers' willingness to pay are important influencing factors. This study examined the payment value of organic foods and agrifood consumer competency index according to the food-related lifestyles in South Korean consumers. SUBJECTS/METHODS: A cross-sectional analysis was performed using the 2019 Consumer Behavior Survey for Food. A total of 6,176 participants aged 19 to 74 years (male: 2,783, female: 3,393) were included in the analysis. RESULTS: Three factors were extracted by factor analysis (rational consumption-seeking type, convenience-seeking type, and health, and safety-seeking type) to explain the consumers' food-related lifestyles. The results of cluster analysis suggested that consumers were classified into 3 food-related lifestyles as the 'exploratory consumers' (n = 2,485), 'safety-seeking consumers' (n = 1,544), and 'passive consumers' (n = 2,147). Exploratory consumers showed a significantly higher willingness to pay for imported organic foods (P < 0.05). Safety-seeking consumers had a significantly higher willingness to pay for domestic organic foods (P < 0.05). For the agrifood consumer competency index, exploratory consumers had the highest score, followed in order by safety-seeking consumers and passive consumers. CONCLUSIONS: These results provide basic data in understanding consumption tendency for organic foods and agrifoods based on food-related lifestyles of South Korean consumers.