• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.14 no.9
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• pp.73-83
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• 2016

Purpose - Previous studies have not paid attention to global self-corporate brand congruity and affective approach from the viewpoint of global self. This study explored an inducement of gratitude that, under the circumstance of corporate association, consumers feel toward corporate's responsible activities, pride related to corporate's ability, and global self congruity. Current researches also have examined positive behavior effects of global self-corporate brand congruity and the feelings on corporate products. Research design, data, and methodology - This research theoretically reviewed that corporate ability and social responsibility association would influence global self-corporate brand congruity, that corporate ability association could induce consumers' sense of pride, and that social responsibility association might induce gratitude. This study, furthermore, examined theoretically whether global self-corporate brand congruity, pride and gratitude could make consumers behave positively toward corporate products, and developed hypotheses. For the empirical analysis with the questionnaires, 231 employees and common people completed the questionnaires, and structural equation model of AMOS 18.0 was used. Results - From the empirical analysis, the outcomes are as followings. First, corporate ability association makes consumers feel proud. Second, corporate social responsible association makes consumers feel grateful. Third, both corporate ability association and social responsibility association let consumers be aware of global self-corporate brand congruity. Fourth, being conscious of each of pride, gratitude and global self-corporate brand congruity prompts consumers to behave positively toward corporate products. Fifth, mediation effects of pride and the congruity in the roles of corporate ability association on the positive behavior, and those of gratitude and the congruity in the roles of corporate social responsible association on the positive behavior are identified. Conclusions - Based on the results, it can be said that a marketing manager should endeavor to make consumers associate the corporate ability and social responsibility. However, the degree of consumers' feelings such as pride and gratitude can differ according to their cultural backgrounds. It is, therefore, needed to be explored by the types of feelings that can be caused more from the difference in cultural backgrounds by corporate association, and to be investigated differently and positively with behavioral effects on the corporate's products between the types.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.1-16
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• 2017

As purchasing power of Chinese consumers has increased and their purchase channels have become more various, Chinese consumers are paying more attention to foreign products and purchasing more of them as well as the domestic goods. With great expectations, many companies in different nations are scrambling into the Chinese market. In this situation, Chinese consumers have a wider range of choices when selecting and purchasing goods, thereby trying to take several factors into account in order to choose the best one in a limited time. This study is about how much country-of-origin image, brand attitude and corporate social responsibility influence Chinese consumers' quality perception and their purchase decisions. The study result shows that country-of-origin image, brand attitude and corporate social responsibility all have a positive effect on perceived quality of the consumers, and among those three, the brand attitude is found to be the most influential factor. It also shows that perceived quality brings a positive effect on purchase intention. Also, in terms of difference in product categories, the influence of corporate social responsibility on perceived quality and the influence of perceived quality on purchase intention are shown greater in dairy products than in PC. This study has academic significance as it has investigated consumer behavior, considering each different factor above. Also it has practical significance since it offers an implication on the marketing strategies of the companies that are planning to advance into the Chinese market in the future.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.644-660
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• 2015

The social responsibility of fashion companies has become a crucial factor considering company image and awareness. Businesses have thus increased their CSR activities. However, few studies have shown clear and consistent results regarding the effectiveness of CSR activities. Therefore, this study focuses on the evaluation of the direct effect of CSR on trust and corporate reputation including its moderation by consumer's perceived fit and motivation. A total of 284 completed questionnaires were obtained from adult consumers in the fashion market with promotional leaflets for CSR activities as stimuli. The results were as follows. First, the dimensions for CSR activities were categorized as follows: Social welfare responsibility, environment protection, economic responsibility, social regulation compliance, customer protection, and culture and arts support. Further social regulation compliance, and economic and social welfare responsibilities positively affected corporate trust and reputation. Second, the main effect of perceived CSR activities and fit on corporate trust and reputation was significant, and the interaction effects of the social welfare, environment protection, and culture and arts support of CSR activities and fit were significant. Finally, the interaction effect of perceived CSR activities and motivation on corporate trust and reputation was not significant, but the main effect was significant. Implications of how to manage and enhance the effectiveness of CSR activities are offered.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.18 no.7
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• pp.83-89
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• 2020

Purpose: This research explores the relationship between Nigerian consumer perception towards corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its influence on their buying behavior. Research design, data, and methodology: In order to achieve this, a structured three-part questionnaire was developed and distributed to 400 respondents to gather relevant information. The respondents were randomly selected from Lagos and Adamawa, Nigeria. Only 222 questionnaires. were completed and data was later analyzed using administering descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: a) Nigerian consumers have adequate knowledge about CSR; b) Nigerian consumers' awareness of socially responsible practices largely influences their purchasing decisions; c) Nigerian consumers' perceptions of the traditions of socially accountable actions influence their buying behavior. Conclusion: Although the research was targeted at the urban areas of Lagos and Jimeta/Yola in Nigeria, the findings indicate Nigerian consumers generally have a positive perception of CSR. The research offers invaluable contribution to the Nigerian corporates based on which they can reassess their existing CSR policies for better positioning of their company and their products.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.189-217
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• 2009

This study is to learn if and how company-consumer identification in regard of Chinese consumers influences the consumers' behavioral responses with their evaluation on Korean products. To be learned also is differential influences on company-consumer identification generated by two different factors of corporate image, which are corporate ability and corporate social responsibility, through Structural Equation Modeling. The results obtained by actual analysis are as follows. First, both corporate ability and corporate social responsibility turn out to be positively influential on company-consumer identification. Second, the company-consumer identification as to the Korean companies displayed by Chinese consumers induces positive influences on Korean products, which in turn induces positive influences on Chinese consumers' behavioral responses. These results suggest that in the future the Korean companies already settled in China not only need to enhance corporate ability but also have to give efforts on corporate social responsibility in order to improve their continuous and long-term relationship with Chinese consumers.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.21 no.10
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• pp.194-203
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• 2021

With the spread of Corona virus l spreading to the uncertainty of society, consumers request more active social responsibility programs. In other words, it is manifest that corporate brands are required to pursue the public interests. Consumers go beyond the corporate social responsibility programs and support corporate's involvement to solve the social problems and they consume the brand accordingly. Thus, the companies respond to the consumers' request as a form of brand activism, or the new social marketing form in which the companies set the brand as an individual and seek the solutions of social issues. In this study, five experienced experts in the area were recruited to conduct in-depth interviews and how brand activism was practiced worldwide. The results reveal that brand activism is actively practiced with the support of consumers in the area of support for the small business, anti-racism efforts, gender diversity and equality, and sustainability.

• Industrial Engineering and Management Systems
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.173-180
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• 2016

Nowadays Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a critical factor influencing customers' buying intention. The study conducted aims to explore the relationship between customers' perception towards CSR and their repurchase intention. The data was collected by using survey questionnaires from 320 individual customers living in Ho Chi Minh City and processed in SPSS software. The research results showed that among CSR components, economic and charitable responsibilities have a positive impact on Vietnamese customers' repurchase intention at the significance level of 1% and the two other factors at 10%. The findings assume that CSR components have become factors explaining customers' repurchase intention, especially for consumer goods, and firms should enforce their corporate social responsibility to capture customers' repurchase intention and in turn increase their customers' loyalty.

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

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

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.1076-1089
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• 2010

Nowadays, business environment changes with higher consumer demands for corporate social responsibility than before. However, many fashion companies are unaware of such a wave of changing business environment. And they are not so much interested in making any investment or policy for CSR activities. Besides, despite changing environment and consumer demands, there are very few studies dealing with this matter. Thus, this study aimed to find out the proper types of CSR activities for fashion companies. In addition, it also intended to determine potential effects of CSR activities on consumer attitudes and purchase behaviors. The findings are as follows. First, it is found that there are differences in consumers' perceived suitability depending on types of CSR activities of fashion company. Secondly, it is found that the suitability of CSR activities of fashion companies has positive effects on consumer attitudes to fashion companies. Thirdly, the more favorable consumer attitudes to fashion companies owing to their CSR activities are correlated with the higher consumer satisfaction. Fourthly, the more favorable consumer attitudes to fashion companies are also correlated with the higher consumer intention for purchase. Hence, it is required that fashion companies recognize the importance of their CSR activities, and also plan and implement appropriate CSR activities for consumers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.119-131
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• 2019

Among the themes for CSR(Corporate Social Responsibility), consumer issues include protecting the health and safety of consumers who purchase and use the products. In particular, ensuring product safety is a major theme of consumer issues for corporate social responsibility. Currently, the government implements the Electrical Appliances and Consumer Products Safety Control Act for product safety management and selects products that may harmful to consumers as safety control items, and manages the products by designating them as 4 types of safety certification, safety confirmation, supplier conformity verification, and safety standard compliance. In this paper, we propose management plans for the establishment of a more reasonable classification type of safety management target for 48 items of consumer products to be controlled by the act, and confirm the validity of the plan. First, we perform cluster analysis using data for CISS (Consumer Injury Surveillance System) to derive a new classification type of the safety management target. Next, we compare the results of the cluster analysis with the classification type of the act and the existing scenario classification method RAS (Risk Assessment by Scenario) and the causal network method RAMP (Risk Assessment Method based on Probability). Based on these results, we propose two new plans of safety management target classification and verify its validity.