• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.32
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• pp.283-292
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• 1997

The country-of-origin may be used as surro-gate indicator when the consumers do not have confidence on quality evaluation. Since the global sourcing is getting popular in inter-national textile and apparel production the ef-fect of country-of-origin should be examined. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of country-of-origin on product evaluation and its relation to the consumer characteristics. A questionnaire was distribu-ted to 524 respondents aged 18 through 35. The results indicated that the country-of-ori-gin had significant influence on quality evalu-ation. Furthermore product components such as design price fabric and workmanship were also influenced by the country-of-origin. Price was perceived as more affected variable by country-of-origin than design fabric and work-manship. The interest in country-of-origin was different according to the consumer charac-teristics. Among demographics age and in-come turned out to be significant variables to determine the interest in country-of-origin. Shopping habits of respondents such as pur-chasing price of polo-style knit shirt the place to purchase that shirt the number of shirts they have were significantly different accord-ing to the interest in country=-of-origin. The re-spondent had higher interest in country-of-ori-gin were more fashion-conscious more confi-dent on clothing purchase more brand loyal and more sensitive to price of clothin.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.57 no.6 s.115
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• pp.160-171
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• 2007

This research studied men's cosmetics purchasing behavior based on the level of interest one has in one's appearance, the country of origin, and the sales promotion of the cosmetics. The study was conducted by experimental $2{\times}[2{\times}2]$ design by combining the 3 variables mentioned above. The Independent variables in this research were levels of appearance interest(high vs. low), the country of origin(Korean vs. foreign), and types of sales promotion(discount vs. coupon). The dependent variables were the purchase behaviors including favor to cosmetics and purchase intent. Two hundred male consumers participated for the study. Data analysis conducted were factor analysis, cluster analysis and ANOVA. The results were as follows. 1. Male consumers' cosmetics favorness: 3-way significant interaction, in appearance interest, the country of origin, and types of sales promotion, was found for favor to male cosmetics. When male subjects were provided with price discounts and skin care coupons for the Korean cosmetics, they didn't reveal significant differences in favor, regardless of the level of appearance interest. However, for the imported cosmetics, male subjects with high appearance interest showed more favor to the cosmetics than the ones with low appearance interest. 2. Male consumers' purchase intent: 3-way significant interaction, in appearance interest, the country of origin, and types of sales promotion was found for the purchase intent. When male subjects were provided with price discounts and skin care coupons for the Korean cosmetics, they didn't show significant difference in purchase intent, regardless of their appearance interest. However, for the imported cosmetics, male consumers with high appearance interest reported more purchase intent than the ones with low appearance interest.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.59 no.6
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• pp.41-57
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• 2009

Evaluations of fashion products are often influenced by consumers' knowledge of the country where the products were made in. As globalization progresses, country-of-origin information is widely regarded as a powerful cue on consumers' shopping behavior. The purpose of study was to examine the consumer evaluation of apparel products with uni-national or bi-national country of origin. The effect of price level and gender were also investigated. The empirical research design took 2${\times}$2 factorial design with the country-of-origin coincidence (uni-national vs. bi-national) and price (high vs. low) of gender (male vs. female). Consumers' ethnocentrism and country-of-origin interest were taken into account as covariates in the factorial design. The consumers' evaluation of fashion products was measured in terms of brand attitudes and product attitudes. Data from 514 respondents were analyzed with t-test, one-way ANOVA, two-way ANOVA, and ANCOVA. Results of this study affirmed the importance of price information rather than country-of-origin coincidence in brand attitudes and product attitudes. Only for male consumers, interaction effects of price and country-of-origin coincidence had significant eflects on utilitarian attitude. Effects of two covariate variables included in the study were significant for female respondents but not for male respondents.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.699-709
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• 1997

The purpose of this study is to investigate consumer shopping orientation toward foreign brands in the context of clothing involvement, ethnocentrism, country-of-origin effects and demograpic variables. Prior to this paper, shopping orientation was studied in connection with ethnocentrism and country-of-origin effects. The questionnaire was distributed to 300 female consumers over twenty years old living in Pusan area and finally 213 data serfs were used for statistical analysis. By factor analysis, 6 clothing involvement factors were identified; fashion interest, symbolism, pleasure interest, inclination to harmony, aesthetic expression and perceived risk. A result of canonical correlation analysis about shopping orientation factors and clothing involvement factors is as follows. Two shopping orientation factors (follow to foreign brands and country-of-orion consciousness) positively correlate with three clothing involvement factors (fashion interest, symbolism and pleasure interest) , and two shopping orientation factors (preference to domestics and country-of-orion consciousness) positively correlate with author clohting involvement factor (percived risk). Anocova procedure revealed that five shopping orientation factors were related to clothing involvement factors, groups according to ethnocentric disposition, country-of-origin effects and demograpics respectively, even though there are some differences. Based on the conclusions, marketing strategies were developed.

• Korean journal of food and cookery science
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.53-61
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to investigate the importance-performance analysis for country-of-origin labeling at restaurants. There is a growing concern over food safety as well as interest in the country-of-origin for food ingredients served at restaurants. In this study, the importance-performance analysis for the labeling of country-of-origin at restaurants, revealed that there were significant differences in all 12 attribute items, and the importance was scored higher than the performance in all items. Also, the importance-performance analysis for the attributes of the country-of-origin labeling showed that 'supportive government policies', 'system of controls for violation of the country-of-origin labeling', and 'penalty for violation of the country-of-origin labeling' are included in the second quadrant, which has a high level of importance but a low level of performance.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.45-70
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• 2015

Purpose - This study's purpose is to examine the effects of the country-of-origin antecedents on overall attitudes and the impact of overall attitudes on satisfaction and loyalty. Research design, data, and methodology - This study provides useful insights into international female purchasing behavior in the cosmetic industry in South Korea. This study explores the elements of country-of-origin antecedents, (cultural interest, perception of brand image, perception of fashion, perception of product quality, perception of price, and perception of advertising), on overall attitudes as well as the effect of overall attitudes on satisfaction and loyalty. Results - The results show that the effects of such antecedents are significant. Additionally, the effect of overall attitudes on satisfaction and of satisfaction on loyalty were significant. Conclusions - The findings of this study provide some important practical implications. First, with customer brand awareness growing along with products standards, considering the concepts points of parities and points of differences, the Korean cosmetic industry should try to establish brand associations with natural organic ingredients in its cosmetic items, distinguishing them from the majority of non-Korean brands.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.357-367
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• 2018

Purpose: Because of recent global and domestic issues regarding the safety of food, there is growing concern over food safety and interest in the country-of-origin for food ingredients from restaurants. This study was conducted to reveal the influence of consumer level of knowledge and awareness regarding restaurants and the country-of-origin labeling. Methods: To accomplish this, a primary survey of adults aged over 20 years old was conducted to measure customers' knowledge regarding country-of-origin labeling for restaurants. Respondents were then divided into a lower group and an upper group based on their level of knowledge to evaluate significant differences between groups. A total of 437 of 460 questionnaires were analyzed. Results: The average knowledge score regarding country-of-origin labeling for restaurants was 6.3 out of 10. Additionally, there were significant differences between the lower and upper group in terms of the final education level and occupation. Conclusion: It is necessary to develop guidelines and public relations for country-of-origin labeling of restaurants.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.97-119
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• 2009

The growth of international trade and the formation of supranational economic and political trading blocks have noticeably widened the presence on the market of products of different national origins. This has stimulated interest in explaining the Country-of-Origin (COO) role in domestic and international markets and its consequences on consumer behaviour. Since the consumer purchasing decisions can be decisive to the success of a company's strategy in domestic and foreign markets, the objective of this study is to present empirical evidence on the extent to which reputation of firms associated to a certain COO are related to consumer purchase intention. Additionally our study considers ethnocentrism as a variable that partially explains the rejection of imports products based on its foreign origin. The empirical application of the proposed model is related to the purchase of Korean automobiles which represents 5.7% of the national market share in Spain. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data collected from 202 personal interviews carried out in a large Spanish region. The results show that reputation of firms associated to a certain COO in an important factor to establish business relationships involving consumers and firms from different countries and increase intentions to purchase Korean products. Additionally, ethnocentric consumers prefer to purchase domestic products rather than foreign imports as an attempt to protect national economy however the negative effect of ethnocentrism is weaker than positive effect of firms reputation of a COO.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.859-866
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• 2006

The aim of this survey is to examine factors that influence on the perceived helpfulness in consumers' predicting its quality and safety when the country of origin (COO) of beef is declared. The data were analyzed that had collected from a consumer survey done in March 2006. 250 consumers living in Suncheon, Jeollanamdo were randomly selected as respondents. Eleven of them did not complete the survey material, so the total number of available samples were 239. All samples were estimated using proc logistic procedure of SAS package. The results indicate as follows: first, the levels of perceived helpfulness of COO in consumers' predicting beef quality and safety depend significantly on he age, the occupation, and the education level of demographic variables. Second, when analysing attitude variables to beef, the levels are significantly correlated with the respondents' ability to acquire information, their trust of information about beef, nd their interest about bovine spongiform encephalopathy(BSE). The proportional odds assumptions of models are not violated at p<0.05. Third, it is the gender, the age, and the education level of the respondents, and the respondents' ability to acquire information which significantly effect on the level of the perceived helpfulness of COO in predicting beef quality. Fourth, it is the consumer's age, their education level, and their trust of information about beef which statistically have a significant effect on the level of perceived helpfulness of COO in predicting beef safety.

• 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.