• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.147-172
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• 2023

This study aims to review the competitiveness of 'TVING', a Korean OTT player in Korean market. For this, this study extracts core business resources of TVING focusing on resource-based theory, and analyzes their competitiveness under VRIO framework. TVING has 4 tangible and intangible resources respectively and 1 human resource. Tangible resources of TVING are technology(recommendation, compression), content(original, exclusive, discriminative non-exclusive), production studio, and paid-subscribers. Intangible resources are content planing capability, distribution network(local, global), marketing promotion·PR, sales), brand preference. And human resource of TVING creates IP professionalism of the company. As a result of VRIO analysis, discriminative non-exclusive content, production studios, and domestic service channels are the most powerful resources of TVING to 'sustain competitive advantage'. Technology, original content, planning capability and IT professionalism bring 'temporary competitive advantage', while exclusive content, the number of paid-subscribers, global service network, and promotion capabilities are not core resources with staying in competitive rank stages. By the way, TVING has potential users for sales of KT and LGU+ thanks to partnership and M&A, but this is not effectively used at the organization level yet. The meaning of this study can be found in that this evaluated competitiveness by each resource of TVING and arranged its implications.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.22 no.8
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• pp.149-158
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• 2022

For this study, a total of 297 TV advertisements and digital video advertisements were selected as analysis targets among domestic corporate advertisements executed for two years from 2020 to 2021. As a result of the content analysis, it was found that CSR public service advertisements, CSV advertisements, and ESG advertisements in 2020, when the corona pandemic began in earnest and ESG of companies emerged as a business management topic, showed a markedly higher execution frequency than in 2021. As a result of examining the distribution of corporate advertisement types by media, it was found that companies were executing various corporate advertisements through digital media rather than traditional media such as TV. As a result of examining the advertising appeal strategies according to the types of corporate advertisements, it was found that the emotional appeal strategy was most frequently used among the rational appeal, emotional appeal, and mixed appeal as a whole in corporate advertising. As a result of analyzing the advertisement model types according to the classification of corporate advertisements, it was found that corporate advertisements use a general model differently from brand advertisements. Lastly, as a result of examining the distribution of advertisement model types according to media types, it was found that the celebrity model is more frequently used in TV advertisements for digital advertisements.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.165-170
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• 2024

'K-contents' is in the spotlight worldwide. As the prefix 'K' became popular, interest in K-food(Korean food) also increased. Various studies on K-contents are being conducted, but research on K-food is still very limited. References and articles about K-food are mainly limited to the overseas expansion, marketing status, and sales of domestic brands, and a few research papers deal with only cases of a specific brand's overseas expansion. This paper aims to analyze how K-food is represented in TV unscripted shows and TV series produced in Korea and what their effects are through empirical works. Among the unscripted shows based on food, they are estimated that the point of competitiveness as K contents deal with foreigners' Korean food experiences. Representative examples here are the way foreigners who visit Korea experience Korean food as part of their Korean culture experience, or the type of temporarily setting up a restaurant overseas to sell Korean food to local people. However, the problem with such shows are that it lacks long-term appeal because it is based on the 'Gukbbong(a slang term for 'extreme nationalism')' sentiment. The exposure of K-food in K-contents creates a tremendous advertising effect. It is judged that the current status and analysis of K-contents based on K-food can help establish the direction of future program production and the identity of K-food.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.61-118
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• 2008

The purpose of this research is to construct research framework for international franchising based on existing literature and to identify research components in the framework. Franchise can be defined as management styles that allow franchisee use various management assets of franchisor in order to make or sell product or service. It can be divided into product distribution franchise that is designed to sell products and business format franchise that is designed for running it as business whatever its form is. International franchising can be defined as a way of internationalization of franchisor to foreign country by providing its business format or package to franchisee of host country. International franchising is growing fast for last four decades but academic research on this is quite limited. Especially in Korea, research about international franchising is carried out on by case study format with single case or empirical study format with survey based on domestic franchise theory. Therefore, this paper tries to review existing literature on international franchising research, providing research framework, and then stimulating new research on this field. International franchising research components include motives and environmental factors for decision of expanding to international franchising, entrance modes and development plan for international franchising, contracts and management strategy of international franchising, and various performance measures from different perspectives. First, motives of international franchising are fee collection from franchisee. Also it provides easier way to expanding to foreign country. The other motives including increase total sales volume, occupying better strategic position, getting quality resources, and improving efficiency. Environmental factors that facilitating international franchising encompasses economic condition, trend, and legal or political factors in host and/or home countries. In addition, control power and risk management capability of franchisor plays critical role in successful franchising contract. Final decision to enter foreign country via franchising is determined by numerous factors like history, size, growth, competitiveness, management system, bonding capability, industry characteristics of franchisor. After deciding to enter into foreign country, franchisor needs to set entrance modes of international franchising. Within contractual mode, there are master franchising and area developing franchising, licensing, direct franchising, and joint venture. Theories about entrance mode selection contain concepts of efficiency, knowledge-based approach, competence-based approach, agent theory, and governance cost. The next step after entrance decision is operation strategy. Operation strategy starts with selecting a target city and a target country for franchising. In order to finding, screening targets, franchisor needs to collect information about candidates. Critical information includes brand patent, commercial laws, regulations, market conditions, country risk, and industry analysis. After selecting a target city in target country, franchisor needs to select franchisee, in other word, partner. The first important criteria for selecting partners are financial credibility and capability, possession of real estate. And cultural similarity and knowledge about franchisor and/or home country are also recognized as critical criteria. The most important element in operating strategy is legal document between franchisor and franchisee with home and host countries. Terms and conditions in legal documents give objective information about characteristics of franchising agreement for academic research. Legal documents have definitions of terminology, territory and exclusivity, agreement of term, initial fee, continuing fees, clearing currency, and rights about sub-franchising. Also, legal documents could have terms about softer elements like training program and operation manual. And harder elements like law competent court and terms of expiration. Next element in operating strategy is about product and service. Especially for business format franchising, product/service deliverable, benefit communicators, system identifiers (architectural features), and format facilitators are listed for product/service strategic elements. Another important decision on product/service is standardization vs. customization. The rationale behind standardization is cost reduction, efficiency, consistency, image congruence, brand awareness, and competitiveness on price. Also standardization enables large scale R&D and innovative change in management style. Another element in operating strategy is control management. The simple way to control franchise contract is relying on legal terms, contractual control system. There are other control systems, administrative control system and ethical control system. Contractual control system is a coercive source of power, but franchisor usually doesn't want to use legal power since it doesn't help to build up positive relationship. Instead, self-regulation is widely used. Administrative control system uses control mechanism from ordinary work relationship. Its main component is supporting activities to franchisee and communication method. For example, franchisor provides advertising, training, manual, and delivery, then franchisee follows franchisor's direction. Another component is building franchisor's brand power. The last research element is performance factor of international franchising. Performance elements can be divided into franchisor's performance and franchisee's performance. The conceptual performance measures of franchisor are simple but not easy to obtain objectively. They are profit, sale, cost, experience, and brand power. The performance measures of franchisee are mostly about benefits of host country. They contain small business development, promotion of employment, introduction of new business model, and level up technology status. There are indirect benefits, like increase of tax, refinement of corporate citizenship, regional economic clustering, and improvement of international balance. In addition to those, host country gets socio-cultural change other than economic effects. It includes demographic change, social trend, customer value change, social communication, and social globalization. Sometimes it is called as westernization or McDonaldization of society. In addition, the paper reviews on theories that have been frequently applied to international franchising research, such as agent theory, resource-based view, transaction cost theory, organizational learning theory, and international expansion theories. Resource based theory is used in strategic decision based on resources, like decision about entrance and cooperation depending on resources of franchisee and franchisor. Transaction cost theory can be applied in determination of mutual trust or satisfaction of franchising players. Agent theory tries to explain strategic decision for reducing problem caused by utilizing agent, for example research on control system in franchising agreements. Organizational Learning theory is relatively new in franchising research. It assumes organization tries to maximize performance and learning of organization. In addition, Internalization theory advocates strategic decision of direct investment for removing inefficiency of market transaction and is applied in research on terms of contract. And oligopolistic competition theory is used to explain various entry modes for international expansion. Competency theory support strategic decision of utilizing key competitive advantage. Furthermore, research methodologies including qualitative and quantitative methodologies are suggested for more rigorous international franchising research. Quantitative research needs more real data other than survey data which is usually respondent's judgment. In order to verify theory more rigorously, research based on real data is essential. However, real quantitative data is quite hard to get. The qualitative research other than single case study is also highly recommended. Since international franchising has limited number of applications, scientific research based on grounded theory and ethnography study can be used. Scientific case study is differentiated with single case study on its data collection method and analysis method. The key concept is triangulation in measurement, logical coding and comparison. Finally, it provides overall research direction for international franchising after summarizing research trend in Korea. International franchising research in Korea has two different types, one is for studying Korean franchisor going overseas and the other is for Korean franchisee of foreign franchisor. Among research on Korean franchisor, two common patterns are observed. First of all, they usually deal with success story of one franchisor. The other common pattern is that they focus on same industry and country. Therefore, international franchise research needs to extend their focus to broader subjects with scientific research methodology as well as development of new theory.

• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
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• v.31 no.2 s.51
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• pp.169-177
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• 2005

The propensity to purchase babies' cosmetics is investigated and analysed for this research. The synopsis of this research paper is as follows. The first, the $68\%$ of all respondents do not how a manufacturer or brand name in the reality of variously emerging domestic and import cosmetics for babies. The second, in case of a child haying a fair, sensitive skin or atopy (atopic dermatitis), the respondents are careful in choosing babies cosmetics but in case of a child having a normal skin the older a child grows from a stage of a new-born, a baby and an infant to a primary-school child, the older its mother is, the more respondents use adults' cosmetics in common rather than use cosmetics only for babies. $7.6\%$ of respondents do not use babies' cosmetirs at ail. Especially, in using bathing goods such as a shampoo or a body cleanser, they frequently use adults' cosmetics in common. The third, the qualify is taken into the utmost consideration in purchasing babies' cosmetics. The Quality of imports is trusted and preferred better than that of domestic goods. The cost of purchasing babies cosmetics is less than 10,000 Won. consumers recognize that the price or cosmetics is rather high. The last, the improvement or babies cosmetics is 'the safety of goods', answered by $56.5\%$ of respondents. The respondents are generally not satisfied with babies' cosmetics. So, a baby's skin is threatened by a newly-built house syndrome, the increase of atopic dermatitis, etc., caused by an environmental pollutions, a change of diet and a change of residential life. Under these actual conditions, babies' cosmetics which can protect a delicate and sensitive skin of a baby should be developed immediately. Consumers should have a correct choice with precise recognition and information on a baby's skin and cosmetics and continually use the efficacious and excellent babies' cosmetics to prevent a baby from a skin irritation, and need to show a keen interest in a healthy skin of a baby.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.59-69
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• 2012

As exhibition industry, which is a part of 17 new growth engines of the government, is related to other industries such as tourism, transportation and financial industries. So it has a significant ripple effect on other industries. Exhibition is a knowledge-intensive, eco-friendly and high value-added Industry. Over 13,000 exhibitions are held every year around the world which contributes to getting foreign currency. Exhibition industry is closely related with culture and tourism and could be utilized as local and national development strategies and improve national brand image as well. Many countries try various efforts to invigorate exhibition industry by arranging related laws and support system. In Korea, more than 200 exhibitions are being held every year, but only 2~3 exhibitions are hosted with over 400 exhibitors and except these exhibitions most exhibitions have few foreign exhibitors. The main reason of weakness of domestic trade show is that there are no agencies managing exhibitionrelated statistics and there is no specific and reliable evaluation. This might cause impossibility of providing buyer or seller with reliable data, poor growth of exhibitions in terms of quality and thus service quality of trade shows cannot be improved. Hosting a lot of visitors (Public/Buyer/Exhibitor) is very crucial to the development of domestic exhibition industry. In order to attract many visitors, service quality of exhibition and visitor's satisfaction should be enhanced. For this purpose, a variety of real-time customized services through digital media and the services for creating new customers and retaining existing customers should be provided. In addition, by providing visitors with personalized information services they could manage their time and space efficiently avoiding the complexity of exhibition space. Exhibition industry can have competitiveness and industrial foundation through building up exhibition-related statistics, creating new information and enhancing research ability. Therefore, this paper deals with customized service with visitor's smart-phone at the exhibition space and designing mobile framework which enables exhibition devices to interact with other devices. Mobile server framework is composed of three different systems; multi-server interaction, server, client, display device. By making knowledge pool of exhibition environment, the accumulated data for each visitor can be provided as personalized service. In addition, based on the reaction of visitors each of all information is utilized as customized information and so the cyclic chain structure is designed. Multiple interaction server is designed to have functions of event handling, interaction process between exhibition device and visitor's smart-phone and data management. Client is an application processed by visitor's smart-phone and could be driven on a variety of platforms. Client functions as interface representing customized service for individual visitors and event input and output for simultaneous participation. Exhibition device consists of display system to show visitors contents and information, interaction input-output system to receive event from visitors and input toward action and finally the control system to connect above two systems. The proposed mobile framework in this paper provides individual visitors with customized and active services using their information profile and advanced Knowledge. In addition, user participation service is suggested as well by using interaction connection system between server, client, and exhibition devices. Suggested mobile framework is a technology which could be applied to culture industry such as performance, show and exhibition. Thus, this builds up the foundation to improve visitor's participation in exhibition and bring about development of exhibition industry by raising visitor's interest.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.208-218
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• 2010

Internet has grown fast and become one of the most important retail channels now. Various types of Internet retailers, hereafter etailers, have been introduced so far and as one type of Internet shopping mall, 'surrogate Internet shopping mall' has been prosperous and attracting consumers in the domestic market. Surrogate Internet shopping mall is a unique type of etailer that globally purchases well-known brand goods that are not imported in the market, completes delivery in the favor of individual buyers, and collects fees for these specific services. The consumers, who are usually interested in purchasing high-end and unique but not eligible brands, have difficulties to purchase these items overseas directly from the retailers or brands in other countries due to worries of payment failure and no address available for their usually domestic only delivery. In Korea, both numbers of surrogate Internet shopping malls and the magnitude of sales have been growing rapidly up to more than 430 active malls and 500 billion Korean won in 2008 since the population of consumers who want this agent shopping service is also expending. This etail business concept is originated from 'surrogate-mediated purchase' and this type of shopping agent has existed in many different forms and also in wide ranges of context level for quite a long time. As marketers face their individual buyers' representatives instead of a direct contact with them in many occasions, the impact of surrogate shoppers on consumer's decision making has been enormously important and many scholars have explored various range of agent's impact on consumer's purchase decisions in marketing and psychology field. However, not much rigorous research in the Internet commerce has been conveyed yet. Moreover, since as one of the shopping agent surrogate Internet shopping malls specifically connect overseas brands or retailers to domestic consumers, one specific character of the mall's, image of surrogate buying country, where surrogate purchases are conducted in, may play an important role to form consumers' attitude and purchase intention toward products. Furthermore it also possibly affects various dimensions of perceived risk in consumer's information processing. However, though tremendous researches have been carried exploring the effects of diverse dimensions of country of origin, related studies in Internet context has been rarely executed. There have been some studies that prove the positive impact of country of origin on consumer's evaluations as one of information clues in product manufacture descriptions, yet studies detecting the relationship between country image of surrogate buying origin and product evaluations rarely undertaken regarding this specific mall type. Thus, the authors have found it well-worth investigating in this specific retail channel and explored systematic relationships among focal constructs and elaborated their different paths. The authors have proven that country image of surrogate buying origin in the mall, where surrogate malls purchase products in and brings them from for buyers, not only has a positive effect on consumers' product evaluations including attitude and purchase intention but also has a negative effect on all three dimensions of perceived risk: product-related risk, shipping-related risk, and post-purchase risk. Specifically among all the perceived risk, product-related risk which is arisen from high uncertainty of product performance is most affected (${\beta}$= -.30) by negative country image of surrogate buying origin, and also shipping-related risk (${\beta}$= -.18) and post-purchase risk (${\beta}$= -.15) get influenced in order. Its direct effects on product attitude (${\beta}$= .10) and purchase intention (${\beta}$= .14) are also secured. Each of perceived risk dimension is proven to have a negative effect on purchase intention through product attitude as a mediator (${\beta}$= -.57: product-related risk ${\rightarrow}$ product attitude; ${\beta}$= -.24: shipping-related risk ${\rightarrow}$ product attitude; ${\beta}$= -.44: post-purchase risk ${\rightarrow}$ product attitude) as well. From the additional analysis, the paths of consumers' information processing are shown to be different based on their levels of product knowledge. While novice consumers with low level of knowledge consider only perceived risk important, expert consumers with high level of knowledge take both the country image, where surrogate services are conducted in, and perceived risk seriously to build their attitudes and formulate decisions toward products more delicately and systematically, which is in line with previous studies. This study suggests several pieces of academic and practical advice. Precisely, country image of surrogate buying origin does affect on consumer's risk perceptions and behavioral consequences. Therefore a careful selection of surrogate buying origin is recommended. Furthermore, reducing consumers' risk level is required to blossom this new type of retail business whether its consumer are novices or experts. Additionally, since consumer take different paths of elaborating information based on their knowledge levels, sophisticated marketing approaches to each group of consumers are required. For novice buyers strong devices for risk mitigation are needed to induce them to form better attitudes and for experts selections of better and advanced countries as surrogate buying origins are advised while endorsement strategy for the site might work as a reliable information clue to all consumers to mitigate the barriers to purchase goods online. The authors have also explained that the study suffers from some limitations, including generalizability. In future studies, tests of and comparisons among different types of etailers with relevant constructs are recommended to broaden the findings.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.58-69
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• 2022

This study compares and analyses the impacts of holding domestic garden expos that will be fundamental for holding garden expos in the future. Satisfaction with the three sites of the 2013 Suncheon Bay International Gardening Expo, 2015 Seoul Gardening Expo, and 2022 Goyang International Flower Fair, as well as factors affecting the satisfaction in economic, social/cultural, environment/ecology, and operation aspects, were analyzed. As a result of the study, the satisfaction level of all three sites was high, with a value of 3.5 or higher. In particular, satisfaction with the 2013 Suncheon Bay International Gardening Expo was the highest. It was found that there was a difference between the satisfaction level of the 2013 Suncheon Bay International Gardening Expo and the 2015 Seoul Gardening Expo. As a regional festival, the 2013 Suncheon Bay International Garden Expo has acquired a high status due to the 'Suncheon Bay Garden' being designated as the first National Garden. It is thought that great satisfaction was obtained because economic, social, cultural, and environmental revitalization was achieved by matching the values of citizen participation and ecological conservation. As a result of the comparison of perception types affecting the satisfaction by garden fair, satisfaction at the 2013 Suncheon Bay International Gardening Expo and the 2015 Seoul Gardening Expo, it was found that both affected all four aspects. The 2022 Goyang International Flower Fair did not affect satisfaction in the operational aspect. This seems to be because the Goyang International Flower Fair is already a fixed local brand. As a result of analyzing the detailed factors of perception that affect satisfaction, the three target sites were commonly analyzed, including social and cultural factors, which attract cultural events, improve pride and affection for the region, and help educate children. In terms of environmental and ecological factors were analyzed as an inconvenience in life due to traffic congestion. It can be seen that it has the same meaning as the comparative analysis of the difference in factors on the satisfaction of the target site. There is no difference in the effect on satisfaction in terms of social·cultural, and environmental·ecological aspects, but there are differences in terms of economy and operation. Based on the analysis results of this study, to hold a domestic garden expo in the future, it is necessary to properly utilize "environmental" and "ecological" garden aspects that have potential values according to the region's characteristics to develop sustainable, eco-friendly tourism resources. In addition, values will be more apparent when cultural and artistic programs are planned to establish a differentiated identity in the host area and are appropriately used as a marketing means for a local fair. A well-planned local festival through communication with local residents can affect the image of the region and lead to the revitalization of the local communities by securing urban competitiveness along with the establishment of urban brands, so it can be said that local residents' participation and national or local organizations' cooperation is essential.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.111-133
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• 2010

Marketing financial services used to be easier. Today, the competition in financial services is fierce. Not only has the competition become more intense, financial services have also changed structurally. In an environment with various customer needs and severe competitions, the marketing in financial services industry is getting more difficult and more important than before. However, there are still not enough studies on financial services marketing in Korea whereas lots of research papers have been published frequently in some international journals. The purpose of this paper is (1)to review the literature on financial services marketing, (2)to investigate current marketing activities based on in-depth interview with financial marketing managers in Korea, and (3)to suggest some implications for future research on the financial services marketing. Financial products are not consumer products. In fact, they are not products at all in the way product marketing is usually described. Nor are they altogether like services. The financial industry operates in a unique way, and its marketing tasks are correspondingly complex. However, the literature review shows that there has been a lack of basic studies which dealt with inherent characteristics of financial services marketing compared to the research on marketing in other industries. Many studies in domestic marketing journals have so far focused only on the general customer behaviors and the special issues in some financial industries. However, for more effective financial services marketing, we have to answer following questions. Is there any difference between financial service marketing and consumer packaged goods marketing? What are the differences between the financial services marketing and other services marketing such as education and health services? Are there different ways of marketing among banks, securities firms, insurance firms, and credit card companies? In other words, we need more detailed research as well as basic studies about the financial services marketing. For example, we need concrete definitions of financial services marketing, bank marketing, securities firm marketing, and etc. It is also required to compare the characteristics of each marketing within the financial services industry. The products sold in each market have different characteristics such as duration and degree of risk-taking. It means that there are sub-categories in financial services marketing. We have to consider them in the future research on the financial services marketing. It is also necessary to study customer decision making process in the financial markets. There have been little research on how customers search and process information, compare alternatives, make final decision, and repeat their choices. Because financial services have some unique characteristics, we need different understandings in the customer behaviors compared to the behaviors in other service markets. And also considering the rapid growth in financial markets and upcoming severe competition between domestic and global financial companies, it is time to start more systematic and detailed research on financial services marketing in Korea. In the second part of this paper, I analyzed the results of in-depth interview with 20 marketing managers of financial services companies in Korea. As a result, I found that the role of marketing departments in Korean financial companies are mainly focused on the short-term activities such as sales support, promotion, and CRM data analysis although the size and history of marketing departments to some extent show a sign of maturity. Most companies established official marketing departments before 2001. Average number of employees in a marketing department is about 58. However, marketing managers in eight companies(40% of the sample) still think that the purpose of marketing is only to support and manage general sales activities. It shows that some companies have sales-oriented concept rather than marketing-oriented concept. I also found three key words which marketing managers think importantly in financial services markets. They are (1)Trust in customer relationship, (2)Brand differentiation, and (3)Rapid response to customer needs. 50% of the sample support that "Trust" is the most important key word in the financial services marketing. It is interesting that 80% of banks and securities companies think that "Trust" is the most important thing, whereas managers in credit card companies consider "Rapid response to customer needs" as the most important key word in their market. In addition, there are different problems recognition of marketing managers depending on the types of financial industries they belong to. For example, in the case of banks and insurance companies, marketing managers consider "a lack of communication with other departments" as the most serious problem. On the other hand, in the case of securities firms, "a lack of utilization of customer data" is the most serious problem. These results imply that there are different important factors for the customer satisfaction depending on the types of financial industries, and managers have to consider them when marketing financial products in more effective ways. For example, It will be necessary for marketing managers to study different important factors which affect customer satisfaction, repeat purchase, degree of risk-taking, and possibility of cross-selling according to the types of financial industries. I also suggested six hypothetical propositions for the future research.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.39-70
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• 2017

Data-drive analytics techniques have been recently applied to public surveys. Instead of simply gathering survey results or expert opinions to research the preference for a recently launched product, enterprises need a way to collect and analyze various types of online data and then accurately figure out customer preferences. In the main concept of existing data-based survey methods, the sentiment lexicon for a particular domain is first constructed by domain experts who usually judge the positive, neutral, or negative meanings of the frequently used words from the collected text documents. In order to research the preference for a particular product, the existing approach collects (1) review posts, which are related to the product, from several product review web sites; (2) extracts sentences (or phrases) in the collection after the pre-processing step such as stemming and removal of stop words is performed; (3) classifies the polarity (either positive or negative sense) of each sentence (or phrase) based on the sentiment lexicon; and (4) estimates the positive and negative ratios of the product by dividing the total numbers of the positive and negative sentences (or phrases) by the total number of the sentences (or phrases) in the collection. Furthermore, the existing approach automatically finds important sentences (or phrases) including the positive and negative meaning to/against the product. As a motivated example, given a product like Sonata made by Hyundai Motors, customers often want to see the summary note including what positive points are in the 'car design' aspect as well as what negative points are in thesame aspect. They also want to gain more useful information regarding other aspects such as 'car quality', 'car performance', and 'car service.' Such an information will enable customers to make good choice when they attempt to purchase brand-new vehicles. In addition, automobile makers will be able to figure out the preference and positive/negative points for new models on market. In the near future, the weak points of the models will be improved by the sentiment analysis. For this, the existing approach computes the sentiment score of each sentence (or phrase) and then selects top-k sentences (or phrases) with the highest positive and negative scores. However, the existing approach has several shortcomings and is limited to apply to real applications. The main disadvantages of the existing approach is as follows: (1) The main aspects (e.g., car design, quality, performance, and service) to a product (e.g., Hyundai Sonata) are not considered. Through the sentiment analysis without considering aspects, as a result, the summary note including the positive and negative ratios of the product and top-k sentences (or phrases) with the highest sentiment scores in the entire corpus is just reported to customers and car makers. This approach is not enough and main aspects of the target product need to be considered in the sentiment analysis. (2) In general, since the same word has different meanings across different domains, the sentiment lexicon which is proper to each domain needs to be constructed. The efficient way to construct the sentiment lexicon per domain is required because the sentiment lexicon construction is labor intensive and time consuming. To address the above problems, in this article, we propose a novel product reputation mining algorithm that (1) extracts topics hidden in review documents written by customers; (2) mines main aspects based on the extracted topics; (3) measures the positive and negative ratios of the product using the aspects; and (4) presents the digest in which a few important sentences with the positive and negative meanings are listed in each aspect. Unlike the existing approach, using hidden topics makes experts construct the sentimental lexicon easily and quickly. Furthermore, reinforcing topic semantics, we can improve the accuracy of the product reputation mining algorithms more largely than that of the existing approach. In the experiments, we collected large review documents to the domestic vehicles such as K5, SM5, and Avante; measured the positive and negative ratios of the three cars; showed top-k positive and negative summaries per aspect; and conducted statistical analysis. Our experimental results clearly show the effectiveness of the proposed method, compared with the existing method.