• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.70-79
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• 2010

There has been some research conducted that addressed immoral consumer behaviors in Korea; however, most of this research focused on purchasing counterfeits or shoplifting. High return rates of apparel and used apparel returns have been acknowledged as problem areas within the fashion industry. However, very few researchers have addressed this issue. Therefore, the goal of this research was to explore consumer's retail borrowing experience using a mixed methods approach. In study 1 Korean consumer's retail borrowing experiences was explored through focus group interviews. Findings informed study 2 an examination of apparel consumers' attitudes toward retail borrowing behavior via an online survey. Findings assist both researchers' and practitioners' understanding of retail borrowing behaviors and provide insight into retail borrowing issues in the apparel retail industry. For study 1, five focus-group interviews were conducted with seven panels of individuals that had retail borrowing experience within the past year. Thirty-five Korean consumers who lived in a metropolitan area participated in the focus group interviews. Most of consumers were in their 20's (n=21) and were women (n=24). Most participants purchased apparel items from a retail store and returned the worn items for either a full refund or exchanged the worn item for another item. Motives underlying retail borrowing behavior included social needs, job-related needs, fashion needs, and "smart shopping." Similar to existing research findings from other countries, social needs were the most frequently mentioned cause of retail borrowing in fashion stores. Consumers' moral values, attitude toward large corporations, and prior retail borrowing experience were mentioned as possible factors affecting consumers' retail borrowing behavior. For study 2, the questionnaire used to gather the data was developed based on the findings of part I and existing research. Questions concerning consumers' moral beliefs, sensation seeking tendencies, self-worth, past retail job experience, retail borrowing experience, and some demographic characteristics were included in the questionnaire. The data were collected via an online survey using an online panel provided by a commercial online research company located in Seoul, Korea. In order to obtain various consumers, a quota sample was (male: female=1:1, 20's:30's:40's=1:1:1, retail experience: no retail experience=1:3) obtained from the company. A total of 401 consumers who had shopped for apparel items during the prior 6 months participated in the online survey. The results indicated that 19.7% of the respondents reported they had experience borrowing fashion merchandise. Among these individuals, male borrowers (57%) outnumbered female borrowers. In terms of age distribution, x2 revealed that there was a statistical difference between respondents with and without retail borrowing experiences: 41.8% of the respondents with retail borrowing experience were in their 40's, while respondents without retail borrowing experience were evenly distributed between their 20's to 40's. There was also a significant difference between respondents with and without retail borrowing experience in terms of income: respondents with retail borrowing experience tended to have higher incomes than those without retail borrowing experience. T-tests were performed to compare respondents' fashion shopping behavior, moral beliefs, sensation-seeking tendencies, and attitudes toward retail borrowing behavior between participants with and without retail borrowing experience. As compared to those with no borrowing experience, respondents with experience tended to shop for fashion items more frequently and spent more on shopping for fashion items. Consumers with experience borrowing tended to have higher sensation-seeking tendencies than consumers without retail borrowing experience. A regression analysis revealed that attitudes toward fashion retail borrowing were negatively related to consumers' moral beliefs, but positively related to monthly fashion shopping frequency, sensation-seeking tendencies, and past fashion retail borrowing experience. Among these variables, past retail borrowing experience was the most significant predictor, followed by moral beliefs. This research serves as an initial attempt to address the motives that underlie retail borrowing behaviors and the factors affecting those behaviors. The findings of this study may facilitate an understanding of the consumer's retail borrowing, which will provide a basis for approaches that may help decrease retail borrowing and inappropriate returns at fashion retail stores. The findings may also provide materials for consumer education over the long term. In order to better understand fashion retail borrowing behavior, more research is needed in the future.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.427-449
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• 2018

The current study aimed to segment Mongolian female consumers based on luxury consumption values and to compare lifestyle, demographic characteristics, purchase behavior, and perceived brand personality among the segments. The survey was administered to consumers who had purchased luxury products in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. A total of 184 surveys were used for data analysis. Exploratory factor analysis revealed five luxury values: quality value, hedonic value, conspicuous value, social value, and unique value. Using the five luxury values, clustering analysis was conducted, showing that there were four distinct segments: passive shoppers, showoffs, rational value groups, and hedonists. ANOVAs and chi-square analyses revealed that these four segments differed in consumption values, demographic characteristics, lifestyle dimensions (including appearance consciousness, leisure orientation, life enjoyment, and achievement orientation), and purchase behavior (including purchase frequency, price of products purchased, and product selection criteria). Moreover, value segments showed differences in five dimensions of luxury brand personality: sincerity, professionalism/attractiveness, excitement, materialism, and sophistication. The results suggest that consumption values serve as a significant basis for segmentation. Furthermore, the current study indicates that value segments can be described as consumers' perceived brand personality. The study concludes with a discussion of the results, theoretical and practical implications, and limitations.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.81-94
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to analyze the trends of MZ generation's lifestyle-related research from 2010 to 2020. As a result of searching keywords such as MZ generation's and lifestyle using academic database search sites, a total of 218 cases were used as analysis data to conduct frequency and content analysis. First, research type was 74 dissertations(34.6%), 144 journals(65.4%). The study of MZ generation was relatively active in journals. Second, the current status of academic field was 85(39.7%) in the social field, followed by 66(30.8%) in the arts/physical education, 21(9.8%) in the complex studies, 16(7.5%) in education, 15(7.0%) in nature, 6(2.8%) in engineering, 4(1.9%) in humanities, 1(0.5%) in agriculture/marine. Third, the current status of MZ generation research topics is 54 social participations(25.3%), 35 fashion/beauty(16.3%), 31 social/organizational adaptations(14.5%), 25 cultural/leisure activities(11.7%), 24 design/development projects(11.2%), 21 economic/employment/job projects(9.8%), 11 educational/career/experiences(5.1%), 9 self-concepts(4.2%), 4 welfare services(1.9%). Fourth, the current status of MZ generation research methods was quantitative research(survey/experiment) 125(58.4%), qualitative research(depth interview/participant observation) 42(19.6%), theory/literature research 35(16.4%) and mixed research 12(5.6%). Fifth, the study on the lifestyle of the MZ generation was conducted in four cases, one in 2016, one in 2019, two in 2020. This study is meaningful in that it grasped the overall flow of data of information exchange that can share the research trends of the MZ generation and suggested the basic data on the direction of future research, the individual tendency, behavior, and lifestyle characteristics of the MZ generation.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.7-17
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• 2018

Purpose - This study aims to investigate domestic wine consumption behavior and make future sales strategies and marketing plans. Research design, data, and methodology - To achieve the purpose of the study, the surveys were conducted targeting 350 wine customers in Jeju and Seoul. 331 responses were collected, and out of them, 21 responses were deleted because they lacked the proper information fill in. A descriptive statistical analysis was applied to the remaining 310 responses. The statistical techniques used for carrying out hypothesis-testing are EFA_(exploratory factor analysis), multiple-regression analysis, and moderating effect in SPSS 18.0. Results - The results indicate that fashion oriented, sociality aspiration and rationality seeking lifestyles had significant influence upon internal attributes. However, well-being oriented and having enjoyment oriented lifestyle had no significant influence upon internal attributes. Furthermore, all the types of lifestyles except social aspiration lifestyles had a positive influence upon external attributes, whereas internal or external attributes had positive influence on customer satisfaction. Conclusions - The consumers who experienced wine purchases think wine selection attributes differ before and after experiencing wine drinking, and it shows that the circumstantial variables as purchase situations prove to be important predicted variables in the behavior field of wine consumers. It implies appropriate wine education according to the consuming trend about wine for wine consumers are needed.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.111-121
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to examine university students' clothing and cosmetics purchasing behaviors according to gender and major. For the study, 337 university students living in Chonbuk area participated in this survey research. The data were analyzed utilizing SPSS statistics package. Exploratory factor analysis, reliability test, and t-test were used. Five factors in each clothing and cosmetics purchasing orientation were generated from the factor analysis. According to gender and major, clothing and cosmetics purchasing behavior were significantly different. Female students showed more impulsive, rational, and economical purchasing orientations than male students did. On the contrary, male students showed more independent and convenient purchasing orientations. The students with fashion design major showed higher tendency in impulsive and rational clothing purchasing orientations than non-fashion design major students. Finally, clothing and cosmetics purchasing behaviors were significantly different by gender and major in terms of information usage and expenditure for clothing and cosmetics.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.306-319
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• 2013

This study explores various issues of appearance management behavior for plus-size women in Korea with a focus on clothing. In-depth interviews and focused group interviews were conducted with 24 plus-size women. The interviews were recorded and the transcripts were analyzed based on grounded theory. Discomfort was the main phenomenon involving the experience of plus-size women related to appearance management. Psychological as well as physiological/physical discomfort, unmet needs (regarding clothing) and inconvenient shopping experiences were frequently mentioned. Causal conditions for discomfort were obesity, social stigma, and an underdeveloped clothing market for plus-size consumers. Interviewees developed strategies to cope with discomfort (suppressing clothing need, loss of interest in clothing, diversion from clothing needs, sole focus on physical comfort, dress-up and increase in shopping channels, and change in shopping patterns) that depended on contextual conditions (such as duration of obesity and attitudes of people) close to the interviewees. The discomfort of interviewees decreased or continued depending on if they became ambivalent about their obese condition, lost weight, or utilized plus-size specialty stores.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.849-860
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• 2011

This study explores a structural model to examine the relationship between web browsing motivation, retail strategy and purchase conversion for apparel on shopping websites. A self-administered questionnaire based on existing scales includes web browsing motivation, retail strategy, and purchase conversion intention of apparel on the shopping websites. A total of 499 usable questionnaires were obtained from consumers aging 20 to 49 who reside in metropolitan cities in Korea. For data analysis, descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation models were used via SPSS 12.0 and LISREL 8.8. Findings concluded that web browsing motivations consisted of three factors: hedonic, informational, and recreational browsing for apparel. Hedonic browsing had a negative effect on purchase conversion intention, whereas informational browsing had a positive effect on the purchase conversion intention for apparel on shopping sites. Retail strategies on the website were classified into service, merchandise assortment, and price & promotion; the three elements of retail strategies mediated the relationship between web browsing motivations and purchase conversion intention for apparel. Specially, merchandise assortment had significantly direct effect on the purchase conversion intention of apparel on shopping websites. Managerial implications were discussed for fashion marketers to develop retail strategies and web content in order to convert web browsers or visitors into purchasers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.356-375
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• 2021

The Generation Z (Gen-Z) consumer has a unique beauty-consuming behavior that is distinct from the previous generations. This study aims to identify the meaning of makeup rituals based on the theoretical framework of the ritual concept. In-depth interviews were conducted with fifteen females in their mid-teens to early 20s. The results showed that Gen-Z has different types of makeup ritual scripts for both ordinary days and special days, which are constantly being re-written and revised based on the experience accumulated. In addition, there are various types of ritual artifacts that play an important role in Gen-Z's makeup ritual, and that they provide psychological comfort and satisfaction. The importance of DIY (Do It Yourself), collecting, and independent brands is emphasized. The role of Gen-Z in the makeup ritual was expanding from a creator for her own ritual to a collaborator for peers' rituals, and sometimes the expansion goes beyond the direct relationships to virtual ones through SNS (Social Network Service). The Gen-Z cohort is found to be a member of beauty knowledge network through which they learn, share, and create the know-how and shopping skills.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.19 no.7
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• pp.87-94
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to categorize tourists according to the types of Korean popular culture as travel motives and to explore their characteristics and behavior in the tourism-related decision-making process. A sample of 12,914 leisure tourists from the 2018 foreign tourist survey data was analyzed using MNL and ANOVA. The popular cultural tourists were categorized into K-food, K-fashion, and K-pop groups. They showed a higher percentage of female tourists, social media usage in the tourism information search, and visits from countries geographically close to Korea. K-pop tourists did not hesitate to choose Korea as the destination and visited Korea the most frequently. They showed the highest satisfaction, revisit intention and recommendation intention, suggesting loyalty and growth potential.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.885-898
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• 2015

This study develops scales to measure clothing consumption values for Korean male consumers. This study conducted qualitative and quantitative research to explore a new clothing consumption value among males as well as investigate empirically the measurement of clothing consumption values. In-depth interviews and focus group interviews were collected for qualitative research on 20 Korean men in their 20s-40s who had experience with 2 types of stores in Korean men's fashion. An analysis of qualitative data based on grounded theory approaches identified 6 factors and 15 items. For the empirical research, the questionnaire which consist of 9 factors and 46 items were developed by the results of grounded theory approaches and prior studies. Final measurement scales were based on 651 data used in exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). All subjects were in their 20s-40s. The result from CFA suggested 4 factors and 18 items with showing acceptable construct validity and discriminant validity. Therefore, this study confirmed that clothing consumption value for Korean male consumer consist of ostentatious and brand value, epistemic and possession value, conditional value, and reasonable value. These constructs will provide critical insight in understanding and segmenting Korean male consumers.