• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.49-58
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• 2010

Corporate social responsibility has become a very important issue for researchers (Greenfield, 2004; Maignan & Ralston, 2002; McWilliams et al., 2006; Pearce & Doh 2005), and many consider it necessary for businesses to define their role in society and apply social and ethical standards to their businesses (Lichtenstein et al., 2004). As a result, a significant number of retailers have adopted CSR as a strategic tool to promote their businesses. To this end, this study sought to discover U.S. consumers' attitudes and behavior in ethical purchasing and consumption based on their subjective perception and evaluation of a retailer. The objectives of this study include: 1) determine the participants awareness of retailers corporate social responsibility; 2) assess how participants evaluate retailers corporate social responsibility; 3) examine whether participants evaluation process of retailers CSR influence their attitude toward the retailer; and 4) assess if participants attitude toward the retailers CSR influence their purchase behavior. This study does not focus on actual retailers' CSR performance because a consumer's decision making process is based on an individual assessment not an actual fact. This study examines US college students' awareness and evaluations of retailers' corporate social responsibility (CSR). Fifty six college students at a major Southeastern university participated in the study. The age of the participants ranged from 18 to 26 years old. Content analysis was conducted with open coding and focused coding. Over 100 single-spaced pages of written responses were collected and analyzed. Two steps of coding (i.e., open coding and focused coding) were conducted (Esterberg, 2002). Coding results and analytic memos were used to understand participants' awareness of CSR and their ethical purchasing behavior supported through the selection and inclusion of direct quotes that were extracted from the written responses. Names used here are pseudonyms to protect confidentiality of participants. Participants were asked to write about retailers, their aware-ness of CSR issues, and to evaluate a retailer's CSR performance. A majority (n = 28) of respondents indicated their awareness of CSR but have not felt the need to act on this issue. Few (n=8) indicated that they are aware of this issue but not greatly concerned. Findings suggest that when college students evaluate retailers' CSR performance, they use three dimensions of CSR: employee support, community support, and environmental support. Employee treatment and support were found as an important criterion in evaluation of retailers' CSR. Respondents indicated that their good experience with a retailer as an employee made them have a positive perception and attitude toward the retailer. Regarding employee support four themes emerged: employee rewards and incentives based on performance, working environment, employee education and training program, and employee and family discounts. Well organized rewards and incentives were mentioned as an important attribute. The factors related to the working environment included: how well retailers follow the rules related to working hours, lunch time and breaks was also one of the most mentioned attributes. Regarding community support, three themes emerged: contributing a percentage of sales to the local community, financial contribution to charity organizations, and events for community support. Regarding environments, two themes emerged: recycling and selling organic or green products. It was mentioned in the responses that retailers are trying to do what they can to be environmentally friendly. One respondent mentioned that the company is creating stores that have an environmentally friendly design. Information about what the company does to help the environment can easily be found on the company’s website as well. Respondents have also noticed that the stores are starting to offer products that are organic and environmentally friendly. A retailer was also mentioned by a respondent in this category in reference to how the company uses eco-friendly cups and how they are helping to rebuild homes in New Orleans. The respondents noticed that a retailer offers reusable bags for their consumers to purchase. One respondent stated that a retailer uses its products to help the environment, through offering organic cotton. After thorough analysis of responses, we found that a participant's evaluation of a retailers' CSR influenced their attitudes towards retailers. However, there was a significant gap between attitudes and purchasing behavior. Although the participants had positive attitudes toward retailers CSR, the lack of funds and time influenced their purchase behavior. Overall, half (n=28) of the respondents mentioned that CSR performance affects their purchasing decisions making when shopping. Findings from this study provide support for retailers to consider their corporate social responsibility when developing their image with the consumer. This study implied that consumers evaluate retailers based on employee, community and environmental support. The evaluation, attitude and purchase behavior of consumers seem to be intertwined. That is, evaluation is based on the knowledge the consumer has of the retailers CSR. That knowledge may influence their attitude toward the retailer and thus influence their purchase behavior. Participants also indicated that having CSR makes them think highly of the retailer, but it does not influence their purchase behavior. Price and convenience seem to surpass the importance of CSR among the participants. Implications, recommendations for future research, and limitations of the study are also discussed.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.87-105
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• 2002

In order to find out the knowledge, attitude, and experience of community health practitioners(CHP) on complementary therapy, 393 community health practitioners who provide primary health care service in Busan, Kyeongnam, and Daegu, Gyeongbuk regions were interviewed or surveyed by mail from February 1st to March 31st, 2002. In terms of interest of CHPs toward 11 different hinds of complementary therapy, the rate of interest for soojichim was the highest with 75.3%. Aroma therapy had the interest of 71.0% of the CHPs, oriental medicine had 67.4%, and massage had 67.4%. The interest for shiatsu was 64.6%, while homeopath had the lowest rate of interest of 18.1%. In terms of reliance on the treatment results, oriental medicine scored the highest with 92.6%, and soojichim, massage, and shiatsu followed with 85.5%, 83.7%, and 81.7% respectively. Homeopath had the lowest reliance of 18.1%. The 65.1% of the CHPs had the experience of recommending oriental medicine to patients. 50.4% indicated that they had recommended soojichim, and 44.8% had recommended massage before. Shiatsu and aromatherapy followed with 34.4% and Homeopath had the lowest rate of 2.80%. When CHPs were asked if they had received any training in complementary therapy, 33.1% indicated that they had studied soojichim and 13.2%stated that they had learned oriental medicine. Aromatherapy, massage, and shiatsu followed with 11.2%, 8.4%, and 5.6% respectively On the other hand, none of the CHPs had received training in homeopath. In terms of using complementary therapy during the past 5 years, 23.9% had been treated with oriental medicine, and 18.896 had received soojichim. 5.9% had received aromatherapy, 5.3% had used massage, and 5.1% had experience with shiatsu. None of the practitioners had used homeopath during the past 5 years. Significantly many number of practitioners indicated that they had excellent treatment results with all hinds of complementary therapy, and there were rare cares of side effects. When they were asked if they wanted complementary therapy to become part of the curriculum during re-training or training for public service personnels, 78100 wanted soojichim, 69.2% wanted oriental medicine, and 67.9% wanted aroma therapy. 63.9% wanted shiatsu to be included, and 63.1% wanted massage. When CHPs were asked if they wanted to use complementary therapy during primary health care, 63.6% wanted to use soojichim, 52.9% wanted massage, and 51.9% wanted to use aroma therapy. Oriental medicine also showed a high rate of 50.1%. On the other hand, only a small percentage wanted to use chiropractic or homeopath with 17.0% and 12,2% respectively. Among the CHPs, there were some who had administered complementary therapy during the past 5 years. 84% had administered soojichim, 4.6% had administered oriental medicine, and 2.5% had administered massage 2.5% of the CHPs answered that they had administered aromatherapy. However, none of them had administered apitherapy or homeopath. Most of patients showed positive responses, and the rate of side effect was very low. As shown in the above results, although CHPs have a high rate of interest, reliance, and experience in recommending complementary therapy, only a low percentage of them had received any training in complementary therapy. In addition, since there were little side effects when they received or administered complementary therapy, they hoped complementary therapy, which can be beneficial to health, to be introduced to the curriculum. Therefore, in order to provide community members with complementary therapy and the correct information regarding the selection of complementary therapy that could be beneficial to health, a policy of continuous interest and support is needed so that CHPs can he provided with a systemic and rational curriculum of complementary therapy.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.42 no.9
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• pp.1499-1512
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to compare the coffee shop visits of Koreans and Mongolians, and to determine the quality attributes that should be managed by Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA). The survey was conducted in Seoul and the Gyeonggi Province of Korea, and at Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia from April to May 2012. The questionnaire was distributed to 380 Koreans and 380 Mongolians, with 253 and 250 responses from the Koreans and Mongolians, respectively, used for statistical analyses. From the results, Koreans visited coffee shops more frequently than Mongolians, with both groups mainly visiting a coffee shop with friends. Koreans also spent more time in a coffee shop than Mongolians. In addition, they generally used a coffee shop, regardless of time. In terms of coffee preference, Koreans preferred Americano and Mongolians preferred Espresso. The most frequently stated purpose of Koreans for visiting a coffee shop was to rest, while Mongolians typically visited to drink coffee. The general price range respondents spent on coffee was less than 4~8 thousand won for the Koreans and 2~4 thousand won for the Mongolians. Both Koreans and Mongolians obtained information about coffee shops from recommendations. According to the IPA results of 20 quality attributes of coffee shops, the selection attributes with high importance but low satisfaction were quality, price, and kindness for Koreans, but none of the attributes was found for Mongolians.