A Study on the Legislation of Corporate Social Responsibility and its Application - The Indian Companies Act 2013 - (기업의 사회적 책임 입법과 적용에 대한 고찰 -인도 회사법 개정과 적용 경험을 중심으로-)
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- Journal of Legislation Research
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- no.53
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- pp.455-489
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- 2017
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The new system on the Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR) in the Indian Companies Act became overnight sensation to the worldwide. However there has been very few studies which are analyzing a purpose of it under the context of Indian societies. This paper examines the circumstance whether the CSR activities is functioning well or not. And verifying problems regarding it and suggesting supportive measures are a target of this paper. Though Indian government already established CSR legislation, they did not stipulate the penalty clause. And that became why corporations were poorly perform on CSR activities in first year of enforcement. Furthermore, There is a proclivity that corporations lack an understanding for which activities could be recognized into the CSR. And they excused that they had no time for themselves to adjust an abruptly changing business landscape. With all, unlike rosy expectations, corporations only showed little interests to the area where the investment or attentions from the media are expected. Fortunately, incumbent legislative is fully aware of it and exploit their best resources to various social fields. Despite the doubts that they originally did not have any intention to introduce the penalty clause, they are handling problems in ways that corporations can be invited in public programs. They also need to request the service sectors to take a leading role of it, which could provide the financial, or telecommunication service to the people in rural province. Thus, the fact that there was a substantial rise in terms of the amount of CSR expenses in 2015 provides a supporting evidence to the endeavors of the government. In doing so, we could finally achieve a better understanding of two-fold goals shown in this paper; maturing settlement of this legislation and development of Indian society.
The Chinese counterfeits has begun to gain great attention recently because of the drastic increase in its volume. The consumption of counterfeit harms to manufacturer who spend millions of dollars to create and develop new product. The counterfeits in Chinese can cause international dispute and lower national reputation. The purpose of this study were to examine if the buyers of counterfeits tend to care more about interpersonal relationship than non-buyers among Chinese. Data were gathered by surveying Chinese consumer living in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou metropolitan area using convenient sampling, and 480 questionnaires were used in the statistical analysis. In analyzing data, descriptive statistics, factor analysis, structural equation modeling with AMOS were conducted. The results of this study were follows, first, attitude toward counterfeits was classified into three factors such as interpersonal relationship, perception, and involvement. It is general belief that attitudes toward counterfeits were correlated with on brand attachment, however this study show that the buyers of counterfeits tended to purchase counterfeit goods as more alternatives of genuine(original) product than non-buyers. Perhaps, the buyers of counterfeits tended to have lower consumer ethics than non-buyers because they value counterfeit high. It is generally accepted that both a producer and a buyer violate the laws, but they are rather generous for buyer. The results of this study suggest consumers' attitude towards counterfeit need to be changed, following consumer education and strict law enforcement. Based on these results, global brand marketing strategies for luxury goods were suggested.
Research regarding corporate associations in marketing has generally been approached using the association theory. However, limited research investigates the effect of corporate associations on consumer loyalty to individual brands by examining the role of self connectedness with a corporate image. The activation of behavior-related constructs can influence individuals' behaviors without their intention or conscious awareness. A recently developed body of research suggests that self connection can play an important role in affecting subsequent behaviors. Although these effects have received considerable attention, the set of mechanisms involved in self connectedness and loyalty to individual brands is not clear. An active self account in which associative constructs can affect behavior by temporarily altering the active self-concept may lead to behavior or evaluation. If the exposure to a corporate brand can induce consumers' cognitive associations and goal-primed effects through the role of active self accounting, the connectedness between the consumer's self and the corporate brand could be developed and this connectedness could be explained by associative and connection models and the goal priming theory. Therefore, this study investigates the influence of corporate associations on loyalty to individual brands through connections between the corporate and the consumer's self. There are three main purposes of the research. First, theories regarding corporate associations will be explored. Second, theories of self-concept will be investigated and self connectedness with corporate brands will be explored. Third, the effects of the connectedness between the self and the corporation on corporate identification and loyalty to individual brands will be investigated. For the purposes of this research, the types of corporate associations are classified into corporate ability (CA) associations and corporate social responsibility (CSR) associations. Furthermore, the connectedness between the consumer's self and the corporate image are divided into two concepts: the connectedness between the individual self-concept and the corporate identity and the connectedness between social self-concept and the corporate identity. This study suggests the hypotheses that the types of consumer self connections with the corporate image could vary according to the types of corporate associations created and further that the connectedness between the corporate association and the consumer's self-concept have positive effects on loyalty to corporate individual brands. The results of testing these hypotheses are as follows. First, corporate ability associations enhance the connectedness between the consumer's individual self and corporate brands. That is, corporate ability associations influence individual connectedness between the corporate and individual self-concept positively from the viewpoint of the consumer's personal ability and branding success. In addition, corporate social responsibility associations have a positive effect on social connectedness between the corporation and the consumer's social self-concept. Second, the connectedness between the corporate brand and the consumer's self-concept affects identification with the corporation. The consumer's personal self and social self connectedness induces corporate identification. Third, individual self connectedness has a positive effect on loyalty to corporate individual brands, while social self connectedness does not. This also means that individual self connectedness with the corporate image or brand plays a more important role in forming individual brand loyalty than social self connectedness with the corporate does. In addition, social connectedness cannot influence individual brand loyalty until it passes through identification with the corporate. Fourth, consumers who experience identification with a corporate identity also show positive responses to corporate individual brands. That is, consumers also develop loyalties toward individual brands through the corporate identification because self-pursued goals that are induced by corporate associations can be achieved by consuming the individual brands that are sold by the corporate that the consumers identify with.
After more than 25 years of accumulated research evidence, there is little doubt that leadership behavior is related to a wide variety of positive individual and organizational outcomes. Indeed, leadership behavior has been empirically linked to increased employee satisfaction, organizational commitment, extra effort, turnover intention, organizational citizenship behavior, and overall employee performance. However, it is important to point out that although leadership behavior has been linked to a number of positive organizational outcomes, research regarding the antecedents of such behavior is limited. Especially there is little research dealing with the antecedents of inter-organizational leadership behavior. Supply chain leadership can be defined as the activities undertaken by the supply chain leader to influence the management programs and strategies of supply chain members. Supply chain performance is influenced by leadership of supply chain leader. Although research on supply chain leadership can be broadly categorized, many researchers have been preoccupied with analyzing supply chain leadership by the power-influence approach measuring such as control, power, and power bases. Also they have not examined the relationship between leadership and financial performance. This study has started to overcome those research gaps. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of relational behaviors on supply chain leadership, and the effect of such leadership behavior on financial performance of supply chain followers. In addition, this study also try to find out moderating variable existing in the relationship. To be concrete, First, this study develops a model of the antecedents of four conceptually distinct forms of relational behaviors such as training, fair reward, offering vision, and inter-organizational communication, and tests the hypothesized differential effects of relational behavior forms on supply chain leadership. Second, this study tests the effect of supply chain leadership on financial performance. Third, this study investigates the extent to which this leadership-performance relationship is moderated by leader ethicality. The reason why this study deals with convenience store supply chain is that there is very strong inter-dependence between a franchisor and its suppliers. Their strong inter-dependence makes their relationship as the relationship between a superior and subordinates and creates an atmosphere that leadership occur without difficulty. For the purpose of empirical testing, 217 respondents of suppliers of convenience store supply chain in Korea were surveyed and the analysis utilizing partial least square model indicated that training, fair reward, inter-organizational communication had positive effects on supply chain leadership, and such leadership had positive effect on financial performance of followers. On the other hand, offering vision had no effect on supply chain leadership. In addition, leader ethicality had moderating effect on the relationship between supply chain leadership and financial performance.
This study focuses on predicting which firms will increase capital by issuing new stocks in the near future. Many stakeholders, including banks, credit rating agencies and investors, performs a variety of analyses for firms' growth, profitability, stability, activity, productivity, etc., and regularly report the firms' financial analysis indices. In the paper, we develop predictive models for rights issues using these financial analysis indices and data mining techniques. This study approaches to building the predictive models from the perspective of two different analyses. The first is the analysis period. We divide the analysis period into before and after the IMF financial crisis, and examine whether there is the difference between the two periods. The second is the prediction time. In order to predict when firms increase capital by issuing new stocks, the prediction time is categorized as one year, two years and three years later. Therefore Total six prediction models are developed and analyzed. In this paper, we employ the decision tree technique to build the prediction models for rights issues. The decision tree is the most widely used prediction method which builds decision trees to label or categorize cases into a set of known classes. In contrast to neural networks, logistic regression and SVM, decision tree techniques are well suited for high-dimensional applications and have strong explanation capabilities. There are well-known decision tree induction algorithms such as CHAID, CART, QUEST, C5.0, etc. Among them, we use C5.0 algorithm which is the most recently developed algorithm and yields performance better than other algorithms. We obtained data for the rights issue and financial analysis from TS2000 of Korea Listed Companies Association. A record of financial analysis data is consisted of 89 variables which include 9 growth indices, 30 profitability indices, 23 stability indices, 6 activity indices and 8 productivity indices. For the model building and test, we used 10,925 financial analysis data of total 658 listed firms. PASW Modeler 13 was used to build C5.0 decision trees for the six prediction models. Total 84 variables among financial analysis data are selected as the input variables of each model, and the rights issue status (issued or not issued) is defined as the output variable. To develop prediction models using C5.0 node (Node Options: Output type = Rule set, Use boosting = false, Cross-validate = false, Mode = Simple, Favor = Generality), we used 60% of data for model building and 40% of data for model test. The results of experimental analysis show that the prediction accuracies of data after the IMF financial crisis (59.04% to 60.43%) are about 10 percent higher than ones before IMF financial crisis (68.78% to 71.41%). These results indicate that since the IMF financial crisis, the reliability of financial analysis indices has increased and the firm intention of rights issue has been more obvious. The experiment results also show that the stability-related indices have a major impact on conducting rights issue in the case of short-term prediction. On the other hand, the long-term prediction of conducting rights issue is affected by financial analysis indices on profitability, stability, activity and productivity. All the prediction models include the industry code as one of significant variables. This means that companies in different types of industries show their different types of patterns for rights issue. We conclude that it is desirable for stakeholders to take into account stability-related indices and more various financial analysis indices for short-term prediction and long-term prediction, respectively. The current study has several limitations. First, we need to compare the differences in accuracy by using different data mining techniques such as neural networks, logistic regression and SVM. Second, we are required to develop and to evaluate new prediction models including variables which research in the theory of capital structure has mentioned about the relevance to rights issue.
Since North Korea has used terror crime as a means of unification under communism against South Korea, South Korea has been much damaged until now. And the occurrence possibility of terror crime by North Korean authority is now higher than any other time. The North Korean terror crimes of Kim Il Sung era had been committed by the dictator's instruction with the object of securing governing fund. However, looking at the terror crimes committed for decades during Kim Jung Il authority, it is revealed that these terror crimes are expressed as a criminal behavior because of the conflict to accomplish the power and economic advantage non powerful groups target. This study focused on the power conflict in various causes of terror crimes by applying George B. Vold(1958)'s theory which explained power conflict between groups became a factor of crime, and found the aspect by ages of terror crime behavior by North Korean authority and responding plan to future North Korean terror crime. North Korean authority high-ranking officials were the Labor Party focusing on Juche Idea for decades in Kim Il Sung time. Afterwards, high-ranking officials were formed focusing on military authorities following Military First Policy at the beginning of Kim Jung Il authority, rapid power change has been done for recent 10 years. To arrange the aspect by times of terror crime following this power change, alienated party executives following the support of positive military first authority by Kim Jung Il after 1995 could not object to forcible terror crime behavior of military authority, and 1st, 2nd Yeongpyeong maritime war which happened this time was propelled by military first authority to show the power of military authority. After 2006, conservative party union enforced censorship and inspection on the trade business and foreign currency-earning of military authority while executing drastic purge. The shooting on Keumkangsan tourists that happened this time was a forcible terror crime by military authority following the pressure of conservative party. After October, 2008, first military reign union executed the launch of Gwanmyungsung No.2 long-range missile, second nuclear test, Daechung marine war, and Cheonanham attacking terror in order to highlight the importance and role of military authority. After September 2010, new reign union went through severe competition between new military authority and new mainstream and new military authority at this time executed highly professionalized terror crime such as cyber/electronic terror unlike past military authority. After July 2012, ICBM test launch, third nuclear test, cyber terror on Cheongwadae homepage of new mainstream association was the intention of Km Jung Eun to display his ability and check and adjust the power of party/military/cabinet/ public security organ, and he can attempt the unexpected terror crime in the future. North Korean terror crime has continued since 1980s when Kim Jung Il's power succession was carried out, and the power aspect by times has rapidly changed since 1994 when Kim Il Sung died and the terror crime became intense following the power combat between high-ranking officials and power conflict for right robbery. Now South Korea should install the specialized department which synthesizes and analyzes the information on North Korean high-ranking officials and reinforce the comprehensive information-collecting system through the protection and management of North Korean defectors and secret agents in order to determine the cause of North Korean terror crime and respond to it. And South Korea should participate positively in the international collaboration related to North Korean terror and make direct efforts to attract the international agreement to build the international cooperation for the response to North Korean terror crime. Also, we should try more to arrange the realistic countermeasure against North Korean cyber/electronic terror which was more diversified with the expertise terror escaping from existing forcible terror through enactment/revision of law related to cyber terror crime, organizing relevant institute and budget, training professional manpower, and technical development.
Khori(高麗) refers to the Chaabog(reindeer) that live on lichens(蘚) on Mt. Soyon(鮮) in which pastures are the cold and dry plateau of North Eurasia. Thus, the origin region of the Khori or Koguryo that are the ancestors of the reindeer-herding pastoral nomads(馴鹿 遊牧民) can be said to be the Steppe-Taiga-Tundra pastoral areas of North Eurasia and North America. When the pastoral nomads moved on to the great mountain(大山) zone of the Jangbaek(長白) to the Baekdu(白頭) Mountains, they could have been in contact with pastoral farmers or agricultural farmers living there and they became the farmers remaining on agricultural farms. They were the Koryo people, the ancestors of Korea. Staying in one place, they gradually forgot the origin of their reindeer-herding pastoral nomadic history in the Northwest area of Mt. Soyon, the small mountain(小山) zone of the Steppe-Taiga-Tundra pastoral areas. In other words, they lost their identity as reindeer-herding pastoral nomads when they entered the agricultural area after leaving the pastoral area. However, since their basic genes had already formed when they lived on the cold and dry plateau of North Eurasia, it is possible to study their pastoral nomadic history focusing on 'the minority living in the broad area(廣域少數)', by utilizing highly advanced biotechnological science and focusing on genes and information technology innovation, and removing various past hindrances in research. Therefore, it is not so difficult to restore the reindeerherding pastoral nomadic history of the Koguryo(高句麗) people and secure their pastoral nomadic identity, of which the first steps have already been taken into their historical stages. The Eurasian continent and the Korean peninsula, especially the cold and dry plateau of North Eurasia and the Korean peninsula have been closely related to each other ecologically and historically. They can never be a separate space at all. The Eurasian continent lies horizontally east to west and thus, the continent forms an isothermal zone. Also, since the time of producing their own foods, it was relatively easy for people with their technology to move to other places owing to the pastoral nomadic characteristic of mobility. Unlike the Chungyen(中原) region, western Asia and the regions covering the Siberia-Manchu-Korean peninsula where food production revolution was first made were connected to the Mongolian lichens route(蘚苔之路: Ni, ukinii jam) and steppe roads. Although the ecological conditions of nature have changed a bit throughout a long history, it was natural for the many tribes in North Asia living on the largest Steppe-Taiga-Tundra area in the world to have believed 'the legends related to animals in relation to their founders and ancestors(獸祖傳說)'. Assuming that Siberian tigers and the tigers living on Mt. Baekdu were connected ecologically and genetically because of the ecological characteristics of the animals, and their migration from plateau to plateau, we would suspect that the Chosun(朝鮮) tribe living on Mt. Baekdu were ethnically and culturally more closely connected to the farther removed Ural-Altai tribes that lived on the cold and dry plateau region than to the Han(i14;) tribe who lived in Chungyen(中原) that was close to Mt. Baekdu. More evidence is the structure of the Korean language which has the form of 'Subject + Object + Verb', which is assumed to have originated from the speedy lifestyle of the reindeer-herding pastoral nomads. The structure is quite different from that of the Han(漢) language, which is based on agricultural life. Also, it is natural for reindeer riding reindeerherding pastoral nomads or horse-riding sheep-herding pastoral nomads(騎馬, 羊遊牧民) to have held military and political power over the region and eventually to have established an ancient pastoral nomadic empire in the process of their conquest of agricultural regions. The stages for founding global empires in the history of mankind maybe largely divided into two, in terms of ecological conditions and occupations. They are the steppes and the oceans. Of course, the steppe-based empires were established based on the skills to deal with horses and the ability to shoot arrows while riding horses, along with the use of iron ware in the 8th century BC. The steppe-based empires became the foundation for an oceanic empire, which could have been established by the use of warships and warship guns since the 15th Century. Based on those facts, we know that Chosun, Puyo(夫餘), and Koguryo are the products of a developmental process of pastoral nomadic empires on the steppes. Maybe we can easily find the pastoral nomadic identity of the Koguryo more than we expected when we trace the origins and history of the Korean tribe living in the pastures located in the northwest area of Mt. Jangbaek by focusing on pastoral nomadic mobility and organization just as we have investigated the historic origins of Anglo-Saxons in America by focusing on the times before the 15th Century. In the process, we should keep in mind that English culture originated from the Industrial Revolution and was directly delivered to the American continent, although America was far from England and was not an intermediate point on long sojourns either. Further, American culture came back to England in a more advanced form later. The most important thing currently to be resolved is to cause Koreans to look back on their own history in a freer way of thinking and with diverse, profound, and sharp insight, taking away the old and existing conventional recognition that is entangled with complicated interests with Korean people and other countries. The meanings of Chosun, Khori, and Solongos have been interpreted arbitrarily without any historic evidence by the scholars who followed conventional tradition of fixed-minded aristocrats in an agricultural society. If the Siberian cultural properties of the stone age, the earthenware age, the bronze age, and the iron age are analyzed in such a way, archaeological discovery will never be able to contribute to the restoration of the Koguryo's pastoral nomadic identity. One should transcend the errors that tend to interpret the cultural properties discovered in the pastoral nomadic regions as not being differentiated from those of agricultural regions and just interpret them altogether from the agricultural point of view. A more careful intention is required in the interpretation of cultural properties of ancient Korean empires that seem to have been formed due to mutual interactions of pastoral nomadic and agricultural cultures. Also, it is required that the conventional recognition chain of 'reverse-genes' be severed, which has placed more weight on agricultural properties than pastoral nomadic ones, since their settlement on agricultural farms was made after the establishment of their ancient pastoral nomadic empires. There is no reason at all to place priority on stoneware, earthenware, bronze ware, and iron ware than on wooden ware(木器) and other ware which were made of animal skins(皮器), bones and horns(骨角器), in analyzing the history in the regions of reindeer or sheep pastures. Reading ancient Korean history from the perspective of pastoral nomadic history, one feels strongly the instinctive emotions to return to the natural 'mother place'. The reindeer-herding pastoral nomadic identity of the Koguryo people that has been accumulated in volumes in their genes and hidden deep inside and have interacted organically could be reborn with Burqanism(Burqan refers to 不咸 in Chinese), which was their religion by birth and symbolized as the red willow(紅柳=不咸). The mother place of the Koguryo's people is the endless vast green pastures of North Eurasia and North America, where we anticipated the development of Korean livestock farming following the inherent properties in the genes of the reindeer-herding pastoral nomads with Korean ancestors. We anticipate that the place would be the core resource that could contribute to the development of life of living creatures following the inherent properties of their genes and biotechnological factors. In other words, biotechnology used for a search for clues on the well-being of humans could be the fruit brought by Burqanism of the Koguryo people and the fruit of the globalization of Korean livestock farming. It is the Chosun farmer in China come from the vast nomadic reindeer pastures of North Eurasia that resolved the food problem of a billion Chinese people with lowland paddy rice seeds (水稻) by transforming Heilongjiang Province(黑龍江省) into an oceanic lowland paddy rice field(水田). Even Mao Tse-tung(毛擇東) could not resolve the food problem by his revolution campaigns for tens of years. Today is the very time that requires the development of special livestock farming following the inherent properties of the ancient Korean reindeer-herding pastoral nomads that respected the dignity of life on the cold and dry plateau of North Eurasia and the America continent. I suggest that research should be started from the pastures of the Dariganga Steppe in East Mongolia that was the homeland of Hanwoo(韓牛) and the central horse-herding steppe place(牧馬場) of Chingis Khan's Mongolia. The Dariganga Steppe is awash with an affluent natural environment for pastoral nomadic living however, the quality of life of the pastoral nomads there is still low. I suggest we Koreans, the descendents of the Koguryo, should take our first steps for our livestock farming business project and develop the Northern nomadic pastures, here at the pastures of the Dariganga Steppe, which is the Mongolian core place of state-of-the-art technology for military weapons.
INTRODUCTION Due to the high broadband internet penetration rate and its group-oriented culture, various types of online communities operate in Korea. This study use 'Uses and Gratification Approach, and argue that members' usage-needs satisfaction with brand community is an important factor for promoting community commitment. Based on previous studies identifying the effect of brand image on consumers' responses to various marketing stimuli, this study hypothesizes that brand image can be a moderate variable affecting the relationship between usage-needs satisfaction with brand community and members' commitment to brand community. This study analyzes the influence of usage-needs satisfaction on brand community commitment and how apparel brand image affects the relationships between usage-needs satisfactions and community commitments. The hypotheses of this study are proposed as follows. H1-3: The usage-needs satisfaction of apparel brand community (interest, transaction, relationship needs) influences emotional (H1), continuous (H2), and normative (H3) commitments to apparel brand communities. H4-6: Apparel brand image has a moderating effect on the relationship between usage-needs satisfaction and emotional (H4), continuous (H5), and normative (H6) commitments to apparel brand communities. METHODS Brand communities founded by non-company affiliates were excluded and emphasis was placed instead on communities created by apparel brand companies. Among casual apparel brands registered in 6 Korean portal sites in August 2003, a total of 9 casual apparel brand online communities were chosen, depending on the level of community activity and apparel brand image. Data from 317 community members were analyzed by exploratory factor analysis, moderated regression analysis, ANOVA, and scheffe test. Among 317 respondents answered an online html-type questionnaire, 80.5% were between 16 to 25 years old. There were a total of 150 respondents from apparel brand communities(n=3) recording higher-than-average brand image scores (Mean > 3.75) and a total of 162 respondents from apparel brand communities(n=6) recording lower-than-average brand image scores(Mean < 3.75). In this study, brand community commitment was measured by a 5-point Likert scale: emotional, continuous and normative commitment. The degree of usage-needs satisfaction (interest, transaction, relationship needs) was measured on a 5-point Likert scale. The level of brand image was measured by a 5-point Likert scale: strength, favorability, and uniqueness of brand associations. RESULTS In the results of exploratory factor analysis, the three usage-needs satisfactions with brand community were classified as interest, transaction, and relationship needs. Brand community commitment was also divided into the multi-dimensional factors: emotional, continuous, and normative commitments. The regression analysis (using a stepwise method) was used to test the influence of 3 independent variables (interest-needs satisfaction, transaction-needs, and relationship-needs satisfactions) on the 3 dependent variables (emotional, continuous and normative commitments). The three types of usage-needs satisfactions are positively associated with the three types of commitments to apparel brand communities. Therefore, hypothesis 1, 2, and 3 were significantly supported. Moderating effects of apparel brand image on the relationship between usage-needs satisfaction and brand community commitments were tested by moderated regression analysis. The statistics result showed that the influence of transaction-needs on emotional commitment was significantly moderated by apparel brand image. In addition, apparel brand image had moderating effects on the relationship between relationship-needs satisfaction and emotional, continuous and normative commitments to apparel brand communities. However, there were not significant moderate effects of apparel brand image on the relationships between interest-needs satisfaction and 3 types of commitments (emotional, continuous and normative commitments) to apparel brand communities. In addition, the influences of transaction-needs satisfaction on 2 types of commitments (continuous and normative commitments) were not significantly moderated by apparel brand image. Therefore, hypothesis 4, 5 and 6 were partially supported. To explain the moderating effects of apparel brand image, four cross-tabulated groups were made by averages of usage-needs satisfaction (interest-needs satisfaction avg. M=3.09, transaction-needs satisfaction avg. M=3.46, relationship-needs satisfaction M=1.62) and the average apparel brand image (M=3.75). The average scores of commitments in each classified group are presented in Tables and Figures. There were significant differences among four groups. As can be seen from the results of scheffe test on the tables, emotional commitment in community group with high brand image was higher than one in community group with low brand image when transaction-needs satisfaction was high. However, when transaction-needs satisfaction was low, there was not any difference between the community group with high brand image and community group with low brand image regarding emotional commitment to apparel brand communities. It means that emotional commitment didn't increase significantly without high satisfaction of transaction-needs, despite the high apparel brand image. In addition, when apparel brand image was low, increase in transaction-needs did not lead to the increase in emotional commitment. Therefore, the significant relationship between transaction-needs satisfaction and emotional commitment was found in only brand communities with high apparel brand image, and the moderating effect of apparel brand image on this relationship between two variables was found in the communities with high satisfaction of transaction-needs only. Statistics results showed that the level of emotional commitment is related to the satisfaction level of transaction-needs, while overall response is related to the level of apparel brand image. We also found that the role of apparel brand image as a moderating factor was limited by the level of transaction-needs satisfaction. In addition, relationship-needs satisfaction brought significant increase in emotional commitment in both community groups (high and low levels of brand image), and the effect of apparel brand image on emotional commitment was significant in both community groups (high and low levels of relationship-needs satisfaction). Especially, the effect of brand image was greater when the level of relationship-needs satisfaction was high. in contrast, increase in emotional commitment responding to increase in relationship-needs satisfaction was greater when apparel brand image is high. The significant influences of relationship-needs satisfaction on community commitments (continuous and normative commitments) were found regardless of apparel brand image(in both community groups with low and high brand image). However, the effects of apparel brand image on continuous and normative commitments were found in only community group with high satisfaction level of relationship-needs. In the case of communities with low satisfaction levels of relationship needs, apparel brand image marginally increases continuous and normative commitments. Therefore, we could not find the moderating effect of apparel brand image on the relationship between relationship-needs satisfaction and continuous and normative commitments in community groups with low satisfaction levels of relationship needs, CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS From the results of this study, we draw several conclusions; First, the increases in usage-needs satisfactions through apparel brand communities result in the increases in commitments to apparel brand communities, wheres the degrees of such relationship depends on the level of apparel brand image. That is, apparel brand image is a moderating factor strengthening the relationship between usage-needs satisfaction and commitment to apparel brand communities. In addition, the effect of apparel brand image differs, depending on the level and types of community usage-needs satisfactions. Therefore, marketers of apparel brand companies must determine the appropriate usage-needs, depending on the type of commitment they wish to increase and the level of their apparel brand image, to promote member's commitments to apparel brand communities. Especially, relationship-needs satisfaction was very important factor for increasing emotional, continuous and normative commitments to communities. However the level of relationship-needs satisfaction was lower than interest-needs and transaction-needs. satisfaction. According to previous study on apparel brand communities, relationship-need satisfaction was strongly related to member's intention of participation in their communities. Therefore, marketers need to develope various strategies in order to increase the relationship- needs as well as interest and transaction needs. In addition, despite continuous commitment was higher than emotional and normative commitments, all types of commitments to apparel brand communities had scores lower than 3.0 that was mid point in 5-point scale. A Korean study reported that the level of members' commitment to apparel brand community influenced customers' identification with a brand and brand purchasing behavior. Therefore, marketers should try to increase members' usage-needs satisfaction and apparel brand image as the necessary conditions for bringing about community commitments. Second, marketers should understand that they should keep in mind that increasing the level of community usage needs (transaction and relationship) is most effective in raising commitment when the level of apparel brand image is high, and that increasing usage needs (transaction needs) satisfaction in communities with low brand image might not be as effective as anticipated. Therefore, apparel companies with desirable brand image such as luxury designer goods firms need to create formal online brand communities (as opposed to informal communities with rudimentary online contents) to satisfy transaction and relationship needs systematically. It will create brand equity through consumers' increased emotional, continuous and normative commitments. Even though apparel brand is very famous, emotional commitment to apparel brand communities cannot be easily increased without transaction-needs satisfaction. Therefore famous fashion brand companies should focus on developing various marketing strategies to increase transaction-needs satisfaction.