• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.245-276
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• 2008

Brand equity is one of the most important concepts in business practice as well as in academic research. Successful brands can allow marketers to gain competitive advantage (Lassar et al.,1995), including the opportunity for successful extensions, resilience against competitors' promotional pressures, and the ability to create barriers to competitive entry (Farquhar, 1989). Branding plays a special role in service firms because strong brands increase trust in intangible products (Berry, 2000), enabling customers to better visualize and understand them. They reduce customers' perceived monetary, social, and safety risks in buying services, which are obstacles to evaluating a service correctly before purchase. Also, a high level of brand equity increases consumer satisfaction, repurchasing intent, and degree of loyalty. Brand equity can be considered as a mixture that includes both financial assets and relationships. Actually, brand equity can be viewed as the value added to the product (Keller, 1993), or the perceived value of the product in consumers' minds. Mahajan et al. (1990) claim that customer-based brand equity can be measured by the level of consumers' perceptions. Several researchers discuss brand equity based on two dimensions: consumer perception and consumer behavior. Aaker (1991) suggests measuring brand equity through price premium, loyalty, perceived quality, and brand associations. Viewing brand equity as the consumer's behavior toward a brand, Keller (1993) proposes similar dimensions: brand awareness and brand knowledge. Thus, past studies tend to identify brand equity as a multidimensional construct consisted of brand loyalty, brand awareness, brand knowledge, customer satisfaction, perceived equity, brand associations, and other proprietary assets (Aaker, 1991, 1996; Blackston, 1995; Cobb-Walgren et al., 1995; Na, 1995). Other studies tend to regard brand equity and other brand assets, such as brand knowledge, brand awareness, brand image, brand loyalty, perceived quality, and so on, as independent but related constructs (Keller, 1993; Kirmani and Zeithaml, 1993). Walters(1978) defined information search as, "A psychological or physical action a consumer takes in order to acquire information about a product or store." But, each consumer has different methods for informationsearch. There are two methods of information search, internal and external search. Internal search is, "Search of information already saved in the memory of the individual consumer"(Engel, Blackwell, 1982) which is, "memory of a previous purchase experience or information from a previous search."(Beales, Mazis, Salop, and Staelin, 1981). External search is "A completely voluntary decision made in order to obtain new information"(Engel & Blackwell, 1982) which is, "Actions of a consumer to acquire necessary information by such methods as intentionally exposing oneself to advertisements, taking to friends or family or visiting a store."(Beales, Mazis, Salop, and Staelin, 1981). There are many sources for consumers' information search including advertisement sources such as the internet, radio, television, newspapers and magazines, information supplied by businesses such as sales people, packaging and in-store information, consumer sources such as family, friends and colleagues, and mass media sources such as consumer protection agencies, government agencies and mass media sources. Understanding consumers' purchasing behavior is a key factor of a firm to attract and retain customers and improving the firm's prospects for survival and growth, and enhancing shareholder's value. Therefore, marketers should understand consumer as individual and market segment. One theory of consumer behavior supports the belief that individuals are rational. Individuals think and move through stages when making a purchase decision. This means that rational thinkers have led to the identification of a consumer buying decision process. This decision process with its different levels of involvement and influencing factors has been widely accepted and is fundamental to the understanding purchase intention represent to what consumers think they will buy. Brand equity is not only companies but also very important asset more than product itself. This paper studies brand equity model and influencing factors including information process such as information searching and information resources in the fashion market in Asia and Europe. Information searching and information resources are influencing brand knowledge that influences consumers purchase decision. Nine research hypotheses are drawn to test the relationships among antecedents of brand equity and purchase intention and relationships among brand knowledge, brand value, brand attitude, and brand loyalty. H1. Information searching influences brand knowledge positively. H2. Information sources influence brand knowledge positively. H3. Brand knowledge influences brand attitude. H4. Brand knowledge influences brand value. H5. Brand attitude influences brand loyalty. H6. Brand attitude influences brand value. H7. Brand loyalty influences purchase intention. H8. Brand value influence purchase intention. H9. There will be the same research model in Asia and Europe. We performed structural equation model analysis in order to test hypotheses suggested in this study. The model fitting index of the research model in Asia was $X^2$=195.19(p=0.0), NFI=0.90, NNFI=0.87, CFI=0.90, GFI=0.90, RMR=0.083, AGFI=0.85, which means the model fitting of the model is good enough. In Europe, it was $X^2$=133.25(p=0.0), NFI=0.81, NNFI=0.85, CFI=0.89, GFI=0.90, RMR=0.073, AGFI=0.85, which means the model fitting of the model is good enough. From the test results, hypotheses were accepted. All of these hypotheses except one are supported. In Europe, information search is not an antecedent of brand knowledge. This means that sales of global fashion brands like jeans in Europe are not expanding as rapidly as in Asian markets such as China, Japan, and South Korea. Young consumers in European countries are not more brand and fashion conscious than their counter partners in Asia. The results have theoretical, practical meaning and contributions. In the fashion jeans industry, relatively few studies examining the viability of cross-national brand equity has been studied. This study provides insight on building global brand equity and suggests information process elements like information search and information resources are working differently in Asia and Europe for fashion jean market.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.51-59
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• 2013

This study was conducted to compare the sizes of effective values, which users recognize, according to the kinds of physical and psychological services provided by an arboretum, by estimating them in monetary values. As an analysis tool for this purpose, the CE(Choice Experiments) method, which is able to estimate effective value's size depending on each variable, was employed. For drawing up profiles for estimation of the values of individual services, 25 profiles were extracted using the orthogonal design of the SPSS statistical package, and questions of 75 pairs were created not to make each of the profiles overlapped. Then, each user was given three questions at five sets each and 3,510 data were used for the analysis. As the result, in relation to the attribute, 'The kinds of trees should be diversified 50% more than now.', firstly, users showed the biggest willingness to pay, based on the present level, and expressed intentions to pay 7,956 won, additionally. Secondly, the value of the path design that was unique than the present road design was estimated in 6,025 won, and when individual attendants guided visitors in the arboretum, they expressed intentions to pay nearly three times more expenses than when they were guided as a group. These results show that users in the Gyeongnam Arboretum recognized the highest effective values towards the collection and display of trees that are arboretum's original functions, and it was followed by the unique road design to observe a variety of dense trees well. This research could be useful in comparing or measuring particular effective values of users that central operators of arboretums want to know. Moreover, it would be suggested as an advanced research for providing basic data about value estimation of individual environmental goods not only in arboretums, but also in other fields.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.47-54
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• 2014

Purpose - The postponement strategy, which delays the form, place, and production of products as late as possible, has been widely considered as a competitive supply chain management scheme in an era of mass customization and modular manufacturing. An interesting business phenomenon is that not all manufacturing/logistics firms choose the postponement strategy. Given that postponement is a counter-measure to speculation, which has some advantages under certain environments, the current imprudent inclination toward the postponement strategy may cause firms to lose the potential of the speculation strategy, an alternative strategy in supply chain management. Building on the logistics and manufacturing literature, this study examines characteristics of two contrasting strategies, postponement and speculation, and major factors favoring each strategy. Research design, data, and methodology - We apply the profiling approach to two business cases, HP printer and LG mobile phone. The profiling approach is a method of choosing a particular strategy aligned with environmental factors. While various approaches have been used to check the fit between a business strategy and environmental factors, the literature on manufacturing strategy and logistics has commonly adopted the profiling approach. Major factors used in profiling variables are derived from the literature. Two samples, HP printer and LG mobile phone, are selected, because they represent major characteristics appropriate for each strategy. The profiling is based on data from semi-organized interviews with managers. Results - The profiling approach shows that the postponement strategy is a suitable one for HP printers. Most factors, such as product life cycle, large production volume, low-price, product value, and monetary density, support delaying end products until as late as possible. Despite some exceptions, such as delivery time and economy of scale, our analysis states that the overall profile of HP printer is favorable for the postponement strategy. On the other hand, LG mobile phone may adapt the speculation strategy. Although it has large production volume and low delivery frequency, most characteristics support the speculation strategy for this product. An interesting finding is that, despite common perception that advanced technology products such as mobile telephones favor the postponement strategy, profiling proposes the speculation strategy for this product. Conclusions - Our analysis shows that speculation is not the universal option for supply chain management, and that, when choosing a specific strategy, one should consider many factors simultaneously. A major implication of our work is to emphasize the role of environmental factors such as supply chain variables in choosing an inventory strategy, and the importance of fit rather than solely strategic orientation. A theoretical contribution is to demonstrate the benefit of the simultaneous consideration of business variables in choosing specific strategies. For practitioners, our work leads us to consider the existence and the potential of speculation as a counter-measure to postponement. In addition, the comprehensive framework in this research may be instantly used in examining a practical strategy.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.1-15
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• 2016

The study of ecosystem service assessment has been actively researched and developed from Millennium Ecosystem Assessment(MA) and The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity(TEEB). However, current assessments are limited to monetary assessments of ecosystem function and do not account for the effects of environmental factors and socioeconomic status. This study proposes methods to evaluate ecosystem service based on environmental and socioeconomic factors. The study assesses water yield function through the water yield model in InVEST Tool, and evaluates the overall ecosystem service of water yield as reflected by the amount of precipitation and population of the area. Results show that a difference exists between spatial distributions of the ecosystem function of water yield derived from natural conditions such as land cover and soil, and the spatial distribution of the ecosystem service that accounts for climate and socioeconomic factors. The value of ecosystem service increases for an area of higher population and lower precipitation with similar water yield. Thus, the ecosystem service of water yield should be evaluated not only by the water yield function, but also by climate and socioeconomic factors. The evaluation process described for this study should also be applicable to the evaluation of ecological services in other sectors.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.141-157
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• 2007

This paper evaluates the effects of privatization and deregulation on the firm-specific efficiency and total factor productivity (TFP) growth in the Korean and Japanese railways. Using a stochastic frontier approach and a generalized translog functional form, the paper specifies the equation system consisting of a multiproduct variable cost function and input share equations which is estimated with Zellner's iterative seemingly unrelated regression and the corrected least squares method. The Korean and Japanese railway firms are assumed to produce three outputs (Shinkansen passenger-kilometers, incumbent railway passenger-kilometers, ton-kilometers of freight) using three input factors (labor, fuel, maintenance and rolling stock). A monetary value of the ways and fixed installations held by the railroad firm is also included as a quasi-fixed input. The empirical results indicate that the average estimate of cost inefficiency is 2.57% for the total sample and on the average, JNR and JR Kyushu are found to be worst efficient while the most efficient railway firm in the sample is JR West. Also the cost efficiency levels of seven JRs have been improved after the reform and privatization of JNR. The findings also indicate that TFP growth of the privately-owned JRs are higher than those of the government-owned KNR and JNR. Three-island JRs and JR Freight have slightly higher TFP growth than Honshu JRs as well. Thus, the results suggest that managerial autonomy and increased competition via deregulation have improved efficiency and TFP growth.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.141-162
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• 2017

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) crisis introduced a system for easy layoffs. With recent economic downturn, employees have been asked to retire early and less new jobs have become available. More small businesses as a result have been started. The purpose of this research is to study weight and ranking on SWOT factors of korea food service franchise industry using the SWOT analysis. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Analytic Network Process (ANP) were used to analyze the SWOT found by the surveys. First, the SWOT analysis shows that the franchise owners and the expert group view the industry positively overall and there are more strengths, opportunities than weaknesses, threats. While there are negatives and threats to the industry overall, many people think that there are more opportunities and positive aspects. Second, the franchise owners rank proven business model and platform (S3) as the strongest strength of food service franchise businesses while the expert group ranks management supports (S2) from headquarters as the strongest strength. Third, the expert group and franchise owner group indicate that the weight on unfair franchise contracts with headquarters(W3) and high penalty from breaking a franchise agreement(W4) are 60% of weaknesses. Fourth, both the expert group and franchise owner group indicate that change in people's lifestyle, value system and consumption pattern(O3) as the most important opportunity. Fifth, both groups indicate that changes in consumption pattern(T1) due to ever changing food service industry as the biggest threat. It is ranked higher than the entry of korea food service franchises.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.269-289
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• 2008

It is very difficult problem to estimate and evaluate the performance of e-government system which scope and size are large and its effectiveness can not be seen shortly but reveals after several years. It is because the previous offline processes can not be transformed to online ones fully and shortly. For such e-transformation cases, the performance evaluation model should be adjusted and modified gradually as time passes. This paper propose new EEM(E-transformation Evaluation Model) model and methodology to evaluate G2B system that is one of large e-government project. EEM model can derive monetary value of e-transformatized business process areas(online areas). It also estimate the expected effect of offline area that is not yet transformed to online. EEM model consists of standard model, verification model and estimation model with some variables such as evaluation year, evaluation area and data type. By using survey data and database data together it can validate the correctness of the model and derive the effect of the system introduction. This paper also propose EEM evaluation methodology consisting of 5 stages and 10 sub processes to evaluate online and offline effect efficiently. To show the usefulness of this study, we evaluate the performance of Korea G2B system named KONEPS which is famous as a successful e-government case in the world by using the proposed model and methodology. The proposed model and methodology can be applied to different similar areas including e-government projects and large scale information system introduction in private sectors. This study can be also used for establishing appropriate policies about e-government project and informatization issues.

• The Journal of Society for e-Business Studies
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.163-181
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• 2010

As a part of efforts to reduce the global emissions of greenhouse gases, the Kyoto Protocol was signed by major developed countries ("Annex I" countries). According to the Kyoto protocol, the Emission Trading Scheme that derives a trading market of the $CO_2$ emission rights is appeared. It causes that business institutions give lots of efforts to reduce $CO_2$ by using new environmentally sound technologies or increasing efficiency in production. On the while there have been several studies trying to develop a methodology to measure the effect of $CO_2$ reduction and its monetary value. In this research we suggest ECRE (Evaluation of $CO_2$ Reduction in E-transformation) model which can measure the $CO_2$ reduction effect through the introduction of G2B system. ECRC model was developed based on the IPCC methodology. ECRC model measures the two major effects of the $CO_2$ reduction which are '$CO_2$ reduction effect from transportation' and '$CO_2$ reduction effect from the decrease of paper use'. In this paper, we calculate the economic effect of $CO_2$ reduction with the case of the G2B system in Korea. This research suggests a basic methodology to measure the $CO_2$ reduction performance for the e-transformed institution.

• Journal of Mushroom
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.144-213
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• 2006

The mushroom production reached to 1000 billion won in monetary value in Korea. We, however, do not have systematic terminology dictionary published yet. Recently new varieties of medicinal mushrooms in addition to culinary mushrooms are being introduced steadily through out the world. This makes the necessity of coordinated and consistent arrangement of terms involved in culture, cultivation and physiological aspects of mushrooms. Various components in relation to the medicinal and physiological functionality also poses ambiguity in terminology along with the terms used in breeding and genetic researches. Moreover, some of the scientific terms are being used erroneously. In order to help mushroom cultivators, students, and mushroom business personnel in understanding the terms on mushroom science and technology we intended to collect and organize all the terms related to mushroom morphology and cultivation, poison and medicinal functionality, processing and utilization, and so on. Thirteen professionals from each field participated in this project. The fields included here are : 1) Genetics and breeding of mushrooms, 2) Cultivation and physiology of mushrooms, 3) Taxonomy and ecology of mushrooms, 4) Processing and functional components, 5) Blight and insects of mushrooms.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.102-115
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• 2015

Several emergy researches have been carried out to estimate the value of marine ecosystem services in Korea over the last decade. Their results cannot be compared mainly due to inconsistency in emergy-money ratios used to convert emergy unit into monetary unit. This study aimed at providing a standardized format for the emergy evaluation of the Korean economy and environment for different emergy evaluations to be compatible. Even though the area of the continental shelf increased in this study compared to those of previous studies, areaweighted average tidal range for the entire continental shelf of Korea resulted in smaller tidal range, decreasing the final emergy input from tide. However, emergy inputs from nonrenewable resources and purchased goods and services increased with new categorization and use of more detailed data, combined with updated unit emergy values. This led to higher emergy-money ratio for the Korean economy, indicating that previous emergy valuations might have overestimated the contributions of marine ecosystem to the real wealth of the Korean society. The base year for gross domestic product used in the emergy evaluation needs to be clearly indicated due to its impact on the calculation of the emergy-money ratio. A standardized emergy table for the Korean economy will contribute to ensuring consistency among future emergy researches on the valuation of marine ecosystem services.