• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.823-833
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• 2014

The objective of this study was to take a closer look at the clothing benefits sought by breast cancer survivors in Korea. A qualitative descriptive study was conducted, using the focus group interview. Data was collected from members of online breast cancer forum. 18 participants were breast cancer survivors who had mastectomy or lumpectomy in their 30s~50s. The data was analyzed using content analysis in order to identify significant themes. The analysis indicated that benefits were sought after functional/comfort, health, feminity, and compensation were found. First, breast cancer survivors considered functional/comfort to be most important benefit so as to keep the body comfortable from the weather. Second, participants put the healthy body as the first priority and chose a well-being lifestyle and were likely to wear clothes made in healthy fabric, such as organic, bamboo or charcoal. Also, they preferred to look active by wearing sport brands or outdoorwear brands. Third, after the surgery, they experienced the sense of femininity loss and the sense of crisis as a woman. Single women and married women in early 30s recognized more seriously, and they tried to recover feminity by wearing clothes with feminine details. Forth, breast cancer survivor consumers tended to shop for the psychological compensation. In summary, consumers with breast cancer surgery, unlike general healthy women, did not sought to be economic, fashion, self-expression benefits, rather they sought health, femininity, and compensation benefits. Therefore, it seems necessary to develop proper products and marketing strategy to meet the said consumer's special needs.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Food Science of Animal Resources Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.1-14
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• 2000

The Near Infrared region of the energy spectrum was first discovered by Hershel in the year 1800. The principles of NIR is based on light absorption of specific organic chemical bonds. The absorption at each wavelength is measured and a spectre is obtained. The spectre is then treated mathematically and with the absorption data is converted to absolute units via a calibration. In the last two decades it has developed dramatically. With the invention of computers and the ability to treat a large amount of data in a very short time the use of NIR for many different purposes has developed very fast. During the last decade with the aid of very powerful PC's the application of NIR technology has become even more widespread. Now or days development of very robust calibrations can be done in a relatively short time with a minimum of resources. The use of Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIR) in the Meat industry is relatively new. The first installations were taken into operation in the 80ties. The Meat Industry in often referred to as rather conservative and slow to embrace new technologies, they stay with the old and proven methods. The first NIR instruments used by the Meat Industry, and most other industries, were multipurpose build, which means that the sample presentation was not well suited to this particular application, or many other applications for that sake. As the Meat Industry grows and develops to meet the demands of the modern markets, they realise the need for better control of processes and final products. From the early 90 ties and onward the demand for 'rear time' rapid results starts growing, and some suppliers of NIR instruments (and instruments based on other technologies, like X-ray) start to develop and manufacture instrumentation dedicated to the particular needs of the Meat Industry. Today it is estimated that there are approximately 2000 rapid instruments placed in the Meat industry world-wide. By far most of these are used as at-line or laboratory installations, but the trend and need is moving towards real on-line or in-line solutions. NIR is the most cost effective and reproducible analytical procedure available for the twenty first century.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.59-69
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• 2010

Green or an environmental consciousness has been a major issue for businesses and government offices, as well as consumers, worldwide. In response to this movement, the Korean government announced, in the early 2000s, the era of "Green Growth" as a way to encourage green-related business activities. The Korean fashion industry, in various levels of involvement, presents diverse eco-friendly products as a part of the green movement. These apparel products include organic products and recycled clothing. For these companies to be successful, they need information about who are the consumers who consider green issues (e.g., environmental sustainability) as part of their personal values when making a decision for product purchase, use, and disposal. These consumers can be considered as eco-sumers. Previous studies have examined consumers' purchase intention for or with eco-friendly products. In addition, studies have examined influential factors used to identify the eco-sumers or green consumers. However, limited attention was paid to eco-sumers' disposal or recycling behavior of clothes in comparison with their green product purchases. Clothing disposal behaviors are ways that consumer can get rid of unused clothing and in clue temporarily lending the item or permanently eliminating the item by "handing down" (e.g., giving it to a younger sibling), donating, exchanging, selling, or simply throwing it away. Accordingly, examining purchasing behaviors of eco-friendly fashion items in conjunction with clothing disposal behaviors should improve understanding of a consumer's clothing consumption behavior from the environmental perspective. The purpose of this exploratory study is to provide descriptive information about Korean eco-sumers who have ecologically-favorable lifestyles and behaviors when buying and disposing of clothes. The objectives of this study are to (a) categorize Koreans on the basis of clothing disposal behaviors; (b) investigate the differences in demographics, lifestyles, and clothing consumption values among segments; and (c) compare the purchase intention of eco-friendly fashion items and influential factors among segments. A self-administered questionnaire was developed based on previous studies. The questionnaire included 10 items of clothing disposal behavior, 22 items of LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) characteristics, and 19 items of consumption values, measured by five-point Likert-type scales. In addition, the purchase intention of two eco-friendly fashion items and 11 attributes of each item were measured by seven-point Likert type scales. Two polyester fleece pullovers, made from fabric created from recycled bottles with the PET identification code, were selected from one Korean brand and one US imported brand among outdoor sportswear brands. A brief description of each product with a color picture was provided in the survey. Demographic variables (i.e., gender, age, marital status, education level, income, occupation) were also included. The data were collected through a professional web survey agency during May 2009. A total of 600 final usable questionnaires were analyzed. The age of respondents ranged from 20 to 49 years old with a mean age of 34 years. Fifty percent of the respondents were males and about 58% were married, and 62% reported having earned university degrees. Principal components factor analysis with varimax rotation was used to identify the underlying dimensions of the clothing disposal behavior scale, and three factors were generated (i.e., reselling behavior, donating behavior, non-recycling behavior). To categorize the respondents on the basis of clothing disposal behaviors, k-mean cluster analysis was used, and three segments were obtained. These consumer segments were labeled as 'Resale Group', 'Donation Group', and 'Non-Recycling Group.' The classification results indicated approximately 98 percent of the original cases were correctly classified. With respect to demographic characteristics among the three segments, significant differences were found in gender, marital status, occupation, and age. LOHAS characteristics were reduced into the following five factors: self-satisfaction, family orientation, health concern, environmental concern, and voluntary service. Significant differences were found in the LOHAS factors among the three clusters. Resale Group and Donation Group showed a similar predisposition to LOHAS issues while the Non-Recycling Group presented the lowest mean scores on the LOHAS factors compared to the other segments. The Resale and Donation Groups described themselves as enjoying or being satisfied with their lives and spending spare-time with family. In addition, these two groups cared about health and organic foods, and tried to conserve energy and resources. Principal components factor analysis generated clothing consumption values into the following three factors: personal values, social value, and practical value. The ANOVA test with the factors showed differences primarily between the Resale Group and the other two groups. The Resale Group was more concerned about personal value and social value than the other segments. In contrast, the Non-Recycling Group presented the higher level of social value than did Donation Group. In a comparison of the intention to purchase eco-friendly products, the Resale Group showed the highest mean score on intent to purchase Product A. On the other hand, the Donation Group presented the highest intention to purchase for Product B among segments. In addition, the mean scores indicated that the Korean product (Product B) was more preferable for purchase than the U.S. product (Product A). Stepwise regression analysis was used to identify the influence of product attributes on the purchase intention of eco product. With respect to Product A, design, price and contribution to environmental preservation were significant to predict purchase intention for the Resale Group, while price and compatibility with my image factors were significant for the Donation Group. For the Non-Recycling Group, design, price compatibility with the factors of my image, participation to eco campaign, and contribution to environmental preservation were significant. Price appropriateness was significant for each of the three clusters. With respect to Product B, design, price and compatibility with my image factors were important, but different attributes were associated significantly with purchase intention for each of the three groups. The influence of LOHAS characteristics and clothing consumption values on intention to purchase Products A and B were also examined. The LOHAS factor of health concern and the personal value factor were significant in the relationships with the purchase intention; however, the explanatory powers were low in the three segments. Findings showed that each group as classified by clothing disposal behaviors showed differences in the attributes of a product, personal values, and the LOHAS characteristics that influenced their purchase intention of eco-friendly products. Findings would enable organizations to understand eco-friendly behavior and to design appropriate strategic decisions to appeal eco-sumers.

• 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 the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.37 no.12
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• pp.1667-1673
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• 2008

This study was conducted to investigate the purchase behavior of environment-friendly agricultural products (EFATs) and to provide necessary information for planning and executing effective marketing strategies for producers and distributors. The subjects of this study were 306 housewives in the Seoul area over the age of 20. The result of this study showed that once a month topped with 38.9% in the frequency of purchase, vegetables were the highest with 83.3% in the percentage of purchase and the place of purchase most frequented by consumers discount stores (45.8%), but purchases from farmers were the lowest with 3.6%. TV/radio topped the list of information resource with 3.42, followed by family/relatives/friends (3.33) and newspaper/ magazine (3.31). Those surveyed listed sanitary condition/freshness (4.43), safety (4.20), nutrition (4.05), and taste (3.99) as major evaluative criteria for choosing organic food, in order of importance. Finally, consumers seem to be satisfied with the nutrition (3.75), safety (3.71), and freshness (3.70) of the products and they were dissatisfied with the price of the products.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society of Poultry Science Conference
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• 2003.07b
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• pp.67-88
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• 2003

The consumption of poultry meat (chicken and turkey) grew the most during the past few decades due to several contributing factors such as low price. product research and development. favorable meat characteristics, responsive to consumer needs, vertical integration and industry consolidation, new processing equipments and technology, and aggressive marketing. The major processing technologies developed and used in chicken processing include forming/restructuring, tumbling, curing, smoking, massaging, injection, marination, emulsifying, breading, battering, shredding, dicing, and individual quick freezing. These processing technologies were applied to various parts of chicken including whole carcass. Product developments using breast, thigh, and mechanically separated chicken meat greatly increased the utilization of poultry meat. Chicken breast became the symbol of healthy food, which made chicken meat as the most frequent menu items in restaurants. However, the use of and product development for dark meat, which includes thigh, drum, and chicken wings were rather limited due to comparatively high fat content in dark meat. Majority of chicken are currently sold as further processed ready-to-cook or ready-to-eat forms. Major quality issues in chicken meat include pink color problems in uncured cooked breast, lipid oxidation and off-flavor, tenderness PSE breast, and food safety. Research and development to ensure the safety and quality of raw and cooked chicken meat using new processing technologies will be the major issues in the future as they are now. Especially, the application of irradiation in raw and cooked chicken meat products will be increased dramatically within next 5 years. The market share of ready-to-eat cooked meat products will be increased. More portion controlled finished products, dark meat products, and organic and ethnic products with various packaging approaches will also be introduced.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.59-69
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• 2004

This thesis has an intention to examine how much Bobos, which has appeared as a new ruling class in the age of digital information economy, has had an influence on the fashion design and which aspect Bobos fashion assumes specifically. The existence of Bobos in Korea and its cultural disposition are examined. To do so, questionnaire survey has been performed for 400 persons. According to the result, it is shown that they control themselves thoroughly through exercise and have much interest in their health; for example, they prefer organic agricultural products and nonpolluting foods. They also consume goods reasonably, emphasizing on their own individuality, rather than purchase high-price articles for no good reason, and enjoy their life while seeking for success in the society. Such a disposition is almost same as that in the U.S, showing a small difference in the occupation or origins. It is examined which aspect Bobos fashion design, a new trend, assumes in more detail. Bobos seeks for a thing that is not cheap, has a recognized brand, and is not behind the fashion. They like the nature friendly, classical, and not vulgar thing. design should be casual and practical, and the quality of the material should be good. Especially, an individual disposition is emphasized in Bobos fashion, in which they disregard a brand and try to be the subject of a trend, by creating a fashion by themselves, to express their originality freely. Bobos fashion the first style it harmonizes the appear things not to be matching with each other and depending on pursuing the mix & match. The second style of Bobos fashion nature is friendship and fight. The hazard which it does like that the fact that it attempts is the composition characteristic of idea. The namely design is an utility cheap assuredly with high-class characteristic of subject matter is not a recognize cheap. The third style of Bobos fashion is expressed in nostalgic about the art. Of course Bobos style is not a possibility fashion as main stream of doing still today, but the effect of Bobos is magnified gradually from cultural, social, economic area. It analyzes style is a tendency where trend of the consumer is gradually converted marketing. This paper is meaningful in the sense that Bobos class, which has not been examined yet systematically, and the fashion are connected closely, and the fashion trend in the next is examined.

• Food Science and Preservation
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.669-674
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• 2006

In order to develop a model on the quality and nutrition label of Korean fruit plum, we first examined the quality and nutritional characteristics of Korean Plum, ChooHee. The contents of moisture, crude protein, crude fat, crude fiber, crude ash and N-free extinct were 92% 0.74% 0.64% 1.65%, 0.32% 4.29% respectively. Thus the total calorie of the sample was 32 kcal/100 g. The content of sugar, acidity and Vitamin C were $33{\pm}0.85 Bx^{\circ}$, $1.08{\pm}0.12%$ and $7.037{\pm}0.317mg%$ respectively. The principle minerals were S, K, Ca, Na, and Mg. Major free sugars were fructose, glucose and sucrose and major organic acid were succinic acid, malic acid and citric acid. The difference of contents of total phenols between peel and flesh pare were considerable. The total phenolic contents of whole fruit were $75.55{\pm}0.73mg%$. On the above results, the quality and nutrition label of Korean plum were developed in the first time. We expect that this study on labeling could play an important role to the quality control and marketing of Korean agricultural products.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.1-31
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• 2008

Trust is central to human relationships, at all times and places. The importance of trust is fundamental in all areas of human life, not only in the area of business administration. 2,500 years ago in China, Confucius taught that the foundation of politics was the trust of the people, more important even than military strength or the supply of food. Shakespeare's play, "Much Ado about Nothing' is about trust and deception. These days, trust and transparency in a commercial organization's business culture form the basis of the 'social capital' by which that organization increases its productivity. A successful company raises productivity by the accumulation of social capital, derived from a trust relationship between business partners, and between the company and consumers. Trust is the crucial factor. At the national level, building trust determines a nation's competitiveness. For a company, long term trust relationships with customers are essential for its survival in a business environment of rapid change. Such relationships, based on trust, are important assets to ensure a company's competitive advantage, and need to be organic to that company's business culture. Because of this importance, trust relationships have been studied in diverse areas within business administration, and especially within marketing, where they form the basis of a successful relationship between producer and consumer. However, what has been lacking is a unified definition of trust. Research has been conducted on the basis of various definitions and models. The majority of researchers have not considered the multidimensional character of the concept of trust until now. Approaches based on a one dimensional model have undermined the value of research results. Furthermore, researchers have only considered trust and trustworthiness as a single component. The majority of research has explored the consequences of perceived trust for outcomes such as loyalty or cooperation, but has neglected the effects of trustworthiness upon the mechanisms of consumer trust. This study focuses on the dimension of trust from such a perspective. It seeks to verify the effect of trust on customer intentions by breaking it down into three separate components: 1) the salesperson, 2) the product/service, and 3) the company. The purposes of this paper are as follows: Firstly, we review the multidimensional nature of trust objects: the salesperson, the product/service, and the company. Secondly, we analyze the relationship between multidimensional trust and trustworthiness. Thirdly, we analyze the connection between trust and repeat purchase intentions for the maintenance of long term relationships. For these purposes the author has developed several hypotheses as follows: H1-1: The competence of a salesperson is positively associated with the trust given by the consumer to the salesperson. H1-2: The benevolence of a salesperson is positively associated with the trust given by the consumer to the salesperson. H2-1: The competence of product/service is positively associated with the trust given by the consumer to the product/service. H2-2: The benevolence of product/service is positively associated with the trust given by the consumer to the product/service. H3-1: The reputation of a company is positively associated with the trust given by the consumer to the company. H3-2: The physical environment of a company is positively associated with the trust given by the consumer to the company. H4-1: Trust in a salesperson is positively associated with repeat purchase intentions. H4-2: Trust in a product/service is positively associated with repeat purchase intentions. H4-3: Trust in a company is positively associated with repeat purchase intentions. The data was compiled from 366 questionnaires. 500 questionnaires were collected, but some of the data was considered unsuitable and inappropriate. The subjects of the survey were male and female customers purchasing products at department stores in Seoul, Daegu and Gyeongbuk. It was carried out between Oct. 25 and 29, 2007. The data was analyzed by frequency analysis using SPSS 12.0 and structural equation modeling using LISREL 8.7. The result of the overall model analysis is as follows: Chi-Square=445.497, d.f.=185, p-value=0.0, GFI=.901, RMSEA=.0617, NNFI=.986, NFI=.981, CFI=.989, AGFI=.864, RMR=.0872. The results of the overall model analysis were coherent. It was found that trust is a multi-dimensional construct, that each of the dimensions of trust are meaningful influences on customer's repurchase intention. Trust in a company may be the most relevant, while trust in a product/service and a salesperson may be less relevant to repurchase intentions. The effective factors in determining trust in a salesperson and a company's product/service were found to be competence and benevolence. Factors in determining trust in a company were its reputation and physical environment, and the relationship of each effective trust factor has been verified in this research. As a result, it was found that competence and benevolence have a meaningful influence on trust in a salesperson and in product/service. It was also found that a company's reputation influences the overall trust in the company significantly but a company's physical environment does not have much effect.