• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.135-148
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• 2010

Arab boycotts of Danish products, Australian boycotts of French products and Chinese consumer aversion toward Japanese products are all examples of how adverse actions at the country level might impact consumers' behavior. The animosity literature has examined how consumers react to the adverse actions of other countries, and how such animosity impacts consumers' attitudes and preferences for products from the transgressing country. For example, Chinese consumers are less likely to buy Japanese products because of Japanese atrocities during World War II and the unjust economic dealings of the Japanese (Klein, Ettenson and Morris 1998). The marketing literature, however, has not examined how consumers react to adverse actions committed by their own country against other countries, and whether such actions affect their attitudes towards purchasing products that originated from the adversely affected country. The social psychology literature argues that consumers will experience a feeling called collective guilt, in response to such adverse actions. Collective guilt stems from the distress experienced by group members when they accept that their group is responsible for actions that have harmed another group (Branscombe, Slugoski, and Kappenn 2004). Examples include Americans feeling guilty about the atrocities committed by the U.S. military at Abu Ghraib prison (Iyer, Schamder and Lickel 2007), and the Dutch about their occupation of Indonesia in the past (Doosje et al. 1998). The primary aim of this study is to examine consumers' perceptions of adverse actions by members of one's own country against another country and whether such perceptions affected their attitudes towards products originating from the country transgressed against. More specifically, one objective of this study is to examine the perceptual antecedents of collective guilt, an emotional reaction to adverse actions performed by members of one's country against another country. Another objective is to examine the impact of collective guilt on consumers' perceptions of, and preference for, products originating from the country transgressed against by the consumers' own country. If collective guilt emerges as a significant predictor, companies originating from countries that have been transgressed against might be able to capitalize on such unfortunate events. This research utilizes the animosity model introduced by Klein, Ettenson and Morris (1998) and later expanded on by Klein (2002). Klein finds that U.S. consumers harbor animosity toward the Japanese. This animosity is experienced in response to events that occurred during World War II (i.e., the bombing of Pearl Harbor) and more recently the perceived economic threat from Japan. Thus this study argues that the events of Word War II (i.e., bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki) might lead U.S. consumers to experience collective guilt. A series of three hypotheses were introduced. The first hypothesis deals with the antecedents of collective guilt. Previous research argues that collective guilt is experienced when consumers perceive that the harm following a transgression is illegitimate and that the country from which the transgressors originate should be responsible for the adverse actions. (Wohl, Branscombe, and Klar 2006). Therefore the following hypothesis was offered: H1a. Higher levels of perceived illegitimacy for the harm committed will result in higher levels of collective guilt. H1b. Higher levels of responsibility will be positively associated with higher levels of collective guilt. The second and third hypotheses deal with the impact of collective guilt on the preferences for Japanese products. Klein (2002) found that higher levels of animosity toward Japan resulted in a lower preference for a Japanese product relative to a South Korean product but not a lower preference for a Japanese product relative to a U.S. product. These results therefore indicate that the experience of collective guilt will lead to a higher preference for a Japanese product if consumers are contemplating a choice that inv olves a decision to buy Japanese versus South Korean product but not if the choice involves a decision to buy a Japanese versus a U.S. product. H2. Collective guilt will be positively related to the preference for a Japanese product over a South Korean product, but will not be related to the preference for a Japanese product over a U.S. product. H3. Collective guilt will be positively related to the preference for a Japanese product over a South Korean product, holding constant product judgments and animosity. An experiment was conducted to test the hypotheses. The illegitimacy of the harm and responsibility were manipulated by exposing respondents to a description of adverse events occurring during World War II. Data were collected using an online consumer panel in the United States. Subjects were randomly assigned to either the low levels of responsibility and illegitimacy condition (n=259) or the high levels of responsibility and illigitemacy (n=268) condition. Latent Variable Structural Equation Modeling (LVSEM) was used to test the hypothesized relationships. The first hypothesis is supported as both the illegitimacy of the harm and responsibility assigned to the Americans for the harm committed against the Japanese during WWII have a positive impact on collective guilt. The second hypothesis is also supported as collective guilt is positively related to preference for a Japanese product over a South Korean product but is not related to preference for a Japanese product over a U.S. product. Finally there is support for the third hypothesis, since collective guilt is positively related to the preference for a Japanese product over a South Korean product while controlling for the effect of product judgments about Japanese products and animosity. The results of these studies lead to several conclusions. First, the illegitimacy of harm and responsibility can be manipulated and that they are antecedents of collective guilt. Second, collective guilt has an impact on a consumers' decision when they face a choice set that includes a product from the country that was the target of the adverse action and a product from another foreign country. This impact however disappears from a consumers' decision when they face a choice set that includes a product from the country that was the target of the adverse action and a domestic product. This result suggests that collective guilt might be a viable factor for company originating from the country transgressed against if its competitors are foreign but not if they are local.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.162-174
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• 2017

Product Certification Marks can be used as reliable information in terms of product quality to consumers. This study focuses on how each product attitude of consumers in Korea and China can be changed depending on attachment of product certification mark. Based on nations, product certification marks, and price levels, eight types of questionnaire are distributed and collected where the respondents are allowed to answer product attitudes of two different products in oder to minimize the effect of the product characteristic. As a result, the product attitude of Korean consumers has been showed to more depend on product certification mark than that of Chinese consumers does. The moderating effect of price has been stronger on Chinese consumers than on Korean consumers, and in the case of high price there has been a distinct gap between two countries. This study has its meaning in the way of that the product certification mark has been considered in relation to price level and differently affected product attitude between two countries.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.21 no.7
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• pp.386-403
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• 2021

Preannouncing a new product to its target audiences has been more and more prevalent in a wealth of industries, particularly industries that attach great importance to the speed of entry. Grounded in market signaling theory, the current research advances a theoretical model that takes full cognizance of the relation between preannounced information about an upcoming product and individual customers' behavioral intentions as well as significant moderating effects of prior product knowledge and new product innovativeness. In response, a web-based survey is conducted for data collection and the structural equation model is utilized for data analysis. Results of this study demonstrate that preannounced new product information attributes (i.e., quantity, clarity) may positively influence consumers' attitudes, in turn, lead to a favorable purchase intention. Moreover, the moderating effects of product knowledge and product innovativeness are also confirmed. Specifically, product knowledge moderates the quantity-attitude relation positively and moderates the clarity-attitude relation negatively, whereas product innovativeness does opposite. Both implications and limitations are also described.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.493-501
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• 1996

An understanding of consumers' evaluative processes and the consumer variables that influence cross-cultural evaluations of foreign products is essential to effectively penetrate international markets. This study compared consumers in two developing countries, Korea and Mexico, regarding their product evaluations and purchase intentions for US Levi's jeans. Both Korean and Mexican consumers are generally quality and price conscious. Korean consumers appeared to be more value-conscious than Mexican consumers. Mexican consumers exhibited high level of brand and prestige conscious behavior. Findings in this study support that culture bound consumer characteristics vary from country to country resulting in differences in perception of quality, value and purchase intentions for a particular product. The perception of product quality differs from perception of value and subsequent willingness to buy. For a comprehensive understanding of consumer purchase behavior, the impact of value-conscious attitude on percetion of quality and on purchase intentions should be examined.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.79-90
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• 2004

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between social perception reflected in product advertisement and consumerism toward commodification of sex among college students. Subjects of this study were 1,100 college students in the Daegu metropolitan areas. Social perceptions were assessed by questions such as attitudes toward beauty contests, degree of commodification of sex in product advertisements and buying patterns. Consumerism was assessed by the Korean Featherstone version of consumer culture. Major findings of this study were as follows: a significant difference in the social perception of commodification of sex was found between male and female college students, showing that female students were more negative toward commodification of sex than male students. Higher scores were found for consumerism when subjects had higher perceptions for commodification of sex. Hence, the degree of commodification of sex was positively related to the degree of consumerism. In conclusion, consumerism enforced commodification of sex among college students, resulting negative effects on the sex culture in general.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.11 no.8
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• pp.7-19
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• 2020

Purpose: Prior studies rarely investigated the effects of the Word of Mouse (WoM) information on consumers' motivation and willingness to purchase a product. Furthermore, few scholars have studied how word-of-mouth information works and they fail to find consistent results. Research design, data and methodology: This study uses a multivariate regression model to investigate the influence of WoM on consumer attitudes and consumer decision-making. It categorizes the quality of WoM into source level and acceptance level, to analyze its influence from a new perspective. A total of 400 surveys were completed, resulting in 336 usable questionnaires for analysis. It was collected in 14 cities from all regions in China. This study constructs a theoretical model of WoM influence on consumers' purchase willingness based on a systematic review of the related literature on WoM quality, perceived value, customer trust, and consumers' purchase willingness. Results: Empirical results reveal that the Internet WoM (consumer's source level and acceptance level) indirectly affects consumer behavior by influencing consumer attitudes. Conclusions: This study provides practical significance and value for merchants to develop better WoM marketing and to establish the reliability of WoM websites. Companies should consider online WoM from the perspective of consumers, thereby improving existing marketing strategies.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.265-276
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was 1) to find out the consumer patronage mix of department and fashion outlet stores, 2) to compare the clothing and price attitudes among store patronage groups and 3) to compare the importance of the stores' attributes among the store patronage groups. The subjects were 381 female consumers in the Seoul and Gyeonggi areas. Questionnaires were used to collect the data. The data was analyzed by frequency, factor analysis, ANOVA, Duncan's Multiple Range Test and Cronbach's Alpha. The results were as follows. First, clothing purchasing attitudes of the total respondents were classified by three factors: fashion/confident oriented, appearance oriented, and brand-name oriented. Also, clothing price attitudes were composed of three factors: price/quality-prestige inference, discount/low price pursuit and benefit/value pursuit. In addition, the importance of the store's attributes was composed of five factors: convenience/service, concern of fashion outlet store, brand-name/fashionability, awareness of fashion outlet store, and practical advantage of the store. Second, the department store patronage group was significantly different from the fashion outlet store patronage group in clothing attitude, price attitude, and the importance of the store attribute. Third, the responses of the department store patronage group were significantly different from those of the fashion outlet store patronage group in product reliability and awareness of the fashion outlet store.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.383-391
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• 2006

The purposes of this study were to examine the impacts of characteristics of bakery cafe customers and service quality on customer perceived value, customer satisfaction, intention to revisit, and intention to recommend, and to provide comprehensive understanding on attitudes and behaviors of bakery cafe customers. The questionnaire was developed through literature review and focus group interviews and was modified after pilot test. The questionnaires for the main survey were distributed to 320 males and females aged 20 and over in Seoul. A total of 275 questionnaires were used for analyses (85.9%) and the statistical analyses were completed using SPSS Win (12.0) for descriptive analyses, regression analyses, and correlation analysis. The main results were as follows. There were significant differences of intention to revisit between groups of different gender, age, and personal expenses. The service quality of product dimension affected all tested variables, and the service quality of services and price dimension had effects on customer perceived value and intention to recommend. Customer satisfaction was a unique variable that is affected by service quality of the interior environments dimension. Overall, researchers and managers of bakery cafes should understand customer attitudes and behaviors, and the results of this study would help to establish marketing strategies that meet target customers' needs.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.177-186
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• 2001

Recently, introduced open education, there are some models applied several cooperative teaming, but there is no case in applied Jigsaw Ⅱ. So this research is selected objects which are 147 students in the fifth grade in 1999' school year and 143 students in 2000's on Yongwon elementary school. It makes share a partial responsibility for planner, leader, investigator, helper, writer and reporter in the small groups, and apply the Jigsaw Ⅱ model. Qualitative and quantitative analyses show that they have effects of Jigsaw Ⅱ cooperative Learning on Student's knowledge, inquiry ability and attitudes on Elementary School Science Study. The final results are following. The significance of Knowledge has .02 in 1999 and .01 in 2000. Testification of Inquiry ability has 1.75 in 1999 and 2.25 in 2000. The significance of Attitudes has .03 in 1999 and .00 in 2000. Research that has emerged from the cooperative teaming has led us to better understandings of multi purposed roles, interactions, and communities that arise when students work together to team science. Each of students can also cooperative as co-builders, working as equal participants to create a product that is better than that while would have built by either individual alone. Upon asking their intention, cooperative loaming shows more participation.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.189-197
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• 1986

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the nature and relationship of attitudes of mothers and their daughters concerning the value of children. the secondary interest was to compare this study with the American studies done by Bormann & Stockdale(1979), and Leavy & Hough(1983). Subjects for the study were college-age daughters their married sisters, and their mothers. The“Fawcett Opinions about Children Questionnair”was used to measure beliefs about children. Pearson Product Moment Correlations were computed for mother-daughter(married), mother-daughter(unmarried), and daughter(married)-daughter (unmarried) on each of nine subscales on value of children. To study the generation differences and marriage differences, matched sample t-test were carried. Several significant relationships were found for mother-daughter (married), daughter(married)-daughter (unmarried) pairs. Only one significant relationship was found for mother-daughter(unmarried) pairs. Significant differences were found between mother's group and daughters' groups on most subscales except one or two (generation effect). Significant differences were found between married daughters and unmarried daughters on 4 subscales(marriage effect). The results did not corroborate the findings of American studies which revealed the lack of congruence between mother and daughter attitudes. It was noted that as daughters had children themselves, their attitudes toward children had become more congruent with their mothers. There was also evidence to support the generation differences between mothers and daughters values. It was concluded that both value similarity and generation differences vary as a function of the particular events as well as age-itself.