• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.119-138
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• 2016

Since the Industrial Revolution, which made the mass production and mass distribution of standardized goods possible, machine-made (manufactured) products have accounted for the majority of the market. However, in recent years, the phenomenon of purchasing even more expensive handmade products has become a noticeable trend as consumers have started to acknowledge the value of handmade products, such as the craftsman's commitment, belief in their quality and scarcity, and the sense of self-esteem from having them,. Consumer interest in these handmade products has shown explosive growth and has been coupled with the recent development of three-dimensional (3D) printing technologies. Etsy.com is the world's largest online handmade platform. It is no different from any other online platform; it provides an online market where buyers and sellers virtually meet to share information and transact business. However, Etsy.com is different in that shops within this platform only deal with handmade products in a variety of categories, ranging from jewelry to toys. Since its establishment in 2005, despite being limited to handmade products, Etsy.com has enjoyed rapid growth in membership, transaction volume, and revenue. Most recently in April 2015, it raised funds through an initial public offering (IPO) of more than 1.8 billion USD, which demonstrates the huge potential of online handmade platforms. After the success of Etsy.com, various types of online handmade platforms such as Handmade at Amazon, ArtFire, DaWanda, and Craft is ART have emerged and are now competing with each other, at the same time, which has increased the size of the market. According to Deloitte's 2015 holiday survey on which types of gifts the respondents plan to buy during the holiday season, about 16% of U.S. consumers chose "homemade or craft items (e.g., Etsy purchase)," which was the same rate as those for the computer game and shoes categories. This indicates that consumer interests in online handmade platforms will continue to rise in the future. However, this high interest in the market for handmade products and their platforms has not yet led to academic research. Most extant studies have only focused on machine-made products and intelligent services for them. This indicates a lack of studies on handmade products and their intelligent services on virtual platforms. Therefore, this study used signaling theory and prior research on the effects of sellers' characteristics on their performance (e.g., total sales and price premiums) in the buyer-seller relationship to identify the key influencing e-Image factors (e.g., reputation, size, information sharing, and length of relationship). Then, their impacts on the performance of shops within the online handmade platform were empirically examined; the dataset was collected from Etsy.com through the application of web harvesting technology. The results from the structural equation modeling revealed that the reputation, size, and information sharing have significant effects on the total sales, while the reputation and length of relationship influence price premiums. This study extended the online platform research into online handmade platform research by identifying key influencing e-Image factors on within-platform shop's total sales and price premiums based on signaling theory and then performed a statistical investigation. These findings are expected to be a stepping stone for future studies on intelligent online handmade services as well as handmade products themselves. Furthermore, the findings of the study provide online handmade platform operators with practical guidelines on how to implement intelligent online handmade services. They should also help shop managers build their marketing strategies in a more specific and effective manner by suggesting key influencing e-Image factors. The results of this study should contribute to the vitalization of intelligent online handmade services by providing clues on how to maximize within-platform shops' total sales and price premiums.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.81-91
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• 1988

The purpose of this research is to analyze the tendencies of poultry consumption in Korea. The information used is the data collected three times during the period from Sept. 1, 1985 to April 30, 1987 throughout the major cities. Those who participated in the survey are 2, 598 including housewives, nutritionists, cookers, group feeding institutions, woman's organizations, and the students of doing nutrition－related studies. Consumer preferences for poultry meat and eggs tend to move toward high quality and more strict sanitary standards. Following this line of consumer preference changes, the poultry product marketing supported by cold chain system is rapidly developing. Household consumption of poultry meat largely consists of hi－and semi－broilers but the household demand for these two broilers tends to decrease steadily over time. In general poultry meat consumption appears to be affected by consumer taste rather than market factors such as prices. In addition consumer choices are quite different depending on poultry meat parts which are preferred in order of drum sticks, wings, and breasts. In particular drum sticks are most preferred than any other parts. An important problem in poultry production is related to consumption seasonality since large part of poultry meat consumption is concentrated during the summer season. Another problem is associated with little development of cooking methods. At present there are two types of primary commercial cooking techniques, fries and samgaetang (boiled chicken with jinsang and rice). For promoting domestic poultry meat disposal and reducing the demand seasonality, new cooking methods should be developed and followed by more aggresive advertisements. In domestic egg trade, smaller packing units(i.e., 10 eggs per unit) tend to bi preferred to large ones (i.e., 30 eggs per unit). In consumers egg purchasing decisions nearness to the shops and convenience appear to be important factors. For egg shell colors consumers recognize that there is no difference in nutritional values. However, survey results show that consumers highest preference lies in eggs with brown color. Eggs are most popular among children and preferred in order of middle－and high－school students, 17-25 age people, and adults. Egg prices are concieved relatively cheap to its nutritional values. In house－holds eggs are consumed in the forms of fries, side dishes, and lunch basket dishes. However, high level of cholesterol content in eggs appears to be an important problem in promoting eggs consumption.