• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.12
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• pp.211-222
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• 2021

Green economy, also known as sustainable economy, is a current development trend in which consumers prefer products that are wholly or partly derived from materials of biological origin since they have become more concerned about their health and the environment in which they live. This study aims to examine consumer behavior toward bio-based products with three key goals in mind. First, it helps to understand the perception of consumers toward Bio-based products. Second, it properly helps consumers be aware of products derived from materials of biological origin so that the consumer can make purchasing decisions to protect their health and contribute to the protection of the environment. Third, the study on consumer behavior towards bio-based products will provide a more accurate view and assessment to companies looking to develop Bio-based products. Based on that, the research is carried out through surveying, collecting data from consumers, and then using the deductive approach, descriptive statistics, and quantitative method analysis. The results demonstrated that a positive relationship and a direct impact are established between the variables of Attitude and Social Norms and the Purchase Intention toward Bio-based products. Furthermore, the findings reveal that customers have positive feelings towards bio-based products in terms of trust, knowledge, and the environment.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.120-128
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• 2022

Printed circuit boards (PCBs) are a basic component in the electronics industry and are widely used in nearly all electronic products, such as mobile phones, tablet computers, and digital cameras, as well as in electric equipment. PCB manufacturing involves the use of many chemicals and chemical processes and therefore has more risks than other manufacturing sectors. This study aims to identify the causes of possible accidents during PCB manufacturing through risk assessment, develop and implement safety measures, and evaluate the effectiveness of these measures. Note that the safety measures developed to mitigate the risks of a certain process were also implemented for other similar processes. The risk assessments conducted over seven years, from 2015 to 2021, at a PCB manufacturing company identified 361 hazardous processes. Between 2016 and 2019, 41-56 hazardous processes were identified per year; such processes decreased to fewer than 20 per year after 2020. Application of the risk assessment results to the improvement of the hazardous processes with the similar characteristics seems to be effective in decreasing the risks. Equipment-related factors such as lack of appropriate maintenance, low work standards, and defective protection devices were responsible for 59.8% of all possible accidents. Because PCB manufacturing involves many chemicals, skin contact with hazardous substances, electric shock, fire, and explosion were the most common types of possible accidents (81.7%). In total, 505 safety measures were implemented, including 157 related to purchase and improvement of equipment and devices for safety (31.1%), 147 related to the installation/modification of fire prevention facilities (29.1%), and 69 related to the use of standard electrical appliances (13.7%). Risk assessment conducted after implementing the safety measures showed that these measures significantly decreased risk; 247 processes (68.4%) had a risk level of 3, corresponding to "very low," and 114 processes (31.6%) showed a risk level of 4, corresponding to "low." In particular, risk assessment of 104 processes with risk scores of 12 and 10 other processes with risk score of 16 showed that the risk decreased to 4 after implementing the safety measures. Thus, implementing these measures in similar manufacturing sectors that involve chemical processes can mitigate risk.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.103-110
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• 2016

Purpose - This study investigates the improvement of rationalization of distribution structure in Korean diamond market. It also explores the international distribution of diamond and how the distribution of Korean diamond market system was improved. This study also for providing the evaluation method in case of purchasing diamond on the consumers. Research Design, Data, and Methodology - The research investigates how international diamond distribution market has been changed since 1933 by De Beers. The international Diamond rough stone has been deregulated in supply and demand by Debeers since July, 2000, therefore, the price maintenance policy of diamond market also has been changed. In the short term, the diamond price in market has been down, whereas, in the long term, the market share of Debeers has affected the high quality of diamond price in world market. Before 1985, both G color and VVS1 clarity were used as the level of percentages in the diamond certificate of authenticity in Korea. But, after 1985, the diamond certificate of authenticity uses Diamond Grading Report. Results - Between the 1970's and 1980's, Debeers had controlled about 80 percentages of international diamond supply market. But, Debeers share in diamond market fell by 60 percentages in 2000's. Debeers supplied 31%(4390 carets) of international diamond supply and 41%(39 billion dollars) in 2003. However, Debeers shares 50% of market shares in the diamond supply market by Alosa in Russia. In Korea, the diamond grading report system has been used since 1985. But, the diamond grading report system has price bubbles and much irrational parts in grading system methods. Conclusions - 4C, the grading system of diamond, is a method for comparing and evaluating diamond objectively. Diamond is graded according to its color, cut, clarity, and carat. The price of diamond is determined based on its each item. Consumers purchase diamond for the purpose of investment and wearing. In terms of investment, it is recommended to purchase diamond with color of D grade, cut with Excellent or Very Good Cut grade, Clarity of FL or IF, and more than 3 carat. As for wearing purpose, it is highly recommended for diamond to have color of F or G grade, cut of Excellent or Very Good Cut, clarity of VS2 or SI1, and more than 1 carat Before 2000, Central Selling Organization(CSO) distributed about 80 percentages rough diamond to world market exclusively by purchase, classification, assessment, and sales. After 2000, Dbeers diamond company looses slowly market shares, while Almosa diamond company etc. in Russia are taking over world market shares more and more. Debeers market shares have been falling over the years, and the international diamond markets are gradually growing by other international diamond companies. But, there is no change in Korean diamond market after 1980's. Korean diamond distribution needs to follow international level of Diamond Grading System. By using different grading systems with different panel members, Korean diamond grading system needs to follow international perfect grading systems to grow diamond markets and maintain within top 10 diamond markets countries.

• 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 Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.61-81
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• 2007

Recently, use of foreign models and foreign language in advertising is a general trend in Korea even though the effect has not been well-known..Most of the previous research shows rather an opposite effect claiming marketing communication is more effective when higher congruity between marketing communication and consumer's cultural values are achieved. However, the introduction of global culture due to the expansion of new media such as Internet or cable television makes the congruity not the best choice of marketing strategy. In addition, use of highly attractive models in advertising to increase the effect of advertising is general. However, recent studies show that targeted women audience tend to compare themselves to the highly attractive models and do experience negative sentiment. Bower (2001) proved the difference between 'comparer' and 'noncomparer' when women face highly attractive models. The results show that a comparer who has an intention to compare highly attractive model (HAM) with herself has a significantly negative effect on model expertise, product argument, product evaluation and buying intention. Therefore, HAM is not always a good choice and model attractiveness plays a role in the processing other cues or changing the advertising effect from result of processing other cues. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of the use of foreign language on the advertising response of the audience with regard of the model attractiveness. For the empirical study, the virtual advertising using foreign models (HAM, NAM), brand names and slogans(Korean, English) were used as stimuli. The respondents of each stimulus were 75('HAM-Korean'), 75('NAM-Korean'), 66('HAM-English') and 66 ('NAM-English') respectively. To establish the effect of marketing communication, the attitude for media(AM), the attitude for product(AP), targetedness(TD), overall quality(OQ), and purchase intention(PI) with 7 point likert scale were measured. The manipulation was verified to check the difference between HAM attractiveness assessment (m=3.27) and NAM attractiveness assessment (m=5.12). The mean difference was statiscally significant (p<.05). As a result, all consequences were significantly changed with model attractiveness, and overall quality evaluation(OQ) were significantly changed with language. The interaction effect from model attractiveness and language was significant on attitude toward the product(AP) and purchase intention(PI). To analyze the difference, the mean values and standard deviation of consequences were compared. The result was more positive when model attractiveness was high for all consequences. For language effect, the assessment was more positive when English was used for OQ. Considering model attractiveness and language simultaneously, HAM-Korean was more positive for AP and PI, and NAM-English was more positive for AP and PI. In other words, the interaction effect was confirmed by model attractiveness and language. As mentioned above, use of foreign models and foreign language in advertising was explained by cultural match up hypothesis (Leclerc et al. 1994) which claimed that culture of origin effect. In other words, in advertising, use of same cultural language with the foreign model could make positive assessment for OQ. But this effect was moderated by model attractiveness. When the model attractiveness was low, the use of English makes PI high because of the effect of foreign language which supported the cultural match up hypothesis. When the model attractiveness was low, the use of Korean made AP and PI high because the effect of foreign language was diluted. It was a general notion that the visual cues got processed before (Holbrook and Moore, 1981; Sholl et al, 1995) compared to linguistic cues. Therefore, when consumers were faced HAM, so much perception was already consumed at processing visual cues making their native language of Korean to strongly and positively connected with the advertising concept. On the contrary, when consumers were faced with NAM, less perception was consumed compared to HAM, making English to accompany cultural halo effect which affected more positively. Therefore, when foreign models were employed in advertising, the language must be carefully selected according to the level of model attractiveness.

• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.31-44
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• 2018

This is a case study on "the Project for Production Facility and Technical Support of Processed Seed-Potato (2008-2010)" based on the Value Chain Analysis (VCA) used to create and plan International development cooperation projects. The project is the earliest model of Creating Shared Value (CSV) in the agricultural sector. For the case analysis, a framework was established to assess the effectiveness and impact of the CSV project based on the main factors of the VCA. As a result of the assessment, project participation by OSI was able to increase the overall utility by developing the Vietnamese potato processing industry and meeting consumer demand. Furthermore, it formed a business model to promote win-win cooperation and upgraded the value chain of the potato industry. In addition, it contributed to the improvement of incomes and the quality of life of farmers and communities by providing technical guidance and purchase of contracts, as well as labor division and cooperation with other activity supporters.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.271-286
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• 2020

This study evaluated designs via the consumers' function and design preferences survey for using product design images, virtual avatar wearing images and product explanations that identified consumers' function and design preferences for knee protection pads as well as to develop movement assistive knee pad designs. We developed Design A for men and Design B for women. For Design A, the front of the knee supports muscles and alleviates pain with a hole. Mesh material with good ventilation was applied to enhance wearing comfort. The color was achromatic for a modern style, and the hook fastener and loops enabled easy wear and removal of the pad while controlling size and pressure strength. For Design B, taping details seamlessly support muscles in the knee area with fabrics less than 0.1 cm thick and with long sleeves in the diverse sizes. The design's satisfaction assessment showed that potential consumers were satisfied with Design A and Design B for overall design and functional features. Over 77% wanted to use/wear and purchase designs; in addition, over 78% expected it would help with walking and relieve knee pain. The results can be helpful for designers when deciding designs for manufacturing and commercializing kneepad products.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.37-46
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• 2015

Lighting in a fashion shop has an effect on customers, highlights the products on the shelf, and has become more important. Even though lighting has a significant effect on customers, the studies on fashion shop lighting have primarily focused on how to create lighting which can influence customers' purchase behavior, and their awareness and expectation. On the contrary, it's been hard to find a study on a quantified fashion shop lighting plan considering customer confidence. In a current fashion shop lighting plan, display lighting is planned indiscreetly. Therefore, this study conducted an investigation of the light environment of the current fashion shop and museum exhibits lighting. Through such processes, the possibility of applying fashion store display lighting environments was investigated. Finally, for the assessment of museum exhibitions lighting applying fashion store display lighting environments, a subjective evaluation method using light simulation was proposed.

• Asian Journal of Business Environment
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.25-29
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• 2017

Purpose - In this paper, we categorize and segment the 28 national universities in South Korea and measure the degree of dissimilarity (or similarity) between pairs of ones by using dissimilarity distance matrix and cluster analysis, respectively, based on the seven quantitative evaluation of educational conditions (percentage of small-scale courses, percentage of lecture by the faculty, collection of books per student, material purchase per student, percentage of building capacity, percentage of real estate capacity and rate of accommodation) in 2015. In addition, multidimensional scaling (MDS) techniques can obtain visual representation for exploring patterns of proximities among 28 national universities based on seven attributes of educational conditions. Research design, data, and methodology - This work is carried out by the 2015 Announcement of University Information, which is provided by Ministry of Education in South Korea and utilized by multivariate analyses with CLUSTER, PROXIMITIES and ALSCAL modules in IBM SPSS 23.0. Results - We make certain that 28 national universities can be categorized into five clusters which have similar traits by applying two-stage cluster analysis. MDS is utilized to perform positioning of grouped places of cluster and 28 national universities joining every cluster. Conclusions - Both types and traits of each national university can be relatively assessed and practically utilized for each university competitiveness based on underlying results.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.1101-1109
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• 2021

Nowadays, quality affects product or service performance and customer loyalty in the competitive business' environment. This is truly important when it comes to how the customer interprets the service's satisfaction and the judgment of the purchase process as a whole, in view of the fact that service quality is an abstract and elusive construction due to the three characteristics of services: intangibility, heterogeneity, and inseparability of output and consumption. The main purpose of this paper is to determine the hotel service quality using the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) and SERVQUAL method. In this study, a five-star hotel's real case is considered in evaluating the service quality criteria. The results revealed that Tangibles and Assurance are the most critical service quality criteria in the hotel industry. Accurate records, service consistency, Necessary arrangements for disabled people, Service flexibility to guests' demands, and Providing the services at the time it promises are the most influencing sub-criteria of service quality. These findings indicate that hotels should concentrate on sequentially and organized priority factors to enhance service quality. This method of service quality assessment may also aid in distinguishing between hotels. Finally, as a future direction, more additional parameters can be used as a potential guide in our proposed model for the dynamic decision-making approach.