• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.117-139
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• 2013

Research on purchase intention had showed remarkable progress in contributing to the theory of consumer behavior. Despite the popularity of academic discussions on various issues influencing purchase intention, the mediating role of brand recall and brand attitude on purchase intention, in particular advergames, has not yet been well explored, especially in developing economies such as Malaysia. Furthermore, the influence of self-brand congruity, entertainment and brand placement acceptance as antecedents to brand recall and brand attitude are expected to add value to the brand recall, brand attitude and purchase intention relationships. This paper aims to investigate the impact of the mediating role of brand recall and brand attitude on purchase intention in advergames among Malaysian gamers. The antecedents towards brand recall and brand attitude are also examined to measure their influence on purchase intention. A total of 350 Malaysian gamers were interviewed through online survey in this study. The results showed that brand recall and brand attitude mediate the relationship between self-brand congruity, entertainment and brand placement acceptance with purchase intention. Also, entertainment and brand placement acceptance were found to have a significant relationship with brand recall. As expected, brand recall and brand attitude showed a positive relationship with consumer purchase intention in advergames. It was found that self-brand congruity has a significant influence on brand attitude and purchase intention. When users see the brand which matches with them, they tend to act positively toward the brand exposed in the game. This is consistent with Escalas and Bettman (2005) who suggested that the greater the congruity, the more positive the consumer's attitude toward the brand in question. This leads to game usage and purchase (Davis and Lang, 2013). In the advergaming context, the entertainment value in advergames is very important to determine the level of enjoyment and pleasure experienced by gamers during game-playing. Therefore, the more entertaining the ads, the more it will be remembered and the greater the positive behavior of the consumer towards the advergames - this ultimately stimulates their intention to purchase the brand. This study shows the effect of brand placement on brand recall and brand attitude and also purchase intention. Brand placements might not work in games due to the interactivity involved in game-playing as people could be distracted from noticing the brand placements (Yang et al., 2006). However, the significant influence of brand placements found in this study may provide major promise for advertisers. Game players may or may not explicitly remember the brands they see in the games, but these placements may influence their brand recall and brand attitude and could therefore influence later decisions (Yang et al., 2006). In this study, it was found that self-brand congruity was not significantly related with brand recall. The reason for this could be attributed to the fact that this study examined gamers who are highly involved in the interactive medium of games which force them to focus on game play rather than advertisements; the level of recognition to remember the brand exposed in the game is low and contributes to the "mismatch" between the gamers and the said brand. The present study contributes to the existing literature of the antecedents of brand recall and brand attitude in advergames. This study contributes to the role of brand recall and brand attitude as mediators in purchase behavior theory. Academically, the relationship between brand recall and brand attitude is well known in advergaming research, but their impact as important mediators on purchase intention add new understanding in the interactive communication literature. Their mediating role may provide new insights on how they facilitate the effects of self-brand congruity, entertainment and brand placement on purchase intention. Besides that, the studies on the influence of self-brand congruity on brand recall and brand attitude and also consumer intention to purchase had not well-investigated in advergames. This study contributes to fill those gaps in advergames literature. For practitioners, this study could suggest the use of illustrative or demonstrative placements of new products to help customers remember new brands, and the use of associative placements for existing products to increase consumers' purchase intention (Ho et al., 2011). To advertisers, this study may provide useful information to improve their current advertising strategies in games, for instance, by considering game players' congruity, entertainment value and brand placement factors.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.121-145
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• 2012

This research was performed to review the marketing PR(MPR) strategy to build the brand image of Chungnam tourism for the inducement of foreign tourist. Because each local governments are looking for the industries of new growth power from the tourism industry recently, we applied the BI strategy of Chungnam tourism with expended BLC model and GRID model after we analyzed the variety of PR situation and tasks to build the Chungnam tourism's brand image in the competitive domestic and foreign tourism industry. In the result of the study, we set up the limited brand image of Chungnam tourism newly; also we derived a specific action plan. First of all, they need every possible means for Brand Awareness PR, Issue PR, Brand Loyalty PR, etc. depend on brand life cycle with the Chungnam's tourism service products. Secondly, for the each tourism service products, it is requiring to repositioning from present position (B, C, D area) to A area by MPR strategy. Finally, many additional MPR strategies should put in to support for building the brand image for the 'Tourism Chungnam'. The strategic SNS public relations are required with considerations of items that are necessarily need to have the reasons and circumstances for the new foreign tourists, so they can have experiences for the Chungnam Tourism. For the existing foreign tourists, we should keep to build relationship in order to give them trusts and to feel sympathy.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.51-60
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• 2014

Previous research on loyalty program has verified the factors that influence redemption behavior and the understanding of the mechanism of redemption behavior with academic and practical implications. However, these research has not proven boundary conditions in which the phenomena can be strengthened or weakened- that is, the moderating effect remains unclear. The inclusion of moderating variables can provide a more extensive understanding of the mechanism of this behavior from academic and managerial perspectives alike. Therefore, this current research proposes regulatory focus as a moderating variable, which has received scarce attention in the study of loyalty program behavior, especially individual characteristic variables that, in turn, affect the consumers' purchasing behavior in various ways. Previous research on consumer decision making investigates the differential role of regulatory focus as a series of stages. Regulatory focus theory posits that people depend on the two types of regulatory focus when pursuing goals: promotion focus vs. prevention focus. The former induces tendencies to recognize a goal as a hope and ideal, as something that satisfies the need for accomplishment, and to be sensitive to the presence of a positive outcome of the match and to match the pursuit of goals. On the other hand, the latter tends to regard a goal as the responsibility or obligation to achieve the goal, has a tendency to avoid failure to meet a target, and is sensitive to the presence of the negative consequences that do not reach the target. The following propositions are suggested: 1) The effect of higher accumulation effort level on delaying point redemption speed will be relatively more pronounced for customers with prevention focus. 2) The effect of higher accumulation effort level on large redemption unit size will be relatively more pronounced for customers with prevention focus. 3) The effect of higher accumulation effort level on hedonic redemption ratio will be relatively more pronounced for customers with promotion focus. Therefore, this research provides a moderating variable that has the potential to be used as a reference for market segmentation and affects the relationship between point accumulation effort and three sides of point redemption behavior. On this basis, the direction for the future research on this issue is recommended. Future research could verify these propositions conducting a survey of customers' propensity of regulatory focus in conjunction with the history of the loyalty program of data. This would provide a more realistic effect on the usage behavior of loyalty program consumers by providing useful implications for both marketing practitioners and researchers.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.95-131
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• 2008

This study serves the main research purpose of verifying the hypothetical relationship between antecedent and consequence variables of shopping experience based on the classification system by Schmitt (1999) who dimensionalized experience into five components (sense, feel, think, act, relate). Specifically, the study seeks to fulfill the following three research objectives. First, it substantiates dynamic relationships among the five experiential components comprising the strategic experiential modules that serve as the basis of the theoretical framework of the study. Especially, it focuses on interactive relationships among the experiential components by taking a holistic view of the experience. Second, the study seeks to uncover the effects of pre-experiential antecedents such as shopping motivation and shopping involvement, based on taxonomy of motivation as product-centered vs. experience-centered. Third, the study investigates the effects of shopping experience on intention to revisit with regard to department store, discount store, and Internet shops, based on customers' store experiences. The major findings from this study are as follows: first, the five experiential components were found to have a high level of correlations according to hypothesis verification. Second, shopping motivation was learned to have significant effects on preference toward thinking as well as feeling experiences. That is, product-centered (vs. experience-centered) shopping motivation exerted a greater influence on cognitive (vs. affective experience than affective (vs. cognitive) experience.

• The Journal of Fisheries Business Administration
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.77-96
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• 1998

Fisheries products in Korea generally go through three markets, namely the wholesale market at production site (Market A), the wholesale market at consumption site (Market B), and the retail market (Market C), from producers to end consumers. As the products move from Market A through Market B to Market C, the marginal gap of prices asked in these markets demonstrates an apparent relationship. The producers, middlemen, consumers, and governmental departments concerned may influence the marketing prices of fisheries products. This study employing the cointegration theory tries to investigate whether causality of the price-setting among these markets exists and, if any, what it is. The authors have focused their attention on fisheries markets in Pusan, analyzing the long-run equilibrium relationship and causality between the prices of hairtail and squid among markets at different levels. Data used in this study cover the period f개m August 1984 to December 1997 fer hairtail, and the period from May 1989 to December 1997 for squid. The main findings of the study may be summarized as follows: First, regardless of the price time-series of hairtail and squid in individual market, the first difference is necessary fur satisfying the stationary conditions since each time-series is a first integration. This means homogeneous integration of time-series, which is a requirement of the long-run equilibrium of prices at different markets, is satisfied. Second, the study of the long-run equilibrium relationship between the prices at Market A and Market B shows that a long-run equilibrium relationship does exist for selling prices of the two species at Market A and Market B. Third, the ECM (error correction model ) used here to describe the long- and short-run dynamics of price change demonstrates that, in the case of squid, the price change in Market A will lead to a corresponding price change in Market B in the long-run period. In the short-run, however, the price at Market H is not only influenced by the price change in Market A but influence the price at Market A as well, that is, the Prices between Market A and Market B have a feedback effect. It should be stressed that the limitation in data collection, which cover only two species of hairtail and squid, is likely to cause a sampling bias. Nonetheless, we may conclude that a dynamic relation in the formation of prices does exist in view of the transaction amount of species at different markets. It is believed that the conclusion drawn from this study would not only contribute to a long-lasted debate on the direction of causality of price-setting among academic circle and fishing community, but would provide a useful standard for the policy makers in charge of the price-setting of fisheries products as well.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.187-209
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• 2017

Service industry performance and competitive advantage depend on the attitudes and behavior of customer service employees who produce and deliver services through contact with customers. Most studies on customer service employees so far have concentrated on kindness, attitudes, or benefits. This study focuses on the increasing importance of customer service employees and intends to study them from the viewpoint of human brands that recognize customer service employees as a brand. In addition to the role of the employee at the service contact point, the customer participation behavior affects the interaction process with the customer service employee. Ultimately, customers could no longer be excluded from control to improve service quality. This study based on theory that the human brand characteristics of the customer service employees lead the customer's participation, which has a positive effect on the relationship with the service brand and the service brand attitude surveyed and analyzed customers who use service brand. This study is summarized as follows. First, the relationship between the service brand and the customer is examined. Second, this study also expands prior studies by examining the human brand characteristics of customer service employees and customers' willingness to participate in providing information on the impact of the consumer-brand relationship. The results of the study indicate that among the customer service employees' human brand characteristics reliability, familiarity, and empathy were found to affect the relationship between customers, the service brand, and the attitude toward the service brand the most. This study provides important implications for theoretical and practical strategies by examining the qualities and characteristics of customer service employees, which are the most important agents of marketing.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.61-118
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• 2008

The purpose of this research is to construct research framework for international franchising based on existing literature and to identify research components in the framework. Franchise can be defined as management styles that allow franchisee use various management assets of franchisor in order to make or sell product or service. It can be divided into product distribution franchise that is designed to sell products and business format franchise that is designed for running it as business whatever its form is. International franchising can be defined as a way of internationalization of franchisor to foreign country by providing its business format or package to franchisee of host country. International franchising is growing fast for last four decades but academic research on this is quite limited. Especially in Korea, research about international franchising is carried out on by case study format with single case or empirical study format with survey based on domestic franchise theory. Therefore, this paper tries to review existing literature on international franchising research, providing research framework, and then stimulating new research on this field. International franchising research components include motives and environmental factors for decision of expanding to international franchising, entrance modes and development plan for international franchising, contracts and management strategy of international franchising, and various performance measures from different perspectives. First, motives of international franchising are fee collection from franchisee. Also it provides easier way to expanding to foreign country. The other motives including increase total sales volume, occupying better strategic position, getting quality resources, and improving efficiency. Environmental factors that facilitating international franchising encompasses economic condition, trend, and legal or political factors in host and/or home countries. In addition, control power and risk management capability of franchisor plays critical role in successful franchising contract. Final decision to enter foreign country via franchising is determined by numerous factors like history, size, growth, competitiveness, management system, bonding capability, industry characteristics of franchisor. After deciding to enter into foreign country, franchisor needs to set entrance modes of international franchising. Within contractual mode, there are master franchising and area developing franchising, licensing, direct franchising, and joint venture. Theories about entrance mode selection contain concepts of efficiency, knowledge-based approach, competence-based approach, agent theory, and governance cost. The next step after entrance decision is operation strategy. Operation strategy starts with selecting a target city and a target country for franchising. In order to finding, screening targets, franchisor needs to collect information about candidates. Critical information includes brand patent, commercial laws, regulations, market conditions, country risk, and industry analysis. After selecting a target city in target country, franchisor needs to select franchisee, in other word, partner. The first important criteria for selecting partners are financial credibility and capability, possession of real estate. And cultural similarity and knowledge about franchisor and/or home country are also recognized as critical criteria. The most important element in operating strategy is legal document between franchisor and franchisee with home and host countries. Terms and conditions in legal documents give objective information about characteristics of franchising agreement for academic research. Legal documents have definitions of terminology, territory and exclusivity, agreement of term, initial fee, continuing fees, clearing currency, and rights about sub-franchising. Also, legal documents could have terms about softer elements like training program and operation manual. And harder elements like law competent court and terms of expiration. Next element in operating strategy is about product and service. Especially for business format franchising, product/service deliverable, benefit communicators, system identifiers (architectural features), and format facilitators are listed for product/service strategic elements. Another important decision on product/service is standardization vs. customization. The rationale behind standardization is cost reduction, efficiency, consistency, image congruence, brand awareness, and competitiveness on price. Also standardization enables large scale R&D and innovative change in management style. Another element in operating strategy is control management. The simple way to control franchise contract is relying on legal terms, contractual control system. There are other control systems, administrative control system and ethical control system. Contractual control system is a coercive source of power, but franchisor usually doesn't want to use legal power since it doesn't help to build up positive relationship. Instead, self-regulation is widely used. Administrative control system uses control mechanism from ordinary work relationship. Its main component is supporting activities to franchisee and communication method. For example, franchisor provides advertising, training, manual, and delivery, then franchisee follows franchisor's direction. Another component is building franchisor's brand power. The last research element is performance factor of international franchising. Performance elements can be divided into franchisor's performance and franchisee's performance. The conceptual performance measures of franchisor are simple but not easy to obtain objectively. They are profit, sale, cost, experience, and brand power. The performance measures of franchisee are mostly about benefits of host country. They contain small business development, promotion of employment, introduction of new business model, and level up technology status. There are indirect benefits, like increase of tax, refinement of corporate citizenship, regional economic clustering, and improvement of international balance. In addition to those, host country gets socio-cultural change other than economic effects. It includes demographic change, social trend, customer value change, social communication, and social globalization. Sometimes it is called as westernization or McDonaldization of society. In addition, the paper reviews on theories that have been frequently applied to international franchising research, such as agent theory, resource-based view, transaction cost theory, organizational learning theory, and international expansion theories. Resource based theory is used in strategic decision based on resources, like decision about entrance and cooperation depending on resources of franchisee and franchisor. Transaction cost theory can be applied in determination of mutual trust or satisfaction of franchising players. Agent theory tries to explain strategic decision for reducing problem caused by utilizing agent, for example research on control system in franchising agreements. Organizational Learning theory is relatively new in franchising research. It assumes organization tries to maximize performance and learning of organization. In addition, Internalization theory advocates strategic decision of direct investment for removing inefficiency of market transaction and is applied in research on terms of contract. And oligopolistic competition theory is used to explain various entry modes for international expansion. Competency theory support strategic decision of utilizing key competitive advantage. Furthermore, research methodologies including qualitative and quantitative methodologies are suggested for more rigorous international franchising research. Quantitative research needs more real data other than survey data which is usually respondent's judgment. In order to verify theory more rigorously, research based on real data is essential. However, real quantitative data is quite hard to get. The qualitative research other than single case study is also highly recommended. Since international franchising has limited number of applications, scientific research based on grounded theory and ethnography study can be used. Scientific case study is differentiated with single case study on its data collection method and analysis method. The key concept is triangulation in measurement, logical coding and comparison. Finally, it provides overall research direction for international franchising after summarizing research trend in Korea. International franchising research in Korea has two different types, one is for studying Korean franchisor going overseas and the other is for Korean franchisee of foreign franchisor. Among research on Korean franchisor, two common patterns are observed. First of all, they usually deal with success story of one franchisor. The other common pattern is that they focus on same industry and country. Therefore, international franchise research needs to extend their focus to broader subjects with scientific research methodology as well as development of new theory.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.79-106
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• 2016

Service innovation is one means of gaining an advantage in a highly competitive environment. Although numerous studies have stressed the importance of service innovation, traditional good-dominant logic is still used in service innovation literature. Furthermore, few studies have been conducted on the link between service innovation and its antecedents in terms of service-oriented approach. To fill the gap, this article theoretically and empirically examines service innovation and its antecedents and consequences. Based on service-dominant logic and resource advantage theory, the current study aims to understand the effect of antecedents on service innovation as well as to identify the effect of service innovation on firm performance (i.e., non-financial and financial performance). Three service innovation activities, namely service creation-focused innovation, service delivery-focused innovation, and customer interaction-focused innovation, and four antecedents of service innovation, including human resource management capability, collaboration capability, marketing capability, and information technology capability, are identified based on Den Hertog (2000)'s service innovation framework. By using the empirical data collected from 189 service firms in Korea, this study explores the causal relationship among antecedents, service innovation and firm performance. Findings indicate that human resource management and marketing capabilities influence the three types of service innovation, whereas collaboration and information technology capabilities have a significant effect on both service creation-focused innovation and service delivery-focused innovation. In particular, human resource management capability is strongly related to customer interaction-focused innovation. The three types of service innovation have a positive influence on non-financial performance, whereas service delivery-focused innovation and customer interaction-focused innovation positively influence financial performance. These results support the crucial effects of antecedents, such as human resource management, collaboration, marketing and information technology capabilities, on service innovation.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.1-16
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• 2023

Due to imbalances in supply and demand within the labor market, start-ups have emerged as crucial players in the generation of high-quality employment opportunities, particularly in stagnant job markets. In response to this trend, governments are allocating substantial financial and human resources to initiatives that support start-up development. This has led to an increasing rate of engagement in start-up ventures across diverse age groups, not limited to younger individuals. Start-ups are enterprises focused on the commercialization of innovative ideas with the aim of achieving profitability in the marketplace. Research concerning the successful market integration of new products and the attainment of sustainable growth is pivotal. Such research is instrumental not only for the success of start-ups but also for realizing the broader social functions and contributions that these enterprises can offer. Previous research has often examined new product market-entry strategies, often referred to as new product marketing, particularly for large companies and SMEs. However, there is a gap in studies focusing on prototype marketing strategies specific to start-ups. Thus, this study aims to examine the impact of Pre-announcing marketing strategies on the market attention garnered by start-ups with low recognition and limited infrastructure, and how such attention contributes to their sustainable growth. Specifically, the study aims to uncover the causal relationship between information attributes like relevance, vividness, and novelty in building customer relationships, and their impact on purchase intentions influenced by performance expectations and hedonic motivations. In terms of Pre-announcing information attributes, relevance, vividness, and novelty positively influence performance expectations and hedonic motivations as outlined in the extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2). These factors, in turn, positively impact the purchase intention for pre-announced new products from start-ups. These findings are expected to provide both theory and practical insights into the factors influencing market entry through the use of Pre-announcing marketing strategies for start-up new products.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.111-116
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• 2016

Purpose - A lot of preceeding studies have focused on the pains that might be felt in spending money, that is an important role in getting psychological safety. Money and social resources can be all for consumers, and they are likely to form a substituting relationship with one another. Being motivated by the idea that spending money for others can come with joy if one's objective is accomplished by social support, this paper aimed to explore the mediating role of the perceived money importance and gratitude in the relationship between social support and pleasure in spending for other-gift. Research Design, Data, and Methodology - In this empirical study, the experimental group is expected to receive social support while the control group is composed of those who are usually indulged in reminiscences of their sweethearts. From the college students, 160 experiment participants were selected and 80 participants of them were assigned to control group as well as to experimental group respectively at random. Empirical study for each of the two groups was performed respectively by means of questionnaire survey. Experimental group data and control group data were combined together to be used for testing hypotheses. Linear structural equation model in Amos was used to verify the hypotheses, and Bootstrap was also used to examine whether there were the mediating roles of the perceived money importance and gratitude or not. Results - From the empirical study, following conclusions could be drawn: First, social support of others makes one perceive the importance of money less; Second, social support of others makes one perceive gratitude to others; Third, less perceived importance of money and gratitude to others can make one feel pleasure in spending for other-gift; and Fourth, less perceived importance of money and gratitude to others can partially mediate the effect of social support from others on the pleasure in spending for other-gift. Conclusions - The outcomes of this study might offer theoretic and managerial implications as follow: Even though many hitherto studies have asserted that spending money usually comes with pains, this study discovered that social support might reduce perceived the importance of money but make others feel gratitude and, thus, one would feel joy in spending money to buy gift for others, and made a contribution to the progress of the theory of pleasure in spending for other-gift. This paper also made contributions toward the development of emotion marketing theory by showing that the effect of social support on the pleasure in spending for other-gift could be partially mediated by the perceived the importance of money and gratitude to others. Based on the above conclusions, it may be affirmed that marketers should help consumers perceive the importance of money less, and help feel gratitude to others by pointing up the support of others to consumers in an attempt to accelerate spending for other-gift.