• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.11 no.10
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• pp.107-116
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• 2013

Purpose - Eggs are nutritionally complete and one of the most popular natural foods. Moreover, the poultry industry is one of the important food industries. However, early industrialization of the poultry industry on its own did not lead to further development compared to other livestock industries. In this study, we investigate what factors influence consumers' behavior and how consumers' understanding of retail business affects their propensity to consume. This study is different from other studies as it analyzes how the brand names of manufacturers and distribution companies affect the purchasing characteristics or actual purchase behavior of consumers in order to suggest how these manufacturers and distribution companies can increase their competitiveness. Research design, data, methodology - This study conducted a survey of 250 randomly selected egg purchasers in discount stores from January to April 2013. Consumers' purchase tendencies were calculated through frequency analysis. This result was then utilized using cluster analysis to draw a conclusion about which purchase tendency influenced consumers buying three different brands of eggs or whether this tendency really affected consumers. As a result, the outcomes of Hypotheses 2 and 3 were not clear so we drew a conclusion with our analysis of Hypothesis 1. Results - While the outcomes of Hypotheses 2 and 3 did not clearly indicate whether purchasing tendencies affected consumers when buying eggs, our analysis of Hypothesis 1 indicated that consumers were affected by the quality of the eggs rather than exterior factors such as the brand name. Thus, we concluded that it is important to promote the excellence of the quality of the eggs. Usually firms buy eggs from farms and repackage them in order to sell them. In this sense, if consumers were aware of this egg production process, and eggs were fairly distributed to retailers, large retail PB businesses would also be able to enhance their competitiveness. Conclusions - The brand, packaging, retail outlet, and other external features influenced the purchase of eggs to a certain degree, while shelf life, grade of the eggs, cleanliness, and other intrinsic characteristics had more influence. In particular, shelf life was the most important factor influencing purchase. Consumers were influenced not only by intrinsic characteristics of the eggs but also by large-scale producers' brands. Consumers relied upon the brand despite reduced competition because they found it difficult to identify shelf life and/or cleanliness. Small businesses and/or large-scale retailers can remain competitive by maintaining the freshness and cleanliness of the eggs. Further studies need to investigate areas in which consumers' cognition of the product is poor and/or the purchase inclination with regard to less developed industries such as eggs. In this study, the greatest problem was that consumers did not consume in accordance with the current situation as consumers have preferred fresh and clean eggs for a long time compared to purchase decisions based on external brands and/or packaging.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.209-237
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• 2012

1. Research Purpose Consumers rely on various clues to evaluate their decision to patronize a retail store, and store brand is one of them (Dodds 1991; Grewal et al. 1998). As consumers find ever increasing variety of contact points connecting them to specific store, the value of experiential shopping as a means of increasing store's brand equity warrants greater attention from scholars of retail management. Retail shopping values are credited for creating not only cognitive experiences like brand knowledge but also emotional experiences such as shopping pleasure and pride (Schmitt 1999). This may be because today's consumers place emphasis on emotional values associated with shopping pleasure, lifestyle brought to life, brand relationship, and store atmosphere more than utilitarian values such as product quality and price. Many previous literature found this to be true (Ahn and Lee 2011; Mathwick et al. 2001). This brings forth important research issues and questions regarding the roles of shopping experiential values and brand equity with regard to consumer's retail patronage choice. However, despite this importance, research on this area remains quite inadequate (Hwang 2010). For this reason, this study aims to verify the relationships among experiential shopping values, retail store brand equity and tries to link that with customer loyalty by surveying large-scale discount store shoppers in Korea and China. 2. Research Contents In order to carry out the research objective, this study conducted comprehensive literature survey on previous literature by discussing major findings and implications with regard to shopping values and retail brand equity and store loyalty. For data collection, researcher employed survey-based research method where data were collected in two major cities of Korea (Seoul) and China (Bejing) and sampling frame was based on patrons of large discount stores in both countries. Specific research questions raised in this study are as follows; RQ1: How do Korean and Chinese consumers differently perceive of shopping values regarding shopping at large-sclae discount stores? RQ2: Are there differences in consumers' emotional consumption propensities? RQ3: Do Korean and Chinese consumers display different perceptions of brand equity towards large-scale discount stores? RQ4: Are there differences in relationships between shopping values and brand equity for Korean and Chinese consumers? For statistical analysis, SPSS17.0, AMOS17.0 and SmartPLS were employed. 3. Research Results The data collected through face-to-face survey conducted in Seoul and Bejing revealed appropriate data validity and reliability as a result of exploratory/confirmatory factor analysis and reliability tests, andh SEM model yielding satisfactory model fitness. The result of the study may be summarized by three main points. First, as a result of testing differences in consumption dispositions, Chinese consumers showed higher scores in aesthetic and symbolic dispositions, whereas Korean consumers scored higher in hedonic disposition. Second, testing on perceptions toward brand equity of large discount stores showed that Korean consumers exhibited more positive perceptions of brand awareness and brand image than Chinese counterparts. Third, the result of exploratory factor analysis on the experiential shopping values revealed different factors for each country. On Korean side, consumer interest value, aesthetic value, and hedonic value were prominent, whereas on Chinese side, hedonic value, aesthetic value, consumer interest value, and service excellence value were found salient. 4. Research Implications While many previous studies on inter-country differences in retailing area mainly focused on cultural dispositions or orientations to explain the differences, this study sets itself apart by specifically targeting individual consumer's shopping values from an experiential viewpoint. The study result provides important theoretical as well as practical implications for large-scale discount store, especially the impotance of fully exploring the linkage between shopping values and brand equity, which has significant influence on loyalty. Therefore, the specific implications deriving from the result shed some important insights upon the consumption values based on shopping experiences and brand equity. The differences found in store shoppers between the two countries may also provide useful insights for Korean and Chinese retailers who plan to expand their operations globally. Related strategic implications derived from this study is the importance of localizing retail strategy which is based on the differences found in experiential shopping values between the two country groups. Especially the finding that Chinese consumers value consumer interest and service excellence, whereas Koreans place importance on hedonic or aesthetic values indicates the need to differentiate the consumer's psychographical profiles when it comes to expanding retail operations globally. Particularly important will be to pursue price-orienated strategy in China in consideration of the high emphasis on consumer interests and service excellence, but to emphasize the symbolic aspects of brand equity in Korea by maximizing the brand equity associated with aesthetic values and hedonic orientations. 5. Recommendations This study focused on generic retail branded discount stores in both countries, thus making it difficult to tease out store-specific strategies based on specific retail brands. Future studies may benefit fro employing actual brand names in survey questionnaire to verify relationship between shopping values and brand-based store strategy. As with other studies of this nature, this study needs to strengthen the result's generalizability by selecting respondents from a wider spectrum of respondents.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.323-346
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• 1995

The increasing number of senior citizens, combined with the power of purchasing due to discretionary income have vaulted the elderly into the position of an attractive future target market. Therefore, it would be crucial for marketers to understand elderly's purchasing behavior. The purpose of this study was to identify clothing purchasing behavior of elderly women. For this study, questionnaires were administered to 600 women over 55 years of age. However, the sample that was analyzed fer statistical analysis was involved 418 elderly women. Statistical analysis were majorly descriptives such as frequencies and percentages. The major results of this study were summarized as follows. 1. In relation to problem recognition in purchasing process, motives of purchasing apparel were identified as a happy event in home such as a wedding and a birthday, a change of seasons and a casual discovery of a suitable clothing in shopping, in orders. 2. In relation to information search, important information on apparel and fashionability were thought as display racks in a store, opinion from friends and family and fashionability from others or streets, in orders. 3. In relation to selecting a store in purchasing process, older consumers assessed that attractive price, design suited to my age, variety in one store and apparel product quality were important store attributes, in orders. In terms of a purchase place, older consumers purchased clothing mainly on department stores, wholesale stores such as Namdaemoon or Dongdaemoon market, mainly retail stores located close to home and discount stores of well known brand, in orders. 4. In relation to alternative evaluation in purchasing process, older consumeres considered that style or appearance suited to me, color, design, comfort and fitness were important selection criteria, in orders. 5. In relation to purchase choice, 61.7% of the respondents paid money by themselves and 68.9% paid on cash in purchasing apparel. 6. In relation to outcomes of purchase, older consumers solved their complaint against a unsatisfactory product mainly by returning the unsatisfactory clothing. Also, there were those who took no action against the unsatisfactory product and who altered the clothing for fitness by themselves.

• The Journal of Society for e-Business Studies
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.93-112
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• 2011

For the success of an online retail market, it is important to allow consumers to get more helpful reviews by figuring out the factors determining the helpfulness of online reviews. On the basis of elaboration likelihood model, this study analyzes which factors determine the helpfulness of reviews and how the factors affecting the helpfulness of an online consumer review differ for product price. For this study, 75,226 online consumer reviews were collected from Amazon.com. Furthermore, additional information on review messages was also gathered by carrying out a content analysis on the review messages. This study shows that both of peripheral cues such as review rating and reviewer's credibility and central cues such as word count of review message and the proportion of negative words influence the helpfulness of review. In addition, the result of this study reveals that each consumer focuses on different information sources of reviews depending on the product price.

• The Journal of Society for e-Business Studies
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.19-37
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• 2011

With the advancement of Internet, electronic commerce has rapidly expanded and considered as a major retail channel. In the early days of the Internet, many studies compared offline and online stores on their price level and dispersion. Since e-commerce is considered matured, we need to see price change behavior in e-commerce rather than comparing it with traditional channels. Thus, this study investigated the trend of price changes in e-commerce. The data that was gathered from a price comparison site also contained six product categories. The decrease in minimum and average price was identified and the increase in maximum price was also identified. The critical factors in the increase of maximum price are number of sellers (positive effect) and the time span after a product was released (negative effect). The differences in price changes between product categories were also investigated.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2011.10a
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• pp.749-752
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• 2011

According to the increasing of smart-phones, major department stores and large discount stores are releasing some new applications. However, these applications remain based on existing webs tailored to only mobile devices. This document describe the development of a shopping planner system that allows customers to access retail stores through mobile services and check the present availability of a product on-line. The system marks a product location on the map of a big market, stating if a product is on sale or not. Also, it enables customers to distinguish goods without buying from their scheduled purchasing. Through these functions, customers can find products they want to buy more easily and quickly. Furthermore, they don't have to look a staff member to check the products' location or stock quantity.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.330-338
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• 2012

HACCP is a preventative food safety management system whose application is highly encouraged worldwide. In this study, the workers' demands for the application of HACCP system at the meat retail shops were surveyed. According to a factor analysis on the demands of the application of HACCP system, the results could be classified into three factors: HACCP support, HACCP promotion and education, and generic livestock product safety management. Items on demands showed higher results for HACCP support (3.91 point) than for HACCP promotion and education (3.83 point) or generic livestock product safety management (3.72 point). The application of HACCP system was more demanded by HACCPcertified retailors with 4.11 point than the non-HACCP-certified ones (3.57 point). From the analysis of items on demands, 'governmental promotion of the general public livestock HACCP; (p<0.001) was the highest demand item by the HACCPcertified retailors and 'HACCP certification support for the government's investment' by the non-HACCP-certified ones (p<0.05). The strengthening of governmental support for the application of HACCP at meat retail shops as well as active HACCP promotion and education aiming at general public was demanded. With this, the establishment of HACCP system and the improvement of safety management level at the area of meat retail shops could be achieved, contributing to the increase of consumers' satisfaction.

• The Journal of Fisheries Business Administration
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.91-107
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• 2003

Distribution of fish products from Tongyoung Marine ranching can be classified by three routes such as street-stall, live fish transportation vehicles, and wholesale markets neighboring unloading ports. These methods of distribution, however, have been restricted by limited distribution right, difficulties to differentiate fish prices from other surfaces, simple marketing channels. The ratio of cultured live fish circulated in market is increasing while naturally caught live fish is decreasing and the fresh fish shows a little of increasing rate. Consumers purchasing routes mainly depend on the live fish transportation merchants. For fresh fish traditional market plays an important role in trade. Convenience for consumers and quality of products are main factors in making decision of purchases. Bargaining power, however, belongs to the live fish transportation merchants. The demand of special markets for live fish was very strong, and the convenience and quality are relatively important required factors. Catch from Tongyoung Marine ranching has very good reputation as the possibility of being a good brand. Expecting possibility of quality differentiation was higher than price differentiation specially. The possible conclusion of a contract of a supply was suspicious however. Preliminary quality evaluation revealed that the catch is better than the cultured but worse than naturally grown fish. A merchandising is to be in a better position in the formation of prices by giving $\ulcorner$brand image$\lrcorner$ to potential consumers. The target markets are retail stores such as restaurants for raw fish and final consumers. The staple markets are retail stores. Possible items of products are live fish, fresh fish for cook, and fresh fish for raw fish. It is necessary for the catch to be informed as new functional products that have been improved in safety and quality, since the product positioning is similar but not well known to consumers. To secure a brand it is required to register a trademark, eco-label product design or packing, use real name in tranction, introduce recall system, and put label. Price higher than naturally grown live fish should be targeted. Establishing broad distribution channel, wholesale market, franchise are required. To secure enough catch and control shipment of products facilities of containing live fish are necessary. Instead of dealing with live fish only, it would be better to. sell fresh fish and live fish simultaneous. Strategically promotion focuses on advertisement of Marin ranching at first and then focuses on the catch from the marine ranching.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.35-48
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• 2010

Today, the fashion market challenged by a maturing retail market needs a new paradigm in the "evolution of brand" to improve their comparative advantages. An important issue in fashion marketing is lifestyle brand extension with a specific aim to meet consumers' specific needs for their changing lifestyle. For fashion brand extensions into lifestyle product categories, Gen Y and Baby Boomer are emerging as "prospects"-Baby Boomers who are renovating their lifestyle, and generation Y experiencing changes in their life stage-with demands for buying new products. Therefore, it is imperative that apparel companies pay special attention to the consumer cohort for brand extension to create and manage their brand equity in a new product category. The purposes of this study are to (a) evaluate brand equity between parent and extension brands; (b) identify consumers' perceived marketing elements for brand extension; and (c) estimate a structural equation model for examining causative relationship between marketing elements and brand equity for brand extensions in lifestyle product category including home fashion items for the selected two groups (e.g., Gen Y, and Baby boomer). For theoretical frameworks, this study focused on the traditional marketing 4P's mix to identify what marketing element is more importantly related to brand extension equity for this study. It is assumed that comparable marketing capability can be critical to establish "brand extension equity", leads to successfully entering the new categories. Drawing from the relevant literature, this study developed research hypotheses incorporating brand equity factors and marketing elements by focusing on the selected consumers (e.g., Gen Y, Baby Boomer). In the context of brand extension in the lifestyle products, constructs of brand equity consist of brand awareness/association, brand perceptions (e.g., perceived quality, emotional value) and brand resonance adapted from CBBE factors (Keller, 2001). It is postulated that the marketing elements create brand extension equity in terms of brand awareness/association, brand perceptions by the brand extension into lifestyle products, which in turn influence brand resonance. For data collection, the sample was comprised of Korean female consumers in Gen Y and Baby Boomer consumer categories who have a high demand for lifestyle products due to changing their lifecycles. A total of 651 usable questionnaires were obtained from female consumers of Gen Y (n=326) and Baby Boomer (n=325) in South Korea. Structural and measurement models using a correlation matrix was estimated using LISREL 8.8. Findings indicated that perceived marketing elements for brand extension consisted of three factors: price/store image, product, and advertising. In the model of Gen Y consumers, price/store image had a positive effect on brand equity factors (e.g., brand awareness/association, perceived quality), while product had positive effect on emotional value in the brand extensions; and the brand awareness/association was likely to increase the perceived quality and emotional value, leading to brand resonance for brand extensions in the lifestyle products. In the model of Baby Boomer consumers, price/store image had a positive effect on perceived quality, which created brand resonance of brand extension; and product had a positive effect on perceived quality and emotional value, which leads to brand resonance for brand extension in the lifestyle products. However, advertising was negatively related to brand equity for both groups. This study provides an insight for fashion marketers in developing a successful brand extension strategy, leading to a sustainable competitive advantage. This study complements and extends prior works in the brand extension through critical factors of marketing efforts that affect brand extension success. Findings support a synergy effect on leveraging of fashion brand extensions (Aaker and Keller, 1990; Tauber, 1988; Shine et al., 2007; Pitta and Katsanis, 1995) in conjunction with marketing actions for entering into the new product category. Thus, it is recommended that marketers targeting both Gen Y and Baby Boomer can reduce marketing cost for entering the new product category (e.g., home furnishings) by standardized marketing efforts; fashion marketers can (a) offer extension lines with premium ranges of price; (b) place an emphasis on upscale features of store image positioning by a retail channel (e.g., specialty department store) in Korea, and (c) combine apparel with lifestyle product assortments including innovative style and designer’s limited editions. With respect to brand equity, a key to successful brand extension is consumers’ brand awareness or association that ensures brand identity with new product category. It is imperative for marketers to have knowledge of what contributes to more concrete associations in a market entry into new product categories. For fashion brands, a second key of brand extension can be a "luxury" lifestyle approach into new product categories, in that higher price or store image had impact on perceived quality that established brand resonance. More importantly, this study increases the theoretical understanding of brand extension and suggests directions for marketers as they establish marketing program at Gen Y and Baby Boomers.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.103-128
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• 2013

When a consumer needs a product or service and multiple sellers are available online, the process of selecting a seller to buy online from is complex since the process involves many behavioral dimensions that have to be taken into account. As a part of this selection process, consumers may set minimum trust expectation that can be used to screen out less trustworthy sellers. In the previous research, the level of consumers' trust expectation has been anchored on two important factors: product involvement and perceived risk. Product involvement refers to the extent to which a consumer perceives a specific product important. Thus, the higher product involvement may result in the higher trust expectation in sellers. On the other hand, other related studies found that when consumers perceived a higher level of risk (e.g., credit card fraud risk), they set higher trust expectation as well. While abundant research exists addressing the relationship between product involvement and perceived risk, little attention has been paid to the integrative view of the link between the two constructs and their impacts on the trust expectation. The present paper is a step toward filling this research gap. The purpose of this paper is to understand the process by which a consumer chooses an online merchant by examining the relationships among product involvement, perceived risk, trust expectation, and intention to buy from an e-tailer. We specifically focus on the mediating role of perceived risk in the relationships between enduring product involvement and the trust expectation. That is, we question whether product involvement affects the trust expectation directly without mediation or indirectly mediated by perceived risk. The research model with four hypotheses was initially tested using data gathered from 635 respondents through an online survey method. The structural equation modeling technique with partial least square was used to validate the instrument and the proposed model. The results showed that three out of the four hypotheses formulated were supported. First, we found that the intention to buy from a digital storefront is positively and significantly influenced by the trust expectation, providing support for H4 (trust expectation ${\rightarrow}$ purchase intention). Second, perceived risk was found to be a strong predictor of trust expectation, supporting H2 as well (perceived risk ${\rightarrow}$ trust expectation). Third, we did not find any evidence of direct influence of product involvement, which caused H3 to be rejected (product involvement ${\rightarrow}$ trust expectation). Finally, we found significant positive relationship between product involvement and perceived risk (H1: product involvement ${\rightarrow}$ perceived risk), which suggests that the possibility of complete mediation of perceived risk in the relationship between enduring product involvement and the trust expectation. As a result, we conducted an additional test for the mediation effect by comparing the original model with the revised model without the mediator variable of perceived risk. Indeed, we found that there exists a strong influence of product involvement on the trust expectation (by intentionally eliminating the variable of perceived risk) that was suppressed (i.e., mediated) by the perceived risk in the original model. The Sobel test statistically confirmed the complete mediation effect. Results of this study offer the following key findings. First, enduring product involvement is positively related to perceived risk, implying that the higher a consumer is enduringly involved with a given product, the greater risk he or she is likely to perceive with regards to the online purchase of the product. Second, perceived risk is positively related to trust expectation. A consumer with great risk perceptions concerning the online purchase is likely to buy from a highly trustworthy online merchant, thereby mitigating potential risks. Finally, product involvement was found to have no direct influence on trust expectation, but the relationship between the two constructs was indirect and mediated by the perceived risk. This is perhaps an important theoretical integration of two separate streams of literature on product involvement and perceived risk. The present research also provides useful implications for practitioners as well as academicians. First, one implication for practicing managers in online retail stores is that they should invest in reducing the perceived risk of consumers in order to lower down the trust expectation and thus increasing the consumer's intention to purchase products or services. Second, an academic implication is that perceived risk mediates the relationship between enduring product involvement and trust expectation. Further research is needed to elaborate the theoretical relationships among the constructs under consideration.