• Hwankyungkyoyuk
• /
• v.24 no.3
• /
• pp.56-77
• /
• 2011

The purpose of this study is to explore the casual relationship between expanded self-concept including self-esteem and self-congruity with various variables of pro-environmental psychology and green consumer behavior simultaneously by using the model of structural equation. Results of the study showed that independent self-construals only affected pro-environmental psychology and dependent self-construals did not affect pro-environmental psychology and green consumer behavior, while metapersonal self-construals affected both pro-environmental psychology and green consumer behavior. Consumers with independent self-construals in strong individualistic tendency had an affirmative thoughts about environment friendliness while consumers considerate of others with dependent self-construals in strong collective tendency showed low pro-environmental psychology and green consumer behavior, which was interesting findings. In regards to the effect of metapersonal Self-construal on pro-environmental psychology, it was analyzed that lower consumer self-esteem increased pro-environmental psychology, and also when self-congruity was low, metapersonal Self-construal had a positive effect on green consumer behavior.

• Asia Marketing Journal
• /
• v.14 no.2
• /
• pp.23-37
• /
• 2012

Individuals often make their judgments on the basis of the ease or difficulty with which information comes to mind (for reviews, see Greifeneder, Bless, and Pham 2010; Schwarz 1998, 2004). Recent research, however, has documented that variables known to determine the degree of cognitive resources invested in information processing such as personal relevance (Grayson and Schwarz 1999; Rothman and Schwarz 1998), accuracy motivation (Aarts and Dijksterhuis 1999), and processing capacity (Menon and Raghubir 2003) can affect the extent to which individuals draw on metacognitive difficulty in making their judgments. The primary aim of this research is thus to investigate whether individuals with substantial cognitive resources or those with lack of cognitive resources are more likely to draw on metacognitive difficulty when making their product evaluations. The findings from two laboratory experiments indicate that individuals who perceive a greater level of fit between their self-regulatory orientation and temporal construal (Experiment 1), and between their self-construal and the type of product benefit appeal (Experiment 2) are more likely than those who perceive the lack of such fit to evaluate a target product less positively after thinking of many rather than a few positive reasons. The findings provide supporting evidence for the two-stage backward inference process involved with the effect of metacognitive difficulty on consumer judgments in that consumer judgments based on metacognitive difficulty may require greater cognitive resources than those based on the content of information generated. Also, the current research documents further empirical evidence for the relationship between self-regulatory orientation-construal level fit and cognitive resources such that perceived regulatory-construal level fit can increase consumer willingness to invest cognitive resources into their judgment tasks. Last, the findings can help marketers differentiate purchase situations where asking consumers to think of many positive benefits from purchase situations where asking consumers to think of a few key benefits is relatively more beneficial.

• Asia Marketing Journal
• /
• v.11 no.4
• /
• pp.95-119
• /
• 2010

Although there have been many studies regarding the inconsistency between consumers' attitudes and behavior, prior research has almost exclusively focused on the relationship between the attitude before behavior and the initial behavior. Relatively little research has been conducted on consumer satisfaction after purchase and post-purchase behavior. This research proposed that the relationship between satisfaction and post-purchase behavior is moderated by consumers' psychological characteristics such as need for cognitive closure(NCC) and temporal self-construal(SC). The need for cognitive closure refers to individuals' desire for a firm answer to a question and an aversion toward ambiguity. We assumed the need for cognitive closure as a major moderating variable because it is judged that the requirement for cognition clearly varies between when a consumer repurchases the same product and seeks a new alternative. Individuals who tend to end cognition due to time constraints or inappropriate conditions may display considerable cognitive impatience or impulsivity and has a higher probability in repurchasing the same product than a consumer without such limitations. They would avoid further consideration for new alternatives and the likelihood of the repurchase for prior alternative would increase. As hypothesized, significant moderating effect of the NCC was confirmed. This result gives a significant implication for a corporate to establish effective marketing strategies. For a corporate or product brand that has been occupying the market after entering the market earlier, it would be effective to maintain need for cognitive closure high in the existing consumers and thereby preventing the consumers from being interested in the new alternatives. On the other hand, new brands that have just entered the market need to lower the potential consumers' need for cognitive closure so that the consumers can be interested in new alternatives. Along with need for cognitive closure, temporal self-construal also turned out to moderate the satisfaction-repurchase. temporal SC reflects the extent to which individuals view themselves either as an individuated entity or in relation to others. Consumers under a temporarily independent SC would repurchase former alternative again according to their prior satisfaction and evaluation. In contrast, consumers in temporal interdependent SC tended to switch to a new alternative because they value interpersonal relationships above anything else and have a tendency to rely heavily on in-group opinions. When they are confronted with additional opinions, it is highly probable that he/she will choose a new product as an alternative. By proving the impact that temporal self-construal has on repurchasing behavior, this study is providing the marketers with new standards for establishing successful promotional strategies. For example, if the buyer and the user is the same for a product, it would be effective for the seller to convince the consumer to make decision subjectively by encouraging temporal independent self-construal. On the contrary, in the case where the purchase is made by an individual but the product is consumed by a group of people. For example, a housewife is more likely to choose the products or brands that her husband or children prefer rather than the ones that she likes by herself. In that case, emphasizing how the whole family can be satisfied and happy about the product would be effective for promoting repurchase.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
• /
• v.61 no.10
• /
• pp.89-103
• /
• 2011

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effects of dominant brand, the quality variation among brands in the extension product category and the self-construals on consumer's attitude about extension products. The experimental design consist of three-way complex factors and 226 subjects participated for the study. The results showed that when there was fashion brand extension, whether or not there was an existing dominant brand in the extension product category, the quality variation among brands in the extension product category and the types of self-construals had a significant interaction effect on their favorableness and intention to purchase the extension products. Regardless of an existing dominant brand however, the group who had an interdependent self-construal showed higher favorableness and intention to purchase the extension products when the quality variation among brands in the extension product category was lower than when it was high, whereas the group who had an independent self-construal showed no significant difference of the favorableness and intention to purchase the extension products.

• Asian Journal of Business Environment
• /
• v.8 no.3
• /
• pp.33-41
• /
• 2018

Purpose - This study focused on the attitude differences towards harmony-focused Ad and uniqueness-focused Ad, also those towards brand advertised in each of the two type Ads between self-construals. Research design, data, and methodology - Main survey was conducted online with the people in China, and collected 107 data through harmony Ad questionnaire and 109 data through uniqueness Ad questionnaire. Anova and t-test were used to verify hypotheses. Results - First, More positive attitude towards harmony-focused Ad and the brand in it there was at interdependent Chinese consumers than at independent Chinese consumers. Second, the independent Chinese consumers and the interdependent Chinese consumers did not form significant attitude difference towards uniqueness-focused Ad. However the independent Chinese consumers showed more positive attitude towards the brand in the uniqueness-focused Ad than the interdependent Chinese consumers. Conclusions - By highlighting the attributes of Chinese consumers' self-construal, to appeal to interdependent Chinese consumers, marketers should develop harmony-focused advertisement, and they should appeal to independent Chinese consumers by using uniqueness-focused advertisement. However the harmony might be pursued as the main content in the overall environment by Chinese people. Therefore it is necessary for the marketers to consider the harmony even when appealing them by emphasizing the uniqueness.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.18 no.9
• /
• pp.555-568
• /
• 2018

This study has expanded the existing studies on the characteristics of consumers using the personal level of cultural dimensions and self-construal. As Korean are becoming more individualistic and independent, we have focused on consumer independence in self-construal. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of consumer independence on consumers' attitudes and purchase intention toward consensus claim in ads. We hypothesized that individuals with higher in independence are more likely to show negative attitudes and the purchase intention towards the ads focused on consensus claim. Two experiments revealed that consumers higher in independence, depicting consensus claim in ads reduces consumers' attitudes and purchase intention. Based on the results, we suggest that for individuals higher in independence, consensus claims in product advertisement are less effective advertising strategy which ultimately lower consumers' purchase intentions. Important theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
• /
• v.29 no.2
• /
• pp.171-197
• /
• 2023

The traditional Korean society has been classified as an Eastern collectivist culture, but in the flow of globalization and digitalization along with the post-Cold War era of the 1970s, Western individualistic culture and values quickly permeated the Korean younger generation. Since rapid changes occurred within a short period of time, there may be differences in cultural self-construal between generations living in the same era. Due to this, psychological problems related to emotional expression and suppression may appear differently depending on generations. Therefore, in the current study, 1,000 Korean adult men and women from their 20s to 60s were investigated for their level of independent and interdependent self-construal, alexithymia, ambivalence over emotional expression(AEE) and emotional suppression(ES). Then the relationship between the variables(self-construal and alexithymia,) and the mediating process of AEE and ES were examined. The generation of participants were divided into the industrialization cohort (birth year < 1970) and the digitalization cohort (birth year starting from 1970). Using the PROCESS macro(Hayes, 2022), we tested a serial mediation model of AEE and ES between the relative independent self-construal(RIS) and alexithymia. The results indicate that the level of alexithymia increases by the serial increase of AEE and ES when RIS decreases. Next, we examined a moderation effect of generatione on the mediation process of AEE and ES, and found that generation moderates the relationship between ES and alexithymia. That is, the effect of ES on alexithymia is significant for the digitalization cohort, while it is not significant for the industrialization cohort. The current results imply that emotion regulation strategies of Koreans have been differently developed according to prevailing cultural values in each generation, and that the negative influence of emotion suppression could be different according to the cultural background of each generation.

• Asia Marketing Journal
• /
• v.11 no.2
• /
• pp.149-172
• /
• 2009

Prior research has investigated different effects of brand performance information such as premium price information and market share information on brand equity components - quality perception and brand preference. It was shown that the differential effects of brand performance information could depend on product-related variables like product category concept and quality variation in the product category. In this study, we conducted an experiment to find out how personal characteristics such as self-construal, price perception and brand commitment could influence the effects of different types of brand performance information. The results show that individuals who have independent self-construal, favorable price perception and emotional commitment with the brand develop more favorable evaluation of the premium price performance information resulting in more positive evaluations of the brand. However, individuals who have interdependent self-construal, unfavorable price perception and cognitive commitment with the brand develop more favorable evaluation of the market share performance information resulting in more positive evaluations of the brand. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of this study and its limitations, along with future research interests.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.279-297
• /
• 2015

The present study examined whether individuals would respond differently, as a function of cultural self-orientations, when their requests were rejected. Also examined was whether individuals with different cultural self-orientations would predict differently how their interaction partner would respond when they rejected his or her request. Furthermore, it was investigated whether experimentally induced perspective-taking would influence responses to rejection and predictions of responses to rejection. It was found that responses to rejection as well as predictions of responses to rejection varied as a function of individual's independent self-orientation and perspective-taking. However, no significant effects were found with regard to interdependent self-orientation. Based on these results, the implications that cultural self-orientations have for request rejection and social behavior in general are discussed, and future directions are suggested.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
• /
• v.24 no.2
• /
• pp.251-272
• /
• 2018

There could be different ways of perception, emotions, and behaviors facing on unfair situation according to the culture background by which people have been affected. We investigated whether definition, feelings, and behaviors in 4 countries (Korea, China, Japan, and the US) would differ in terms of unfair situations. We further examined the relationship between new self-construal model (subjectivity-objectivity-autonomy model) and behaviors resulted from unfair situations. Three hundred seventeen participants (87 Koreans, 71 Chinese, 80 Japanese, and 79 Americans) took part in this research. We found that all countries defined unfair situation as "having a disadvantage or blame that one did not done by him or her" with the highest percentage, but there was a different percentage according to countries. Next, Chinese felt disappointment or betray from the situations highly while others expressed anger with the largest portion. In the area of behaviors, three countries in Asia answered "no behaviors" with the highest percentage while Americans mostly responded "direct expressions". In terms of self-construal model, subjective self was high in Chinese and Koreans while autonomy was high in Chinese and American. Japanese showed objective self with the highest. Implications and future research are discussed.