• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.379-388
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• 2018

The Hawaiian shirt, also known as the Aloha shirt, is a short-sleeved, colorful shirt with traditional Polynesian designs (e.g., hibiscus, fish) originating in Hawai'i. The shirt was selected for study because it is a unique garment that originated in the Hawaiian Islands in the late $19^{th}$ and $20^{th}$ centuries and marketed as a tourist product but was eventually adopted as appropriate residential clothing by the $mid-20^{th}$ century, however with different aesthetic details. Today, it is assumed by Hawaiian Island residents that tourists demonstrate poor taste when selecting a Hawaiian shirt. The purposes of this study are to examine the validity of the assumption that tourist taste and resident taste in Hawaiian shirts are different and to investigate the current Hawaiian shirt market change. For this study, 555 questionnaires were obtained from tourists and residents, and 10 Hawaiian shirt retailers/wholesalers participated in in-depth interviews. The results indicated that differences do exist between tourists' and residents' preferences for print designs and colorway. The market change of Hawaiian shirts was also recognizable in that an increasing number of tourists select Hawaiian shirts similar to resident customers, as part of their routine lives rather than as holiday or vacation garments. Other differences in Hawaiian shirt shopping behavior included the findings that tourists consider fabrication less important than resident customers who consider fabrication more (i.e., cotton 100%). By using both quantitative and qualitative methods, this study contributes to the fashion design and marketing field as well as help manufacturers and retailers with their merchandise and distribution plans.

• Archives of design research
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.7-14
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• 2001

Facing the 21th century, the cultural era, a lot of people show much more concern on cultural products than before. These cultural products can be regarded as our national countenance because they might contain the national tradition and spirit. So, it is quite obvious that the image of a product will be directly related to the national image. The current problems of developing cultural products in Korea are underdeveloped product design and technique, and widespread of poor quality products. Fist of all, it needs to develop competitive designs by reflecting cultural aspects in each product, based on the specialized research and information on our culture. And it is important to invest in developing materials and skills for mass production and the improvement that can excel the past. Also, there are needs to reform the sales structure to connect producers and consumers directly, not through the wholesalers who cause the price rising. Finally, museums as well as government should cope with this cultural competitive era actively by giving the continuous cultural education and inducing the participation from citizens.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.265-280
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• 2006

This study identifies the impact of cultural characteristics on both the behavior of Korean and Japanese tourists, and the corporate strategies of travel agents. The investigation examines travel types(individual or group packaged tour), the travel process, structural change within the travel industry and the behavior of foreign direct investment on tourism-related sectors. The distinctive characteristics of Australia-bound tourism from Japan and Korea were: the high proportion of group packaged tours; strong ethnic linkage in travel activities; the restructuring of travel industry focused on the emergence of large wholesalers; the establishment of overseas branch agents; and the foreign direct investment in resort and hotel properties. The distinctive character of Korean and Japanese travel in Australia was strongly influenced by the collective social group behavior and the strong cultural barriers, notably language and food, of the two countries.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.105-115
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• 2009

This study was conducted to investigate food purchasing management and the perception of school dietitians regarding food quality standards in the Chonbuk area of Korea. Self-administered questionnaires were collected from a total 205 dietitians and then evaluated using SPSS v. 11.5. The results are summarized as follows. Among the 205 school foodservice systems evaluated, 63.4% used a conventional system, while 36.6% were operated in a commissary manner. In addition, 64.9% of the schools had a menu cycle of 1 week (p<0.05) and 72.2% of the dietitians were responsible for the entire purchasing process (p<0.05). Moreover, a dietitian, school staff, foodservice staff, and parents participated in receiving and inspection of the food at 95.6% of the schools. Additionally, wholesalers and informal purchasing were preferred for purchasing food supplies. Moreover, 33.3% of dietitians in the commissary systems responded that they made Kimchi themselves instead of purchasing it (p<0.01). When the dietician's perception of food quality was evaluated, the average score was 3.33 based on a 5-point scale, although the scores differed significantly between dieticians working in conventional systems and those working in commissary systems (p<0.05). The scores for the quality standards related to the GMO agricultural and pesticide residues were the lowest. These findings indicate that it is necessary to develop standardized food quality and purchasing criteria and to provide education regarding these criteria to school dietitians to enable them to improve their knowledge regarding food quality standards and to implement effective purchasing programs.

• The Journal of Fisheries Business Administration
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.59-78
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• 2010

This paper tries to apply the asymmetrical price transmission(APT) behavior observed in the agricultural industry to supply chains of the domestic fishery industry by a statistical manner. The fore mentioned asymmetrical price transmission refers to when price movements in the later stage of the supply chain do not move in a normal or symmetrical manner corresponding to price movements in the earlier stage of the supply chain. Therefore, when the earlier stage price increase and the later stage price increases to a larger degree, it is called positive(+) asymmetry and the opposite behavior is called negative(-) asymmetry. The study examines the data from domestic producers of three fresh fish types, hairtail, mackerel, and cuttlefish, and tries to examine the price asymmetry between the producer or farm, wholesaler, and retail prices via an APT test utilizing unit root, cointegration, and error correction model. The study found, hairtail wholesale and retail pricing bas a negative asymmetric relationship while mackerel has a negative asymmetric pricing relationship at the producer and retail levels of the supply chain. In the case of cuttlefish, all levels of the supply chain showed negative asymmetrical behavior in the supply chain price transmission, meaning the earlier stage price changes are more rapidly and greatly inputted in the later stage of the supply chain pricing. We believe that the reason why the analysis results show negative price asymmetry is due to the uniqueness of fishery products having an important variable such as freshness. If price increases are greater and quicker than price decreases, then consumer demand, which is sensitive to price increases will decrease and subsequently result in the increase of inventory levels, reducing profits for retailers. Also, frozen hairtail, mackerel, and cuttlefish will act as substitute goods to fresh fishery products. Therefore, fresh fishery products have a high demand of price elasticity. When prices increase, demand quickly decreases. Therefore the profit of wholesalers and retailers to decrease, I think this is the main reason of APT in the supply chain of Korea' s fisheries industry.

• Food Science and Preservation
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.349-356
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• 2000

This study is to investigate and to suggest the most efficient roach standardization that is performed and is preferred by consumers to provide benefits for all of them. The data was collected to obtain information about peach standardization consumption and consumer preference, and marketing situation by using interviews from peach producers, wholesaler and retailer, and consumers for three years (1997-1999). The most important standardization criterion at present was found to be a weight among peach producers, a color among wholesaler and retailer and consumers. In addition, sweetness was ranked first among the producers, wholesalers and retailers, and consumer if sweetness were detected without running peaches. Especially, consumers preferred to purchase small amount with small package and presented sweetness as the most preferred criterion. Thus, it is necessary for peach producers, wholesaler and retailers, and consumers to establish the small package standard and to subdivide the present system into several grades for performing the two-way system which labels grade with sweetness and weight.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.41-63
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• 1996

In spite of economy has a critical cycle such as, production, distribution and consumption, we hardly concentrated our study to distributional system and behavior. Especially in Korea, Traditional idea had tried to ignore the people who work in this economic value at all. Manufacturers, other than retailers and wholesalers, had a belief that the manufacturing can control distributional channels forever. Unfortunately, technological and educational advances caused the quality equalization among developing and developed countries as well as among big and small manufacturers in their products. By this reason, economists are searching the economists dark continet' mentioned by Peter Drucker as a new source of wealth. According to a report by well-known economic research institute in Switzerland, Korea has classified in the lower level group in terms of international compatitive power. At the same time, business firms complain that they are suffering from lack of SOC and infrastructures. As an important mean to overcome the economic bottleneck, economists suggest in improve our distributional atmosphere. Basically, distributional study has two sub-fields as: commercial and physical distributions, Distributional system mainly concerns about to shorten the distances of time and space between production and consumption. The closer the distances, the higher efficiency can be achieved. Building distributional system will cost, but tile results will save social costs. Based on this idea, economists proposed several ways to cut the distances and to save costs, Naturally, they hope their beliefs can be adapted by business firms and governments. But frequently, their theories doesn't make any fruit. This paper has studied about the composition of joint transportational and distributional systems. And, even though there's no Marshall in tile real world at this point authors are trying to define the transportational and physical distributional costs, the most powerful factor that can impact to economic decision making.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.3-33
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• 1991

Since the early 1980's, the Korean government has gradually been widening the Korean market to foreign consumer goods. This, combined with the increased purchasing power of the Korean consumers resulting from the continued economic growth of the country, has sparked a spectacular influx of foreign consumer goods into Korea, ranging from BMW's to chopsticks. Import of foreign consumer goods amounted to more than 6 billion dollars in 1989 and is continuing to grow at a rapid rate. The increased import of foreign consumer goods doubtlessly improved the overall welfare of the Korean consumers by providing them with a wider range of options to choose from, by lowering the prices of some of the consumer goods domestically produced, and also by forcing the producers of some Korean goods to face competition with better foreign goods, thus giving them an incentive to raise the quality of their products. However, it is agreed by most economists that this increase in general welfare has been much smaller than what they had expected at the outset. Consumer prices of most imported consumer goods are easily double the import price, and in some cases, more than treble the import prices. Further, there has not been a noticeable drop in the prices of domestically produced consumer goods. Much of the blame has been attributed to the distribution sector of Korea. The objective of this paper is to analyze the imported consumer goods distribution sector of Korea, focusing on the possible sources of the poor performance of that sector, and to make policy suggestions that could potentially increase the welfare. This paper differs from all the previous research by others on this subject in that it analyzes the imported consumer goods distribution sector of Korea as a vertical structure. The distribution sector of an imported consumer good is a vertical structure since it consists of an international market, an import stage, and domestic wholesale and retail markets, in that order vertically. Our study naturally includes the analysis of the vertical restraints as well as the analysis of the industrial organization of each horizontal stage in the vertical structure. Each horizontal component of the imported consumer goods distribution sector is basically a monopolistically competitive market differentiated by characteristics of goods and by the locations and the services of firms. Further, restrictive dealership and resale price maintenance are found to be widely in use. Our main findings are the follwing; First, most consumer goods are imported monopolistically or oligopolistically through restrictive dealership contracts between foreign producers and domestic importers. Such restrictive dealership gives importers market power in the domestic market and explains many of the large discrepancies betwen the consumer prices and the import prices of many goods. Korean anti - trust law does not cover the issues arising from the market power of an importer resulting from a restrictive dealership contract. Second, some major producers of Korean goods are also importers of foreign goods that are substitutes of their products. The import of substitutes by major domestic producers is anti - competitive because it tends to raise the prices of both domestic goods and foreign goods, and also because it reduces the incentive of the domestic producers to raise the quality of their products. Third, wholesalers and retailers widely use resale price maintenance as a price fixing mechanism, and while this is against the anti- trust law, it seldom gets noticed. Fourth, the high level of rents of real estate for commercial use works as an entry barrier to the distribution sector and results in reduced competition by the firms in that sector. Finally, there are information problems. Consumers have inferior information to firms about the quality of a foreign consumer good that they have not tried before. Such information asymmetry often enables firms to raise prices. In addition, information asymmetry between importers frequently delays the import of cheaper substitutes. In order to alleviate the problems indentified above, we suggest the following policy changes. The government should strengthen the anti - trust law and its enforcement to regulate restrictive import contracts, import of competing goods by major domestic producers, and RPM by wholesalers and retailers that is aimed at price fixing. In addition, the government should loosen its tight real estate policy to encourage investment in the distribution sector. Finally, we suggest that the import price revelation policy that has been in use for some items since 1990 be expanded to most imported consumer goods that are introduced for the first time to give consumer better information and be used only for the period of time needed to inform sufficient number of consumers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.265-279
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• 1993

The channel of distribution exists for the purpose of moving product from the manufactuerer to the final consumer. In order to satisfy consumer needs, channels provide for the those products to arrive at the right place, at the right time and in the quantity, quality and price desired. Currently, there has been an emerging interest in the improvement of distribution system in many areas of industries and Korean government because of a market liberalizatiion begun at 1989 and still has processed step by step. In the wave of market liberalization, an understanding of the channel of distribution and structure would be very crucial when developing the opportunities of competitive advantages in Korean apparel industry. The purposes of this study were to investigate the determinants of the distribution channel and to identify how to respond to the market liberalization for developing the possible future strategies in the apparel industry. Data for this study were obtained from interviews with managers in apparel company in addition to a questionnaire mailed to over 106 middle management position of apparel company. Data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics. The results of this study were summarized as follows. 1. In the distribution channel of the apparel industry, a vertical marketing system, comprising producer, apparel company, retailer, prevailed without intermediaries such as wholesalers or vendors. Especially, the apparel company controlled marketing channel members. This type of system may reflect added product cost and may be not advantageous to retailers and consumers because most apparel companies are responsible for its own transfortation, storage and stocks after season. 2. In the view of market liberalization, most apparrel companies showed double-edged viewpoints. In terms of positive aspect, it would give stimulus to broaden variety of fashion merchandise and to improve product quality of fashion merchanise which were the most disadvantageous factors in competing with oversea's brands. In terms of negative aspect, it would bring the bankruptcy of small or medium sized apparel firms and the foreign products' penetration in domestic market. From this study, severel recommedations were suggested forward to improve the present condition in apparel industry. They included eliminating the power of apparel company and reinforcing middlemen for more efficient distribution system and for satisfying consumer needs in rapidly changing environment. Also it included government supports, reinforcement of information system, improvement in channel structure, and career development program in conjunction with apparel companies and academic society for improving scientific management and future potential strategies in Korean apparal industry.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.41-46
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• 2014

Purpose - This study focused on providing strategic findings that make significant sense for companies that are looking for a future outsourcing strategy. The study analyzes the results of outsourcing in the information logistics systems field and verifies the results through experimental study of the performance delivered by logistics outsourcing types. Research design, data, and methodology - The study sample was assembled based on a random sampling method used to extract the initial 451 companies from a list of Korean distributors, wholesalers, and retailers. Following that sample process, 423 companies were confirmed by verifying their e-mail address and contacts (telephone and fax numbers), and were selected as initial research subjects. We reduced that number to 331 companies for the survey sample through telephone interviews in advance with the 423 companies that were targeted, in order to verify whether they are in the field of outsourcing of information logistics systems. The period of the survey extended from November 10, 2013 to January 10, 2014. The number of collected surveys totaled 181. We reviewed the contents of the survey responses, and reduced the number of research subjects to 175. In this study, we used a standard analysis to investigate whether there is a difference in distribution results based on different types of outsourcing information in the logistics system field and, through T-verification, we investigated whether the difference between distribution results in each group resulting from that standard analysis is statistically significant. Results - These results show that there is a difference in distribution outcome, based upon type of distribution outsourcing. In addition, we determined that they are meaningful results by confirming that, for usability and to improve the capabilities of a third-party logistics service supplier, both the choice of reasonable outsourcing types and the enhancement of various types of alliances are very important success factors. Taken together these study results, with a goal of enhancing the distribution capabilities of a Korean distributor, can be implemented to enhance management results achievable by supplying an information logistics system in the form of strategic outsourcing rather than in the form of simple outsourcing. In addition, the outcomes of logistics distributors in Korea that are using outsourcing in the logistics information systems field show high performance results in commercial endeavors in the following order: competitive, pre-competitive, non-competitive, and pro-competitive. Conclusions - This study focused on providing strategic findings. However, in the case of outsourcing in the field of information logistics systems of Korean distributors, there has been a focus on simple outsourcing rather than on strategic outsourcing; furthermore, there has been a concentration on non-competitive forms instead of pro-competitive forms, which could achieve better distribution results. This discussion is presented in more detail in the analysis results of this study.