Byoungho Jin

Integrating effect of consumer perception factors in predicting private brand purchase in a Korean discount store context

Purpose – Despite proven strategic significance and wide acceptance of private label products (PB), our understanding of PB in international markets is limited. The purposes of this study are to propose a model that integrates four consumer characteristic variables (price consciousness, value consciousness, perceived price variation, and consumer innovativeness) toward PB attitude and purchase intention, and to test the model in two product categories, grocery and home appliances, in a South Korean discount store context.Design/methodology/approach – A total of 168 usable data (87 for food and 81 for home appliances were collected using mall intercept method from female shoppers at one Korean discount store in Seoul, Korea.Findings – The findings revealed that, depending on the product category, contribution of the factors varies. Among four consumer characteristics, only three in each category exhibited direct and indirect association with PB purchase intention. Perceived quality variability in a food ca...

A typology of Korean discount shoppers: shopping motives, store attributes, and outcomes

The internationalization of retailing is increasing throughout the global service markets. Among many retail formats, the discount store is one of the fastest growing formats actively engaging internationalization. In managing retail firms in other cultures, understanding of local customers’ perceptions toward the retail formats is especially important. Shopping motives may be a function of retail format, cultural, economic and social environment. Prior studies on shopping motives, however, have focused on Western cultures and on a shopping mall format. This study provides an exploratory examination of Korean discount shoppers’ shopping motives and their shopping typologies based on their shopping motives. A total of 624 questionnaires were administered to married female discount shoppers in Korea using the intercept survey method, and 467 completed questionnaires were available for data analysis. Factor analysis identified three shopping motives for patronizing discount stores: socialization, diversion and utilitarian. Four groups were identified using cluster analysis and labeled as leisurely‐motivated shoppers (n =152, 34.1 percent), socially‐motivated shoppers (n=49, 11.0 percent), utilitarian shoppers (n=132, 29.6 percent) and shopping‐apathetic shoppers (n=113, 25.3 percent). The four groups significantly differ in their appraisals of patronized store in some of store attributes, repatronage intention, and money spent in a shopping trip. Typologies of each cluster, discount retailing environments and managerial implications are discussed based on findings.

Validating the retail service quality scale for US and Korean customers of discount stores: an exploratory study

This exploratory study was designed to determine whether the retail service quality scale could be validated in a discount retail setting in the USA and Korea. Two convenience samples of US and Korean college students provided the data for the study. A multisample analysis supported that the same three dimensions of service quality existed in both samples, but the measurement model was not equivalent. Confirmatory factor analyses suggested that consumers in both cultures did not make a distinction between the personal attention and the problem solving dimensions. In addition, the policy dimension was not observed in either sample. Examination of the means of the dimensions indicated differences between the USA and Korea in the way consumers perceived the service quality of discount stores.

Korean consumers’ patronage of discount stores: domestic vs multinational discount store shoppers’ profiles

As the competition in domestic markets increases, multinational retailers are expanding globally. Multinational discounters such as Wal‐Mart and Carrefour have been vying against Korean discounters for market share with the full liberalization of the distribution sector in 1997. This study examined various aspects of discount store retailing (store attributes, shopping costs) and consumers’ shopping motives, values, and retail outcomes (e.g. shopping excitement, satisfaction and repatronage intention), to understand Korean consumers’ discount store patronage. Significant differences were found in store image perceptions and shoppers’ internal orientations between multinational discount store patrons vs Korean discount store patrons. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

The influence of retail environment on price perceptions: An exploratory study of US and Korean students

Consumers use a variety of information cues to select products; price, however, is the most important. It is possible that the market environment can influence how price is viewed by consumers. The purpose of this study is to: establish validity and reliability for multidimensional aspects of the price construct; to explore how US and Korean students are different or similar in their perception of price cues; and to use countries’ retail environments to explore the differences. Findings of this study show that US subjects have higher levels of prestige sensitivity, price mavenism and value consciousness, than did Korean students. However, Koreans exhibited higher levels of sale proneness and price consciousness. Theoretical and managerial implications were suggested based on these findings.

Exploratory study of virtual communities of apparel retailers

Purpose – This study aims to present a general overview of the characteristics of virtual communities hosted by apparel retailers.Design/methodology/approach – Content analysis was conducted on 2,521 web sites hosted by apparel retailers. Web sites of apparel retailers were identified from Stores Magazine “top 100 specialty retailers” and “top 100 retailers” listings, and Google search engine directory. Web sites were analyzed in terms of general characteristics of apparel retailers (e.g. apparel product categories, ability to purchase online, presence of brick‐and‐mortar stores). Two coders individually visited each web site and coded the contents.Findings – A total of 13 virtual communities hosted by apparel retailers were found. Apparel retailers selling casual merchandise to the young teen market had the strongest representation. Most of the virtual communities used bulletin or message board tools. About half of the virtual communities had registration requirements and rules or membership policies. Di...

Apparel industry in East Asian newly industrialized countries

The East Asian newly industrialized countries (from now on, Asian NIC) of Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan have experienced decreasing export competitiveness due to rise of labor costs. While cheap labor has been the main source of competitiveness of Asian NIC, it cannot be a viable factor for Asian NIC any more. As the industry sector develops, its competitive advantage factors should be changed accordingly. This study is a preliminary attempt to illustrate how apparel industries in Asian NIC can obtain competitive advantage in the global economy and to suggest their future direction and challenges. By synthesizing industry‐specific and Asian NIC‐specific advantages, this study presents three critical factors for Asian NIC: global brand, global sourcing, and agility. Future directions and challenges for the industries are suggested.

The Dimensionality of Price Perceptions: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Asian Consumers

Recent research has found that rather than being a uni-dimensional construct, price has a variety of underlying dimensions; these underlying factors can be categorized as positive and negative. Some consumers interpret price as an indicator of product quality or prestige. Higher price is thus associated with higher likelihood of purchase. Other consumers may view price negatively, and seek to reduce the price they pay with different shopping strategies. Although much work homogenizes the consumer patterns of different Asian countries, limited research has focused on the similarities and differences in shopping habits and perceptions of price across Asian cultures. The focus of this study is to better understand price perceptions among Korean and Chinese consumers; the goal of this study is to contribute to the body of knowledge available to international marketers and to market scholars and strategists. In this manuscript, we first explore six price-related constructs before describing the study approach and addressing research findings. The results of this study indicate that both Korean and Chinese consumers perceive price as multidimensional, but in the case of Chinese participants, all price perceptions are negative.

Shopping is truly a joy

Some groups of consumers derive great pleasure from shopping; we refer to this as hedonic shopping value. This study contributes to the current literature by establishing construct equivalence in a cross-culture study and testing the relationship of positive and negative price cues with hedonic shopping value. We investigated this concept using confirmatory factor analysis to test equivalence between the two cultures on six dimensions of price and hedonism. Results indicate that the two-group path equality provided acceptable results (chi-square = 203.92 with 217 df, p = 0.73; GFI = 0.94). This indicated that the six dimensions of the price construct and hedonic shopping values are the same for the two countries. Therefore, we proceeded to test the hypotheses. As expected, neither of the two positive dimensions of price was significantly related to hedonic shopping value. Two of the four negative price cues, price mavenism and value consciousness, were positively related to hedonic shopping value.

Price as Hedonic Shopping

Consumers react differently to price. The purpose of this study was to determine if price acts as a multidimensional cue for Korean students and to determine how this cue is related to hedonic shopping value. Some consumers view high price as a cue to their economic status; others seek out bargains and like to share this information with friends. Two product classes, clothing and durable goods, were used in this study. Price mavenism, a negative price cue, was significantly related to hedonic shopping value for both categories of goods. Value consciousness was also positively related to hedonic shopping for both groups. In the case of clothing, prestige sensitivity was positively related to sale proneness but was negatively related to hedonism. For durables, value consciousness had a positive relationship with hedonism, whereas sale proneness and price consciousness were negatively associated with hedonism.