Jung Wan Lee

Young consumers' perceptions of multinational firms and their acculturation channels towards western products in transition economies

Purpose – This research aims to focus on the understanding of how young consumers (generation Y) in transition economies perceive western multinational firms, what factors influence their consumption preferences of western products, and what are communication channels that affect their purchasing intensions of western products and brands.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected by interviews of consumer focus groups for qualitative implications, and survey questionnaires were developed to obtain quantitative data for statistical analyses to provide additional insights during the period from September to November 2004 in Almaty, Kazakhstan.Findings – The findings suggest that due to the influence of increased contacts with western cultures, people, and products through mass media (mainly TV) and marketing campaigns by multinational companies, most of the young consumers in transition economies have favorable attitudes towards western products and things, and they have high appreciation especially ...

ICT, CO2 Emissions and Economic Growth: Evidence from a Panel of ASEAN

Abstract This study examines relationships among information communications technology (ICT), carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and economic growth. The panel annual data are constructed from 1991 to 2009 for nine members from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The study examines the long-run equilibrium relationship using cointegration techniques and the short-run relationships using cointegrating regression estimation methods. Test results indicate a long-run equilibrium relationship exists among these variables. Among these relationships, ICT shows significant to highly significant positive effects on both economic growth and CO2 emissions. Significant to highly significant inverse bidirectional relationships between economic growth and CO2 emissions are found in the region. Based on these empirical findings, further policy implications for economic growth, ICT and CO2 emissions are discussed.

Determinants of Intent to Continue Using Online Learning: A Tale of Two Universities

This paper examines the determinants of intent to continue using online learning. The success of online learning programs depends not only on students’ satisfaction but also their intent to con-tinue using it. Unlike the recent research under this topic, its antecedent model consists of the following three components that affect learners’ intent to continue using online learning: per-ceived social ability, online learning readiness, and perceived usefulness. Eight hundred and sev-enty-two samples collected from students in online business classes from two universities in the United States and South Korea were analyzed using factor analysis, structural equation model techniques, and independent sample t-statistics. Perceived social ability, online learning readi-ness, and perceived usefulness are significant predictors of intent to continue using online learn-ing in both groups. However, there is a significant difference between these groups in terms of online learning readiness and perceived usefulness of online learning systems.

Impact of culture on online management education

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of national culture on the acceptance, and online interaction, of management education and training online using Halls cultural classifications and Hofstedes cultural framework. Potential differences in perceptions of personal innovativeness and levels of online management education acceptance were examined.Design/methodology/approach – Factor analysis, structural modeling techniques and independent sample t‐statistics were used to analyze samples collected from online management classes in the USA and Korea.Findings – Results suggest that high‐context and collectivism cultures are more conservative to the adoption of online management education and training and participation in online interaction. A second interesting finding is evidence of the significant difference of adoption likelihood of learning innovation and changes. It was clear that a nations culture directly affects the manner in which participants engage, relate and benefit ...

Relationship between Brand Personality and the Personality of Consumers, and its Application to Corporate Branding Strategy

Abstract Many consumers enjoy the challenge of purchasing a brand that matches well with their own values and personalities (for example, Ko et al, 2008; Ko et al., 2006). Therefore, the personalities of consumers can impact on the final selection of a brand and its brand personality in two ways: first, the consumers may incline to purchase a brand or a product that reflects their own personalities; second, consumers tend to choose a company that has similar brand personalities to those brands that are being promoted. Therefore, the objectives of this study are following: 1. Is there any empirical relationship between a consumers personality and the personality of a brand that he or she chooses? 2. Can a corporate brand be differentiated by the brand personality? In short, consumers are more likely to hold favorable attitudes towards those brands that match their own personality and will most probably purchase those brands matching well with their personality. For example, Matzler et al. (2006) found that extraversion and openness were positively related to hedonic product value; and that the personality traits directly (openness) and indirectly (extraversion, via hedonic value) influenced brand effects, which in turn droved attitudinal and purchase loyalty. Based on the above discussion, the following hypotheses are proposed: Hypothesis 1: the personality of a consumer is related to the brand personality of a product/corporate that he/she purchases. Kuksov (2007) and Wernerfelt (1990) argued that brands as a symbolic language allowed consumers to communicate their types to each other and postulated that consumers had a certain value of communicating their types to each other. Therefore, how brand meanings are established, and how a firm communicate with consumers about the meanings of the brand are interesting topics for research (for example, Escalas and Bettman, 2005; McCracken, 1989; Moon, 2007). Hence, the following hypothesis is proposed: Hypothesis 2: A corporate brand identity is differentiated by the brand personality. And there are significant differences among companies. A questionnaire was developed for collecting empirical measures of the Big-Five personality traits and brand personality variables. A survey was conducted to the online access panel members through the Internet during December 2007 in Korea. In total, 500 respondents completed the questionnaire, and considered as useable. Personality constructs were measured using the Five-factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) scale and a total of 30 items were actually utilized. Brand personality was measured using the five-dimension scale developed by Aaker (1997). A total of 17 items were actually utilized. The seven-point Likert-type scale was the format of responses, for example, from 1 indicating strongly disagreed to 7 for strongly agreed. The Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) was used for an empirical testing of the model, and the Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) was applied to estimate numerical values for the components in the model. To diagnose the presence of distribution problems in the data and to gauge their effects on the parameter estimates, bootstapping method was used. The results of the hypothesis-1 test empirically show that there exit certain causality relationship between a consumers personality and the brand personality of the consumers choice. Thus, the consumers personality has an impact on consumers final selection of a brand that has a brand personality matches well with their own personalities. In other words, the consumers are inclined to purchase a brand that reflects their own personalities and tend to choose a company that has similar brand personalities to those of the brand being promoted. The results of this study further suggest that certain dimensions of the brand personality cause consumers to have preference to certain (corporate) brands. For example, the conscientiousness, neuroticism, and extraversion of the consumer personality have positively related to a selection of “ruggedness” characteristics of the brand personality. Consumers who possess that personality dimension seek for matching with certain brand personality dimensions. Results of the hypothesis-2 test show that the average “ruggedness” attributes of the brand personality differ significantly among Korean automobile manufacturers. However, the result of ANOVA also indicates that there are no significant differences in the mean values among manufacturers for the “sophistication,” “excitement,” “competence” and “sincerity” attributes of the corporate brand personality. The tight link between what a firm is and its corporate brand means that there is far less room for marketing communications than there is with products and brands. Consequently, successful corporate brand strategies must position the organization within the boundaries of what is acceptable, while at the same time differentiating the organization from its competitors.

Tourism effects on the environment and economic sustainability of sub-Saharan Africa

ABSTRACT This paper integrates tourism, economic growth, and environmental issues in a multivariate format. Unlike recent research on this topic, a panel data of selected sample nations of sub-Saharan Africa is adopted by using cointegration and panel regression models. The current research discovers both long-run equilibrium and short-run dynamics between economic growth, tourism, energy use, and carbon emissions in sub-Saharan Africa. Furthermore, tourism and energy use show a highly significant direct impact on economic growth. In addition, tourism, energy use, and economic growth yield a highly significant positive effect on carbon emissions. Dissecting the region into oil producers and non-oil producers further suggests that the economic growth of sub-Saharan Africa has been accomplished by strong growth in tourism and energy use. However, there is highly significant evidence that in oil producing countries, CO2 emissions are directly affected by energy use and economic growth and not by tourism. For non-oil producing countries, tourism and energy use but not economic growth incur a highly significant positive impact on carbon emissions.

Green Growth and Sustainability: The Role of Tourism, Travel and Hospitality Service Industry in Korea

The study investigates the influence of tourism and hospitality industry on economic growth and CO2 emissions. In the empirical analysis, unit root tests, cointegration test and vector error correction model regression using time series data of South Korea from the first quarter of 1970 to the third quarter of 2010 are performed to examine the long-run equilibrium relationship and short-run dynamics among the tourism and hospitality industry, CO2 emissions, economic growth and other industry sectors. Results from cointegration techniques and vector error correction models indicate that a long-run equilibrium relationship exists among these variables. Furthermore, the tourism and hospitality industry and CO2 emissions have high significant positive effect on economic growth. The tourism and hospitality industry in Korea, in turns, shows a high significant positive impact on economic growth while the industry sector incurs a high significant negative impact on CO2 emissions.

Critical factors in promoting customer acceptance of and loyalty to online business management degree programs

This paper investigates the critical factors that promote the customer acceptance of online business management degree programs in online education markets. The model examines the impact of reputation, price, teaching quality, student service quality, and ethical practices on the customer acceptance of online degree programs and customer loyalty to online degree programs. Five hundred and seventy-five samples, which were collected from participants in a web-based survey in Korea, were analyzed using multiple regression analysis techniques. The findings of the study suggested that the reputation of online programs, the price of online degree programs, the teaching quality of online instruction, and the student service quality of online institutions are significantly related to the customer acceptance of online degree programs, while the ethical practices of online institutions are not significantly related to the customer acceptance of online degree programs. In addition, the empirical findings show that the reputation of online degree programs plays the most important role in establishing and promoting customer acceptance in the markets. Based on the findings of the study, we discuss possible strategies for marketing success in online education markets.

Assessing the dynamic impact of tourism, industrialization, urbanization, and globalization on growth and environment in Southeast Asia

ABSTRACT The purpose of this article is to investigate the impact of growth and environment in Southeast Asia. Extending existing research, this research builds on variables such as tourism, industrialization, urbanization, globalization, economic growth, and environment in a multivariate format. Cointegration tests and panel regression models are employed in the empirical analysis using panel data of Southeast Asian countries. The research discovers a long-run equilibrium relationship between carbon dioxide emissions, tourism, industrialization, urbanization, globalization, and economic growth. Accordingly, pertaining to short-run analysis, tourism, urbanization, and globalization directly affect economic growth while industrialization is insignificant. Further analysis shows the extent to which these factors impact environment. The results reveal an intriguing paradox that tourism negatively impacts carbon emissions in the region while industrialization and urbanization directly cause carbon emissions. These findings suggest the effectiveness of green or ecotourism in the region and highlight how Southeast Asian countries develop policies to curb carbon emission levels and leverage these attributes for sustainable environment.

Motivators and inhibitors of entrepreneurship and small business development in Kazakhstan

This study investigates motivators and inhibitors of entrepreneurship and small business development in the transitional economy of Kazakhstan in Central Asia. A qualitative research was used to obtain a macro view of developing entrepreneurship and small business in Kazakhstan. A focus group interview with entrepreneurs and small business owners was conducted during 2006. In general, factors that enhance entrepreneurship and small business development include encouraging social entrepreneurship, increasing credits availability, improving institutional environment and supports from international organisations. Selected policy and practical implications are identified, such as improving institutional development, creating supportive business environment, and promoting social entrepreneurship.