Kwon Jung

Animosity towards economic giants: what the little guys think

Respondents from five Asian countries were surveyed in terms of their consumer ethnocentrism, animosity, and attribution towards the USA and Japan in the context of the Asian economic crisis. The results indicated that the more severely hit a country was, the more ethnocentric respondents were. In general, animosity towards the USA was higher than towards Japan with regard to the Asian crisis. Koreans held the greatest stable animosity towards the Japanese because of the atrocities experienced during the Second World War. Respondents attributed the blame of the Asian crisis more to themselves. They also felt that they and the Japanese could have controlled the turn of events during the crisis. Implications arising from the findings are discussed.

An Exploratory Investigation into Impulse Buying Behavior in a Transitional Economy: A Study of Urban Consumers in Vietnam

As a transitional economy, Vietnam is open to many new marketing experiences. Along with slowly increasing wealth, changes are occurring in the retail environment as stores begin to replace individual vendors. The changing retail environment suggests the usefulness of understanding shopping behaviors relevant to retail settings. The authors examine impulse buying behaviors of urban consumers in Vietnam. The authors conducted an exploratory study that included both qualitative and quantitative methods to provide a general understanding of urban Vietnamese consumers’ impulse buying behaviors. Results show that individualism, age, and income are significantly related to impulse buying behaviors of Vietnamese consumers. In addition, personal-use products are the most common impulse purchase items, despite the collectivist nature of consumers in Vietnam. The authors’ findings suggest that, at least with respect to impulse buying and despite cultural differences, consumers from transitional economies such as Vietnam may share some common tendencies and behaviors with consumers in advanced economies. The authors discuss other observations and conclude with suggestions for further research.

The influence of materialistic inclination on values, life satisfaction and aspirations : An empirical analysis

This article attempts to measure the effect ofmaterialistic inclination on the degree of lifesatisfaction. The study is based on a sample of about1600 respondents randomly selected from differentparts of the city state of Singapore. Theserespondents were divided into two distinct groups withhigh or low materialistic inclination. It wasobserved that when these respondents were asked torate the importance of the nine items from KahlesList of Values, the ratings of seven of these itemswere found to be significantly different between thetwo groups. The two groups also indicated differentchoices when asked to rate the things they wanted mostout of life. Finally, it was revealed that they alsoreported different degrees of satisfaction withvarious domains in life in general. However, as withregard to satisfaction with life in Singapore inparticular, there were no significant differencesobserved between the two groups.

A Typology of Animosity and its Cross-National Validation:

Four types of animosity, the emotional antagonism felt toward a specific entity, were identified as a function of their sources (situational vs. stable) and locus (personal vs. national) of manifestation. A five-country survey was conducted in Asia to validate the typology, using the United States and Japan as target entities. Results affirmed the four-factor structure of the proposed typology. Several cross-national differences in animosity were also uncovered. Indonesians, Malaysians, and Thais tended to have greater situational animosity toward the United States than Japan, except for Koreans and Singaporeans. Not surprisingly, Koreans showed greater stable animosity toward Japan than the United States. Asians also demonstrated a higher level of animosity at the national than personal level. Implications arising from the findings are discussed and directions for future research suggested.

Searching for boundary conditions for successful brand extensions

Purpose – Past research on brand extensions has been searching for conditions for successful brand extensions. Two contradictory response patterns between fit levels and extension evaluation have been observed in past studies. This study attempts to synthesize these seemingly contradicting past findings by considering a situational factor (i.e. situational involvement) and a consumer personality factor (i.e. consumer innovativeness) as moderating factors for the effect of extension similarity on evaluation of brand extensions.Design/methodology/approach – An experimental design with three factors (i.e. extension similarity, consumer innovativeness, and situational involvement) is used to test the hypotheses.Findings – It was found that, under the high involvement condition, innovative subjects show a pattern suggested by the inverted U‐shaped hypothesis in their extension evaluations. Subjects in other conditions, on the other hand, show a pattern suggested by the fit hypothesis.Practical implications – T...

Measuring Status Orientations: Scale Development and Validation in the Context of an Asian Transitional Economy

Vietnams transition from a centrally planned economy to a free market has generated considerable interest in exploring how traditional values are being challenged by modern ones in the perceptions and attainment of status among consumers. We focused on understanding and developing measures of status orientations and showed that traditional status orientation and modern status orientation are two distinct subconstructs of status orientation. The empirical work involved with scale development and validation and the resultant research and managerial implications are discussed.

Segmentation of library visitors in Singapore: learning and reading related lifestyles

Examines the learning and reading‐related lifestyles of users and non‐users of libraries in Singapore. Door‐to‐door personal interviews with over 800 respondents in the age group of over 15 were used to collect the data. Factor analysis was used to establish eight types of reading and learning lifestyles. Subsequently cluster analysis was used to segment the respondents into seven types of library visitors. Together with their demographic characteristics and usage patterns of libraries, distinct profiles of these segments of people could be constructed. Finally, implications for library policy planners are discussed.

Impulse Buying Behaviors on the Internet

With the increase in online shopping by consumers, impulse buying on the Internet becomes a quite common buying behavior. Based on the Beatty and Ferrells (1998) model of impulse buying, this study proposes and empirically testes a model to explain impulse buying behaviors on the Internet.

Coupon Redemption Behaviors among Korean Consumers: Effects of Distribution Method, Face Value, and Benefits on Coupon Redemption Rates in Service Sector

Although couponing has been one of the most important promotional vehicles in the US, the history of couponing in Korea has been less than a decade. This study empirically examines coupon redemption behaviors among Koreans consumers. Specifically, the impacts of face value, coupon benefits and method of distribution on coupon redemption rate are investigated.