Antitrust deals with the competitive consequences of conduct by firms in the market. Marketing places emphasis on understanding how firms compete from individual perspective; by studying the thinking and motivations of managers and purchase preferences of consumers. As an academic discipline marketing aims to describe and predict the performance of companies engaged in exchange to reach organizational goals (Gundlach, Phillips, & Desrochers, 2002). For antitrust, the complementary nature of marketing's constitutes in providing a basis for understanding the nature of competitive conduct and the welfare of consumers. The influence of antitrust on marketing strategy raises many concerns. There is a strand of literature investigating how the antitrust law perceives different marketing activities. Many common marketing practices are coming under greater scrutiny from regulators, antitrust lawyers and scholars. It is essential for companies to understand how that will affect competition. When considering marketing issues such as distribution policy, product line extension, enhancing the company’s positive image, they may not realize the increasing likelihood of violating antitrust laws (Bush & Gelb, 2005). Brodley (1982) analyzes how joint ventures may threaten competition by falsifying competitive incentives among joint venture participants. He describes various incentive-modifying remedies that mitigate anticompetitive risks, and then applies this presumptive approach to various types of joint ventures. Some papers analyze how antimonopoly decisions can influence management of transaction. Joskow (2002) shows the importance of the application of transaction cost economics (TCE) to antitrust legal rules and antitrust remedies specification because it may result in different legal rules comparing to cases ignoring TCE ideas. He emphasizes that antitrust legal rules must be sensitive to the information and analytical capabilities of institutions in the market, the characteristics of potential anticompetitive behavior, market structures etc. Not only the development of marketing practices challenges antitrust enforcement. Antitrust policy can impose significant and long-lasting restrictions on marketing policies of companies, including pricing decisions. One relevant for Russia example is pricing antitrust remedies under the merger deals clearance or investigations on the abuse of dominance. In order to prevent abuse in a form of excessive price antitrust authorities set ‘soft price cap’ on the domestic market price using different benchmarks including quotes in the world commodity markets, price of export contracts, price of export contracts net of transport cost and custom duties, best (lowest) price of export contract etc. This type of remedies is already applied for chemicals, electric steel, cocking coal, aluminum and other commodities. Reform of tariff regulation in Russia takes this path also: from the next year price cap for natural gas for industrial customers will be set at the level of contract price of the largest supplier Gazprom net of transport cost. We argue that this type of remedies being imposed in order to protect customers of dominant company can diminish incentives to compete, along with the restricting incentives for an efficiency-improvement. This paper investigates how soft price regulation affects companies` behavior. In many regulated industries over the world price cap as a method of price regulation replaces cost-plus pricing. It is a kind of incentive regulation introduced in order to enhance productive efficiency by strengthening sellers’ incentives for cost reduction (Laffont, 1993; Cabral & Riordan, 1989) as well as incentives for more efficient pricing. A price-cap regulation might be suggested to address the market by making it extremely difficult for the industry to use price as a marketing strategy and by reducing the available sources the industry has for spending on marketing and lobbying. However pricing under cap is not neutral for competition in the market. We argue that the impact of price cap regulation on market competition depends on the design of cap. More specifically if cap for one (regulated) market depends on the price of the supplier in other (non-regulated) market, there is sub-type of price cap regulation (known in Russian tariff regulation as ‘netback minus’) that enhance incentives to collude in non-regulated market. Traditionally impact of price caps on collusion is analyzed in the framework of focal point problem. Price ceilings might weaken competition serving as collusive focal points for pricing decisions (Schelling, 1960; Scherer & Ross, 1990). According to the Folk Theorem (Tirole, 1988) any individually rational prices can occur as a Nash equilibrium in infinitely repeated games with sufficiently high discount factor. In collusive equilibrium, companies face a coordination problem so that price ceilings may become a focal point on which companies may coordinate. It means that price ceilings may facilitate tacit collusion, increase its stability and lead to higher prices on the market. In addition, price ceilings may become a signal that if firms charge prices below that level than they would not be investigated for collusion by government authorities. Thus, it becomes less risky to maintain collusion at price level that government assess as binding. There is a strand of literature providing the empirical evidence for a collusive focal-point effect of price ceilings in different markets. Knittel and Stango (2003), studying data on state-level price ceilings on credit card charges during the 1980s, find that companies used state-level price ceilings as focal points to sustain tacit collusion. Ma (2007) investigates price ceilings in Taiwan’s flour market and argues that firms set prices above competitive levels during most of the regulation period. Moreover, all flour firms set their prices equal to ceilings. Some studies try to explain the existence of asymmetric retail price adjustments to crude oil price or wholesale price shocks by market power and possible collusion effects (Deltas, 2008; Borenstein, Cameron, & Gilbert, 1997). Sen, Clemente and Jonker (2011) evaluating the effects of price ceiling on retail gasoline prices in Eastern Canada 1999-2007 find the evidence that the enactment of such regulation is significantly correlated with higher prices. A potential explanation is that price ceilings serve as focal points stimulating firms to set higher prices. In contrast, laboratory experiments do not find a collusive focal-point effect of price ceilings. Coursey and Smith (1983) find convergence to the competitive equilibrium prices and no collusive effects of price ceilings in posted-offer markets. Despite in the design of Coursey and Smith (1983) the incentives to collude are small, Engelmann and Normann (2009) also find the evidence against the focal-point hypothesis, who study posted-offer markets with four symmetric sellers but larger incentives for collusion at the price ceiling. Finally, Engelmann and Muller (2011) results again fail to support the focal-point hypothesis. Collusion is as unlikely in markets with a price ceiling as in markets with unconstrained pricing. The possible explanation for different results in the laboratory and in the field is the lack of the focal-point effect in the field. The field results might be driven by other factors. These might include explicit collusion (which might either be triggered by the introduction of the price ceiling or might be easier to keep up in its presence) or other reasons that the empirical studies failed to control for (Engelmann & Muller, 2011). However the design of our research differs from ‘focal point’ approach. It is much closer to the literature on the multimarket contacts (Bernheim & Whinston, 1990; Spagnolo, 1999). Multimarket contacts was also analyzed in the context of multimarket rivalry (Phillips & Mason, 1996) but not from the point of view of cap design as we do. The goal of this paper is to show the mechanism by means of which the establishment of the domestic regulated prices ceiling can promote the stability of collusion and conditions at which it occurs. Intuition of the paper is the following. Under price cap which depends on price in deregulated market deviation from collusion in this market decreases profit in regulated market (in the punishment phase). In the model we think about regulated market as domestic and about completely deregulated market as world market. Under certain conditions the establishment of a price ceiling of domestic market by the principle "price would not excess of the world price" can promote the collusion stability in the world market. We argue that there is an unexpected ratio between the principle of the internal price establishment based on a world indicative and collusion incentives: the difference between the world and internal price to which the regulator aspires is higher, the negative impact of this practice on the competition is higher. Not all the versions of price cap which are based on the world market benchmark provide the same impact on the incentive to collude. Other important variables which reflect transport cost (or more generally all cost of trade). Price cup under model ‘world price plus trade (transport) cost’ provides no impact on the incentives to collude under some level of trade (transport) cost. Price cap under model ‘world price minus trade (transport) cost’ supports the collusion to the greatest extent. This paper represents an interesting focus for the marketing field. The price cap for domestic customer influences companies` incentives to collude in the world markets. Thus, marketing needs to recognize the incentives for cooperative behavior as a strategic marketing tool under soft price cap. Important implication is that pricing remedies imposed on Russian exporting companies will affect prices for the customers of their international competitors.

Real estate housing market in former USSR was highly regulated and standardized in terms of product offering. Transition economy slightly changes this situation – consumers start to demand the new quality of housing while developers begin to implement the advanced building technologies and change the product attributes. The structure of consumers’ preferences forms product utility, which could be measured by using decompositional methods. We implement hierarchical information integration approach that let us represent the real estate housing object utility as a sum of part-worth utilities of various attributes. Using special research design we estimate the utility of current market offer. The results highlight that the reason of poor sales performance could underlie in the gap between consumers’ preferences and real estate housing items configuration.

In their efforts to compete and grow, companies try to reduce prime costs incurred by their purchasing groups, costs that may be more than 60% of sales. The recent financial crisis and the global economic depression have made it difficult to increase sales, so competitive purchasing is essential. Purchasing-efficiency benefits can be compared with sales-increase benefits: a 5% reduction of purchasing costs has the same effect as a 25% increase in sales. Some companies are using B2B purchasing substitution companies to reduce prime costs of raw materials, subsidiary materials, MRO (maintenance, repair, operation), and consumable materials. In this research, I examine whether purchasing substitution increases purchasing satisfaction and recommend ways to enhance the competitiveness of purchasing substitution. Corporate purchasing substitution strengthens integral purchases, simplifies systems, strengthens the supply network, and enhances customer service regarding quality, deadlines, logistics, and focus. This research is an effort to show how purchasing substitution systems can work best and to discover factors that contribute to corporate satisfaction. Most important is to use highly experienced purchasing experts who can reduce unnecessary costs through integral purchases. First, knowledgable and experienced purchasers can improve bid ordering rates. They can improve corporate satisfaction by recommending products suitable for price negotiation and sharing professional knowledge about items. Second, knowledgeable agents can improve sales rates by securing strong supply networks and minimizing distribution margins. Price competitiveness is most important in purchasing well-organized substitution services to allow expansion of new sales and better long-lasting account relations.

Companies incur costs in the care of indirect equipment used in production, that is, in maintenance, repair, and operation (MRO) of equipment. However, MRO can waste manpower and time, so that many companies engage MRO companies as substitutes. In the past, MRO substitution companies have conferred advantages that allowed companies to cut prices. As a result of those savings, companies were more likely to purchase high value items. But as prices drop and companies have more varied requests, MRO substitution companies must find new strategies to stay competitive. This research is an effort to escape the exhaustive adherence to price-cutting methods, and instead find ways to maintain continuous relations with customers through price benefits and services. First, product groups must adhere to purchase deadlines. Although logistics centers originally operated and managed deliveries, some items were too large to be delivered. To solve the problem, groups should contract with delivery companies to assure smooth delivery despite problems. Also, delivery companies could supplement computing processes by delivering original documents such as quality certificates between company and customer. Second, companies should communicate with customers regarding the maintenance of current prices, provision of additional service if current prices change, and to find problems and improvements regarding current operations that need to be addressed. The research shows that MRO purchasing companies should focus on customer needs rather than only on price if they are to satisfy customers and accomplish continuous growth.

Steel manufacturers in the Korean steel reinforcement market are facing increasing competition. Construction businesses are in a recession because demands have decreased, too many facilities have been built, and more imported materials are coming from Japan and China. Korean steel manufacturers focus on domestic sales as a result of these difficulties in the business environment. To overcome these difficulties, manufacturers must find strategies for producing high value products, minimizing distribution expenses, and reducing costs. However, such temporary expedients are insufficient. Accordingly, our study investigating steel manufacturer salespersons and agents that purchase supplies uncovered suggestions for remaining competitive. First, companies must outdo their competitors by offering more competitive prices. Second, they must be ahead of their competitors in announcing their prices. Companies can present their expected selling prices by analyzing their manufacturing costs, future market unit costs, and distribution unit costs of the present market. If they select prices for products they will sell in the next month, the data indicate that they can still expect to make profits. The lowest selling price is calculated by analyzing the manufacturing costs. By setting prices more rapidly than competitors, manufacturers should increase their market share by increasing sales volume.

Technological advances and rapid industrial growth raise concerns about industrial waste as one of the greatest hazards to human and environmental health. International attention has turned to sea dumping because it poses danger to ocean environments and interferes with seagoing vessels. Thus environmentalists are calling for cross-border cooperation in prohibiting companies from dumping their industrial wastes into the sea. Beginning 2016, Korea will be required to ban sea dumping of industrial waste in accordance with the London Dumping Convention (LDC: Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter; also called the London Convention or LC '72). The Asian Citizen’s Center for Environment and Health reports that in 2013 Korea dumped 116 million tons of industrial waste into the sea: 77.6% (90 million tons) was industry wastewater sludge; 21.8% (25.3 million tons) was industrial wastewater. In this year, 2014, 427 companies will dump 53 million tons. The Korean government first planned to ban sea dumping starting this year, but then gave companies a two-year grace period for preparing to dump industrial wastes onto the land rather than into the sea. In response to the changing market environment, our company will use marketing 4P strategy to focus on disposing industrial waste in landfills. First, we will assure that our processes for dealing with industrial wastes will be timely and legal. Second, we will offer competitive prices and provide better value to our customers by analyzing switching costs of sea-to-land dumping and examining market conditions so that we have competitive advantages in the initial market. Third, by analyzing distribution channels regarding sea dumping, we can rearrange the process for better benefits and profits. Furthermore, we can reinforce relationships with logistic companies and customers. Last, we can improve and reinforce our brand image by using various media outlets to tell institutions and consumers about our experiences and advantages. Our strategy should extend our market, establish new customers, grow our company, and help preserve the marine ecosystem.

Modern consumers have significantly changed their shopping patterns, so that retailers must employ competitive and innovative strategies to counter the many new types of stores such as outlets offering premium services. In addition, customers have become smarter shoppers, refusing to pay more because of brand loyalty, especially when service and price differences have diminished. This study is an analysis of consumer shopping behavior in an effort to find effective marketing strategies to appeal to consumers who shop in outlet stores. Previous research has shown that shoppers may be clustered according to whether they are oriented toward convenience, brands, hedonism, economics, or trends. Different consumer types have different attitudes toward retailer types and also vary in their retailer loyalty. Some types have strong customer loyalty to outlet stores, but others do not. In this study, we examine the relationship between consumer attitude toward the outlet store and retailer loyalty according to consumer shopping types. Hedonism-oriented and economics-orientated consumers are expected to have more interest in outlet shopping than are brand-oriented consumers.

Play is essential to life because it gives children joy, helps them grow, and provides important educational benefits. But in the past three to four decades, Korea has become rapidly urbanized and industrialized, so that the country has overlooked the educational importance of childhood play. Moreover, the parental mindset has turned from valuing the social environments found in natural playgrounds to supporting result-oriented education and competition. Recently, however, play is becoming recognized again for its educational benefits. Those needs have opened new business opportunities in the playground business. One of those new businesses is Kids Café, which provides indoor playgrounds for preschool-age children and café facilities for parents. Korea has no legal guidelines regarding formation of these businesses, and no detailed studies have been conducted to study customers’ needs. For businesses to be competitive in the future, they must know how they can compete by enhancing customer benefits. This study is intended to develop a marketing strategy for Kids Café by analyzing its competitiveness based on needs of children and their parents. We find that Kids Café has several main advantages in comparison with other playgrounds. Kids Café allows parents and children to enjoy themselves independently. Parents especially enjoy being easily able to see and monitor their children, and can take part in the program if they wish. The program does not require regular attendance as do paid classes and cultural centers; parents can bring their children when they have available time. Finally, children and parents can enjoy their leisure time both independently and collaboratively. Price, safety, play diversity, and convenient rest opportunities for parents determine whether parents will return to Kids Café. For sustainable growth, Kids Café must develop a customized and optimized marketing strategy according to customer type and needs.

Because domestic paint is distributed through an obsolescent and inefficiently operated distribution channel, consumers have declining awareness regarding the overall paint industry. Also, increasing environmental regulation and the lack of consumer knowledge are negatively affecting the industry, fundamentally because regular individual operators rather than manufacturers are responsible for paint distribution. To counter these problems and to provide better customer service, I suggest that paint distribution companies should consider using franchise systems to expand and modernize the distribution industry. In franchise systems, franchisees contract with the franchise headquarters for the rights to sell or distribute products or services. Franchise systems offer the advantages of specialization. Although headquarters and franchisees operate independently, franchise systems cause consumers to perceive the product or service as having one image. Under franchised paint distribution systems, expert franchise groups would determine price, delivery time, and stock quality, while non-expert groups could focus on store comforts, employee expertise regarding products, and brand perceptions. I undertake this study to determine whether stores under paint distribution franchise systems will see enhanced customer satisfaction and increased sales in comparison with non-franchised stores. I expect to find that franchise systems will bring standardization, make store management more efficient, and improve the performance of franchise stores. Specifically, 1) franchisors and franchisees are indeed autonomous, with independent profits and business focus; 2) although managers operate independently, consumers perceive homogeneity in the system, for positive effects on their buying behaviors; 3) by expanding regional sales, franchisors decrease regional uncertainties about product characteristics; 4) small business owners may face burdens in becoming franchisees, but they will have reduced business risks as a result of the support they get regarding training in brand, information, and technology.

In the context of M&A, how to redeploy two corporate assets is one of important organizational tasks. Among tasks, the management of intangible assets – in particular of corporate brand name is a critical element reflects consumers’ response. There has been increasing interest in the role of corporate names in academic fields. However, little attention has been paid to the different name and symbol options on M&A types. No empirical research has yet addressed branding strategies between in-market and cross-market M&A from the individual customers’ perspectives of acquired company. This paper seeks to address the research gap, by exploring acquired company customer on brand identity options in the context of post merger. Specifically, it considers the degree to which name and symbol influence acquired consumer responses. Thus, 5(brand strategy: target-dominant brand name A, acquirer-dominant brand name B, acquirer-dominant synergistic brand name BA, target-dominant synergistic brand name AB or create new brand name C) × 2(M & A types: in market or cross-market) between subject experiment design was conducted. 494 undergraduate or graduate students are the subjects from a college. Questionnaires were collected by convenience sampling. The results show that: (1). Brand name redeployment strategy has significant effect on customers’ sovereignty deprivation and brand switching intention. (2). In in-market M&A type situation, target-dominant brand tend to outperform acquirer-dominant brand strategy in decreasing the degree of acquired company customers’ perceived sovereignty deprivation and brand switching intention when compared with cross-market M&A type. (3). In in-market M&A type situation, new brand tend to outperform acquirer-dominant brand strategy in decreasing the degree of acquired company customers’ perceived sovereignty deprivation and brand switching intention when compared with cross-market M&A type. (4). In in-market M&A type situation, acquirer-dominant synergistic brand strategy tend to outperform new brand strategy in decreasing the degree of acquired company customers’ perceived sovereignty deprivation when compared with cross-market M&A type. In summary, in in-market M&A type situation, acquirer-dominant synergistic brand is the best strategy and new brand name is the second best option in decreasing the degree of acquired company customers’ perceived sovereignty deprivation when compared with cross-market type situation. The results should guide managers regarding post-M&A branding strategies.

Services have continuously been growing and over the last years have become an increasingly important part of the worldwide economy (Kanso and Kitchen, 2004; Margetts, 2012). More importantly, with rapid developments of interactive marketing communications service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty are increasing becoming the determinants of business success factors in the service sector (Parasuraman and Grewal, 2000; Caruana, 2002, Aksoy et al 2012). Particularly, when the production of service delivery is associated with communication, customer relationship and people intensiveness, customer evaluations of the service quality become even more critical when crossing boundaries (Kanso and Kitchen, 2004). In recent years, multi-channel customer contacts such as self-service web chat, phone, and email points of customer interaction modes are in focus (e.g., Cooper et al 2009; Robertson, 2012) to enhance customer service experience and satisfaction. Although marketing academics and practitioners agree that identifying suitable communication channels is vital for company’s long term success, there is an on-going debate in the literature whether this integrated multi-channel communication platform is right for the customers and is effective for service quality, customer service satisfaction and loyalty in this turbulent and ever changing global environment. Realistically, not all customers have the same level of technological skills or prefer using the same communication vehicle. As marketers remain concerned whether to standardise customer communication channels or not, a need arises to understand customer choices of their preferred communication interaction and type of communication contact. Therefore, there is a need to pay a greater attention to the determinants, which might have an impact on the relationship between customers’ communication mode choices and service quality as well as between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. This paper aims to fill the aforementioned gaps by combining various elements into the theoretical model and providing a more complete picture of the interconnectedness of the elements of multichannel communication contacts from a process and technology perspective. Thus, a theoretical framework for modelling the determinants of customer choice of communication modes should be of interest for international and global services companies.

The purpose of this study is to offer conceptual foundations of social brand community by developing an integrated overview of the current research. Concepts from the Structuration theory are used for synthesizing the consumer behavior literature. This study attempts to find and fill the gaps between brand community and social brand community. To fill the gaps in the literature, potential research questions and future research directions are suggested. This study offers foundations to develop a conceptual model of social brand community by considering the basic concepts in the Structuration theory and critical characteristics of the social media environment.

As a multi-channel strategy becomes increasingly prevalent, consumers have many chances to select channels for searching and/or purchasing a product or brand. More recently, smart kiosk using QR codes plays an important role in encouraging customer migration between channels. Therefore, multichannel customer management is becoming a pivotal component in firms’ marketing strategy. This study was to (a) classify shopper clusters by rate of using retail channels for fashion product, (b) examine difference in searching apps’ contents of shopping for fashion products between the clusters, and (c) identify if customer migration shapes from smart kiosk to retail channels is differed by the clusters The sample in this study consisted of smart phone users who reside in metropolitan city in Korea. A self-administered questionnaire developed based on literatures mainly included rate of using retail channels for searching and purchasing fashion products, intention to migrate to channel from the fashion kiosk, and importance of apps contents for fashion in the mobile shopping context. A total of 103 respondents were obtained from youth generation aged from 19 to 29 (Mean=21.7 years). The respondents represent more females (69%) than males (31%). Data were analyzed by using cluster analysis, factor analysis, ANOVA via SPSS program. Based on rate of using retail channels, consumers were classified into three clusters by K-means cluster analysis. The cluster 1 (n=45) “offline shopper” had higher rate in using offline store for both searching and purchasing fashion products. The cluster 2 (n=32) “non-store shopper” was rated more highly in using online or mobile channels for searching and purchasing fashion products. The cluster 3 (n=24) “cross-shopper” was rated more highly in using online for searching and offline store for purchasing fashion products. Fashion apps’ contents consisted of five factors, such as discount price, promotion, product information, store information, and offering special products. Of those contents, there was a significant difference in offering special products between groups. That is, cross-shoppers or non-store shoppers perceived special product offering more importantly than did offline shoppers. This finding did not support the perceived importance of contents on the fashion apps by different consumer groups. However, special offers might be more useful contents for browsers using online and mobile website even if they may convert to purchase the item either at online website or offline store. With respect to channel migration after using a fashion kiosk, there was a significant difference in intention of channel selection for purchases among the three groups. Specifically, the “non-store shopper” was more highly intent to purchase at QR code virtual store (F=6.12, p<.05) and mobile shopping apps (F=3.63, p<.05) than was the other groups. Compared with non-store shopper, the “offline shopper” and cross- shopper were more likely to purchase at the brick-and mortar store for fashion products (F=9.72, p<.001). However, there was not significantly difference in selection of online shopping website. This study discussed a managerial implication for strategic channel integration by creating smart virtual kiosk with digital technology application into a multichannel retail environment. Also, retailers should develop unique channel positioning for converting to purchase per different shape of customer channel migration in the fashion retailing.

Spa tourism is part of wellness tourism, which has been prosperously booming over the past decade. In accordance to the aforesaid, the spa-tourism-oriented marketing strategy is exceedingly significant for businesses akin to hotel, resort and even governments which aim at appealing to more tourists. For the future success, spa tourism needs to appreciate the changing demands of the spa market while providing enough capacity to satisfy them (Henderson, 2004). The worldwide spa industry revenue is growing up from US 60 billion in 2007 to US 73 billion in 2012 (Global Spa & Wellness Summit, 2012). Spa market is one of the fastest growing leisure markets both on the supply and demand sides. Nevertheless, spa industry is utterly fragmented with each segment catering for different customer needs (Harmsworth, 2004). Bali is a popular tourist destination renown for its nature beauty, which attracts both domestic and international tourists. Over the years, it has been dubbed as “the morning of the world”, “the last paradise” and “island with a thousand temples”. According to Indonesian Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS, 2013), it was chosen as the most favorite tourist destination worldwide with a number of tourists totaled at 2,756,579. Among the foreign spa tourism patrons, Mainland Chinese tourists ranked the second while Taiwanese tourists being the fifth in ranking. CNN Travel (2012) reported that the Indonesian government estimated one million Mainland Chinese tourists would patronize the spa tourism in Bali by 2014. Regardless Mainland China and Taiwan are dual sovereignties which identically possess similar culture, there are still some aspects such as gender issue that distinguishes one from another. Furthermore, age, occupation, education, family structure, and life experience are some other aspects that differentiate Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese. In summation, the main objectives of this paper is threefold: (1) to compare the decision making process between Taiwanese and Chinese tourists, specifically, amid the wedded/unwedded couples; (2) to identify the most influential decision maker among the wedded-couple tourists/unwedded-couple tourists in Taiwan and Mainland China; (3) to assist travel agencies which aim at luring couple tourists to concoct the customized package tours. This research develops a quantitative survey for data collection, inference and the resulting data. The first part of questionnaire evaluates the influence regarding wedded / unwedded couples over how much influence each other have (problem recognition, information search, and a final decision) (Davis & Rigaux, 1974). The second part consists of fourteen sub-decisions: the destination (Bali), budget (how much money to spend), days (how much time to spend), accommodation (where to stay), and departure time (when to go) (Belch, Belch, & Ceresino, 1985; Szybillo & Sosanie, 1977); airline, restaurant, local transportation, shopping, travel agency, tour leader, tour guide, optional tour, and spa activities (Wang, Hsieh, & Huan, 2000; Heung & Chu, 2000) and the other kinds of activities (Jenkins, 1979) complete with five-point Likert scale, ranging from “no influence at all” to “all of the influence”. The third part provides some questions asking respondents regarding where they receive the information about Bali. The fourth part asking the respondents provide information such as frequency of visiting destination; how long have the couples been together and how the package tour was booked. Eventually, this questionnaire provides information related to socio-demographic variables, including gender, respondents’ age, occupation, monthly income, and the highest education level (Howard & Madrigal, 1990; Darley & Lim, 1986; Fodness, 1992). The ultimate version of the questionnaire items are refined through the purification process. Above all, this study invites three experts to examine the validity and reliability concerning the questionnaire. 350 valid questionnaires were collected (consists of 171 Taiwanese tourists and 179 Chinese tourists) which was adequate to questions only one spouse in summer period. There is merely one significant discrepancy exists between the wedded and unwedded couples in the decision-making stages, that is, “Information search” conducted under the joint decision making. The nature beauty and wellness services combined with evening entertainment are relatively satisfactory in Bali. During the check-in process, wellness tourists are supposed to be notified of all the spa-oriented services in the spa area. Overall, the satisfaction level of spa in Bali is exceedingly-high. With hindsight, customer service seems to be the greatest asset in Bali. The presented study is an unprecedented research focusing on the behavioral disparity between Taiwanese and Chinese spa tourists when it comes to decision-making stages. The results of this study unfurls the different decision making process between Taiwanese and Chinese couples; according to the research result, the unwedded couples possess more influence than the wedded couples in decision making stages. Moreover, the findings of this research do not entirely support earlier statement given by Tourism Queensland (2013), which mentioned considerable spa customers are female, married, and age approximately 34 to 52 year olds. According to our research, actually, men accounts for a quarter of spa users. The research result indicates the mini-tour is a niche business in the tourism industry that can both benefit Taiwan and Mainland China; mini-tour is a novel concept mentioned in a previous research, which focuses on seniors’ GPT (Wang et al., 2013). This study provides information concerning customer satisfaction level in Bali spa business and travel agency services. The sub-decisions regarding couple tourists are thoroughly researched. Therefore, this presented study can potentially bring benefits to all parties (spa providers, travel agencies, and spa goers); simultaneously, it contributes greatly to the theory of “decision-making”. In conclusion, there are three management implications. First, wedded women, who are the crucial patrons in the spa industry, have more influence in the spa travel decision-making. Therefore, the marketing planners shall regard women as significant decision makers. Nevertheless, unwedded couples are more influential in spa travel when comparing to wedded couples, hence, spa providers shall make spa facilities more enjoyable, romantic, and rivate. Second, sub-decisions are regarded relatively pivotal when it comes to couple tourists. The findings shed some light on several factors of “sub-decision,” which are considered crucial by couple tourists when buying spa package tour. Third, Indonesian government deems Taiwan and Mainland China markets as tremendously paramount, especially when it comes to spa travel to Bali (CNN, 2012). As far as travel agencies are concerned, they need to create more appealing mini-package tours based on customer demographic. For spa providers, in order to efficiently maximize their revenue, they shall improve spa quality and the affiliated facilities and services.

Product naming is one of the most important communication decisions for any firm to deliver product information to consumers. Product names are highly likely to have critical impacts on the market performances of products, in particular, consisting of unobservable attributes such as motion pictures, music, books, and games. The purpose of this study is to analyze the effects of product naming strategies on their market performances and provide managerial implications on how to name products, especially for experience goods such as movies. We, firstly, suggest a conceptual framework to describe naming decisions as two-stage strategic decisions. The first stage decision is about what type of product information should be provided to consumers via a product name, which we call information choice strategy, and the second stage decision is about how to express the product information in the name, which we call expression strategy. We develop a two-level hierarchical Bayesian log-linear model to consider the main effects of product information strategy with the 1st level of the model, and the mediate effects of expression strategies with the 2nd level of the model. We applied the model to a data set consisting of viewership, names, and release dates of 634 movies released in eight countries where English is an official language. We have decided the types of naming strategies with the help of three industry practitioners, who have been working in the film industry for over 10 years as a producer, marketer, and investor, respectively. The country characteristics, obtained from Hofsted's Homepage (National culture scores of each country) and the World Bank (GDP and population of each country at the released t year), were considered for country heterogeneity. The empirical results show that information choice for movie titles have significant impacts on the movie viewership. Especially, movie titles including story or negative words have more positive impact on their market performances. One of the important findings is that the effects of “what to choose” depends on “how to express”. For example, not frequently used words, nonwords, proper nouns, foreign words in movie titles have positive impacts on the viewership. Popular words used for movie titles have a positive influence directly on the viewership. Interestingly, while sentences for movie titles have negative impacts on the viewership, storyline and theme expressed in sentences show positive impacts on the viewership. Another important finding is the mediating effects of country and product heterogeneities. The effects of naming strategy differs across movie genres and country characteristics. This study makes at least three contributions to the literature. Firstly, this study suggest a conceptual framework an empirical model for naming strategies in the literature. Secondly, this study provides information on what type of naming strategies are more effective on market performance, which has never been addressed in the literature. Lastly, the study provides some managerial implications which are useful for researchers and industry practitioners who are interested in product naming.

Introduction Driven by the rapidly evolving media landscape, firms extensively use social media to engage with their customers (Avery et al., 2010). Today, social media is an integral part of an individual’s daily life, which makes a vital venue through which companies connect with customers (Men & Tsai, 2011; Utz, 2009). Given the increased use of social media, recent studies have investigated how social media cultivates customer relationships with celebrities and/or media personalities (e.g., Smith, 2010). In light of the effectiveness of social media as a marketing tool, it is noteworthy to analyze the source power of celebrities and social relationships and consider how to take advantage of the power. The parasocial relationship is founded upon the communication process, which is an important factor in understanding the relationship between media and users. Parasocial relationships differ according to the motives for using social network service (SNS), while connection and attachment to celebrities, such as having empathy for a particular celebrity, is affected by celebrity source credibility. (Ohanian, 1990). The purpose of this study is to clarify the relation between parasocial relationships and customer equity in the social media context. The study investigates effects of motivations to use SNS and source credibility on parasocial relationships, as well as the effects of parasocial relationships on attitude and customer equity, and customer lifetime value. Theoretical Frameworks In this study, parasocial relationship refers to a virtual intimacy between a media personality and the media users, in other words, it is a psychological, interpersonal relationship unilaterally formed by users based on proximity, similarity, and attraction to the media personalities (Rubin & Step, 2000). When a parasocial relationship is formed, the media consumer appreciates the values and motives of the media character, often viewing him or her as a counselor, comforter, and model (Horton & Wohl, 1956). When using an SNS, users’ communication habits and their selection of social network services vary according to their motives, which in turn affect the parasocial relationships with celebrities via SNS. Motives for using SNS, specifically, information seeking, entertainment, and social connection may have a positive relationship with parasocial relationships. Source credibility, the positive characteristics of a communicator that affect the receiver’s acceptance of a message, positively influences parasocial relationships (Ohanian, 1990; McCracken, 1989) based on expertise, trustworthiness, and attractiveness of the media celebrities. In the social media context, a parasocial relationship has positive influence on attitude toward using an SNS. Social media users engage in finding people with whom they have an offline connection (Ellison, Steinfield, & Lampe, 2007). Social media enables individuals to connect with others all around the world easily, it is not surprising that parasocial relationships influence users’ attitude toward using social media, offering environments to enhance connections (Byod & Ellison, 2008). Further, it is worthwhile to note that parasocial relationships may have a positive influence on customer equity. The key to customer equity lies in understanding the customer lifetime value concept, which refers to the net present value of a customer’s profit stream (Rust, Lemon, & Zeithaml, 2004). Parasocial relationships positively influence brand, value and relationship equity, with the emergence of brands as one of the key organizational assets (Gummesson, 2004). Parasocial relationships explain relationships between individuals and brands, product, symbols, objects, and corporate identities. Such relationships allow individuals to have bonds with brands, trademarks and other symbols, politicians, sportsmen or even actors (Gummesson, 2004). Thus, they positively influence customer equity including brand equity, value equity, and relationship equity. Focused on effects of motivations to use SNS and source credibility on parasocial relationship as well as the effects of parasocial relationship on attitude, customer equity, and customer lifetime value, this study tests the following hypotheses: H1: Motivations to use SNS will have a positive influence on parasocial relationship. H2: Source credibility will have a positive influence on parasocial relationship. H3: Parasocial relationship will have a positive influence on attitude toward using SNS. H4: Attitude toward using SNS will have a positive influence on customer equity. H5: Parasocial relationship will have a positive influence on customer equity. Methods This study used a survey to investigate key questions about the associations between parasocial relationships and customer equity. A total of 350 social media users recruited from Hong Kong and Macau in China participated in the survey. Of the 350 participants, 129 were men (36.9%) and 221 were women (63.1%), with ages ranging from 21 and 35 years old (mean = 25.6 years). This study measured motivations for using SNS on a five-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree; 7 = strongly agree), which was adapted from an existing motivation scale (Leung, 2009; Leung & Wei, 1998; Sheldon 2008). To measure source credibility, this study used a five-point Likert scale, which was also adapted from an existing source credibility scale (Eisend & Langner, 2010; Priester & Petty 2003). Parasocial relationships were measured on the basis of user responses to 17 items on an existing five-point scale that assessed parasocial relationships (Koeppel et al., 1993). This study measured attitude toward using SNS through an existing scale (Venkatesh, Morris, Davis, & Davis, 2003). Customer equity was measured using an existing five-point scale (Keller, 2003; Rust et al., 2004) that elicited user responses to 13 items. Customer lifetime value (CLV) was calculated only for the customers in the sample, and CLVs were calculated separately before the average was taken by using the equation below: The CLVij of customer i to brand j, is given as: Tij= Frequency of purchases by customer i for a specific period of time dj= The rate of discount offered by company j fi= Annual average frequency of purchases by customer i for a certain period of time Vijt= The amount of purchase of brand j by customer i for a period of time t πijt= Expected profits by purchase unit of brand j by customer i for a period of time t Bijt= Probability that customer i buys brand j in purchase t Results The overall goodness-of-fit for this measurement model was acceptable (Chi-square = 8.218, df = 5, p = 0.145, GFI = 0.992, CFI = 0.991, RMR = 0.095, RMSEA = 0.043). The reliability coefficients of all 20 motivation measures were 0.885, and they were based on three factors of information seeking, entertainment, and building relationships. The reliability coefficients of all 16 source credibility measures were 0.924 with three factors of attractiveness, expertise, and trustworthiness. The reliability coefficients of all 17 parasocial relationship measures were 0.866 with three factors: proximity, similarity, and attachments. The reliability coefficients of all 13 customer equity measures were 0.838 with three factors of value equity, brand equity, and relationship equity. Cronbach’s alpha for attitude was 0.792. The coefficients indicate the acceptable reliability of the measures. Motivations to use SNS showed statistically positive effects on parasocial relationship (β = 0.151, p < 0.001). Specifically, entertainment (β = 0.148, p < 0.01) and building relationships (β = 0.093, p < 0.05) motivations showed significant positive effects on parasocial relationships while information seeking motivation did not show significant effects on parasocial relationships (β = 0.074). Source credibility showed statistically positive effects on parasocial relationship (β = 0.316, p < 0.001). Thus, the results supported H1 and H2. Parasocial relationships showed statistically positive effects on attitude (β = 0.295, p < 0.001) and customer equity (β = 0.272, p < 0.001). Attitude showed statistically positive effects on customer equity (β = 0.172, p < 0.001). Thus, the results supported H3 and H4. Customer equity showed statistically positive effects on customer lifetime value (β = 3.452, p < 0.001). Thus, the results supported H5 (see Table 1, Figure 1). Discussion This study contributes to clarifying parasocial relationships in the social media context and determining the relationships between parasocial relationship and customer equity. This study contributes to the theoretical foundation and implications of parasocial relationships and customer equity. Specifically, motivations to use SNS and source credibility positively influence parasocial relationship. Parasocial relationships have positive effects on attitude and customer equity. Customer equity, in turn, has positive effects on customer lifetime value. The study is the first of its kind on the effects of parasocial relationships on customer equity in the social media context. The study finds that motivations and source credibility are important antecedents of consumers’ parasocial relationships formed via social media. Parasocial relationships have a positive effect on attitude and customer equity, and customer equity leads to increased customer lifetime value. This study suggests that parasocial relationship is one of the strong influential variables on customer equity as it improves customer lifetime value. Thus, marketers should definitely consider parasocial relationship management in the social media context while tailoring their brand communications to their most profitable customers and enhance their customer lifetime value.

According to the development of information technology (IT) and new media, customers’ needs have changed to seek not only high quality goods but also a differentiated service in retail stores (Lee & Shin, 2011). For this reason, fashion retail stores started to provide an interesting service by setting up an IT machine or a gadget in the stores. Thereby, customers can get the information or have a special experience while they shop fashion goods. IT shopping service is defined as using technology in retail stores to enhance interaction between retailers and customers. Retailers have tried several types of IT shopping services, which offer information or experience with a high or low level of technology. Informative IT shopping service provides various and useful information, which is related to each product such as size, color, contents, stock, location and fashion styling. Retailers use experiential IT shopping service as an emotional appeal that gives direct experience to customers in some way or other such as watching or acting in a virtual situation. Also, as technology develops, IT shopping services are embodied with diverse technology that are simple or complexity. Some are easy to use with one button and shows 2D images only, but some have a lot of contents such as video clips, SNS share service, showing 3D images, and implementing augment reality. We saw customer responses on the attributes of IT shopping service (informative vs. experimental) x technology level of IT shopping service (high vs. low) x fashion innovativeness/technology innovativeness (high vs. low) This study aims to see the effect of the attributes of IT shopping service and the level of technology on procedure satisfaction and outcome satisfaction, and the moderating effect of perceived enjoyment and perceived complexity. Furthermore, this study will see whether these effects affect visit intention. In this study, the experimental design was adopted as the main methodology, and a total of four stimuli types were selected: 1) informative x high technology 2) informative x low technology 3) experiential x high technology 4) experiential x low technology. The common element, which all types of stimuli have, is a digital touch screen since it is a general equipment nowadays, and the common fashion good for all types is a black blazer. The type of informative service only has the information (size range, color assortment, contents, stock) about selected fashion good with its image. High technology in informative service shows the image with 3D simulation that can help to see 360° of the blazer, and styling tips including a video clip. Moreover, it helps to share the information with friends via SNS. Low technology in informative service only shows a front side of the blazer and presents a store map for customers to find a product they want to try. The types of experiential service draw customer participation providing a picture of customers that are trying on clothes. Experiential service use augment reality (AR) as a high technology and take the back side of customers picture as low technology. For the manipulation check, 18 graduate students in total viewed for each type, and the total sample comprises 387 college students via survey instrument. All hypotheses were tested using AMOS and SPSS 18.0. The main findings of this study are as follows: depending on type of the attributes of IT shopping service and the level of technology affect perceived enjoyment and perceived complexity differently, and there were significant mediating effect of perceived variables toward IT shopping service on procedure satisfaction, outcome satisfaction, and visit intention. Implications for usefulness and role of the IT shopping service in fashion retail stores are provided. And also, limitation of this study and future study are suggested.

This article investigates how failure severity and attribution influence the level of satisfaction in men and women. In an experimental study, we find women’s satisfaction declines more than men’s satisfaction as failure severity increases, but only for consumer-caused failure not for company-caused failure. We also suggest the process underlying these differences by testing the mediation effect. The mediation analysis suggests that women have lower satisfaction than men when the service failure is caused by consumers because as outcome severity increases women have a higher tendency than men to avoid self-blame out of a defensive motivation.

The purpose of this research is to analysis and to verify the influence between attitude toward navy brand and customer equity. To do that, we regard the navy serving in R.O.K. Navy as the customers. All Korean men over 18 years older are drafted into the army by the constitution of Republic of Korea. This means that Korean military forces are recruited by the power of the State. However, the military officers, petty officers and Navy(including the Marine corps)•Air forces volunteer for military service. Korean government uses two military entrance processes which are both forcible and volunteering. With the slogan “The Ocean Navy”, the R.O.K. Navy is trying to build powerful naval forces. It is essential to acquire the elite military forces that help the Korean Navy accomplish the goal and heighten the competitiveness. The enlisted military forces are expected to show their own ability inside the R.O.K. Navy. After they are discharged, they will have positive influences to the local communities as the supporters of the R.O.K. Navy. The R.O.K. Navy has made lots of efforts for its navies who are soon discharged to have pride and affection as post-Korean navies through many programs such as educations and events. Discharged navies are expected to play important roles to response national policies actively, to lead the development of local communities, and to stand in advance guard for navy PR activities. Although many researches confirmed and verified the customer equity, there was no research on the customer equity of nonprofit organizations, especially the military forces. This research defined the customer equity from the attitudes toward Korean navy brand perspective in detail. This study also identified the influential factors on brand attitude and some relationships among the variables of the customer equity. This research contributes to the development of effective marketing strategies for Korean Navy brand and customer equity that Korean navy policy officers build.

The Korea Energy Master Plan was first developed in 2008 to achieve sustainable economic development and energy security while considering environmental impact. The plan is to be updated every five years to consider environmental changes and changes in energy market supply and demand. In response to climate change, the 2008 master plan identified the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as the primary global issue for energy policy. The plan calls for maximum use of nuclear power and renewable energy and dramatic curb of energy demand. Its energy policies primarily focus on ways Korea can provide an affordable and stable supply of power while supporting economic growth and industrialization (Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy [MOTIE], 2014). The policy has brought significant growth to the renewable and nuclear power generation industries. However, cheap electricity has increased electricity consumption and destabilized the supply-demand power balance. The construction of more power plants to meet growing electricity demands has also had negative impacts such as increased greenhouse gas emissions, an overloaded electricity transmission network, and opposition from local residents near power lines and power plants. In accordance, the second energy policy in 2014 focuses on (MOTIE, 2014): 1. Transitioning to demand management 2. Building a distributed generation system 3. Balancing between environmental and safety concerns 4. Enhancing energy security and energy supply stability 5. Establishing a stable supply system for each energy source 6. Shaping energy policy to reflect public opinion Regarding market trends and consumer/industry demands, the Korean economy is relatively high in energy use per GDP unit. Korea’s many energy-intensive industries and cheap electricity have caused the industrial sector to sharply increase its demand for cooling and heating. The Fukushima nuclear power plant accident in Japan heightened public fears about nuclear power generation. From 2010 to 2035, as developing countries grow in economics and population, global energy demand is expected to increase by 48.3% and greenhouse gas emissions by 40.2%. As the cost of oil rises and unconventional energy sources such as shale gas and tight oil are developed, negotiations on a new post-2020 global climate framework will change the energy market landscape. Regarding energy demand management, the plan focuses on revising electricity rates to ease overconsumption and to reflect environmental and social costs such as refurbishment of nuclear facilities and the transmission network, different pricing for different types of voltage use, progressive rate relief, and expansion of critical-peak pricing. It applies information and communications technology (ICT) demand management by deploying smart grid incentives for energy storage system installation, revising standards for building design, and invigorating the demand management market. To balance electricity consumption ratios, the plan advocates increasing renewable gas, coal, and oil consumption. To establish a stable supply system for each energy source, the plan suggests diversifying oil import routes to respond aggressively to global market changes such as the emergence of shale gas. It recommends supplying more than 15% of power from distributed sources such as integrated energy systems, renewable energy, and in-house generators, and constructing power plants in areas that have sufficient electricity transmission capacity. It also suggests accelerating the use of eco-friendly and renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, geothermal, fuel cells, and energy storage systems to reduce CO2 emissions. In environmental protection and improved safety for power plant operation, the plan advises using greenhouse gas reduction technologies such as ultra-supercritical and carbon capture and storage for thermal power plants as soon as they are available. It prioritizes nuclear plant safety by expanding investment, improving management of aged plants, and fostering planned and preventive inspections. It also recommends responding proactively to energy-related conflicts by improving transparency in electricity transmission network and spent nuclear fuel management policies. The plan gives several insights into the future of energy marketing. First, as electric charges increase, customers will have more interest in energy issues such as electricity consumption and CO2 emissions when they purchase product. They will want manufacturers to divulge the energy efficiency of products. As technology develops, products will add additional functions that will increase future product costs. Eventually products that consume less energy will be more competitive as customers consider total ownership costs. The new market trends will create and expand the need for energy management systems utilizing ICT, renewable energy, and safety in nuclear power plants.