Sustainability is currently regarded as an imperative business goal by multiple stakeholders, comprising investors, customers, and policymakers (Nidumolu, Prahalad, & Rangaswami, 2009; Sheth, Sethia, & Srinivas, 2011). In particular, how effectively the fashion industry deals with the challenges of sustainability will define its success for eras to come. This study focuses on how social power, parasocial interaction, and social capital work for purchase intention of sustainable fashion products in the fashion YouTube context. Specifically, the study investigates the effects of social power on parasocial interaction, the effects of parasocial interaction on social capital, and the effects of social capital on purchase intention for sustainable fashion products and the implications for sustainable fashion marketing and management. Theoretical Framework This study defines social power as types of power that can be employed to exert influence on others. The five social power bases (French & Raven, 1959) are discussed in terms of perceived influence: Expert power refers to someone who is perceived to be an expert, to have expert knowledge, or to possess special information. Legitimate power relates to someone who is perceived to have a legitimate right to impose behavioral requirements. Referent power is associated with someone who is personally identified. Reward power refers to someone who is perceived to have ability and coercive power to someone who is perceived to have the capability to confer punishment. Parasocial interaction concerns the relationship between media personalities and media users (Frederick, Lim, Clavio, & Walsh, 2012; Horton & Wohl, 1956; Jin & Park, 2009). Parasocial interaction can be defined as “immediate, personal, and reciprocal, but these qualities are illusory and presumably not shared by the speaker” (Horton & Strauss, 1957, p. 580; Jin & Park, 2009). Parasocial interaction theory focuses on the way audiences interact, relate to, and develop relationships with a celebrity (Jin & Park, 2009; Lee & Watkins, 2016). Audiences create a strong bond and intimacy with a celebrity while viewing media channels such as TV programs and social interactive media where audiences feel closer to the celebrity (Kassing & Sanderson, 2009; Lee & Watkins, 2016). Social capital refers to “the aggregate of the actual or potential resources linked to possession of a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships” (Bourdieu, 1985, p. 248). Social capital involves the relationship between providing access to resources possessed by the associates and the nature and amount of those resources (Portes, 1998). Social capital can be clarified as an intangible force that helps to bind society together by transforming self-seeking individuals into members of a community with shared interests, shared assumptions about social relations, and a sense of the common good (Etzioni, 1996). Sustainability refers to three dimensions: economic, environmental, and social (Sheth, Sethia, & Srinivas, 2011). Sustainability transforms into a triple bottom line responsibility, with the inference that assessment of business outcomes should be based not only on economic performance, but also on the environmental and social impact. Environmental and social demands from various stakeholders contribute to the pressure for businesses to reflect sustainability. Thus, sustainable marketing practices are defined from economic, environmental, and social perspectives. In this study, effective sustainability measurements involve purchase intention for sustainable products especially emphasizing environmental and social performance. Focused on the effects of social power on parasocial interaction and the effects of parasocial interaction on social capital and purchase intention for sustainable products, this study tests the following hypotheses: H1. Social power (expert, referent, legitimate, and reward) positively influences parasocial interaction. H2. Parasocial interaction positively influences social capital (bonding and bridging). H3. Social capital positively influences purchase intention for sustainable fashion products (environmentally and socially sustainable fashion products). Methods This study used a survey to investigate key questions about the associations among social power, parasocial interaction, social capital, and purchase intention for sustainable fashion products. A total of 230 fashion YouTube users recruited from South Korea participated in the survey. Of the 230 participants, 40 were men (17.4%) and 190 were women (82.6%), with ages ranging from 20 to 39 (mean = 29.43 years). The social power of the fashion YouTuber (e.g., vlogger) was measured through an existing social power scale including expert, referent, legitimate, and reward measures that elicited user responses to 14 items (Goodrich & Mangleburg, 2010). Parasocial interaction was measured on the basis of user responses to six items on an existing 5- point scale that assessed parasocial interaction (Jin & Park, 2009). This study measured social capital on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree; 5 = strongly agree), which was adapted from an existing Internet social capital scale (Williams, 2006). Purchase intention was measured using three 7-point semantic differential scales (likely/unlikely, probable/improbable, possible/impossible; MacKenzie, Lutz, & Belch, 1986) after informing participants that they might be purchasing environmentally and socially sustainable products. Results The overall goodness-of-fit for this measurement model was acceptable (Chi-square 1236.138, df = 680, p <0.001, chi/df=1.818, TLI = 0.900, CFI = 0.913, RMSEA = 0.060). The reliability coefficients of all 14 social power measures including expert, referent, legitimate, and reward were 0.871, 0.782, 0.657, and 0.865, respectively. The reliability coefficient of all six parasocial interaction measures was 0.873. The reliability coefficients of all social capital measures were 0.684 for bonding factors and 0.899 for bridging factors. The reliability coefficients of purchase intention of environmentally and socially sustainable product measures were 0.921 and 0.947, respectively. The coefficients indicate acceptable reliability of the measures. This study used partial least squares (PLS) for structural equation modeling, which has good statistical power for samples. Social power, including referent (β = 0.018, p < 0.05) and reward (β = 0.359, p < 0.001), showed statistically positive effects on parasocial interaction. The results partially supported H1. Parasocial interaction showed statistically positive effects on social capital, the bonding factor (β = 0.578, p < 0.001), and the bridging factor (β = 0.651, p < 0.001). Thus, the results supported H2. For parasocial capital, bridging showed statistically positive effects on purchase intention of environmentally (β = 0.233, p < 0.01) and socially (β = 0.284, p < 0.01) sustainable products. Thus, the results partially supported H3 (see Table 1, Figure 1). Discussion This study contributes to clarifying the concept of social capital and determining the relationships between social capital and purchase intention for sustainable fashion products. This study contributes to the theoretical foundation and implications of social capital and sustainability. Specifically, social power, including referent and reward, positively influences parasocial interaction. Parasocial interaction has positive effects on social capital. In turn, social capital positively influences purchase intention for sustainable fashion products. This is the first study on the effects of social capital on purchase intention for sustainable fashion products in the fashion YouTube context. This study suggests that social capital is a strong influential variable for purchase intention regarding sustainable fashion products. Thus, fashion marketers should consider social capital management in the fashion YouTube context while tailoring their brand communications to enhance their sustainable marketing and management.

한국 어린이들이 중국어를 배우면서 접하는 한자의 학습에 대해 아직까지 국내에서는 경험에 근 거한 교수법과 방법론 위주로 논의가 이루어지며, 무엇을, 언제, 어떻게 도입해야 하는가에 대한 논 의는 충분히 이루어지지 않고 있다. 즉 학습자의 연령 요소와 그에 따른 인지 발달과 관련된 고려가 부족한 편이다. 본고는 이에 중국 어린이의 한자 읽기에 대한 실증적 연구들을 검토함으로써 한국 어린이의 한자 교육에 어떤 시사점이 있는지 살펴보고자 하였다. 선행연구에 따르면, 알파벳 등 표 음문자를 사용하는 어린이가 발달적 읽기 장애가 있는 경우, 이들의 기억력 장애는 시각적-공간적 자극 처리 능력보다는 음운 인식 능력과 관계된 것으로 알려져 있다. 또한 중국 어린이를 대상으로 한 많은 연구들이 중국어 읽기 능력의 습득에서 작업 기억의 중요성을 조사하여, 중국어 한자 읽기 에서 음운 인식과 시각적 자극에 대한 처리의 기능을 다각도로 관찰, 조사하고 있다. 그러나 아직까 지는 어느 한쪽을 지지하는 유력하고 일관된 결과를 보이지 않는다. 다만 중국 어린이 학습자가 언 어적 환경과 인지 발달 단계에 따라 한자 읽기 습득에 있어 음운과 시각적 정보, 두 유형의 인지적 처리 기술이 서로 다른 처리 기제를 가질 수 있으며 두 가지 모두 한자 변별과 밀접한 관련이 있음 을 시사한다. 따라서 한국 어린이를 대상으로 하는 외국어로서의 중국어 교육 및 학습에서도 한자 읽기의 교수와 학습은 학습자의 인지 발달 단계를 고려하여 적절한 교수요목과 교수방식을 선택해 야 하며, 이에 대한 실증적인 연구가 필요하다.

The interaction between GATT/WTO and legal regimes to combat climate change has experienced four important stages. First, both were created independently as two selfcontained legal regimes. Second, these regimes may potentially conflict with each other because climate change measures may violate the GATT/WTO rules. Third, if policies and measures are tailored well, the GATT/WTO and climate change legal regimes could be implemented simultaneously. Last, a shift to low carbon economy presses for close cooperation and mutual supportiveness between these two legal regimes. However, the multinational nature of these two legal regimes often delay or hamper global consensus on agenda for cooperation. This article argues that trade agreements as a regional approach have merits and advantages of pursuing harmonization and cooperation under the GATT/ WTO framework. Regional trade agreements can provide opportunities for a group of countries with concrete commitments and rules to cope with climate change beyond the possibility of the multilateral arena.

Korean government has made continued efforts to aim the communicative method as the national object of English education since the 6th curriculum. However, a number of researches have reported that there are consistent problems in English education instructions in public schools. Students in Korea including Jeju have suffered from communicative competence such as speaking and writing since public schools in Korea have focused on grammar-translation method. This research focuses on the differences exists among undergraduate students’ perceptions on the effectiveness of university English curriculum in Jeju. The participants in this research are the first and second year undergraduate students in the Department of Tourism English for the spring semester of 2017 in Jeju province. The data were collected in May, 2017 by distributing survey questionnaire to the students in four classes. Six questions in the questionnaire were used to measure how participants perceived the importance of various goals regarding English instructional approaches. Participants tend to be more interested in Communicative language teaching (CLT) than the traditional English instruction (TRA).

The purpose of this research was to identify how students used social media during their experience with study abroad programs that focus on social and environmental sustainability. Key research questions included: Did students and program faculty directors perceive social media as beneficial or challenging to program goal? How did social media contribute to the overall learning process? How can this knowledge inform the design and implementation of future study abroad experiences? Surveys were conducted with students participating in three study abroad programs in three countries with varying levels of internet access. We found that most students used social media as a familiar support system to help acclimate to a foreign land, through the formation of cohesive peer groups and establishment of communication channels with family and friends. However, both students and program directors acknowledged the challenges of social media dependency. We conclude that judicious use of social media, when coupled with conscious immersion into the local environment and culture can enhance study abroad programs; and offer suggestions for future program planning.

In a referendum held in 2016, Britain voted to leave the EU. Britain’s membership of the EU has been a difficult one. Unlike the other leading Member States of the EU, Britain did not seem to have a firm conviction that “ever-closer union” of the peoples of Europe is essential to the peace and liberty of Europe. In the wake of increased immigration and the recent refugee crisis, the British people chose to leave the EU in order to have their sovereignty and independence re-affirmed. It remains to be seen what will be the economic consequences of this largely political decision.

Synthetic membranes, based on polymers or inorganic membranes, are now used in a wide variety of gas separations. For gas separation membranes, during the 1980’s, permeability data on six common gases were complied, and the tradeoff relationship was analyzed. The upper bound relationship was established empirically. Recognizing the exquisite permeability and selectivity of biological membranes and the deleterious nature of broad pore size distributions and flexibility of polymer chains on permeability/selectivity combinations, a number of approaches have been pursued to develop membranes with better transport and separation properties. There has been an evolution in design of materials for both gas and liquid separation membranes, brought about by advances in structural control of materials and by better understanding of natural membranes.

이 논문은 소년 만화의 독자들을 위해 데츠카 오사무(1928~89)가 다시 쓴 부처님의 전기를 검토하고 있다. 데츠카 오사무는 유명한 일 본의 만화가이자 작가, 만화영화 작가, 영화 제작자 및 활동가이다. 1972년, 그는『붓다(ブッダ)』라는 제목의 모험만화 시리즈를 그리기 시작했다. 1983년에 끝난 이 시리즈는 일본에서 총 14권으로 출판되 었고. 해외에서는 8권으로 재편집되어 번역되었다. 2004년과 2005 년, 아이즈너 상(Eisner Award)과 하비 상(Harvey Awards)을 수상 하며 비평가들이 극찬한 이 시리즈는 데츠카 오사무의 삶에서 가장 위대한 작품으로 간주된다. 이 시리즈는 지금까지“붓다: 위대한 출 발(2011, 데츠카 오사무의 붓다: 붉은 사막이여! 아름답게)”,“ 붓다2: 데츠카 오사무의 붓다-끝없는 여행(2014)”등 두 편의 애니메이션 영화를 탄생시켰고, 세 번째 영화가 제작될 예정이다. 미국에서 가장 유명한 데츠카 오사무의 작품인‘우주수년 아톰(Astro Boy)’처럼, 데츠카는 그의 주변에 드리워진 정치적 음모와 제국주의를 거부한 순수한 소년으로 붓다를 묘사한다. 이러한 방법으로 데츠카 오사무 의 붓다는 그의 마음의 본래의 순수함, 전후 일본의 이상과 일본과 세계의 잠재된 미래에 대한 낙관적인 묘사를 유지한다. 이 논문은 그 의 다른 작품의 일부를 참조하면서『붓다』가 부처님의 일대기를 말하 는 것만큼이나 데츠카 오사무의 사상을 어떻게 표현하고 있는지를 서술하고 있다.

There is a variety of mobile beauty application specialized services providing information, such as reports on the advantages and disadvantages of a product, as well as tips and recommendations, based on consumers' comments for products that demand much consultation on the part of the consumers to critique the products. From goods purchased through mobile shopping apps, beauty-related products come right after fashion/retail and food/health-related goods, while promotions, followed by review/comments, are known as influential factors when selecting mobile shopping apps. Consumer reviews about a product are seen as important instruments for obtaining a variety of information about a product for those consumers who have not yet used it. Moreover, there is an increasing interest in authentic information instead of purely advertised narrations, while studies are actively in progress to verify the effectiveness of consumer reviews according to their nature and direction. The results vary with each researcher and since online consumer reviews differ, there is a need to research dynamically blended reviews and the forms that they take. Accordingly, this study attempts to observe and identify the factors that affect the perceived authenticity of the information, brand attitude, purchase intention and electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM). The sample consists of 110 respondents in their twenties and thirties who have purchased beauty products online. The respondents were given online and offline questionnaires, and the collected information was analyzed with SPSS 21.0 and AMOS 18.0 using factor analysis, reliability analysis, t-tests, structural equation modeling (SEM) and multi-group analysis. The results show that perceived information authenticity has a significant influence on brand attitude, purchase intention and e-WOM. Positive, negative and subjective evaluations have more significant impact on information authenticity than did only positive and negative reviews, while perceived authenticity has significant relevance to brand attitude, purchase intention and online word-of-mouth. The implications of these findings

As the general public’s awareness of the environmental problems associated with economic growth have increased, interests in eco-friendly products have also increased for the past few decades. However, many consumer surveys and sales data indicate that while many consumers believe that buying eco-friendly products is important for protection of environment, actual adoption of those products are far below what has been expected. This discrepancy between consumers’ beliefs and actions regarding eco-friendly products purchase suggests that consumers do not purchase eco-friendly products solely based on environmental concerns and environmental merits of products. Then, what is the decisive determinants of consumer’s decisions to buy of green products? Previous researches showed that many people usually are reluctant to buying green products because of high price compared to conventional products (Hopkins and Roche 2009; Thakur and Aurora 2015), but if people perceived additional value to self (e.g. functional value, social value, emotional value, economic value, epistemic value), people are willing to buy green product (Lin and Huang 2012; Jung and Kim 2014; Renfro 2010). In other words, the perceived personal value for money, associated price and benefits of product, can be importantly decisive determinants of eco-friendly buying decisions. Moreover, among many values or benefits, economic benefit such as monetary savings can be an effective factor to adaption of green product. This is because that many consumers are very sensitive to price of green products as many researchers argued, and economic benefit is so visible and computable that reduce consumer’s perceived cost. Therefore, for inducing the adaption of green product, the way of appealing and presenting product information about price premium and potential economic benefits is very important in marketing communication with consumers. However, the extant many researches have focused on highlighting that which benefits of product depending on individual difference is more attractive to people, rather than both price and benefit. There is a general lack of study on this issue in the extant literature. Furthermore, previous experiments about green products have another limitation that it is difficult to reflect the real choice of green product. Many empirical researches have focused on an attitude toward product or advertisement, a preference or a purchase intention as dependent variables, which are mostly used for predicting consumer’s choice of product. However, choice does not always and reflect the attitude toward product or advertisement, preference or purchase intention. Thus, the more research reflected actual choice of green product or conventional product is considerably needed. To fill the gap in the extant literature, this research develops and tests hypotheses on how different presentations of price premiums and monetary savings of eco-friendly products affect consumers’ choice of those product, based on extended Thaler (1985)’s Hedonic editing hypothesis of mental accounting theory, which this study proposed. In extended Thaler’s Hedonic editing hypothesis, alternative presentation (all of segregation) is added to original Thaler’s Hedonic editing hypothesis, to compensate for limitation of original hypothesis that most fragmentarily consider two attributes of product (e.g. one gain and one loss, one gain and one gain), even though attributes of products can be composed of several attributes. Therefore, this research investigates whether presenting price premiums and monetary savings in an integrated manner, a segregated manner or an all of segregated manner leads to differential choices, depending on the relative sizes of monetary gains and losses of various eco-friendly products. Additionally, this study also analyze the moderating effect of consumer’s product involvement. According to ELM model (Petty and Cacioppo 1979), the different methods of inducing persuasion may work in decision-making process, depending on level of involvement. To be specific, under high involvement, conditions the quality of the arguments contained in a message has had a greater impact on persuasion (central route). While, under low involvement conditions, peripheral cues such as attractiveness of a message source or the number of positive or negative messages have had a greater impact on persuasion (peripheral route). Therefore, this study suggests that consumers with low product involvement will more choose green product in message condition, which has the greatest number of positive information, while the consumers with low product involvement will have no difference in choice of green product, depending on different presentation. This study conducted an experiment about a choice between green product and non-green product on different presentation of monetary costs and benefits (integration, segregation, all of segregation), in each types of product (multiple gain product, mixed gain product, mixed loss product). We selected representative product for each type of product, after investigating market research (multiple gain product-washing machine; mixed gain product-LED bulb and rechargeable battery; mixed loss product-hybrid car) as shown in Table 1, and the price of each green and conventional product and cost saving amount of green product is based on real product’s attributes, in an experiment. In doing so, this study analyzed and compared the proportion of choice of green product in each conditions, by using omnibus chi-square test with SPSS 21.0 (Sharpe 2015). The findings of the empirical study shows that the effect of presentations of price and monetary savings is only significant to low product involvement consumer in all product categories, excepted for hybrid car. The results showed that low involvement consumers make many choices of green product in condition, which has the greatest number of positive information. Specifically all of segregation is the most persuasive than other presentation for LED bulb to low involvement consumer, but all of segregation is the less persuasive for rechargeable battery. This results indicate that the persuasive way of presentation is different depending on attributes of each product although LED bulb and rechargeable battery is classified as same types of product. The contribution of this study to the literature on choice of eco-friendly products in perspectives of mental accounting theory is four-fold. First of theoretical contribution, this study could extend and develop Thaler (1985)’s Hedonic editing hypothesis, by proposing alternative presentation (all of segregation). Additionally this study found that the proportion of choice of green product can be different in same type of product, depending on attribute of product. Third, this study reflected actual choice of green product by considering consumer’s choice as dependent variables, rather than attitude, preference or purchase intention. Finally, in managerial implication, this study provide managerial guidelines and strategy how to present the message about green product to increase consumer’s choice, depending on product type. Further research for extend and develop this study are currently underway.

Lots of companies and private persons struggle to attract attention to their products, services or artistic activity on the internet. The concept of ROI has been modified. It’ll not be profit understood by gain in cash, but rather popularity increase like growing fan base, more people devoted to a specific case, stronger impact on the Internet community. Academic literature focuses mainly on applying various online marketing techniques to help companies establish their online presence and increase visibility. There are studies that provide entrepreneurs and business owners with ideas on how to attract more visitors to their websites and improve their search engine ranking. However, there is still a gap in academic literature when it comes to promoting non- profit art websites. In-depth interviews with 7 participants were performed to analyze their impressions on the web comic. 119 Internet users participated in the survey designed to get insights on their perceptions of web comics in order to identify areas for improvement. On the basis of the research carried out on the topic of a website visibility, this paper provides an insight into the possible causes of the problems of web comic with visibility. They lay within three areas related to each other: The quality of content, the website and promotional activities.

In early 2015, L’Oréal’s luxury cosmetics brand LANCÔME launched a product called Miracle Cushion™, a sponge soaked in liquid foundation. By integrating a cosmetic formula with a sponge in a compact case, it distinguished itself from other conventional makeup products, e.g., liquid foundation in a glass bottle or pressed powder in a portable compact. On Lancôme’s website, Miracle Cushion™ is described as follows: “a foundation revolution has arrived – liquid makeup in a cushion.” LANCÔME’s “revolution” actually originated from AMOREPACIFIC, Korea’s number one beauty group which had a sales revenue of KRW 4.7 trillion (USD 3.9 billion) in 2014. By launching Air Cushion® in March 2008, AMOREPACIFIC created a new makeup product category called “cushion.” By July 2015, the total cumulative number of AMOREPACIFIC’s cushion products sold in 13 countries was 63 million units. In 2014 alone, more than 26 million units were sold – one every 1.2 seconds. The sales revenue was KRW 641 billion (USD 542 million), which accounted for more than 13% of AMOREPACIFIC’s total revenue. AMOREPACIFIC launched Air Cushion® under IOPE, one of its premium brands. The company initially positioned Air Cushion® as sunscreen. Equipped with mass production facilities, AMOREPACIFIC sold 517,000 units of cushions in 2010, which accounted for KRW 14.5 billion (USD 12.2 million). Furthermore, the company started to automate the entire manufacturing process for cushions. With this automation, the sales revenue of Air Cushion® in 2011 reached KRW 33.6 billion (USD 28.4 million) - more than doubled compared to 2010. Obviously, it was a huge success for sunscreens under a single brand. From 2012, AMOREPACIFIC began to expand cushions for other in-house brands besides IOPE. Simultaneously, AMOREPACIFIC started to reposition cushion as makeup “foundation,” not “sunscreen.” HERA, AMOREPACIFIC’s luxury brand with a strong heritage in color makeup, took the initiative in repositioning cushion. This was also a strategic decision to diversify distribution channels: the main distribution channels of premium brands such as IOPE were Sephora-like specialty stores and discount stores whereas the primary distribution channels of luxury brands such as HERA were department stores and door-to-door networks. With HERA focused on domestic market expansion, LANEIGE, the most globalized brand of all in AMOREPACIFIC, pioneered the global market for cushions. Starting from its entry into Hong Kong and China in 2002, LANEIGE had already expanded its presence in more than 10 countries including Singapore, Malaysia, and Vietnam. Specifically, LANEIGE was perceived in most Asian countries as a cosmetics brand spearheading “K-Beauty” trends, part of the “Korean Wave” phenomenon. Thus, LANEIGE capitalized on its brand reputation accumulated over the years in the Asian market to expand cushions. LANEIGE designed a brand concept for its cushion as BB Cushion to make the most of the popularity of BB creams across Asia. In 2012, LANEIGE BB cushion was first launched in Singapore in January, followed by Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam in March, and finally Taiwan in April, all prior to its release in Korea in May. Initially, it emphasized the brightening function to fulfill the demand for whitening products already popular throughout Asia. From 2013, LANEIGE started to offer a variety of product lines customized to different consumer needs from each country. For example, LANEIGE launched BB Cushion Pore Control for consumers in hot, humid areas of Southeast Asia and BB Cushion Anti-aging for consumers in extremely cold and dry areas of China. Starting with HERA and LANEIGE in 2012, AMOREPACIFIC continue to release cushions under other brands by stages - SULWHASOO, ETUDE HOUSE in 2013, and INNISFREE, MAMONDE in 2014, etc. Every cushion product launched under different brands was named “cushion.” For example, HERA UV Mist Cushion, LANEIGE BB Cushion, SULWHASOO Perfecting Cushion, ETUDE HOUSE Precious Mineral Any Cushion, INNISFREE Water Glow Cushion, MOMONDE Cover Powder Cushion, etc. With the consistent labeling, AMOREPACIFIC succeeded in categorical differentiation. Stimulated by the widespread popularity of AMOREPACIFIC’s cushion foundations, competitors followed. Among local companies, LG Household and Healthcare was the first to enter into the cushion market in August 2012. Among the foreign brands, it was Lancôme. This paper is trying to understand how to achieve breakthrough innovation and create a new product category in the mature market such as cosmetics by analyzing the case of AMOREPACIFIC’s cushion.

Social media as an online channel for sharing and participating can play an important role for many marketing activities. Social media can be especially influential in word of mouth (WOM) communication as the focus of it is the sharing of information regarding consumers’ product experiences. To use social media as a marketing tool, identifying the relationship between message sender and receiver (the strength of social tie) is important in the viral marketing campaign context. Also, the effects can be influenced by message type, and consumers’ situational context. Therefore, the study examines the consumers’ intention to share advertising message with others in social media focusing on the strength of social ties (strong vs. weak tie) between message receivers and senders. The authors hypothesize that participants’ intention for sharing will be higher for the message recipients of strong tie than of weak tie. Especially, the sharing intention, for strong tie than for weak tie, will be higher when there is a match between message type (visual vs. text) and consumers’ purchasing context (close vs. far distance). The study used 2(temporal distance: close vs. distant) x 2(message type: text vs. picture) x 2 (close friends, vs. general public) design with the first two factors as between –subject factors and the last factor as a within-subject factor. A total of 107 student subjects participated in an experiment. They were recruited from a private university, in Seoul, in exchange for extra credit. The participants’ average age was 22 (SD=2.72) and 58 percent of them were males.

Recently, more and more consumers have changed from shopping in a single channel to multi-channel. Therefore, maintaining a long-term customer relationship becomes an important issue for retailers in this complex shopping circumstance. This study decides to understand how online retailers keep their valuable consumers in current store and even duplicate the original relationship to an extended channel.

Creating their brand images based on rich consumer experiences is becoming significant for retailers to differentiate themselves from competitors (Ailawadi and Keller 2004). Among multiple retailer attributes that have been argued by existing studies that influence overall image of the retailer, several researchers pointed out that personal encounters, such as those between employees and customers, may be more influential in communicating brand meaning than marketing-driven, mass-targeted messages (Cialdini 1993, Keller 2003, Sirianni et al. 2013) and referred to service employees as the “living brand” (Bendapudi and Bendapudi 2005).

In many countries, domestic tourism is important in terms of both size and economic contribution (Massidda & Etzo, 2012). This study aimed to develop a measurement scale for place authenticity for domestic destinations. Moreover, the objective was to offer insights regarding the consequences of place authenticity while travelling within borders. Empirical literature on the authentic travel experience “within borders” is quite scant and the attention of policy makers is not adequately focused on its outcomes such as attitude, values and positive WOM. A very small body of literature has primarily focused on domestic tourists’ destination experience yet omits measuring authenticity perceptions (Chi & Qu, 2008; Massidda & Etzo, 2012; Milman & Pizam, 1995). Empirical data were collected from 456 American consumers who had travelled to domestic tourism destinations. This paper provides a new measure for place authenticity that destination marketers can use to gauge what consumers think of their domestic travel experience. In addition, the findings of this study suggest that place authenticity shapes key consumer outcomes such as attitude, values and positive WOM. Furthermore, place authenticity has significant indirect effects on value and WOM, consistent with the role of place authenticity’s effects being mediated by consumer attitude toward the destination. Finally, this study discusses the managerial implications for tourism destination marketing and positioning strategy.