This study analyzed the expression of hanbok in online fashion styling games, and examined the main themes of and user reactions to hanbok fashion styling games through semantic network analysis and sentiment analysis. KrKwic, Textom, and NodeXL were used for data collection and analysis. The findings of the study are as follows: First, depending on the designer’s expressive method, hanbok fashion styling games provide typical traditional hanbok, modern hanbok, and dress-like fusion hanbok, demonstrating contents with various themes for different sexes, classes, and situations. Second, as a result of analyzing the themes of hanbok-related styling game contents, it turned out that the main themes are tradition, color, historical drama, fusion hanbok, holiday, and love. Most of them produce modernized hanbok that reflect the situation and utility rather than strictly traditional ones. Third, as a result of analyzing user reviews of hanbok styling game contents, positive factors mostly turned out to be the satisfaction of the hanbok contents, with the users also showing positive intent to wear hanbok. Through this, it was found out that hanboks portrayed in game contents could potentially cause the user’s positive intent to wear hanbok. Negative factors turned out to be the discordance between the intrinsic image of hanbok and the game character’s image.

This study aimed at examining fashion consumers’ awareness during the COVID-19 pandemic. Big data analysis methods, such as text mining, social network analysis, and regression analysis, were applied to user posts about fashion on Korean portal websites and social media during COVID-19. R 3.4.4, UCINET 6, and SPSS 25.0 software were used to analyze the data. The results were as follows. In researching the popular fashion-related topics during COVID-19, the prevention of infection and prophylaxis were significant concerns in the early stage (Jan 1 to Jan 31, 2020), and changed to online channels and online fashion platforms. Then, various topics and fashion keywords appeared with COVID-19-related keywords afterwards. Fashion-related subjects concerned prophylaxis, home life, digital and beauty products, online channels, and fashion consumption. In comparing fashion consumers’ awareness during COVID-19 with SARS and MERS, “face masks” was the common keyword for all three illnesses; yet, the prevention of infection was a major consumer concern in fashion-related subjects during COVD-19 only. As COVD-19 cases increased, the search volume for face masks, shoes, and home clothes also increased. Consumer awareness about face masks shifted from blocking yellow dust and micro-dust to the sociocultural significance and short supply. Keywords related to performance turned out to be the major awareness as to shoes, and home clothes were repurposed with an expanded range of use.

This study aimed to analyze the performance of Disney-collaborated fashion lines based on online consumer reviews. To do so, the researchers employed text mining and network analysis to identify key words in the reviews of these products. Blogs, internet cafes, and web documents provided by Naver, Daum, and YoutTube were selected as subjects for the analysis. The analysis period was limited to one year after for the 2019. Data collection and analysis were conducted using Python 3.7, Textom, and NodeXL. The research terms in question were as follows: ‘Disney fashion collaboration’ and ‘Frozen fashion collaboration’. Preliminary survey results indicated that ‘Elsa’s dress’ was the most frequently mentioned term and that the domestic fashion brand Eland Retail was the most active in selling Disney branded clothing through its own brand. The writers of reviews for Disney-collaborated fashion products were primarily mothers with daughters. Their decision to purchase these products was based upon the following factors; price, size, stability of decoration, shipping, laundry, and retailer. The motives for purchasing the product were the positive response of the consumer’s child and the satisfaction of the parents due to the child’s response. The problems to be solved included insufficient quantity of supply, delay in delivery, expensive price considering the number of times children’s clothes are worn, poor glitter decoration, faded color, contamination from laundry, and undesirable smells immediately after the purchase.

Laundry services are becoming more specialized and diversified. Therefore, this study investigated consumers’ perceptions of professional laundry shops by analyzing social media data. For this purpose, text data from blogs, cafés, and Q&A sections (‘Ji-Sik-In’) on the portal site, naver.com, was collected. Sixty-four keywords were extracted from 2,213 social texts and transformed into a one-mode matrix using KrKwic, a program for the analysis of Korean text. Semantic network analysis was conducted to understand the network structure and the results were visualized using NodeXL. Keywords included fashion items and materials that require specialized professional laundry services, words related to the establishment of laundry shops, and laundry shop brands. Essential keywords of professional laundry shops included ‘luxury,’ ‘footwear,’ ‘removal,’ ‘bag,’ ‘leather,’ ‘sneakers,’ ‘padding,’ ‘premium,’ ‘dyeing,’ and ‘franchise.’ These results could be used to deduce that consumers perceive a professional laundry shop as a franchise shop offering specialized professional laundry services. A cluster analysis was conducted to identify the types of consumer perceptions of professional laundry shops. The network was divided into three groups: ‘specialized professional laundry service,’ ‘laundry and repair of winter coats and jackets,’ and ‘the establishment of a professional laundry shop.’ According to the results, consumers perceive professional laundry shops as franchises that offer specialized professional laundry services rather than general laundry services. Therefore, professional laundry shops need a strategy to develop special laundry services that differentiate them from other companies and communicate with consumers about these services.

Contemporary University students are considered the Z generation who were born after 1995. They are more tech savvy than millennials. To target the generation, traditional class management platforms have evolved to smart LMS that is more customized and accessible for smart devices. Global level information search and collaboration can also be implemented using such smart LMS. However, switching from one LMS to another LMS requires great effort from teachers and support from staffs. This study measured the learners’ perception of the system when they were exposed to a new smart-LMS. Blackboard Learn Ultra was used for 15 weeks and at the end of the semester, a questionnaire was administered to the students of these classes. Results indicated that experience with previous LMS discouraged students from adopting Blackboard Learn. Result of TAM modeling indicated that perceived usefulness, compared to perceived ease of use and attitude, was an effective aspect to bring positive acceptance of the system. A qualitative approach and network analysis were also conducted based on students’ responses. Both positive and negative responses were detected. Inconvenience due to mechanical aspects was mentioned. Dissatisfaction compared to previous local LMS use was also mentioned. Mobile application and communication effectiveness were positive aspects. Revised course development and promoting how useful the system may help enhance the acceptance of the new system.

Citation frequency is an important factor in evaluating journal quality and is used as a measure of journal impact. The citation index of a paper plays an important role in linking papers with groups of other academic papers, forming a huge and complex network. This study examines the intellectual structure of apparel research through the bibliometric citation analysis of The Research Journal of the Costume Culture (RJCC). In order to analyze the changes in the intellectual structure of the RJCC, we used the Korea Citation Index’s (KCI) data (highly citing journals and highly cited journals). The NodeXL, a social network analysis tool, was used to examine the connection structure between journals. In order to identify the academic influence of the RJCC, we used the KCI journal citation index. Our findings indicate that the RJCC has a high centrality index among the clothing-oriented journals in the same life sciences field. A look at the journals citing the RJCC and the journals cited within the RJCC also showed that more journals of diverse fields have been recently linked through their citations. This suggests that a convergence of interdisciplinary research is underway in the field of clothing. As a result of examining international journals cited in the RJCC, it was confirmed that they were cited in prominent international journals in various fields.

Retail firms have begun to pursue the marketing strategies, which stimulate consumers’ sensibility and lead people to purchase their products. The visible effects of visual merchandising (VM) arouse consumers’ interest and play an effective role in having busy people efficiently choose products. Apparel retail stores such as SPA use the offline store to be the experiential environment of their branding. Consumers’ sensitivity and response toward various visual merchandising strategies needs to be accessed. The purpose of this study is to identify VM consciousness and VM evaluation attribute factors. Relationship of such variables with other variables were accessed. As consequence variables, product satisfaction and unplanned purchase behavior were included in the study. An empirical survey data was collected from men and women of various ages. Results indicated that VM consciousness and VM evaluation attribute factors were not correlated with consumer demographic variables. VM evaluation attributes were factored into appropriateness, attractiveness and functionality dimensions. Clothing involvement and brand orientation significantly influenced product satisfaction and unplanned purchase. The direct and indirect effect (via VM consciousness) were significant. For unplanned purchase, brand orientation only had indirect effect. The influence of VM evaluation attribute factors were significant. Appropriateness had stronger effect on product satisfaction whereas attractiveness had stronger effect on unplanned behavior. Functionality dimension had only indirect effect on product satisfaction but did not show significant direct and indirect effects on unplanned purchase. This study identified the pivotal role of VM consciousness in various shopping and purchasing circumstances in offline retail store of apparel brands.

As the spread of the health and wellness trend continues worldwide, many consumers are spending much time on sports activities and expressing their individuality through sportswear. This study analyzes the trade networks of major exporters and importers of athleisure wear to provide an exporting policy for Korean apparel companies. As a result, The USA was found to import the most athleisure wear. On the other hand, China had the largest number of athleisure wear exports, and India’s exports, which are becoming increasingly important as apparel producers were notable. Next, using the concept of the centrality of social network analysis, it was found that the USA was the largest importer and the center of athleisure wear’s export network, but its influence has decreased gradually since 2010. China has the highest out-degree and betweenness centrality and center in the export of athleisure wear. The centrality of Asian countries such as India and Vietnam has increased. In Korea, the import of athleisure wear has increased greatly, but the export of athleisure wear has continuously decreased. Korea has less price competitiveness than other developing countries in Asia, but many Korean athleisure wear clothing brands are now attracting popularity not only in Korea but also in other countries with their excellent technology and design. In the future, the exporting policy of Korea’s athleisure wear should focus on high value-added and differentiated products.

A trend analysis of research articles in a field of knowledge is significant because it can help in finding out the structural characteristics of the field and the future direction of research through observing change in a time series. We identified the structural characteristics and trends in text data (keywords) gathered from research articles which in itself is an important task in various research areas. The titles and keywords were crawled from research articles published from 2016 to 2018 in the Research Journal of the Costume Culture (RJCC), one of the representative Korean journal in the field of clothing and textile. After we extracted data comprising English titles and keywords from 195 published articles, we transformed it into a 1-mode matrix. We used measures from network analysis (i.e., link, strength, and degree centrality) for evaluating meaningful patterns and trends in the research on clothing and textile. NodeXL was used for visualizing the semantic network. This study observed change in the clothing and textile research trend. In addition to covering the core areas of the field, the subjects of research have been diversifying with every passing year and have evolved onto a developmental direction. The most studied area in articles published by the RJCC was fashion retailing/consumer psychology while aesthetic/historic and fashion industry/policy studies were covered to a more limited extent. We observed that most of the studies reflecting the identity of RJCC share subject keywords to a significant extent.

The growth of cheap, industrial, mass-production—so-called “fast fashion”—has led to dramatic increases in levels of consumption. Inexpensive products tend to foster unsustainable consumption behaviors, which negatively impact the environment and increase pressure to obtain goods at lower and lower prices; this, in turn, has the competitive effect of decreasing wages. This study focused on the concept of socially responsible consciousness in relation to fashion products. Environmental and labor issue concerns were employed as major variables. Empirical data were collected from males and females, between the ages of 10 and 50. Demographic differences were found in SR consciousness. For example, participants in their 10s, 40s, and 50s had higher levels of SR consciousness than those in their 20s and 30s. In addition, consumers’ levels of environmental and labor issue concerns had varying effects on the criteria they used to select clothing. Product category type was also an influential factor. Moreover, the analysis showed that SR consciousness was less important in the apparel industry than in the food sector. The study also found an attitude-behavior link in relation to the concept of SR consciousness. The link was stronger for environmental concerns than for labor issue concerns. This study aimed to develop a better understanding of current customers’ characteristics and levels of SR consciousness.

With the expansion of various distribution channels in online and offline stores, TV, and mobile, consumers now have more information search and retail selection channels to choose from than ever before. Major retailers now use multi- and omni-channel strategies. This study focused on cross-channel consumption, which involves the use of different information search and purchase channels. Using crosschannel consumption, consumers can search for information online and then make purchases offline and vice versa. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between channel strategies and other consumer variables, and the study also assessed the effect of product type. To conduct this empirical study, the researchers developed a consumer questionnaire concerning three consumer channel strategies-on-on, cross, and off-off-and four product categories-clothing, cosmetics, books, and electronics. The results indicated that gender and marital status did not influence consumer channel strategies, but that age did have a significant influence. The analysis showed that consumers in their 40s preferred the cross channel strategy, perceiving it to be effective, satisfactory, and rewarding. Compared to other products, clothing products showed higher levels of cross channel strategies. Consumers indicated that they prefer searching for information online and then purchasing clothing offline. Overall, clothing products generated higher levels of channel satisfaction and channel switch intentions. Cross-channel clothing shoppers reported effective information retrieval times but longer delivery times.

Consumers’ interests in the environment have been growing; hence, their consciousness about the environment has changed and affected their clothing shopping behavior. Prior study indicated attitude-behavior inconsistency in eco-friendly consumer behavior. It was because consumers’ consciousness or attitude was often measured at an abstract level, not at a product specific level. This study investigated eco-friendly clothing knowledge, eco-friendly clothing consciousness, and ecological clothing consumption behavior. The effects of consumers’ level of clothing involvement and subjective norms in this process were also investigated. For the empirical research, a questionnaire was developed, and responses from 480 women in their 20s to 50s were statistically analyzed. Results indicated that interest and fashion consciousness dimensions of clothing involvement had a significant influence on ecofriendly clothing knowledge, which thereby significantly influenced the three factors of eco-friendly clothing consciousness: social responsibility, health orientation, and clothing resource-saving consciousness. Such factors had different roles in the clothing consumption process. Social responsibility had a significant influence on the entire process of clothing consumption: shopping, purchasing, using, and disposing behaviors. Health orientation consciousness had a significant influence on shopping and purchasing behaviors, whereas resource-saving consciousness had a significant impact only on shopping behavior. Subjective norms were significantly correlated with all aspects of the clothing consumption process. Influence on disposing behavior was relatively weaker than other aspects of clothing consumption behavior.

As social media penetrates more deeply into people’s everyday lives, social commerce (a type of commerce that combines SNS features and possibility for commercial transactions) has enjoyed unprecedented growth. Shopping on Facebook is a representative example of social commerce platform that allows consumers to interact with other users, exchange information and purchase products without leaving a Facebook page. Social commerce presents great opportunities for marketers in terms of leveraging social aspects of shopping experience. It also offers a large potential for Korean companies to reach various target markets, as well as establish their presence abroad. Yet, acceptance of social commerce as a legitimate shopping channel has been slow, and consumers are still hesitant to shop via Facebook. This study draws on uses and gratification theory and the concept of perceived risk to examine how different motives for SNS use and the associated types of perceived risks can affect the purchase intention on the platform. Empirical data from 288 young users of Facebook were analyzed. Findings identified two main motives for SNS use: information-related motive and communication-related motive. Information-related motive significantly affected the intention to shop on Facebook, whereas communication- related motive did not have any significant influence. Risks associated with shopping via Facebook included delivery risk, security risk, social risk and economic risk. Overall, consumers perceived a higher level of security and social risk associated with shopping on Facebook. However, only social risk had a significant negative influence on the purchase intention. Awareness and previous experience of buying via social commerce platform positively affected consumers’ purchase intention.

The present study compared social capital scales of a six-dimensional version (Model 1), a three-dimensional version (Model 2), and a two-dimensional version (Model 3) in the context of two types of online brand communities. Model 1 explains social capital with six constructs including interaction, trust, reciprocity, identification, language, and vision (Chiu, Hsu, & Wang, 2006; Williams, 2006). Model 2, a shorter version of Model 1, is identified with three dimensions of interaction, trust, and shared values (Lin & Lu, 2011). Lastly, Model 3 presents bridging and bonding as two key dimensions of social capital (Williams (2006). The present study used a quantitative online survey method. The sample size was 588; 301 for company-generated communities and 287 for consumer-generated communities. For comparison, three models were evaluated on two criteria: (1) the consistency in the dimensionality of each scale between two subgroups of online brand communities: company-generated and consumer-generated brand communities and (2) the predictability of the scale on consumer commitment to the brand community. The findings reveal that the three-dimensional model of social capital (Model 2) is more robust than the other models (Models 1 and 3). By comparing three social capital scales and identifying the context-specific scale, the current study contributes to the consumer behavior literature specific to social capital of social network sites. Also, this study helps marketers have a better understanding of social capital elements developed through interpersonal relationships in an online brand community.

As mobile shopping has increased in the new media age, fashion consumers’ decision making and product consumption processes have changed. The volume of consumer-driven information has expanded since media and social networking sites have enabled consumers to share information they obtain. The purpose of this study was to determine the factors affecting information searching strategies and information sharing about fashion products. An online survey collected data from 466 respondents, relating to the influence of product price level and consumer SNS commitment level on information search and information sharing. Experimental design of three product price level and two consumer SNS commitment level was used. Analysis of the data identified factors in fashion information searching as ongoing searching, prepurchase web portal information search, and prepurchase marketing information search. For low-price fashion products, prepurchase product-detail influenced intention to share information. For mid-priced products, ongoing search significantly affected intention to share information. Both ongoing search and prepurchase marketing information search showed significant effects for high-price products. Consumers who are more committed to SNS engaged in significantly more searching in all aspects of information search factors. Significant interaction effect was detected for consumer SNS commitment level and product price level. When consumers with low consumer SNS commitment search for information on lower-priced fashion products, they are less likely do a prepurchase web portal information search.

As the next generation of smartphone and tablet computers, wearable devices are currently being developed and available in market in various forms. Smart clothing is a wearable device that holds the greatest potential for future development but low in market penetration. This study was designed to identify factors that influence adoption and diffusion of smart clothing. In-depth interviews with potential consumers who were knowledgeable about and interested in smart clothing were conducted. A semantic network analysis method was used. The results showed that consumers perceived smart clothing as a garment rather than as a type of wearable device and had a positive perception of smart apparel as more convenient and advanced than functional apparel. At the same time, however, consumers had a negative perception of smart clothing as unnecessary, ugly, and injurious to health. Consumers also worried that wearing smart apparel over long periods of time would negatively impact their health. Factors affecting resistance to smart apparel included low utility, perceived risk, and lack of aesthetic completeness. Usefulness and convenience were factors that affected the acceptance of smart clothing. The innovativeness of the product was more influential than consumer innovativeness in the process of adoption and diffusion of smart clothing.

Sociocultural and demographic shifts have resulted in a changing perception of older age. Older women, historically subjected to age-ordering rules of dress, have increasingly refused to be marginalized fashion consumers and have been striving to construct a more positive age identity. Although studies have examined consumers’ negotiation of marginalized identities, age identity has not received much attention as a type of marginalized identity. This study argues that Pinterest acts as a platform for identity work by allowing older women to creatively reconstruct their sense of self by saving images and organizing them into thematic boards. Drawing on symbolic interactionism theory and notions of digital self-presentation, this paper seeks to explore the discursive practices that older women employ on Pinterest to resist ageist fashion discourses. The sample consisted of 15 fashion-oriented Pinterest profiles of older women. Netnographic inquiry was employed first to examine what images were saved and what thematic boards were created. Three analytical frameworks for visual data analysis were integrated to further scrutinize the visual texts within the thematic boards. The analyses revealed three main themes-rejecting age, accepting age, and consuming age. The themes that emerged formed the basis for an age identity reconstruction process whereby women attempted to bridge the existing gap between older age and mainstream fashion discourse.

People tend to maintain and express their individuality in unique ways. Consumer’s need for uniqueness is defined as an individual's pursuit that differentiates themselves from others, thereby developing and enhancing their personal identities. This study examined the effect of consumers’ need for uniqueness on fashion orientation and consumption values. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey distributed to people visiting the fashion show center during Seoul Fashion Week. The survey questions were designed using the 5-point Likert scale and Cronbach’s α value of questions was reliable as .628-.862. The study’s results indicate that people with high need for uniqueness are very interested in fashion and think that is important to be well-dressed. In addition, the results suggest that people with high needs for unusual choices who enjoy challenging the prevailing taste of people want to be fashion leaders and are attracted to products that express their personality well. And people with high needs for creative choices and incompliant choices value their own satisfaction and happiness with the products. On the other hand, consumer’s needs for incompliant choices have a negative effect on social value. As a result, people with high needs for incompliant choices would break social norms rather than consider social status and reputation when they purchase fashion products. The concluding section of the paper discusses the implications of this research for fashion companies.

As the popularity of Korean drama and celebrities in China, Korean fashion is becoming increasingly popular in the Chinese market. Although the effect of Korean drama on Chinse consumers’ attitudes toward Korean products are known, little research has been conducted to understand the mechanisms underlying the impact of Korean drama on the development of consumer attitudes. Thus, this study examines how Chinese consumers’ exposure to Korean dramas has influenced their attitudes towards Korean fashion products. Applying the similarity-attraction theory, the study explores the roles Chinese consumers’ perceived similarities in appearance and values with Korean characters in TV dramas plays in the process of attitude development. Data was collected via an online survey and the responses of 317 Chinese consumers in their twenties were used for data analysis. The results of structural equation modeling show that exposure to Korean dramas has a direct impact on Chinese consumers’ perceived appearance similarity, perceived value similarity, image of Korean people, and attitudes toward Korean fashion products—results that support the theory of mere exposure. In addition, the analysis demonstrates that perceived appearance similarity positively influences the image of Koreans among Chinese people, which, in turn, influences attitudes toward Korean fashion products, supporting the similarity-attraction theory. However, the effect of perceived value similarity on attitude toward Korean fashion products was not significant. The study concludes by describing its practical implications for the Korean fashion industry and presenting ideas for future research.

The importance of marketing on mobile platforms as well as mobile commerce is increasing dramatically in fashion industry. The purpose of this study was to categorize mobile fashion marketing strategies and to examine application usage motivations that influence brand attitude, purchase decisions, and post-purchase evaluation. Qualitative research methods, in particular focus-groups and in-depth interviews, were conducted to examine the typology of mobile marketing and fashion application usage motivations. Then, a modified survey was used to quantitatively examine what content consumers expect from fashion applications. Results of the qualitative study indicated that consumers perceive sensory (visual, tactile, auditory), relationship, information and practical marketing strategies through motives. Survey result from 229 consumers revealed four fashion application usage motives: sensory, relationship, information and practical. Based on these motives consumers were segmented into three groups: the experience/relationship-conscious, the product informationconscious, and the lifestyle information-conscious. The product information-conscious group showed higher level of monthly income and clothing expenses but lower level of mobile device usages. Lifestyle information-conscious group and experience/ relationship-conscious group had higher level of attitude, and post-purchase evaluation. It was experience-relationship conscious consumers who spent more time in mobile use. This study shows a better understanding of mobile marketing environment of fashion applications.