The Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2) measures the extent to which individuals feel, accept, and respond to their own bodies in a positive manner. Given the research need to explore positive body image and its associations with various sociocultural factors and related consequences among individuals with various cultural backgrounds, several studies have established the psychometric properties and factor structures of the BAS-2 in different languages and samples with different characteristics. The current study investigated the psychometric properties and measurement invariance of a Korean version of the BAS-2 in an older Korean adult population (599 older Korean adults with the average age of 70 years). Data were collected using both online and offline (paper-based) survey questionnaires. The results of exploratory factor analyses and confirmatory factor analysis evidenced the unidimensional factor structure and measurement invariance of the Korean BAS-2 among older Korean men and women, after dropping item 1. Scalar invariance was supported across gender, and men and women did not significantly differ in observed mean scores of the Korean BAS-2. The results also supported good convergent validity and criterion validity. Incremental validity was demonstrated by predicting self-esteem over and above measures of age, BMI, subjective financial and health status, body esteem, and ageism. High internal reliability and test-retest reliability over a 2-week period were confirmed. Overall, the results of this study support the reliable use of a Korean BAS-2 to measure positive body image among older Koreans after excluding item 1.

This study aims to analyze research trends regarding outdoor wear. For this purpose, the data-collection period was limited to January 2002–October 2022, and the collection consisted of titles of papers, academic names, abstracts, and publication years from the Research Information Sharing Service (RISS). Frequency analysis was conducted on 227 papers in total to check academic journals and annual trends, and LDA topic-modeling analysis was conducted using 20,964 tokens. Data pre-processing was performed prior to topic-modeling analysis; after that, topic-modeling analysis, core topic derivation, and visualization were performed using a Python algorithm. A total of eight topics were obtained from the comprehensive analysis: experiential marketing and lifestyle, property and evaluation of outdoor wear, design and patterns of outdoor wear, outdoor-wear purchase behavior, color, designs and materials of outdoor wear, promotional strategies for outdoor wear, purchase intention and satisfaction depending on the brand image of outdoor wear, differences in outdoor wear preferences by consumer group. The results of topic-modeling analysis revealed that the topic, which includes a study on the design and material of outdoor wear and the pattern of jackets related to the overall shape, was the highest at 30.9% of the total topics. The next highest topic was also the design and color of outdoor wear, indicating that design-related research was the main research topic in outdoor wear research. It is hoped that analyzing outdoor wear research will help comprehend the research conducted thus far and reveal future directions.

There has been growing attention on the well-being of people with disabilities. The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to investigate the associations between individuals’ socio-demographic and psychological characteristics and clothing expenditure, and (2) to examine the moderated mediation effect of self-efficacy and acceptance of disability on the association between dependency on others and happiness among people with visual impairment. This study was based on secondary analysis of data from the second wave of the 6th Panel Survey of Employment for the Disabled collected by the Employment Development Institute. The results of this study showed that average monthly expenditure on clothing was positively associated with self-efficacy, happiness, and acceptance of disability, while being negatively associated with dependency on others. The results also confirmed that self-efficacy mediated the association between dependency on others and happiness. A conditional direct effect of dependency on others on happiness was found, in which negative associations were significant among people with visual impairment who had low and mean levels of acceptance of disability (but not high levels). In addition, there was a significant conditional indirect effect, in which the indirect and negative effect of dependency on others on happiness via self-efficacy was significant for those with low and average levels of acceptance of disability. These findings support the importance of enhancing the independence and acceptance of disability among people with visual impairment, which ultimately contributes to their happiness.

Society’s emphasis on a thin body ideal may intensify an individual’s negative perceptions of fatness. The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between sociocultural attitudes toward appearance (awareness and internalization of the female ideal) and anti-fat attitudes among middle-aged Korean women. In addition, the aim was to examine whether the body internalization of female ideals was a mediator in the proposed model. Participants included a sample of 264 middle-aged Korean women who completed a series of measures online. The following information was collected through online questionnaires: awareness and internalization of the female ideal, attitudes toward fat, body weight perception, and demographics. Data were analyzed using correlation analysis, descriptive analysis, factor analysis, and structural equation modeling. The measurement model and the structural model testing provided an acceptable fit to the data, and all proposed pathways in the research model were statistically significant. Awareness of the female ideal was significantly and positively associated with internalization, and it significantly and positively predicted both constructs of anti-fat attitudes. Additionally, awareness of the female ideal was significantly and positively indirectly associated with attitudes toward fat peopledislike and willpower mediated by internalization. Overall, these findings suggest that society’s emphasis on female appearance and a thin body can ultimately result in significant stigmatization of overweight/obese individuals. This study emphasizes the importance of establishing a healthy appearance standard to reduce anti-fat prejudice.

The objectives of this study were: (1) to identify differences in consumer attitudes and intentions to recycle fashion products using three types of recycling (including resale, reform, and donation), and (2) to examine the moderating effects of consumer prosocialness on the relationships between attitude and intention for each type of fashion product recycling. Men and women aged 20 years and over were recruited from a marketing research firm panel. Participants completed an online questionnaire incorporating measures for attitudes and intentions to resale, reform, and donate fashion products, prosocialness, frequency of purchasing fashion products, monthly amount of spending on fashion products, and demographic information. Data from 224 participants were analyzed using SPSS 25.0 and PROCESS macro. The results demonstrated that consumers had significantly different attitudes and intentions depending on type of fashion product recycling. Consumers had more positive attitudes toward donation compared to resale and reform types of recycling. Consumer intentions toward resale and donation were significantly higher than their intention to reform. Furthermore, this study confirmed that the attitude-intention gap in fashion product recycling can be explained by individual prosocialness. The moderating effects of prosocialness on the associations between attitude and intention to recycle were significant. The implications of increasing consumers’ behavior intention to recycle fashion products was discussed and future research suggestions are provided.

The Internet of Things (IoT) has gained enormous popularity in various fields of industry. An IoT shopping environment is considered an effective tool for convenient use by consumers. Perceived values (including convenience and privacy risks) of IoT shopping can be the main factors that influence consumers’ shopping intentions. The current study proposed a research model based on a value-based adoption model, which integrated perceived benefit and sacrifice, shopping attitude, and shopping intention in an IoT shopping environment. As potential customers, participants in their 20s and 30s were recruited through a marketing research firm. Responses collected via an online questionnaire validated the proposed research model and hypothesis. The results confirmed significant, positive relationships between perceived benefit, including both remote control and access convenience, and consumers’ positive attitudes toward IoT shopping. The association between perceived privacy risk and consumers’ shopping attitudes was not significant. The indirect effects of two benefits of IoT shopping on shopping intention were also significant and positive. From a practical perspective, this study can help marketers and service providers manage their IoT shopping platforms or applications more effectively to attract consumers. The implications and limitations of this study are discussed. Directions for future research and development of IoT shopping environment are suggested.

This study empirically analyzes the effects of exploitation and exploration on the innovation performance of emerging companies. We assumed that R&D expenditures or outsourcing production are positively associated with the level of innovation of the firm. The study conducted an analysis based on World Bank data collected from 2008 to 2009 for 1,555 companies in 11 emerging countries. As a result, firms in many emerging economies with insufficient resources and in low-tech manufacturing industries have shown that exploratory innovation activities, represented by investments in R&D expenditure, are still critical to achieving superior performance in new product production. On the other hand, exploitative activities through outsourcing did not have a significant impact on firms’ innovation performance. Through the results of this analysis, this study suggests that exploratory activities are meaningful in emerging countries to increase their innovation performance.

Environmental pollution, especially particulate matter, is a significant problem in many large cities around the world. Globally, studies have found a larger incidence of skin problems in the more polluted areas of the world (Lefebvre et al., 2015; Lefebvre et al., 2016). Currently, anti-pollution cosmetics are the hot new trend emerging from Asia. Therefore, this study examines the relation between anti-pollution cosmetics purchase and the perceived risk to skin health owing to particulate matter. The results of study 1 partially support our hypothesis about consumers with higher perception of the risk about particulate matter. Among them, those who saw the product advertising felt response-efficacy, and further, this response-efficacy mediated the relationship between perceived risk and purchase intention. However, there was no significant mediating effect of self-efficacy between perceived risk and purchase intention. Study 2 demonstrates that consumers who have higher perceived risk about particulate matter show higher purchase intention for anti-pollution cosmetics (e.g., POLLUAWAYTM day cream) when they are exposed to prevention-focused message advertisement. In addition, the results of study provide support for our argument that this effect is driven by a process involving response-efficacy. The present research provides evidence for a relationship between perceived risk and regulatory-focused messages on purchase intention. In particular, it reveals a boundary condition for these effects to occur, that is, the extent to which consumers have a higher purchase intention because of response-efficacy. These results provide promising evidence to support the growing field of health-product-related marketing communication.