Understanding the types and dynamics of drivers on customer equity has been the subject of marketers’ attention for decades, however it is only recently been suggested that cultural or national contexts play a role in this understanding. Much of this research has been centered on the differences between the West and the Asia with many differences being found. Confucianism is often used to explain these differences. This comes as no surprise as Confucianism is argued to be the dominant cultural philosophy, or mode of thought, influencing East Asian individuals’ and entities’ roles in society and with each other. The philosophy has spread from its foundation in China to influence many other key societies in East Asia, such as Korea, Vietnam, and Japan. The general assumption in most of the literature is Confucianism will act similarly in every society it has spread to, but is this the case? What is not understood, therefore, is if the influence of Confucianism is equal among different East Asian societies? This exploratory study therefore seeks to contribute to knowledge by identifying if Confucianism is an influential force on customer equity drivers? And if so, are there differences between East Asian societies? Given the growing economic clout and importance of East Asia and the rising East Asian diaspora, marketer’s adherence and understanding of Confucian principles may be key to their success of managing their customer relationships, underscoring one of their key assets, their customer equity. With most cross-national research taking an umbrella view of the role of Confucianism as an explanatory variable on the behaviors of East Asian consumers, such as the Chinese and South Koreans (e.g. Bond, 1996; Hofstede, 1980), they are ignoring the behavioral and attitudinal variations that exist between East Asian Societies (e.g. Kim & Leung, 2007; Zhang et al., 2013). There is debate suggesting that Confucianism is having less effect now due to globalization, digitalization and capitalism (Leidner, 2010) potentially creating new hybrid value systems (Ralston, 2008). In China, arguments suggest Confucian influence is lessening due to the systemic philosophical changes in the nation’s society over the twentieth century, with the move from traditional Confucius philosophy to Maoism to socialist capitalism (Chiu 2002, Whitcomb et al., 1998). Other East Asian societies however may have moved away from Confucianism much quicker than China, due to their much earlier global exposure than China’s open door globalization policy in the late 1970s. In spite of this, there is wide agreement that Confucianism remains a strong influence in both China (e.g., Zhao & Roper, 2011) and other East Asian societies,such as Korea (Sung & Tinkham, 2005; Lee et al, 2009). The nexus of our paper therefore is that Confucianism does still have an influential role, but what this role is, and how this role differs between societies should be explored. In its purest form, Confucianism is composed of five constant virtues (e.g. Zhang et al., 2005): Benevolence: kind, sympathetic, compassionate, tolerant and respectful of others; Righteousness: the power to protect justice and goodness; Propriety: following societal regulations and laws; Wisdom: having good knowledge, intelligence and systems to provide excellence; and Trustworthiness: fulfillment of promises. Although the foundations of Confucianism goes back millennia, the use of the virtues to guide commercial operations stems from the Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644). How adherence to each of the virtues by modern marketing organizations influences their relationships with the modern customer however, has not been explored fully. We argue that each of the virtues will have a positive effect on the key customer equity drivers; value equity, brand equity and relationship equity (Lemon et al., 2001; Rust et al., 2004), and thereon customer lifetime value. Using a sample of young Chinese and Korean consumers, the Confucian five constant virtues, benevolence, righteousness, propriety, trustworthiness and wisdom are measured and their relationships explored on the three dominant drivers of customer equity; value equity, brand equity and relationship equity. The results show that the benevolence, righteousness and wisdom virtues have significant positive relationships on the three drivers. Trustworthiness and propriety virtues however have negative significant relationships. Chinese and South Korean results are then compared. The results show that the Confucianism constant virtues drive different customer equity drivers in these two societies. The five constant virtues have stronger effects for young Chinese customers than their Korean counterparts. The equity drivers of CLV also vary, with brand equity significant in the Chinese sample and value equity significant in the Korean sample. Additionally, some significant paths to the equity drivers differ between Korea and China. Benevolence has a significant negative effect on value and relationship equity drivers (opposite to China) and righteousness a significant effect on value equity (not observed in China). These results support our proposition that a national effect on the manner and influence of the Confucian drivers may vary by society.

In this empirical study, an attempt is made to show how the Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) can be computed by modeling multiple components of the customer and firm behavior. Specifically, attention will be given to modeling (1) the probability that a customer is likely to buy, (2) the quantity of purchase given that they will buy, and (3) the cost of marketing to each customer. Once the authors compute each of these inputs, they combine them to compute CLV using the net present value concept. The authors will examine multiple ways of computing purchase probabilities depending on the customer’s buying pattern. They will also discuss the estimation challenges in obtaining such inputs for computing CLV. The authors will demonstrate the implementation with a case study for a fashion retailer and what kind of managerial actions can be taken. Finally, a generalizable framework for all fashion retailers to maximize profits will be presented and discussed.

본 연구에서는 반도체 업체인 M사의 공정을 조사하고 현재 M사의 일정계획 순서와 기존에 연구되었던 일정계획 방법에 대한 결과를 조사한 후 CLV 알고리즘을 적용한 일정계획 기법을 시뮬레이션을 통해 비교 분석하고 알고리즘에 대한 타당성을 검증하고자 한다. CLV 알고리즘을 통한 고객 분류에 의해서 ATP rule을 적용한다면 생산 공정상의 일정계획이 조정되어 고객이 원하는 납기 준수를 달성할 수 있을 것이다. 또한 기존 연구와의 비교 분석을 위하여 시뮬레이션의 수행은 기존 연구 수행일과 동일한 시간(2003년 11월12월)을 기준으로 수행하였다.

현재 기업들 사이에 기업경영의 목표를 ‘고객 가치 경영’에 두는 경우가 많다. 이는 경영활동의 초점을 고객가치(Customer Value)에 두고, 데이터베이스 마케팅을 도입하여 ‘고객 마케팅’과 ‘One To One 마케팅’을 차별화 하려는 의지로 볼 수 있다. 고객 데이터를 조사 분석하기 위해서는 고객의 표현되는 욕구뿐만 아니라 잠재적인 욕구가지도 파악을 해야 한다. 고객의 데이터를 분석하는 방법에는 그 목적에 따라 고객 세분화 및 집단화 분석 모형, 고객반응확률을 예측하는 모형, 고객 이탈률을 분석하는 모형, 신규고객 발굴 분석 모형으로 분류할 수 있다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 비연결적인 상황의 한계성을 극복하기 위해 고객 분석에 필요한 변수를 먼저 선정하여, 고객 데이터의 신뢰도를 높이고, 고객 세분화를 정량적으로 분석하기 위해 CLV(Customer Lifetime Value)를 사용한 고객정보시스템을 설계하였다. 변수 사이의 유기적 복합성을 고려함과 동시에 어떤 새로운 변수를 도입해야 할 것인지에 대한 고민이 필요한 것이다. 또한 기업은 소비자의 다양화·복잡화 추세에 어느 정도까지 대응해 나갈 것인지도 결정해야 할 것이다. 이러한 이유로 기업에서의 CLV (Customer Lifetime Value)의 정립은 앞으로도 계속되는 과제가 될 것이다.