Introduction India consistently has been the largest movie producer worldwide for the last few years, releasing more than a thousand films each year selling 2.2 billion movie tickets in 2016 (Film Industry in India, n.d.). In a similar vein, the designer wear industry fueled with the growth of the organized retail in India is poised to reach about 1.7 per cent of the global designer wear industry by 2020 (Designer Wear, 2012). As Indian consumers are increasingly adopting a wardrobe more varied than the traditional Indian dress including western apparel styles, the Indian clothing consumer is emerging as a research demographic, with definition of the Indian clothing consumer still in early research stages. Research indicates that fashion industries strengthen a nation’s economy, and that movies and televisions are two of the important marketing channels for it. Thus, with the rapidly growing and increasingly more affluent Indian middle-class ready to spend money, it is important to investigate the relationship between viewing Bollywood movies and their impact on fashion consumption. There is minimal research on this topic and the purpose of this study is to address the gap in literature. Rationale of the Study Fashion is a business and the specifics don't matter much, anywhere in the world anymore. Historically, credit for new fashion was given to the fashion designer, but in more recent years’ celebrities dressed in designer wear have become a medium to reach audiences because of their huge fan following. Bollywood is an influential medium, impacting everything from haute couture fashion to music. Slowly, but surely, clothes worn by Bollywood have clothes become signed artifacts, and have Bollywood styles and fashions become themselves separately marketable (Rao, 2010). Bollywood’s influence on the fashion industry as well as consumers, it is important to gain a better understanding as to how to capitalize on the “media influences” more holistically. Gender, especially in Indian context, is an important construct with respect to men and women as they differ with respect to their involvement with fashion clothing and even more with regard to their involvement with the purchase of fashion clothing (Handa & Khare, 2013). This exploratory study examined the influence of movie and television engagement on fashion involvement and eventual purchase behavior. The study utilized MIMIC model and analyzed group difference in gender. Theoretical Framework Social cognitive theory as well as the theory of symbolic interaction forms the conceptual backbone of this current study. The theory examines psychosocial components which motivate human thought and action and has been used to examine gender differentiation as well as media Influence (Bandura, 2001). According to Solomon (1983), the theory of symbolic interaction has three facets: a consumer’s perception based on the response of others, the influence on a consumers’ behavior, and a consumer’s sense of self based on the actions and responses of others to various stimuli. The symbolism in the fashion products is the primary influence for their purchase and individuals attribute meaning to these products based on the social environment in which they are presented. For this study an adapted model has been created based on two theories to examine: (1) influence of TV and movie engagement on fashion involvement; (2) effect of fashion involvement on purchase intention related to clothing as well as purchase intention- accessories; (3) impact of purchase intention – clothing on purchase intention- accessories. Methodology Data was collected via convenience sample from students at a university in a major city in India resulting in 1058 participants. The survey instrument was created using items from previous studies.: Data were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and LISREL. Frequency statistics were obtained for the demographic variables. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to evaluate measurement properties, including reliability and validity of the measures. To test hypotheses and explore the causal relationships, a structural equation model (SEM) was used. The current analysis utilized “multi-group” analysis, to compare parameters between distinctive groups (i.e. Male and Female). Results and Conclusions An exploratory factor analysis using principal component with varimax rotation and a minimum eigen value of one was used to identify the latent variables in the model: Movie Engagement (α = 0.82); TV Engagement (α = 0.81); Fashion Involvement (α = 0.81); Purchase Intention Overall (α = .87); Purchase Intention – Accessories (α = 0.88). The main model was initially tested using measurement and structural model in SEM and then multi-group analysis using MIMIC was used to analyze group differences. The CFA supported the exploratory factor analysis, the fit of the measurement model was acceptable (χ2 = 525.21, CFI = 0.98, RMSEA = 0.053, and NNFI = 0.98). Therefore, the measurement model was retained without any modifications. Based on the parameter estimate t value which stated that value greater than 2.00 is considered an indicator of statistical significance, the hypothesis of influence of TV engagement on fashion involvement was not supported for Male respondents. Furthermore, fashion involvement did not influence purchase intention accessories for Females, conversely, it was supported for Males however, the relationship was negative. All the other hypotheses were supported for both the groups. The analysis of gender using the MIMIC model provides valuable information for the Indian fashion industry to understand target consumers which will help them to design effective marketing strategies. Indian men and women consume media differently and it affects their fashion involvement and eventual purchase behavior. Movies and TV influence fashion involvement for both the genders differently with TV only influencing women. This finding indicate that more Indian women watch more television (Singh, n.d.) and hence are more involved with programming available on TV. Movie engagement influence fashion involvement providing support to the previous research as well as media report. It is essential for Indian brands as well as international brands to engage in brand placements and celebrity endorsements to connect with the consumer base. Fashion involvement influenced intention to purchase clothing for both the genders but did not influence purchase of accessories for the female consumer. This could be attributed to the fact that women shop “looks” i.e., the entire outfit worn including make-up and accessories, whereas men generally shop for a “product”. It is suggested that retailers pay attention to this crucial difference between the genders while shopping and accordingly ensure that due diligence is made to visual merchandising strategies with the stores as well as online. Additionally, as the influence of involvement on purchase intention – accessories is negative, it can be inferred that the highly fashionable male consumer may be looking to buy clothing rather than accessories to make a “fashion statement”.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of determinants of Smartphone purchasing such as A/S, brand, H/W, switching cost, design on customer satisfaction and verify the accordance of the results of existing researches and our research with customers’ actual experience. The study also sought to confirm if moderating effects exist between determinants of Smartphone purchasing and customer satisfaction by age, gender. Data for this study was gathered by analyzing the results of a survey we conducted on 252 respondents. By taking into account the results of antecedent researches, we determined A/S, brand, H/W, switching cost, design as the 5 main factors that influence Smartphone purchasing behavior. We focused on analyzing the effect determinants of Smartphone purchasing has on consumer satisfaction and whether there exist any moderating effects between the determinants of Smartphone purchasing and consumer satisfaction by age and gender. As a result, we found out that design, brand, H/W had a significant influence on consumer satisfaction in the descending order. Switching cost and A/S turned out to have very little influence on consumer satisfaction. Also as a result of analyzing the moderating effects between determinants of Smartphone purchasing and consumer satisfaction by age and gender, the study verified that that A/S had the most significant influence as a moderating effect on age. And as for gender, switching cost was turned out to have a significant influence. The result of this study indicates several academic and practical implications for customer satisfaction of Smartphone business. Therefore, this result is expected to contribute to verifying influential factors of customer satisfaction improvement both academically and practically.

스토리텔링 광고는 현실에서 많이 사용되고 있으나 이에 비해 스토리텔링 광고에 대한 연구는 매우 부족하다. 기존 몇몇 활자형태의 내러티브 광고에 대한 연구에서는 내러티브 광고가 정보전달 광고보다 효과적임을 밝히고 있다. 이에 본 연구에서는 실제 상업용으로 제작된 광고들을 사용하여 스토리텔링 광고가 다른 광고 유형(정보전달 광고, 이미지 광고)보다 더 효과적인지를 알아보고자 하였다. 제품유형과 브랜드의 영향을 통제하기 위해 같은 제품에 대해 스토리텔링 광고, 정보전달 광고, 이미지 광고 모두가 제작되어 있는 광고를 탐색하였으며 최종 9개의 광고가 선정되었다. 종속변인으로는 광고효과, 광고후 감정, 각성정도, SAM이 측정되었다. 예비분석을 통해 광고후 감정은 크게 정서적 감정과 인지적 감정으로 나뉘어졌으며, 이를 대상으로 분석이 실시되었다. 분석 결과, 광고효과, 각성수준, 정서적 감정 모두에서 스토리텔링 광고와 정보전달 광고가 이미지 광고에 비해 높은 점수를 얻었다. 스토리텔링 광고는 정보전달 광고에 비해 평균은 높았으나 그 차이는 유의미한 수준에 이르지 못했다. 성별의 주효과는 각성수준에서 경향성만이 관찰되었으며 여성이 남성보다 높은 각성수준을 보였다. 광고유형과 성별의 상호작용은 정서적 감정을 제외한 모든 변인들에서 관찰되었으며, 전반적으로 스토리텔링 광고에서는 남성이, 이미지 광고에서는 여성이 더 긍정적으로 반응하였다. 본 연구결과의 함의점과 제한점이 논의되었다.

This objective of this study is to examine the influence of age and gender on entrepreneurship in Vietnam’s context. Although various studies have been conducted to examine age and gender differences in the entrepreneurial process, the results reveal inconsistencies. Moreover, the relationship between different factors and their role in explaining age and gender differences in the entrepreneurship activities still has no clear answer. Our analyses were based on data collected for the 2017 Global Entrepreneurship Monitors (GEM) from individuals located in Vietnam with a sample of 2,118. Our findings show that female entrepreneurs had less household income and were likely to have more fear of failure in starting a business. Entrepreneurs tend to be older and young entrepreneurs have better education. The study also indicated that male entrepreneurs were likely to have more perception of the ease to start a business. Moreover, the number of male respondents who are currently entrepreneurs is higher and they are older. The contribution of this study is twofold. First, it provides empirical evidence on the age and gender differences in entrepreneurship. Second, it contributes to the understanding of the entrepreneurship environment in Vietnam, one of the most dynamic emerging countries in the East Asian region.

This paper examines the impact of gender on access to debt finance among Vietnamese enterprises. The paper investigates data and variables retrieved from the World Bank Enterprise Survey dataset using five Probit models. The regression results suggest that there exist more unfavourable debt financing conditions for women-led firms (WLF), measured as a lower probability of having loan applications fully approved. Firm’s age, working sector, and perception of access to finance as a difficulty are found to have explanatory power on the discrimination. More importantly, the perception of debt finance as a difficulty or firms’ level of confidence significantly explains the variance of the dependent variable of probability of loan approval, or gender effect would be more pronounced if the firm already has a low level of confidence. The paper also contributes in testing for the gender effect on Vietnamese enterprises from different sectors and scale, unlike other prior research papers focusing on specific sectors and/or small and medium enterprises only. The findings are highly useful for Vietnamese credit institutions to set out a specific business policy to attract more WLFs and help promoting gender equality in the working environment, especially in debt financing, which is often neglected in existing regulation and policy frameworks.