Although the phenomenon of lead categories is well-documented in the marketing literature, our understanding of this important store choice factor remains limited. Lead categories are defined as those product categories that are so important for the shopping trip that they influence the consumer’s store choice decision. The purposes of this paper are to offer theoretical bases that explain why lead categories form and to understand how overall images of product quality, selection, and price affect lead category formation. The authors use theories of anchoring effects and automatic cognitive processing to offer theoretical explanations regarding why consumers form lead categories and how overall images of product quality, selection, and price affect lead category formation. Using survey data collected from consumers at two grocery stores, the authors find that positive overall product quality and selection images facilitate lead category formation and that an overall low-price image hinders it.

In this paper, a survey on students’ perceptions of air pollution, particulate matter (PM) and indoor air quality (IAQ) in school classrooms was analyzed. A total of 174 students participated in the survey, where 127 and 47 participants were elementary school students and middle school students, respectively. The elementary school was located in a rural area of Korea, whereas the middle school was located in an urban area. The questionnaire of the survey was mainly composed of three parts: (1) students’ perceptions of air pollution, (2) students’ perceptions of IAQ in the classroom, and (3) students’ perceptions of how to improve IAQ in the classroom. Based on our study, the responses of the students for the given questionnaire showed an opposite tendency. The students in the rural area tended to have positive perceptions regarding IAQ in the classroom as well as air pollution, whereas the students in the urban area revealed negative perceptions for the same items. Our survey results can be used by school officials in order to maintain and improve IAQ in school classrooms based on the perceptions of the students.

본 연구에서는, 국내 선행 연구에서 간과되어 왔던 주제인 <외국 브랜드의 현지성이 국내 소비자의 품질 인식에 미치는 영향>을 분석하고, 이를 조절하는 요인들을 살펴본다. 이를 위해 3개 제품군의 8개의 외국 브랜드에 대한 온라인 소비자 조사를 수행하였다. 검증 결과, 국내 소비자들의 지각된 브랜드의 현지성은, 브랜드 글로벌성과 브랜드 친숙도의 높은 영향력을 통제하고도 외국 브랜드의 품질 지각에 긍정적인 영향을 미쳤다. 동시에, 외국 브랜드의 원산지 전형성이 낮을수록, 제품의 현지 문화와의 연계성이 높을수록, 그리고 소비자의 자민족주의 성향이 높을수록, 브랜드 현지성의 효과 가 커지는 것으로 나타났다. 이 결과는 브랜드 현지성이 글로벌 브랜드에게도 중요한 품질 신호가 되며, 그 역할은 브랜드, 제품 그리고 소비자 특성에 따라 달라질 수 있음을 시사해주는 것이다.

This study was conducted to survey the perception and preferences of customers that have dined at Korean restaurants in China and investigate the importance and performance level of quality attributes, customer satisfaction, revisit intention and recommendation intention. The survey was conducted January 31~March 1, 2016 in China. The 293 questionnaires (97.7%) were analyzed using SPSS(Ver. 23.0) and AMOS(Ver. 21.0). Results of this study are as follow: Customers that dined at a Korean restaurant in China were composed of 157 women and 136 men. Regarding the reason for preferring Korean cuisine, taste, hygiene and nutritional value of Korean food were the most significant quality factors. Regarding complaints about Korean food, Chinese people placed much emphasis on freshness of ingredients when dining out, based on the majority of complaints about ingredients that were not fresh. The main reason for leftover food were personal eating habits and that of customers revisiting food taste and nutrition. Path model among customer satisfaction, revisit intention and recommendation intention revealed the factor of menus and attributes of menu items regarding customer’s age that had an impact on customers’ satisfaction, and association with customers’ satisfaction, revisit intention and recommendation intention as well.

This study was conducted to examine the effects of Chinese perceptions of quality attributes on customer’s satisfaction, revisit intention and recommendation intention for coffee shops in Beijing, China. Subjects of this study included 200 customers who had visited a coffee shop at least once during the last year. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS v23.0 and AMOS v21.0. In this study, the majority of customers visited a coffee shop once or twice a week with friends. Respondents preferred tall-sized warm coffee in the store. The coffee shop quality attributes of were derived from five exploratory factors identified upon analysis of 30 observational variables. It was important to maintain and strengthen the quality attributes of coffee shops in this area because IPA(Importance Performance Analysis) analysis showed that “Doing great, keep it well” part was a desirable area because it had high importance and performance. Finally, path analysis revealed that customer satisfaction was influenced by employee attitude and affected revisit intention and recommendation intention.

The purpose of the study is to determine how consumers perceive certification marks for agricultural products. The study examined three agricultural product certifications, such as the certification of environment-friendly agricultural products, Good Agricultural Procuts (GAP) certification mark, and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) certification mark. A survey was utilized for data collection from adults over the age of 19 in November, 2013. A total of 390 questionnaires were distributed, and 300 of those were obtained for an analysis of the study. The results were as follows. First, consumers' awareness of, image of, and credibility on the agricultural products with the certification marks were not significantly different among the three certification marks except consumers’ awareness. Second, consumers’ purchase intentions for and willingness to pay for the agricultural products with the certification marks were not significantly different among the three certification marks. Third, these variables were not significantly different between buying group and non-buying group except consumers’ awareness. Lastly, buying group and non-buying group were significantly different only in gender and marital status. The findings offer implications to the food and food service industry regarding consumers’ purchase of certified agricultural products. Further, the study enforces the roles of food industry for environment.

Research on medical tourism (MT) has focused more attention on the growing supply side of the market than the demand side (Gan & Frederick, 2013). There is a need therefore for more research to better understand the demand aspects of this growing industry. Most of the research on MT consumers focuses on two main factors for deciding to travel abroad for medical care: cost and quality of the service (Gan & Frederick, 2013; Lunt et al., 2011). Since both outcome and process healthcare service quality (SQ) remain a concern for medical tourists (Gan & Frederick, 2013; Lunt et al., 2011), it is important to understand medical tourists’ perceptions of their international patient experience. This study aims to investigate this topic, and address the demand side research gap, by content analyzing the online testimonials of medical tourists, who traveled to Thailand for medical care, through a SQ lens. By doing so, this research strives to provide a first-person perspective of Thailand’s MT SQ. No other studies in the MT literature have been identified that used this approach to investigate MT SQ.

The role of other customers play in determining a service customer's experience has emerged as important and received growing attention recently. Yet, the role of companions has not. In this study, using the healthcare setting as our research context, we explore how companions affect the patient throughout the service encounter process. Specifically, we propose that the quality of the role companions play affects the quality of the role patients play, which eventually affects the perceived quality of the service patients receive from the healthcare provider. In other words, we propose companions as a source of improving customer perceptions of service quality. Further, in an effort to define the desirable type of companions, we propose that the quality of relationship between the customer and the companion will influence the customer perception of the companion role quality. We also propose that the patient's stress level will moderate the effect of companion's role on the patient's role. In order to measure the quality of the role a companion and a patient play respectively, we first developed a scale for each by comprehensively compiling existing scales for each. We adopted the existing SERVQUAL items to measure perceived service quality. We adapted existing scales for measuring the quality of relationship between the patient and the companion and for measuring the patient's stress level. We plan to conduct a self-administered survey among the patients at a major university hospital in Seoul, Korea. We will analyze the collected data through a factor analysis, an analysis of variance, and a structural equation modeling approach. Findings of the current study will contribute academically by extending the research stream in viewing other human factors in the service setting as influential factor in determining the customer perception of service quality. Managerially, our study will contribute by demonstrating the importance of ensuring that companions play their role well throughout the service encounter process and also by presenting a comprehensive scale to measure the companion's role.

The influential role other customers play in forming a customer's service experience has gained growing academic and managerial attention recently. We intend to extend this stream of the research by proposing the effect of the interactions with other customers on the customer's quality perception of the service provided by the service firm. Through our findings we suggest that service firms should look beyond service personnel and consider other customers as a human factor influential on customer perceptions of service quality. Specifically, we propose that the perceived quality of C2C interactions indirectly affect customer perceptions of service quality through the mediation by the perceived social-emotional support. Using the selective halo effect theory, we theorize that the perceived quality of C2C interactions influence perceived quality of the assurance and empathy dimensions of SERVQUAL. We also suggest that the strength of the effect depends on customer role types. In order to fill the gap in the customer interaction research, which is mostly centered around experiential service settings, we choose a service setting in which functional benefits are more valued (i.e. healthcare services). Our study findings will help service managers become more aware of the importance of managing C2C interactions and learn specifically which aspects of C2C interactions to manage.

This study used the methods of decision tree analysis, association rule analysis, and Kano’s model to explore the behavior patterns of mainland China tourists staying at the international tourist hotels in Taiwan. To this end, the data of their demographics, travel variables, overall satisfaction with the lodging experience, different service quality perceptions, and loyalty intentions were included. The decision tree analysis showed that a tourist’s overall satisfaction with the lodging experience, satisfaction with the quality of core intangible services, and certain demographic characteristics are three important determinants of tourist loyalty towards the hotels. In terms of the effect of demographics, the customers’ monthly income and length of stay at the hotel are two main determinants in this study. In addition, if the customer perceptions of different parts of hotel service quality are taken into account, among the five hotel service quality domains, core intangible services from the receptionist, housekeeping personnel, and food & beverage personnel are found to be important influences on hotel customer loyalty intention. In other words, high quality intangible services are important for luxury hotels to demonstrate their unique ability to help customers experience the service quality that creates loyalty intentions. With regard to the association rule analysis, the results showed that core intangible service aspects from the receptionist, housekeeping personnel, and food & beverage personnel are strongly associated with customer loyalty intentions, as are the tangible aspects of the reception and hotel room facilities. The former indicated that reception in the hotel lobby could be considered one of the most important servicescapes because of its impact in forming many of the first impressions of hotel guests, while the latter is treated as core offerings in hotels that would be encountered by most hotel customers. If the tourists are mainly from package tours, the intangible services and tangible facilities of these areas are the important areas to create customer satisfaction. However, if the tourists are mainly independent tourists because they have more time and free choice to stay at the hotel longer than the package tour tourists, the intangible services and tangible facilities of the entertainment or business centers would be even more important to these tourists than to the package tour tourists. With regard to Kano’s model analysis, the results showed that, based on mainland China tourists’ perceptions, most of the service elements fit into the category of one-dimensional quality attributes. This means that these service elements are positively and linearly related to customer satisfaction, and the greater fulfillment of the attribute results in a greater degree of satisfaction. This also means that hotels should make more effort to innovate their intangible services and tangible facilities to create business advantages in the market.

Consumer's perceptions of the qualities of food and food-related services were surveyed through questionnaires by 672 adults randomly selected from 20 industrial foodservice in Pusan and Kyeung Nam area. The results are as follows: 1) By age, the elderly group gaved the highest mean score not only for freshness and temperature among the food characteristics but also for cleanliness of dishes and materials of dishes among the food-related service. 2) By occupation, the white collar worker group gaved the highest mean score in all characteristics of food and food-related service than did the blue collar worker group. Especially for courtesy of employees, the mean rating given by the white collar worker group was 3.15/5.00, but by the blue collar worker group was 2.67/5.00. 3) Good appetitive group rated taste of food 3.15/5.00, quality of food vs. food price 3.17/5.00, and freshness 3.15/5.00. But poor appetitive group rated taste of food 2.44/5.00, quality of food vs. food price 2.65/5.00, and freshness 2.70/5.00. 4) Men agreed that the rice and soup were right in amount. And women responded that the rice was in a large amount and the soup was not enough. 5) The white collar worker group agreed that the rice, the soup, the side dish, and the kimchi were right in amount. However the blue collar worker group agreed that the rice was right in amount, the soup and the side dish were not enough, and the kimchi was in a large amount. For seasoning of food, the white collar worker group responded that the salty taste and the hotness were just right. But the blue collar worker group responded that the food was neither salty nor hot at all. 6) The taste of food was shown to be positively correlated (p<0.001) with various food item combinations, freshness of food, and the variety of cooking methods.

본 연구에서는 사과의 '고품질'이라는 개념 설정과 품질을 계량화 할 수 있는 기본 기술 개발을 위하여 20대부터 50대까지의 성인남녀를 대상으로 내 외적 품질인자에 대한 소비자 기호도 및 인지도 조사를 실시하였다. 설문 분석 결과 사과는 대형할인마트나 재래시장에서 소포장이나 낱개 단위로 구입되고 있었으며, 젊은 층 보다는 높은 연령층에서 많이 소비되고 있었다. 이에 따라 다양한 형태의 소포장규격 정립과 젊은 층을 대상으로 한 사과소비 촉진 마케팅

The purpose of this study was to explorei the nature of the relationship between several factors representing shipping service quality enumerated in the service marketing literature and the adaptability to the marketing strategy of container shipping firm. An empirical study was carried out to examine not only the determinants of shipping service quality but also ists implications to the service marketing strategy. The data investigating the deteminants of shipping service quality were collected from Korean Multimodal Company , Shipping Freight Forwarders. Exploratory Factor analysis was carried out to analyze the data.