Fixed Book Price (FBP) System in Korea

( Sharon Smith ),( Taeyoung Kwon ) 서암순창장학회 2017 Journal of Marketing Thought Vol.4 No.1

A fixed book price (FBP) system is a mechanism to fix the price at which books are sold to the public. In South Korea, the advantages and disadvantages of a fixed book price are more hotly debated than ever before. The major reform of FBP legislation in November 2014 resulted in profound changes to Korean publishers and retailers. In this article, we analyze the performance and emerging issues of the FBP systems with a focus on bookstores (on-offline) and publishers (on-offline). Finally, we propose improvements to the FBP in Korea.

Influence of Trust and Delivery System on Customer Satisfaction and Company Performance on Social Commerce Sites

( Sharon Smith ),( Yun Young Roh ),( Eunjung Kim ) 서암순창장학회 2017 Journal of Marketing Thought Vol.3 No.4

Many consumers are skeptical or suspicious of the functional mechanisms of social commerce, its valuable processes and fast delivery, and the quality of many products that are offered online. This paper discusses the role of consumer trust as a foundation for the diffusion and acceptance of social commerce. First, trust is seen as a distinct but potentially coexisting mechanism for reducing the uncertainty and complexity of transactions in social commerce markets. Second, this paper provides actual proof of whether or not quality of service can be attributed to customer satisfaction and company performance on social commerce sites.

Study on the Relative Price Difference between Online and Offline Products Focus on Age Adjustment Variables

( Sharon Smith ),( Jin Woo Jung ),( Hyo Jeong Kim ) 재단법인 서암순창장학회 2018 Journal of Marketing Thought Vol.5 No.3

The fact that off-line things can be replaced by online is a major feature of modern society. The space in which the photo book was stored on the bookshelf to store the memories is now replaced by a palm-sized hard disk. As such, digitalization is spreading rapidly in many fields. Despite these benefits, the real-world advantages still appeal to consumers. (Belk 2013; Molesworth and Denegri-Knott 2013; Odom, Zimmerman, and Forlizzi 2011), rather than digital products that are easier and less expensive to store. (Ozgun Atasoy, 2018) that ownership is influenced by people's emotions and memories, and that the choice of ownership and digital license ownership depends on the individual's age.

The Relationship between Environmental Uncertainty and Opportunism in Marketing Channels: The Moderating Effect of Network Embeddedness

( Yanghoon Lim ),( Sharon Smith ),( Eunjung Kim ) 서암순창장학회 2014 Journal of Marketing Thought Vol.1 No.1

Under environmental uncertainty, firms face opportunism of their exchange partners and have difficulty in expecting benevolence from their exchange partners because the participating firms are unable to predict changes in the external environments due to lack of information, knowledge and understanding. Meanwhile, firms’ economic actions and outcomes, like all social action and outcomes, are affected by the actors’ dyadic relations as well as by the structure of the overall relations, which is referred to as network embeddedness. Firms are embedded in the network by maintaining strong ties or weak ties with their exchange partners. As such, firms’ participating network embeddedness influences the inter-firm relationship under environmental uncertainty. This study hypothesizes that environmental uncertainty is positively related to opportunism and is negatively related to benevolence. This study also hypothesizes that these relations are moderated by the network embeddedness. The statistic results demonstrate that all of the hypotheses of this study turn out to be significant. The implication of this study is that network embeddedness acts as a moderator by way of managing opportunism when firms are under environmental uncertainty. Specifically, firms embedded in strong tie networks are unlikely to seek opportunism because firms’ participation in such strong ties serves as part of the control mechanism of environmental uncertainty. This study also portrays that firms’ participation in the network embeddedness promotes the benevolence of the exchange partners. Firms’ participation in strong tie networks enables the exchange partners to exchange fine-grained information and to deeply understand the operations of the partners. As such, firms have a belief that the exchange partners have the intentions and motives beneficial to the firms even in uncertain environments. Therefore, firms should carefully consider how they are embedded in the network with their exchange partners when they make a business decision under environmental uncertainty.

The Influence of Two Aspects of Dependence on Network Flexibility: As a Buyer Perspective

( Moonki Rhee ),( Sharon Smith ) 서암순창장학회 2015 Journal of Marketing Thought Vol.2 No.2

This paper examines the mediating effects of two aspects of dependence (buyer and perceived supplier) between environmental uncertainty and network flexibility. The empirical data was gathered through a survey of engineering firms in the context of buyer and supplier relationships. The results of a survey indicate that under environmental uncertainty, firm's network flexibility increased. However, uncertain environment has not significantly influence on buyer dependence, and buyer dependence also has no effect on network flexibility.

Factors Affecting Customer Satisfaction with Pharmacy Franchises

( Sunhee Lee ),( Sharon Smith ),( Eunjung Kim ) 서암순창장학회 2014 Journal of Marketing Thought Vol.1 No.3

This study seeks to identify key factors affecting the development of pharmacy franchises by analyzing consumption behavior and the impact of consumers on pharmacy franchise management. It also aims to determine key factors affecting customer satisfaction and loyalty toward pharmacy franchises. Independent research variables included store image, pharmacy service, and pharmacist specialty. Customer loyalty was adopted as a dependent variable, and customer satisfaction was a mediating variable. The results indicate that pharmacy service is an important factor related to customer satisfaction, followed by pharmacist specialty. Contrary to expectations, the image of store cleanness was unrelated to customer satisfaction. Such findings indicate that consumers perceive drugstores as unique spaces, as opposed to health and beauty stores.

The Role of Tie Strength in Transaction Cost Economics: The Moderating Role of the Network Tie

( Sujeong Hong ),( Sharon Smith ) 서암순창장학회 2016 Journal of Marketing Thought Vol.2 No.4

Tie Strength retains pride of place among the researched factors in the field of marketing channels, by fostering pro-ductive relationships in marketing and other fields. There still remains however, a strong counter-view towards tie strength. In this paper, we explore the two opposite views on how the strength of tie influence’s relationship between a firm’s transaction cost and performance, is made. The expected hypothesis is that the relationship between tie strength and a firm’s performance is negative, when environment uncertainty is high. Additional hypotheses explain a positive relationship between tie strength and sales performance, when transaction-specific assets are high. How-ever, past and current research suggests that there remains little empirical evidence supporting the validity of this viewpoint

How Manufacturer Satisfaction with Supplier Performance is Influenced by Upstream and Horizontal Relationships: Solidarity, and Conflict

( Hyungu Ko ),( Sharon Smith ) 서암순창장학회 2016 Journal of Marketing Thought Vol.3 No.1

This study examines how a supplier’s governance and relational strategy with its upstream suppliers affects downstream buyers’ satisfaction. The author reveals that the first-tier supplier’s solidarity norm, as a governance mechanism as a relational strategy positively affects, downstream manufacturers’ satisfaction. However, a supplier’s horizontal conflict negatively affects its performance, which makes it difficult to satisfy a manufacturer because conflict is opponent-oriented behavior that distracts the supplier. By analyzing interactions between a supplier’s solidarity norm and the level of structural holes, the author demonstrates that structural holes strengthen the relationship between a supplier’s solidarity and manufacturer satisfaction. Also, a high level of structural holes dampens the negative relationship between horizontal conflict and manufacturer satisfaction. From a practical viewpoint, these findings show that a supplier in a channel network should focus on upstream relationships to maximize downstream client satisfaction, as well as maintain positive individual relationships with clients.

The Role of Ties and Structural Holes in the Buyer’s Performance across Vertical Marketing Channel Systems: A Triadic Perspective

( Joohyun Nam ),( Sharon Smith ),( Mijin Kwon ) 서암순창장학회 2015 Journal of Marketing Thought Vol.1 No.4

This article investigates how a vendor’s networks with suppliers influence a buyer’s performance in the buyervendor-supplier triad. We suggest that a buyer’s performance (information benefits and adaptation) will be enhanced when a vendor has strong ties with suppliers in terms of tie intensity, tie valence, and the number of ties. Intensive, cooperative and numerous ties between vendor and suppliers will facilitate information and resource flow and, in turn, provide the buyer with information embedded in networks. Thus, the buyer’s adaptation and information benefits will be increased through the vendor’s networks. Using the structural holes theory, this article also draws considerable attention to the moderating role of the vendor’s structural holes. Structural holes enable the parties to access novel information, which does not overlap. When a vendor bridges structural holes between suppliers and buyer, the buyer will take advantage of new and diverse information derived from the suppliers. Therefore, the presence of structural holes will increase the degree to which the vendor’s network with suppliers influences the buyer’s performance.