• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.67-76
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• 2018

Purpose - With the worldwide aging problem and the development of globalization, customers prefer to seek affordable medical services with the higher quality overseas. This new trend has urged some destination countries to improve their services for the more competitive advantages over other countries. Literature research indicate that medical quality and cost may be the key factors influencing global patients' decisions. In the international environment, however, medical tourism destinations are selected due to cultural similarity between the hosting country and the customers' own country. The more similarity perceived between the two countries leads foreign patients to choose the considering country as the destination for medical tourism. However, little research has been conducted on this topic. Thus, we empirically investigate how cultural similarity influences Chinese medical customers' choice of the destinations. We also consider the factors related to medical competency and travel attribute which might affect customers' decisions along with some moderating roles of disease types. Research design, data, and methodology - We proposed a research model in order to confirm the relations among different variables of cultural similarity, medical competency, travel attractiveness, disease types, and destination choice. The questionnaire survey is processed in the more economically developed regions of China such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Jiangsu. Conditional logit regression is applied to analyze the data of 881. Results - Results indicate that cultural similarity is the important predictor of Chinese customers' decision to select a medical country. However, the effects of cultural similarity vary according to the disease types. We also find that medical competency and travel attractiveness influence their decisions with the moderating role of disease types. Conclusions - Cultural similarity is the important factor that influences Chinese potential medical tourists' decisions to select a destination. Marketing managers should consider the effects of cultural similarity when developing strategies for attracting Chinese medical tourists. Since medical competency and travel attractiveness are still the critical key elements for them to evaluate the destination countries, it is necessary to continuously improve medical service quality and facilities. The results also recommend that medical managers should sharpen their marketing strategies by segmenting Chinese potential customers in terms of disease types.

• Journal of Information Technology Services
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.1-15
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• 2017

This study is aimed to find out which factors among firm-specific resources, industry-based competition, and institutional conditions affect strategies for Korean IT manufacturing companies when they expand their business overseas, especially to Vietnam in this study. Also, it attempts to reveal which strategies among cost reduction, mass production, and localization affect performance of overseas expansion. Based on Strategy Tripod Theory as an integrating point-of-view embracing resource-based view, industry-based view, and institution-based view, research model was developed and tested through the survey of 83 Korean IT manufacturing companies expanded their business to Vietnam. Research findings show that (1) communication competency, industry competitiveness, industry attractiveness, and regulation of partner country affect cost reduction strategy. (2) International experience, communication competency, international orientation, and competitiveness is significantly associated with mass production strategy. (3) And international experience, communication competency, and industry competitiveness affect localization. (4) Ultimately, mass production strategy and localization strategy significantly increase performance of expansion to Vietnam. The theoretical contribution of this study is to adopt an integrative approach based on strategy tripod theory. As practical implications, it suggests factors and strategies that IT manufacturing companies interested in expansion to Vietnam should consider. In sum, we believe this study can contribute to Korean IT manufacturing industry by suggesting key success factors and appropriate strategies for overseas expansion.

• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.97-111
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to systematically develop an impression management education program for career women by applying the Educational System Development Model [ESD] (Kwon, 1997) based on the research results of Hwang and Lee(2019) on social attractiveness. Since the previous impression management education programs were generally developed by content experts, few of them were developed systematically by considering the learner characteristics, clearly setting the educational goals, and structuring the contents accordingly. In this study, 'social attractiveness' defined by Hwang and Lee (2019) was considered as the educational goal of the impression management education program. In particular, this study focused on the design stage of the ESD model, set teaching goals based on the components of social attractiveness derived from previous studies, and conducted an analysis of teaching activities, the establishment of the educational goals at the specific function level, allocation of time, and establishment of an evaluation plan. The research process was intended to improve the learners' social image directly related to success through a systematic educational program designed to enhance the social attractiveness of working women with various hands-on activities and information. The impression management education program designed in this study has the educational advantage of a learner-centered education program configured to meet the needs and goals of career women. In addition, based on the ESD model, the sub-factors necessary for impression management were identified, and the curriculum was configured to reflect them through mutual communication between the instructor and learners. Therefore, this education program meets the basic requirements of impression management education necessary for career women and is expected to contribute to enhancing the social attractiveness of working women.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.41-52
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• 2015

Purpose - Given globalization, the new niche market of medical tourism is likely to experience sustainable growth for various reasons, such as aging populations and a shift in the medical consumerism paradigm toward prevention. Importantly, understanding medical customers' behavior is necessary to benefit from a competitive advantage in this industry. The existing research primarily accessed the key factors of medical quality and costs to explain health customers' behavior but is limited in terms of enabling an understanding of the decision process. This limitation exists because, given the intangibility and greater associated risks in the highly professional industry of international medical tourism, most customers lack the knowledge and experience needed to evaluate the central factors-such as the medical competence of health care countries-before purchases. Therefore, they actively search for useful information through various distributions to reduce uncertainty and to make better choices. Interestingly, most of these information channels are associated with word-of-mouth (WOM). However, no evidence is found in the literature to estimate the effect of WOM in the medical tourism field. Thus, this study focuses on WOM to explore its interaction with key medical characteristic factors and the attractiveness of destinations referred to by sources. This study also affects customers' evaluations and, in turn, influences their intention to seek health care services abroad. Research design, data, and methodology - The literature review addressed an interesting research model for estimating the relations among WOM, medical characteristics, attractiveness, and customers' choice intention regarding international health care. In the key economic regions in China, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Shandong, and Guangdong, 2,500 survey questionnaires were distributed to potential customers of different ages, education, and income levels. A resulting 1,717 (68.68 percent of the original 2,500) usable surveys were obtained for analysis. Moderated regression analysis was used to determine the effects of WOM in the decision process regarding international health care destinations. Results - The results indicate that WOM is a good moderator of the relationships between the factors evaluated by sources and customers. More importantly, the WOM effects reflect the factors of tie strength, credibility, and vividness. The results also reveal that, given the moderating role of WOM, the intention of potential Chinese customers to seek the referred health care country varies according to the medical characteristics of medical competency and reputation as evaluated by customers. In contrast, the travel attractiveness of the attractions, facilities, accessibility, and social environment are critical determinants of destination choice intention. Conclusions - The moderating role of WOM has been confirmed through the international healthcare destination selection process. Medical tourism managers should user WOM as an effective marketing tool for industry development. Specially, marketers should consider the effects of WOM determinants, such as tie strength, credibility, and vividness, to develop an effective strategy. Furthermore, this study estimates the factors that affect customers' selection of medical tourism destinations. Health care managers or policy makers should consider a broad variety of variables that may attract more Chinese customers to international health care.