• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.14 no.9
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• pp.73-83
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• 2016

Purpose - Previous studies have not paid attention to global self-corporate brand congruity and affective approach from the viewpoint of global self. This study explored an inducement of gratitude that, under the circumstance of corporate association, consumers feel toward corporate's responsible activities, pride related to corporate's ability, and global self congruity. Current researches also have examined positive behavior effects of global self-corporate brand congruity and the feelings on corporate products. Research design, data, and methodology - This research theoretically reviewed that corporate ability and social responsibility association would influence global self-corporate brand congruity, that corporate ability association could induce consumers' sense of pride, and that social responsibility association might induce gratitude. This study, furthermore, examined theoretically whether global self-corporate brand congruity, pride and gratitude could make consumers behave positively toward corporate products, and developed hypotheses. For the empirical analysis with the questionnaires, 231 employees and common people completed the questionnaires, and structural equation model of AMOS 18.0 was used. Results - From the empirical analysis, the outcomes are as followings. First, corporate ability association makes consumers feel proud. Second, corporate social responsible association makes consumers feel grateful. Third, both corporate ability association and social responsibility association let consumers be aware of global self-corporate brand congruity. Fourth, being conscious of each of pride, gratitude and global self-corporate brand congruity prompts consumers to behave positively toward corporate products. Fifth, mediation effects of pride and the congruity in the roles of corporate ability association on the positive behavior, and those of gratitude and the congruity in the roles of corporate social responsible association on the positive behavior are identified. Conclusions - Based on the results, it can be said that a marketing manager should endeavor to make consumers associate the corporate ability and social responsibility. However, the degree of consumers' feelings such as pride and gratitude can differ according to their cultural backgrounds. It is, therefore, needed to be explored by the types of feelings that can be caused more from the difference in cultural backgrounds by corporate association, and to be investigated differently and positively with behavioral effects on the corporate's products between the types.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.523-536
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• 2015

Corporate association-which refers to consumers' beliefs, knowledge, perceptions, and evaluations of a corporation -can affect consumers' purchasing intentions. Corporate association consists of corporate ability association and corporate social responsibility association. Corporate ability association refers to a company's product quality, corporate innovation, productivity, consumer orientation, and after service. Corporate social responsibility association, which refers to the social perspective a company has of its responsibility to society, can affect corporate image and consumers' purchasing intentions. Eco-labeling for protecting and sustaining the environment is one of the important green marketing strategies in the fashion business that can influence corporate association and consumers' purchasing intentions. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of consumers' eco-label recognition on their corporate association and intentions to purchase eco-friendly fashion products. Questionnaires were distributed to consumers. The 263 usable questionnaires that were returned were analyzed by descriptive statistics, Cronbach's alpha, factor analysis, regression analysis, and t-test. The results were as follows: There was a significant effect of eco-label recognition on corporate association (ability association and social responsibility association). Eco-label recognition and corporate association were found to significantly affect consumers' purchasing intentions. Regarding the eco-friendly fashion product buying experience, there was no significant difference on corporate association and buying intention, but there was significant difference on eco-label recognition.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.5-15
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• 2011

Research regarding corporate associations in marketing has generally been approached using the association theory. However, limited research investigates the effect of corporate associations on consumer loyalty to individual brands by examining the role of self connectedness with a corporate image. The activation of behavior-related constructs can influence individuals' behaviors without their intention or conscious awareness. A recently developed body of research suggests that self connection can play an important role in affecting subsequent behaviors. Although these effects have received considerable attention, the set of mechanisms involved in self connectedness and loyalty to individual brands is not clear. An active self account in which associative constructs can affect behavior by temporarily altering the active self-concept may lead to behavior or evaluation. If the exposure to a corporate brand can induce consumers' cognitive associations and goal-primed effects through the role of active self accounting, the connectedness between the consumer's self and the corporate brand could be developed and this connectedness could be explained by associative and connection models and the goal priming theory. Therefore, this study investigates the influence of corporate associations on loyalty to individual brands through connections between the corporate and the consumer's self. There are three main purposes of the research. First, theories regarding corporate associations will be explored. Second, theories of self-concept will be investigated and self connectedness with corporate brands will be explored. Third, the effects of the connectedness between the self and the corporation on corporate identification and loyalty to individual brands will be investigated. For the purposes of this research, the types of corporate associations are classified into corporate ability (CA) associations and corporate social responsibility (CSR) associations. Furthermore, the connectedness between the consumer's self and the corporate image are divided into two concepts: the connectedness between the individual self-concept and the corporate identity and the connectedness between social self-concept and the corporate identity. This study suggests the hypotheses that the types of consumer self connections with the corporate image could vary according to the types of corporate associations created and further that the connectedness between the corporate association and the consumer's self-concept have positive effects on loyalty to corporate individual brands. The results of testing these hypotheses are as follows. First, corporate ability associations enhance the connectedness between the consumer's individual self and corporate brands. That is, corporate ability associations influence individual connectedness between the corporate and individual self-concept positively from the viewpoint of the consumer's personal ability and branding success. In addition, corporate social responsibility associations have a positive effect on social connectedness between the corporation and the consumer's social self-concept. Second, the connectedness between the corporate brand and the consumer's self-concept affects identification with the corporation. The consumer's personal self and social self connectedness induces corporate identification. Third, individual self connectedness has a positive effect on loyalty to corporate individual brands, while social self connectedness does not. This also means that individual self connectedness with the corporate image or brand plays a more important role in forming individual brand loyalty than social self connectedness with the corporate does. In addition, social connectedness cannot influence individual brand loyalty until it passes through identification with the corporate. Fourth, consumers who experience identification with a corporate identity also show positive responses to corporate individual brands. That is, consumers also develop loyalties toward individual brands through the corporate identification because self-pursued goals that are induced by corporate associations can be achieved by consuming the individual brands that are sold by the corporate that the consumers identify with.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.45-54
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• 2016

Purpose - There have been numerous studies investigating the effects of corporate social responsibility initiatives on corporate associations or corporate images. In line of this research stream, current research examined the potential impact of customer participation in the process of corporate social responsibility initiatives on attitude toward the company. This research differentiates from previous studies that it is the first to connect corporate social responsibility and customer participation. Specifically, we suggest a structural model on corporate associations which was classified into corporate ability associations and corporate social responsibility associations that the more the customers participate in initiating corporate social responsibility, corporate associations were formed more positively. And this leads to the increase of revisit intentions through customer satisfaction. Research design, data, and methodology - To test our research model, we collected data of real consumers of a large discount store in Korea. At the large discount store, customers were given an opportunity to participate the discount store's CSR activity program. We performed field survey and collected data of 146 respondents. We analyzed the data using PASW statistics 21.0 and AMOS 16.0 in order to test our structural model. Results - The results showed that consumers who participated more in initiating corporate social responsibility revealed higher score for corporate ability associations and corporate social responsibility associations. These corporate associations had a positive effect on customer satisfaction, which leads to higher attitude toward revisit intentions. Specifically, hypothesis 1.1 "As Customer participation in CSR process increases, the evaluation of CA associations will be positive,"was supported. Hypothesis 1.2 "As Customer participation in CSR process increases, the evaluation of CSR associations will be positive," was supported. Hypothesis 2.1 "As the evaluation of CA associations is positive, satisfaction with the firm will increase," was supported. Hypothesis 2.1 "As the evaluation of CSR associations is positive, satisfaction with the firm will increase," was supported. Hypothesis 3 "As satisfaction with the firm increases, revisit intentions with the firm will increase," was supported. Conclusions - This research is the first to study the relationship between customer participation in CSR process, CSR, and consumer reactions. This research also contributes to customer participation and corporate social responsibility literature by suggesting customer participation as an antecedent and empirically demonstrating the positive relationships between the constructs. The findings of this research may offer managerial implications for marketing practitioners. When performing corporate social initiatives, it is better to let the customer participate in the process which leads to higher corporate ability associations and corporate social responsibility associations, also higher satisfaction and revisit intentions. Our results provide useful information to practioners that spontaneous participation of consumers makes CSR initiatives effective and successful. Limitations and ideas for further research remain in this research. For example, our focus on the logic was cognitive evaluations(e.g. corporate associations) but affective dimensions might be considered since recent researches are investigating the relationship between customer participation and affective reaction as a response. Despite the limitations, this research have unique and applicable implications for academics and practitioners.

• Culinary science and hospitality research
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.38-54
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of customers' perception of corporate associations on trust, loyalty, revisit intention, and switching intention in the foodservice company and verify if there are significant moderating effects between family restaurants and fast-food restaurants. A total of 552 restaurant patrons in Korea participated in the survey. The results showed that corporate ability association and corporate social responsibility association among corporate associations had a significant effect on customers' trust, which had a positive significant influence on loyalty. Moreover, customers' loyalty had a significant effect on customers' revisit and switching intention. In addition, the moderating effects of company types are observed in the relationships among customers' perception of corporate associations and trust. Limitations of the study and future research directions are also discussed.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.22 no.10
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• pp.575-585
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• 2022

Negative perceptions about corporate social responsibility (CSR) crises and repeated crises are increasing. It is necessary to examine the effects of a proactive strategy of disclosing crisis information against the negative perceptions. The research is intended to analyze ability-based trust, and benevolence-based trust by crisis type, crisis history, and timing of crisis disclosure. In this regard, a 2 (crisis history: present vs. absent) x 2 (crisis type: corporate ability crisis vs CSR crisis) x 2 (timing of crisis disclosure: stealing thunder vs thunder) between-groups design experiment was conducted. Research results show crisis type and crisis history have significant interaction effects on ability-based trust. In the CSR crisis, the case with crisis history shows lower ability-based trust than the case without crisis history. Timing of crisis disclosure showed significant interactions with crisis history and crisis type. The stealing thunder strategy heigntened ability-based trust and benevolence-based trust against the CSR crises and the cases without crisis history more than the corporate ability crises and the cases with crisis history. Considering that the stealing thunder strategy is more effective with the CSR crises than the corporate ability crises, the research results suggest that future CSR crisis responses should prepare active disclosure of crisis information before news media disclosure of such information.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.21 no.10
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• pp.378-387
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• 2021

This study aims to confirm the effect of government support on the capability of socially disadvantaged enterprises (SDBs) and to explain the opportunistic behavior of SDBs to acquire more external resources such as government support. By dividing government support into policies and procedures, the difference in influence on corporate ability is analyzed by clarifying government support, and the impact of corporate capability on opportunistic behavior is analyzed using the structural equation (SEM) to provide government support The purpose of this study is to present the policy direction, the necessity of procedural development of government support, and the preceding factors to avoid opportunistic behavior. As a result of analyzing 261 questionnaires targeting SDB executives and employees, the relationship between government support policy and corporate ability was rejected. It was found that the government support procedure had a positive (+) effect on corporate ability, and that corporate ability had a negative (-) effect on opportunistic behavior. The implication is that, among the two components of government support, only the government support procedure was found to be significant. There should be publicity and in-depth consideration of government support policies.

• Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.87-101
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• 2014

The theory of customer-based brand equity emphasizes the importance of brand awareness and brand image or associations in building a strong brand. Marketing scholars have recently begun to identify the two types of corporate associations, that is, corporate ability(CA) and corporate social responsibility(CSR) associations, which had long been conceptualized as a unidimensional construct of corporate image in the literature. In line with the new research stream, I'm developed a research model concerning how CA and CSR associations are related to credibility-based and benevolence-based trust, which in turn will affect emotional trust and consumer attitudes toward company. As for the hypothesized paths, the results confirm that all of the them are supported(H1-H6). First, CA associations have a significant positive relationship with credibility-based trust, and CSR associations are positively related to benevolence-based trust. Second, both dimensions of trust show strong and positive influences on emotional trust. In addition, credibility-based trust directly affect attitude toward firm in the foreign company. But credibility-based trust not affect attitude toward firm in the domestic company.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.94-102
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• 2016

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of corporate association of sports equipment companies on brand trust, and brand loyalty. The subjects were college student and 400 data were collected and 385 of them were chosen as for final data analysis. Data analysis were conducted using frequency analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, reliability analysis, correlation analysis and structural equation modeling with SPSS 22.0 and AMOS 22.0. Based on the above study method and procedures, the results of the study are summarized as follows: First, corporate ability association and corporate social responsibility association had a positive effect on brand trust. Second, brand trust had a positive effect on brand loyalty.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.115-123
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• 2024

Purpose: Using the association concept as a basis, businesses offer association cues-trademarks and logos, for example-to support consumers' associative memories. These stimuli can be connected to anything, including a product's unique personality or the advantages it offers the company that made it. The purpose of this study is to comprehend how hypermarkets' business affiliation, relationship commitment, and trust affect consumers' attitudes and behaviors. Data, methodology, and research design: Regression analysis was used in this study to confirm the relationship between the independent and dependent variables, as well as to forecast how the changes in the independent variable would affect the changes in the dependent variable. Results: These are the findings of the research. First, it was discovered that trust and relationship commitment were significantly impacted by the hypermarket product association, corporate management-related associations, and social responsibility associations. Second, it was discovered that both behavioral and attitudinal loyalty were impacted by hypermarkets' level of trust. Third, it was discovered that both behavioral and attitudinal loyalty were impacted by a hypermarket's relationship commitment. Conclusions: Corporate associations with the hypermarket play an important role in shaping and maintaining consumers' awareness of the company or brand. Since this is affected by various factors such quality of products and services, and corporate social activities, companies need to positively induce awareness of products or services.