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Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to empirically compare the impact of firm reputation on consumers' evaluation of e-tailers' market response outcomes (satisfaction, trust, and loyalty) in two cultures, the USA (individualism, low uncertainty avoidance, low context, and high-trust society) and South Korea (collectivism, high uncertainty, high context, and low-trust society). Design/methodology/approach -Two sets of data were collected, one in the USA and the other in Korea, using a mall intercept method. Males and females over 18 who had online purchase experience were chosen as respondents. Findings -The results with 385 usable questionnaires (182 from the USA and 203 from Korea) revealed that firm reputation contributes to customer loyalty by increasing customer satisfaction, and this effect is stronger in Korea than in the USA. However, contrary to the expectations, no cultural differences were found in reputation-trust and trust-loyalty links. That is, firm reputation leads to customer loyalty through trust in both cultures and the impacts are the same across cultures. Research limitations/implications -Further validation of the findings with other cultural settings merits attention. Practical implications -The firm reputation-satisfaction-loyalty link is stronger in Korea than in the USA. While it may be premature to conclude the link is stronger in all Asian markets, international managers should carefully consider this finding when establishing operations in Asian markets. Originality/value -This study is one of the first systematic cross-cultural examinations of how firm reputation functions in an e-tailing context increase market response outcomes.

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -Despite proven strategic significance and wide acceptance of private label products (PB), our understanding of PB in international markets is limited. The purposes of this study are to propose a model that integrates four consumer characteristic variables (price consciousness, value consciousness, perceived price variation, and consumer innovativeness) toward PB attitude and purchase intention, and to test the model in two product categories, grocery and home appliances, in a South Korean discount store context. Design/methodology/approach -A total of 168 usable data (87 for food and 81 for home appliances were collected using mall intercept method from female shoppers at one Korean discount store in Seoul, Korea. Findings -The findings revealed that, depending on the product category, contribution of the factors varies. Among four consumer characteristics, only three in each category exhibited direct and indirect association with PB purchase intention. Perceived quality variability in a food category and price consciousness in a home appliance category did not show any relationship with PB purchase intention nor with PB attitude. In both product categories, only two variables, value consciousness and consumer innovativeness, predicted PB attitude. Overall, consumer innovativeness was the strongest factor predicting Korean shoppers' PB attitude. Originality/value -Important theoretical contributions of this study are finding the relative importance of the variables on PB attitude and purchase intention, and differing roles of consumer variables by product characteristics. Further significance of this study lies in understanding the differing impact of consumer perceptual variables in predicting PB attitude and purchase intention simultaneously. Managerial implications of these results were discussed.

Environmental sustainability issues become important in the apparel industry. Primary practices involve replacing harmful chemicals with environmentally friendly materials, and reducing amounts of waste and resource consumption through apparel recycling. A more recent sustainable movement in the industry is slow fashion. It is a socially conscious movement that shifts consumers' mindsets from quantity to quality, encouraging people to buy high-quality items less often (Fletcher). Slow fashion encompasses slow production and consumption. Slow production does not exploit natural and human resources to expedite manufacturing speed (Fletcher), and slow consumption entails a longer product lifespan from manufacturing to discarding. Although the slow fashion concept may not be limited only to environmental sustainability, the conceptual distinction between slow fashion and environmentally sustainable fashion remains vague. This may be because academic understanding towards slow fashion is very limited despite the growing interests in slow fashion in practice. The purpose of this study is to explore the dimensions of slow fashion following Churchill's paradigm for measurement development. Through the scale item development measuring consumer orientations to slow fashion, this study attempts to define slow fashion theoretically with underlying dimensions. The initial scale items were generated based on a literature review and an open-ended survey. Then, via two surveys (i.e. with student and non-student samples) in the Southeastern region of the US, the items were purified and validated. As a result, 15 items of five dimensions accounted for slow fashion: equity, authenticity, functionality, localism and exclusivity. The identified five dimensions clearly show that slow fashion is a broader concept than environmental sustainability alone, encompassing (1) caring for producers and local communities for sustainable life (equity and localism); (2) connoting history for sustainable perceived value of the product (authenticity); (3) seeking diversity for the sustainable fashions world (exclusivity); and (4) maximizing product lifespan and efficiency for a sustainable environment (functionality). This study is one of the first attempts to seek underlying dimensions of slow fashion through scale development. This procedure may provide a basis for a theoretical definition of the slow fashion concept. Regarding practical contributions, slow fashion may be useful to foster US domestic apparel manufacturing and local economies. Furthermore, slow fashion may broaden the range of consumers' choices. When combining a young and independent designer's innovative spirit with local resources, slow fashion is likely to lead fashion diversity, beyond being driven by identical fashion trends.

The internationalization of retailing is increasing throughout the global service markets. Among many retail formats, the discount store is one of the fastest growing formats actively engaging internationalization. In managing retail firms in other cultures, understanding of local customers' perceptions toward the retail formats is especially important. Shopping motives may be a function of retail format, cultural, economic and social environment. Prior studies on shopping motives, however, have focused on Western cultures and on a shopping mall format. This study provides an exploratory examination of Korean discount shoppers' shopping motives and their shopping typologies based on their shopping motives. A total of 624 questionnaires were administered to married female discount shoppers in Korea using the intercept survey method, and 467 completed questionnaires were available for data analysis. Factor analysis identified three shopping motives for patronizing discount stores: socialization, diversion and utilitarian. Four groups were identified using cluster analysis and labeled as leisurely-motivated shoppers (n ¼152, 34.1 percent), socially-motivated shoppers (n ¼ 49, 11.0 percent), utilitarian shoppers (n ¼ 132, 29.6 percent) and shopping-apathetic shoppers (n ¼ 113, 25.3 percent). The four groups significantly differ in their appraisals of patronized store in some of store attributes, repatronage intention, and money spent in a shopping trip. Typologies of each cluster, discount retailing environments and managerial implications are discussed based on findings.