Consumers react differently to price. The purpose of this study was to determine if price acts as a multidimensional cue for Korean students and to determine how this cue is related to hedonic shopping value. Some consumers view high price as a cue to their economic status; others seek out bargains and like to share this information with friends. Two product classes, clothing and durable goods, were used in this study. Price mavenism, a negative price cue, was significantly related to hedonic shopping value for both categories of goods. Value consciousness was also positively related to hedonic shopping for both groups. In the case of clothing, prestige sensitivity was positively related to sale proneness but was negatively related to hedonism. For durables, value consciousness had a positive relationship with hedonism, whereas sale proneness and price consciousness were negatively associated with hedonism.

This study examined adolescent consumer decision-making styles from the perspective of consumer socialization. Adolescent consumers (n = 1,954) from 29 high schools in a southwestern state returned usable survey questionnaires. As a result of cluster analysis and multivariate analysis of variance, three groups of consumers were identified and labeled as Value-Maximizing Recreational Shoppers, Brand-Maximizing Non-Utilitarian Shoppers, and Apathetic Shoppers. These three groups were subsequently compared as to the effects of socialization agents and social structural variables. Multivariate analysis of covariance indicated that Value-Maximizing Recreational Shoppers were most associated with interaction with parents, exposure to printed media, and consumer education. Brand-Maximizing Non-Utilitarian Shoppers were closely related to peer influence and television commercials. Apathetic Shoppers had the least amount of association with all socialization agents. Social structural variables such as gender, ethnicity, and job status were also different among all three groups. Theoretical, managerial, and educational implications are provided based on the results.

Although considerable research on brand loyalty has been conducted, few attempts have been made to integrate the results of previous studies. This study focuses on causal relationships among brand loyalty-related variables, such as consumer knowledge, product involvement, perceived risk, information search, and consumer satisfaction, in an effort to integrate results of previous studies. The purpose of this study was to propose a model of clothing brand loyalty formation considering the five brand loyalty-related variables simultaneously, and to examine gender differences in the process of clothing brand loyalty formation. Participants were 505 Korean consumers with college or graduate degrees; all were white-collar workers in their twenties and thirties living in Seoul, Korea. Data were collected using self-administered questionnaires, and a proposed model was tested by LISREL. The results indicated that consumer knowledge, product involvement, and perceived risk indirectly influence brand loyalty through the mediating variables of information search and consumer satisfaction. Information search and consumer satisfaction directly influence brand loyalty. The major gender difference was that the most influential variable in information search was perceived risk for men, whereas product involvement was the most influential variable for women.

This cross-cultural study illustrates how products selected for their basic similarities are distinguished in use by cultural context. Jeans, a product manufactured in both South Korea and the United States, were selected as the research stimuli. Subjects were regular wearers of jeans, 32 of whom were from the United States and 34 from Korea. All were females between the ages of 18 and 24, and students at one of two large metropolitan universities in their respective countries. Participants responded to four brands of jeans similar in appearance: two were U.S. brands (Levi's and Gap) and two were Korean brands (GV2 and Bang Bang). Subjects' perceptions of the products were explored for similarities and differences in criteria for wear and purchase of jeans. Country of manufacture mattered less than country of origin, appearance and other factors related to use in a cultural context. For both groups, color, fit, tactile qualities and price also were important criteria in wearing and purchasing jeans. Though respondents used similar criteria in this cross-cultural comparison, differences in weighting of those criteria yielded significantly different results.

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