Korea’s Institute for Basic Science (IBS), the first research institute dedicated to basic science in Korea, started ten years ago as part of a science policy called the Science…
Abstract
Purpose
Korea’s Institute for Basic Science (IBS), the first research institute dedicated to basic science in Korea, started ten years ago as part of a science policy called the Science Belt. It is noteworthy that Korea, with a short history of basic science, established such a research institute exclusively for basic science within a short period of time and made it one of the representative institutions of basic science in Korea. This paper aims to uncover the impetuses and constraints surrounding the policy of Science Belt, centering on the IBS.
Design/methodology/approach
Kingdon’s stream theory is used to clarify the factors that acted as impetuses or constraints for the Science Belt. For the analysis, in-depth interviews with the active policy participants were conducted in addition to the thorough literature review. The interviews enabled an in-depth understanding of the underlying factors for the Science Belt and the actual procedures of the policy decision.
Findings
This study found that the most powerful impetus in the Science Belt policymaking process was the President and a small group composed of a few scientists who played a leading role in the political stream. The constraint of the Science Belt was that the participation of scientist experts and governmental officials, the so-called invisible participants of Kingdon, was insignificant. In particular, there was no system in place to select policy alternatives for basic science through discussion between scientists and governmental officials.
Research limitations/implications
The temporal scope of this study was limited to policy formation, that is, until the establishment of IBS. Therefore, future studies shall conduct a research on the implementation of the actual policy, IBS’s achievements and IBS’s impact of Korea’s basic science community.
Originality/value
This study applied both a theoretical framework and in-depth interviews along with the literature overview to understand a policymaking process from various angles.
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This paper aims to examine the impact of hotel discount strategies on consumers’ emotional and behavioral responses in the presence of differential levels of involvement in…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the impact of hotel discount strategies on consumers’ emotional and behavioral responses in the presence of differential levels of involvement in discount acquisition.
Design/methodology/approach
Discount strategies and the high- and low-involvement variables were fully cross-examined, yielding a 2 × 2 factorial quasi experimental design. In all, 120 surveys were collected, and multivariate analysis of variance was used for data analysis.
Findings
The results suggest that fenced discounts that require consumers to accept restrictions to receive a discount generated more positive emotion and stronger behavioral intention. Moreover, an interaction effect was found between consumer’s involvement and discounts on emotional and behavioral responses toward discount-acquiring experience. Highly involved consumers resulted in more positive emotional and stronger behavioral responses (e.g. pride, gratitude, word-of-mouth and retention) from obtaining a fenced discount that requires consumers’ efforts or sacrifices. On contrary, consumers with low involvement tend to appreciate more of a fixed discount given to anyone without restrictions.
Practical implications
Hotels should implement a fenced discount when they design discounts targeting at high-involvement consumers. For low-involvement consumers, a fixed discount appears to generate more positive emotion and stronger behavioral intention.
Originality/value
The study enhances the theoretical understanding of consumers’ emotional and behavioral responses toward discount-acquiring experience with different levels of involvement.
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Seunghyun Brian Park and Kwangsoo Park
The purpose of this study is to develop research theme categories, investigate thematic trends between 1998 and 2013 and present changes in event management research topics.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to develop research theme categories, investigate thematic trends between 1998 and 2013 and present changes in event management research topics.
Design/methodology/approach
The coding instrument was developed for thematic analysis of 592 articles in four event management research journals and 106 event management articles in top-tier hospitality and tourism management (H&T) journals. Various intercoder reliability indices were calculated to ensure credibility of content analysis.
Findings
Major domains of research themes were identified across different periods and journals. Themes differed not only between the event management-focused journals and the hospitality and tourism (H&T) journals but also in different periods (1998-2003, 2004-2008 and 2009-2013).
Originality/value
First, this study analyzed all articles published in journals focusing on event management as well as event management research published in the H&T journals. Second, this paper improved the credibility of thematic analysis by developing a coding instrument of research themes and by reporting intercoder reliability. Third, this research captured changes in popularity of research themes of different periods and distinct research realms (event management journals versus H&T journals).
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Seunghyun Brian Park, Jichul Jang and Chihyung Michael Ok
The purpose of this paper is to use Twitter analysis to explore diner perceptions of four types of Asian restaurants (Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Thai).
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to use Twitter analysis to explore diner perceptions of four types of Asian restaurants (Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Thai).
Design/methodology/approach
Using 86,015 tweets referring to Asian restaurants, this research used text mining and sentiment analysis to find meaningful patterns, popular words and emotional states in opinions.
Findings
Twitter users held mingled perceptions of different types of Asian restaurants. Sentiment analysis and ANOVA showed that the average sentiment scores for Chinese restaurants was significantly lower than the other three Asian restaurants. While most positive tweets referred to food quality, many negative tweets suggested problems associated with service quality or food culture.
Research limitations/implications
This research provides a methodology that future researchers can use in applying social media analytics to explore major issues and extract sentiment information from text messages.
Originality/value
Limited research has been conducted applying social media analysis in hospitality research. This study fills a gap by using social media analytics with Twitter data to examine the Twitter users’ thoughts and emotions for four different types of Asian restaurants.
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Seobgyu Song, Seunghyun “Brian” Park and Kwangsoo Park
This study assessed the effect of photo themes to facilitate social media user engagement in Facebook brand pages and emphasized the important role of designing images for…
Abstract
Purpose
This study assessed the effect of photo themes to facilitate social media user engagement in Facebook brand pages and emphasized the important role of designing images for developing destination marketing strategies.
Design/methodology/approach
This study analyzed 8,900 posts that were published by official tourism destination marketers for each destination (Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea). Text mining analysis, image thematic coding analysis and two-way ANOVA were applied to examine the significant differences across proposed determinants for the following engagements: the numbers of likes, comments and shares.
Findings
The results indicated that photographs on social media of three tourism destinations can be explored based on 11 categories of image themes. The themes' significant and distinct effects on three indicators of social media engagement were verified.
Originality/value
This research presented methodological insights by integrating thematic and statistical analyses with social media analytics. The findings of this study provided theoretical evidence of the importance of image themes in the context of social media engagement marketing. Based on the implications of this study, practitioners would enhance the effectiveness of social media marketing.
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Jihye Park, Min Zhang, Seunghyun Yoo and Hannah Gloria Kwon
This study investigates the effects of vertical direction and rotation of English loan brand names in East Asian languages (Chinese and Korean) on processing fluency, perceived…
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates the effects of vertical direction and rotation of English loan brand names in East Asian languages (Chinese and Korean) on processing fluency, perceived product quality and purchase intention.
Design/methodology/approach
Four experiments were conducted in China and Korea, employing a 2 (vertical direction: downward vs upward) X 3 (rotation: 0°/marquee vs 90° clockwise vs 90° counterclockwise) between-subjects factorial design.
Findings
The findings showed that when the English loan Chinese brand name was displayed downward, the marquee format was preferred, while counterclockwise rotation was favored when displayed upward. In Korean, clockwise rotation was preferred for downward presentation, while counterclockwise rotation was favored for upward presentation. The effects on purchase intention were mediated by processing fluency and perceived product quality.
Practical implications
This research provides practical implications for global manufacturers and retailers, offering guidance on presenting brand names in East Asian languages and optimizing product packaging designs. For Chinese consumers, the marquee format is recommended for downward-oriented brand names, while counterclockwise rotation is effective for upward orientation. For Korean consumers, clockwise rotation is favored for downward presentation and counterclockwise rotation is preferred for upward presentation. Understanding linguistic habits allows the tailoring of brand presentations, enhancing brand perception and consumer responses.
Originality/value
This study contributes to understanding the role of cultural and linguistic influences on consumer information processing and product perception in vertical presentations of brand names.
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This article aims to provide a critical review of the articles included in this special issue and highlight their findings and contribution to events, festivals and destination…
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to provide a critical review of the articles included in this special issue and highlight their findings and contribution to events, festivals and destination management research.
Design/methodology/approach
The article critically reviews methodologies, findings, themes and conclusions offered by each article included in this special issue.
Findings
The articles in the special issue identify the latest thematic trends in events, festivals and destination management research and propose conceptual frameworks for event and festival life cycle trajectories. They build on previous research confirming how accessible tourism and a balanced event portfolio can increase the sustainability and competitiveness of the destination. Based on sound methodologies, they offer specific theoretical and practical implication for the successful planning, marketing and management of events, festivals and destinations. They provide suggestions on how event innovation, participatory sport events, mega sport events, food and wine festivals and meetings, incentives, conferences and events (MICE) can assist in the marketing and branding of the tourism destination.
Research limitations/implications
The articles in this special issue lay the foundation for future research in events, festivals and destination management. Articles in this special issue apply various research methods and analysis, indicating the growth of event and festival research. Research methods and analysis techniques used in the special issue include content/theme analysis, case studies, qualitative studies and questionnaires. The research articles and methodologies used in this issue should help both researchers and industry practitioners.
Originality/value
This study highlights key findings, theoretical and practical implications and contributions of the articles included in this special issue. It provides a holistic view of events, festivals and destination management research and suggests areas for future research.
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Negar Ashrafpour, Hakimeh Niky Esfahlan, Samad Aali and Houshang Taghizadeh
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the prerequisites of customer online experience and its outcomes in banks. Brand congruity is an important mediating variable in these…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the prerequisites of customer online experience and its outcomes in banks. Brand congruity is an important mediating variable in these connections.
Design/methodology/approach
A quantitative approach is used to test the model based on the literature review. The subjects are online customers of an Iranian bank, Bank Mellat, in East Azerbaijan Province, which is famous for its e-banking. Data analysis was conducted using structural equation modeling.
Findings
The results suggested that the prerequisites of customer experience affected customer experience, which was, in turn, divided into two components (affective experience and functional experience). Besides, brand congruity played a moderating role in the relationship between prerequisites and consequences.
Research limitations/implications
In the model, brand congruity was the only moderating variable and other moderating variables were excluded. Further, test results were related to a specific brand.
Practical implications
This paper explores how the behaviors of customers could be improved in the online context by concentrating on determinants of customer online experience. The paper offers implications for the improvement of customer online experience in service marketing, especially in banking.
Originality/value
This is the first study in Iran to use brand congruity as a way of surveying the perquisites and outcomes of online experience in banking. The findings expand the importance of brand congruity in online experience to the entire banking sector.