Korean Websites Research Articles

Influence of cultural dimensions on online interactive review feature implementations: A comparison of Korean and U.S. retail web sites

This study examines the nature of online consumer-generated communications, focusing especially on consumer reviews of leading retail Web sites in South Korea and the U.S. The current investigation adopts a two-pronged approach that utilizes both the user control concept and a cross-cultural perspective. The active implementations of consumer review features in Korean Web sites found in this study indicate that people in high power distance countries can adopt information technology rapidly to facilitate horizontal communication. As a result, we were able to support and expand the traditional view looking at the differences between Northeast Asian business culture and Western business culture.

Cultural differences between Korean and American apparel web sites

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine whether cultural differences could explain differences between Korean and American apparel web sites.Design/methodology/approachThe contents of American and Korean apparel web sites are compared. The chi‐square test of independence is used to determine significant differences between the contents of the two countries apparel web sites.FindingsThe paper finds that American web sites provide specific information related to products and online purchase of products, while Korean web sites provide information related to consumers' relationships to the larger community. This difference could be due to cultural differences: the Korean culture tends to reflect collectivism while the American culture tends to reflect individualism.Research limitations/implicationsThe fundamental limitation of this research is that it is descriptive.Practical implicationsThis research suggests that transcultural web sites may not be appropriate and that e‐tailers need to be sensitive to cultural differences.Originality/valueThe primary contribution of this paper is the identification of clear differences between Korean and American apparel web sites and that Hofstede's collectivism/individualism cultural value is a possible explanation of the difference between the two countries.

Online visual merchandising (VMD) of apparel web sites

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to examine visual merchandising (VMD) elements of apparel retail web sites, to describe the state of apparel online VMD and to develop a taxonomy of online VMD cues whose effects can be studied empirically.Design/methodology/approachA total of 50 US and 50 Korean web sites were content analyzed in terms of environment, manner of presentation, and path finding.FindingsResults of the study revealed that many VMD features of offline stores have been implemented online. In addition, some VMD features of online apparel stores do not have a direct offline parallel. The taxonomy of VMD cues can be used by researchers to systematically study the effects of the cues following the SOR Model.Research limitations/implicationsBecause of the descriptive nature of the study important discussions about possible effects of various VMD elements on consumer behaviors cannot be addressed. Future research needs to investigate the effects of different VMD features introduced in the study on diverse consumer behaviors.Practical implicationsUsing the VMD categories developed and coded in the study, online apparel retailers may be able to gain knowledge about online VMD features they can use to create desirable effects simulating those of in‐store VMD.Originality/valueIn spite of the strategic importance of VMD in online apparel stores, specific online VMD features that may influence consumer attitudes and behaviors have not been identified. Findings provide a comprehensive list of online VMD elements available from apparel web sites that are comparable to traditional offline VMD.

국내 건강정보 웹사이트의 신뢰성과 만족도 현황 분석

We analyzed 18 representative Korean health information related web-sites for assessing confidence and satisfaction. The 18 representative web-sites are selected by rank information of a ranking web-site for Korean web-sites. In order to analyze confidence and satisfaction degrees on the 18 web-sites, we used 19 assessment criteria and 5 important elements of our former research paper. In the results, we found out the present states of confidence and satisfaction degrees of Korean health information web-sites and we presented methods for utilizing these results for web-site administrators and health consumers.

Participative Deliberation and Policy Proposals on Government Websites in Korea: Analysis From a Habermasian Public Deliberation Model

This paper investigates whether eParticipation projects in Korean government websites lead to meaningful participation in terms of the level of deliberative quality and influence on the government policy-making processes, as compared to Habermasian ideas of the TCA/ISS (Theory of Communicative Action/ Ideal Speech Situation) and Communicative Power (CP). For this study, two eParticipation programmes from the Kukmin Chamyao Madang (KCM: Citizen Participatory Space) are chosen to investigate the internal process of eParticipation practices with regards to the deliberative quality and the impact on actual policy-making. The conclusion examines whether the internal process and nature of eParticipation complies with the Habermasian public deliberation model.

Assessing the Quality of Internet Health Information Using DISCERN

OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to evaluate the quality of health information on the internet using DISCERN. METHODS: Breast cancer, asthma, depression, obesity were selected to be the tracer conditions of the health information. To collect information about these 4 tracer conditions, we first select top 9 popular Korean websites which provide health information in January 2004. Nine websites include 6 commercial, 3 hospital. To compare quality of internet health information provided by Korean public institute and other countries', we select Healthguide in Korea, MEDLINEplus in USA and NHS direct online in UK. Overall, a total of 45 heath information provided by 10 Korean, 2 other countries' websites were evaluated by two nurses independently using DISCERN. DISCERN is a heath information quality assessment instrument consists of sixteen five-point- scale item questionnaire. The score was compared between Korean commercial and hospital websites and between Korean public institute's website and those of USA and UK. RESULTS: Korean internet health information scored 2.0 for overall quality score. Internet health information of commercial websites scored 1.8 for overall quality score that was lower than hospital websites(2.4). Internet health information provided by Korean public institute scored 3.0 compared 3.3(MEDLINEplus) and 3.8(NHS direct online). CONCLUSION: Internet health information in Korea hardly meets DISCERN standard that means Korean health information have a problem in quality. Especially, Internet health information of commercial websites needs relatively urgent improvement in quality.

웹 로봇 구현 및 한국 웹 통계보고

A web robot is a program that downloads and stores web pages. Implementation issues for developing web robots have been studied widely and various web statistics are reported in the literature. First, this paper describes the overall architecture of our robot and implementation decisions on several important issues. Second, we show empirical statistics on approximately 74 million Korean web pages. Third, we monitored 1,424 Korean web sites to observe the changes of web pages. We identify what factors of web pages could affect the changes. The factors may be used for the selection of web pages to be updated incrementally.

Korean and American Companies in Cyberspace

This study compares public relations models reflected in the Web sites of Korea’s 100 largest companies and 100 randomly selected Fortune 500 companies. The literature suggests that Korean public relations practices and models are more craft oriented, while those of U.S. companies may be more professionally oriented. However, this study of Web site menu items (information, function, activity) found few differences, and many similarities, between public relations models reflected in the Web sites of both groups of companies. Korean Web sites were more interactive and used multimedia approaches far more often than American Web sites, suggesting that new technologies may be spurring development of professional public relations practices in Korea.

Web banner ads in online newspapers: a cross-national comparison of India and Korea

A cross-national content analysis was performed on 449 web banner ads taken from the online editions of leading Indian and Korean daily newspapers. There are substantial differences between Indian and Korean ads in terms of the types of products advertised, the presence of price cues and the types of appeals used. Korean newspaper websites are starting to attract a diverse mix of advertisers, while Indian newspaper websites attract ads targeted mainly towards expatriate non-resident Indians. The observed differences between the two countries are probably attributable more to differences in internet diffusion rather than to cultural differences.

Interorganizational Hyperlink Networks among Websites in South Korea

This paper examines the interorganizational networks of websites. The interorganizational network is defined by the shared hyperlinks among the organizations’ websites. Individual websites network with others for the purpose of strengthening their credibility (trustworthiness, expertise, and safety) on the web. This paper examines the association among hyperlink network structures and the number of visitors and the perceptions of the website’s credibility. These relations are examined with a sample composed of the 50 most frequently visited Korean websites obtained from the Internet Metrix for June 2001. The results indicate that a site’s centrality in the hyperlink network is significantly related to insiting behavior and perceived website credibility.

Korean Websites

Korean Websites