Yong-Min Kim, Anel A.

Kireyeva, Myoung-Kil Youn / Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business 5-1 (2014) 27-37 27

Print ISSN: 2233-4165 / Online ISSN: 2233-5382

doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13106/jidb.2014.vol5.no1.27.

Effects of SNS Characteristics upon Consumers’ Awareness,

Purchase Intention, and Recommendation
4)

Yong-Min Kim*, Anel A. Kireyeva**, Myoung-Kil Youn***

Received: October 09, 2013. Revised: December 29, 2013. Accepted: March 17, 2014.

1. Purposes and Needs

Abstract
SNS, that is to say, social network service, produces and
Purpose - This study analyzed the characteristics of social strengthens relations with friends and/or seniors and juniors to
networking sites (SNSs) using related literatures, and researched communicate and share information. SNS - interactive multiuser
the models discussed in precedent studies, to investigate the ef- web site, the content of which is filled by participants of a
fects of SNS characteristics upon consumers’awareness, pur- network. SNS is an automated social environment, which enable
chase intention, and recommendation. The purpose of the study to communicate with a group of users with a common interest.
was to investigate the use of SNSs as a marketing tool. These include thematic forums, which is actively developing
Design, methodology, and approach - For an empirical analy- lately. All users can share personal information with friends, pro-
sis, the author distributed questionnaires online and offline, to fessional background and interests with colleagues, or potential
verify the models and hypotheses. Respondents were persons partners for cooperation. SNS includes Facebook, Linked In and
aged 17 or older, who were frequent users of SNSs. The ques- My Space to start it by Cyworld in the nation.
tionnaire survey was conducted for 11 days from September 30, eMarketer, a market research agent, said that as many as
2013 to October 10, 2013. The author distributed 450 copies 1.2 billion persons made use of SNS one time or more a
and received 430 responses. Finally, 412 copies were used for month every month as of December 2011 to be likely to con-
the analysis after excluding 18 copies having poor answers. tinue by 2014. In other words, 2.2 billion persons that was
Results – The findings about SNS users' behavior could be 31.4% of 7 billion persons in the world made use of Internet,
used as material in the future use of SNS as a marketing tool. and 2.2 billion persons who were 54.5% of Internet users made
Further, the study provided not only theories about SNS charac- use of SNS (eMarketer, 2012).
teristics, but also variables and items that were verified during Enterprises made use of SNS to do marketing owing to rapid
the empirical study. increase of SNS users. As a result, enterprises could save time
Conclusions – Further studies are needed to overcome the and costs to elevate familiarity and reliability by better communi-
limitations and to establish various kinds of SNS marketing cation with consumers and to keep long term relations. SNS
strategies in detail. supplied information by mutual reaction to give feedback to cus-
tomer reaction and to do marketing effectively. Effective use of
Keywords : Effects of Characteristics, Social Network, SNS, SNS was thought to be important to establish marketing strat-
Consumers’ awareness, Purchase Intention. egies of individuals and/or businesses that made use of SNS as
marketing tool: This study examined effects of characteristics of
JEL Classifications : L14, L39, O32. SNS.
For purposes of this study we focus on the use of SNS.
However, it should be noted that the use of SNS is becoming
increasingly complex communicative practice inseparably con-
nected with the diversification of media practice. Research in
this area tends to refer to a new sphere of innovative discov-
* First Author, College of Health Industry, Eulji University, Korea. Tel: eries of the 21st century. There are, however, substantial evi-
+82-10-3151-1006. E-mail: [email protected]. dence of the benefits associated with the use SNS, which is of-
** Institute of Economics of the Ministry Education and Science of RK, ten ignored in the public debate. In this article summarizes the
Kurmangazy 29, 050010 Almaty, Kazakhstan. Tel: +7-701-690-0466. available evidence relating to the beneficial effects of SNS in
E-mail: [email protected]. the context of consumers’ awareness that had influence upon
*** Corresponding Author, Professor, College of Health Industry, Eulji purchase intention and recommendation.
University, Korea. Tel: +82-10-2263-7292. E-mail: [email protected].
28 Yong-Min Kim, Anel A. Kireyeva, Myoung-Kil Youn / Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business 5-1 (2014) 27-37

This study is quite unique in that found out characteristics of has easy interlocking with external networks to give users con-
SNS by using SNS related literatures, and researched models of venience and to have very good expansion. Classmates.com,
precedent studies, and investigated effects of characteristics of the first SNS, launched service in 1995. The online site built up
SNS upon consumers’ awareness, purchase intention and online network by using a list of friends. So, consumer SNS are
recommendation. The purpose of the study was to investigate social networking websites, which are open to the public. In
use of marketing tool of SNS. South Korea, in 2001, 'Cyworld' started to expand SNS market
The purposes of the study were: (Lee, 2013). In Kazakhstan social networks came later, in 2007
First, the study kept SNS concept and characteristics and us- with the advent of ‘Kiwi’, ‘Yvision’ and ‘Jnet’.
age state of SNS users in order by using literature, Internet and It should be noted that organizations, which learn and adapt
other media. of SNS will have a distinct advantage in the market and ulti-
Second, the study investigated effects of variables of charac- mately increase their productivity (Caloisi, 2008). Since 2007,
teristics of SNS upon consumers’ awareness. number of SNS users rapidly increased as much as 174% (Lee,
Third, the study investigated effects of characteristics of SNS 2013). Internet users got access to SNS site one minute per 5
upon consumers’ awareness that had influence upon purchase minutes. One third of SNS users in the world lived in Asia an
intention and recommendation. Pacific rim. And, in Latin America, one of Internet user spent
Lastly, the study verified effects of characteristics of SNS to 7.6 hours on average to get access to SNS. Facebook took the
find out factors and to give implications for marketing strategies lead in social network service business, followed by Twitter and
and effective use of SNS. Google Plus. In January 2013, Global Web Index said that
The rest of the manuscript is organized as follows. In Section Google Plus had the largest number of users based on active
2, the concept of SNS and concept and precedent studies of usage, followed by Twitter, YouTube and Twitter in order.
the variables are described. Section 3 presents a methodology, Facebook had the largest number of users of 670 million users
in particular recommend models and hypotheses, and Section 4 as of last day of December 2012 based on active usage, fol-
describes the details of the experiment and evaluations. Finally, lowed by 340 million users of Google Plus and 280 million
Section 5 concluding part. users of YouTube (Forbes, 2013, January).

2.1.2. Use of SNS

2. Theoretical Background 2012 Korea Media Panel Survey, a survey on nationwide me-
dia panels, was done to investigate 4,432 households and
2.1. Concept and Use of SNS 10,319 persons by questionnaires of household, individuals and
media diary (Shin, 2013): 23.5% of the interviewees said use of
SNS, and in particular, SNS usage in their twenties accounted
2.1.1. Concept of SNS (Social Network Service)
for 61% to be much higher than that of other age groups.
In recent years, enterprises are increasingly aware that staff The questionnaire was consisted of two sections. The first
is a real storage of knowledge and that the real knowledge section consisted of questions capturing the social network sites
management is supporting communications and establishment of and online shopping mall using information, such as "How many
contacts between the employees. This is especially emphasized times you visit the online shopping mall in the day?", "What
the Richter and Koch (2008), emphasizing that people are a kind of social network services are you mainly using?" and
kind of platform data and that the development of social net- other. The second section consisted of nationwide media pan-
works can increase the production and speed up the dissem- els’service introduction scenario and in this section we made a
ination of innovation. In its part Davenport and Prusak (1998) point scale (from 1 to 5).
indicated that the high potential network interaction employees SNS utilization rate varied depending upon gender and age:
to increase productivity and accelerate innovation in enterprises.
SNS used for various purposes, of which the most obvious is <Table 1> SNS Utilization Rate (Unit: %)
the network. This can be a network not only in personal con- Use of SNS No use of SNS
text, but in a professional context. Therefore there is an in- Men 23.4 76.6
creased prevalence of SNS with large amounts of information Gender
Women 23.6 76.4
and data available to the consumer. There are different forms of
Younger than teenage 1.3 98.7
SNS which "allow individuals to present themselves, articulate
Teenagers 35.3 64.7
their social networks, and establish or maintain connections with
In their twenties 61 39
others"(Ellison et al., 2007). Ages
SNS, social network service, is said to be online service, In their thirties 35.5 64.5

platform and site that have mutual network and sharing between In their forties 16.9 83.1

the ones who share interests and activities to do social net- In their fifties or higher 2.6 97.4
working (Seol, 2011). SNS that allows users to share contents Source: Shin (2013)
 Yong-Min Kim, Anel A. Kireyeva, Myoung-Kil Youn / Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business 5-1 (2014) 27-37 29

Utilization rate of SNS varied a little depending upon ages, 2.2.3. Enjoyment
and the ones in their teens, thirties and forties often made use
Compensation, motivation and pleasure were needed to make
of Kakao Story, and the ones in their twenties did Facebook
use of SNS effectively and to develop community. Good quality
(Shin, 2013).
information and contents and easy retrieval are important, and
pleasure, happiness and other enjoyment factors shall be ac-
<Table 2> Utilization Rate of SNS depending upon ages (Unit: %)
tively supplied (Lee, 2012). SNS has characteristics of pleasure,
Ranking Teens 20s 30s 40s
interaction and relations (Pfeil et. al., 2009), and consumers
Kakao Story Facebook Kakao Story Kakao Story
1 have interests and pleasure at exchange of messages in the
(33) (38.9) (41.4) (39.6)
use of services (Lee et al., 2012).
Cyworld Mini
Facebook Twitter Facebook Consumers can experience pleasure, practice and values in
2 Homepage
(23.9) (22) (23.2) the use of SNS at the same time (Jones et. al (2006), and
(19.1)
Cyworld Mini
self-efficacy, pleasure and learning purpose have significant in-
Kakao Story Facebook Twitter fluence upon use of the system at the study on forecast of web
3 Homepage
(20.8) (18.8) (22.7)
(23) based information system (Yi & Hwang, 2003). The enjoyment
Cyworld Mini Cyworld Mini was assumed to have influence upon consumers' attitudes ac-
Twitter Twitter
4 Homepage Homepage cording to precedent studies.
(13.8) (18.2)
(15.2) (9.4)
Miscellaneous Miscellaneous Miscellaneous Miscellaneous 2.2.4. Reliability
5
(6.4) (3.1) (2.6) (5.1)
The reliability is said to be a receiver's cognition on the supply
Source: Shin (2013)
of unprejudicial opinions and/or objective information with knowl-
edge, technology and experience of communication subject (Belch,
2.2. Concept and Precedent Studies of the Variables
1990). Users shall be given reliability to elevate customer loyalty
online by saying reliability on blog review information (Chu & Roh,
In each of the previous studies, and does not override varia-
2012), and reliability of the information source may have the great-
bles for this study would like to take advantage of the in-
est influence upon attitude to the product (Kim et al., 2011). High
dependent variables.
reliability was found to have great influence upon attitude at prece-
dent studies: In this study, reliability of SNS was assumed to have
2.2.1. Interaction
affirmative influence upon attitude to the product.
The interaction means actions and/or effects between two or
more persons and between two or more media (Liu & Shrum, 2.2.5. consumers’ awareness
2002). The interaction expanded concept in multi-dimension way
The consumers’ awarenessis said to be tendency that con-
to exchange and share information between sender and user
sumers take either favorable or unfavorable actions on the prod-
and to create values jointly (Kim et al., 2008). The character-
uct (Allport, 1953). The attitude can be made not by born but
istics of SNS included mutual connections (Shuo & Lee, 2012)
by an individual's experience depending upon specific object
and Yang & Kim, 2013). In this study, good interaction was as-
and/or situation. The attitude expresses internal impression that
sumed to have affirmative influence upon consumers’ awareness
reflects an individual's favorable and/or unfavorable inclination
in accordance with precedent studies.
against an object, and it cannot be watched by results of psy-
chological course to infer it by an individual's sayings and/or be-
2.2.2. Information Service
havior (Cho et al., 2012). In this study, consumers' attitude was
Consumers are allowed to share information on product and thought to be important at selection of the product.
services by SNS and to make decision easily. Consumers rely
upon the information by sharing experience (Cho et al., 2012). 2.2.6. Purchase Intention
Generally speaking, consumers who have experienced con-
The purchase intention that consumers want to buy products
sumption could accumulate information on the service and make
means an individual's intention of specific behavior at the mar-
final decision based on the information (Smith & Swinyard,
keting (Cho et al., 2012). Marketing managers make use of con-
1982). The information service is said to give users various
sumers' purchase intention to evaluate not only concept of alter-
kinds of contents at the use of SNS service (Hong, 2012), and
native products but also subject of the advertising. The pur-
information service of SNS had positive influence upon consum-
chase intention is said to be probability that makes change of
ers’ awareness. In this study, consumers’ awareness might vary
either behavior expected or future behavior planned of in-
depending upon supply of the information according to prece-
dividuals into belief and/or attitudes (Engel and Blackwell, 1982).
dent studies.
Distribution of SNS had relation with purchase intention in the
Korean society (Kim et al., 2012).
30 Yong-Min Kim, Anel A. Kireyeva, Myoung-Kil Youn / Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business 5-1 (2014) 27-37

2.2.7. Recommendation 3.1.1. Models

The recommendation informs friends, intimates and family This study investigated effects of SNS effects upon consum-
members of experience of satisfactory and/or unsatisfactory ers’ awareness, purchase intention and recommendation, and
product (Rinchins, 1983). and it gives information of product developed models.
and/or services by dialog regardless of individual's commercial Independent variables of interaction, supply of the information,
interests (Chun & Park, 2011). enjoyment and reliability were used in accordance with studies
of not only Agarwal & Venkatesh (2002) but also Mckinny et al.
(2002). Parameters included attitude to the product (Lee et al.,
3. Methodologies 2004), and dependent variables did purchase intention and rec-
ommendation (Tylor & Baker, 1994) (Fig 1).
The models based on precedent studies were (Fig 1):
3.1. Models and Hypotheses

<Figure 1> Model of Research

So, in research presents a model, which is intended to ex- characteristics of SNS attitude to the product and purchase in-
plain the role of the perceived benefits of using social network- tention by using marketing cases. In this study, independent
ing sites and integration of services. S-O-R model of consumer variables such as information-provision, enjoyment and inter-
behavior evolves from the simple return value to the final action were used to test hypotheses, and information-provision
model. Stimulus is conceptualized as an influence that causes a had the greatest influence. Hypotheses were used to inspect ef-
person. It is the factor that affects all the processes, these fac- fects of characteristics of SNS upon consumers’ awareness:
tors include all objects, namely, products, brands, logos, adver- Hypothesis 1. The characteristics of SNS has positive influ-
tisements, packages, rates, shops and storage conditions, ence upon consumers’ awareness.
word-of-mouth communication, and countless other factors 1-1. The interaction of SNS has positive influence upon con-
(Jacoby, 2002). Model studies on the basis of the S-O-R model sumers’ awareness.
(stimulus-organism-response), in the framework involves the mo- 1-2. The information-provide of SNS has positive influence
tivations of using social networking sites and integration of on- upon consumers’ awareness.
line sites impact on satisfaction and perception of the internal 1-3. The enjoyment of SNS has positive influence upon con-
conditions that intervene with the behavior of responses sumers’ awareness.
(purchase intention). 1-4. The reliability of SNS has positive influence upon con-
sumers’ awareness.
3.1.2. Hypotheses
The consumers’ awareness has affirmative influence upon
The study followed precedent study on effect on character-
product quality and values to have influence upon continuous
istics of SNS upon attitude to the product, purchase intention
selection of the product (Dodds et al., 1991).
and recommendation (Hong, 2012), and inspected effects of
 Yong-Min Kim, Anel A. Kireyeva, Myoung-Kil Youn / Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business 5-1 (2014) 27-37 31

In this study, hypotheses were used to investigate effects of 4. Statistical Analysis

consumers’ awareness upon purchase intention and recom-
mendation:
Hypothesis 2. The consumers’ awareness has positive influ- 4.1. Demographic Characteristics
ence upon purchase intention.
Hypothesis 3. The consumers’ awareness has positive influ- The interviewees had demographic characteristics (Table 4).
ence upon recommendation. Men occupied 38.3%, while women did 61.7%. The age was in
order of 20 to 24 years old (61.9%), younger than 20 years old
<Table 3> Operational Definition and Measuring Methods of Test Items (23.3%), 25 to 29 years old (13.1%) and 30 years old or higher
(1.7%). The ones who were 20 to 24 years old answered at the
Number
highest ratio because the questionnaire survey was done mainly
Variables Operational definition of scale
question at colleges. The educational background was in order of college
students (67.2%), high school students (20.4%), graduate of col-
SNS users share
leges (6.8%), graduate school students (2.7%), graduate of high
Interaction information to have 4
fellowship. school (1.7%) and miscellaneous (1.2%).
Variety of the The interviewees had occupation, for instance, students
Independe Supply of
information that SNS 4 (92.7%), company workers (4.1%), professionals (1.2%), service
nt information
users are given. workers (sales, business) (1.0%), public servants (0.5%) and
variables
Pleasure in the use
Enjoyment 5 other jobs (0.5%).
of SNS
Likert
Reliability upon SNS
Reliability 7 5-point
configuration <Table 4> Demographic Characteristics
scale
Affirmative and/or
consumers’ Variables N %
Parameters negative to the 4
awareness Men 158 38.3
product Gender
Women 254 61.7
Purchase Consumers' will to
3 Younger than 20 years old 96 23.3
intention buy
Dependen 20 to 24 years old 255 61.9
t variables Consumers' behavior Age
Recommendation 2 25 to 29 years old 54 13.1
to recommend 30 years old or higher 7 1.7
High school students 84 20.4
Graduate o f high school 7 1.7
College students 277 67.2
3.2. Material Collection and Analysis Educational
Graduate of college 28 6.8
background
Graduate school students 11 2.7
This study investigated effects of characteristics of SNS upon Graduate of graduate school 0 0
consumers’ awareness that had influence upon purchase in- Miscellaneous 5 1.2
tention and recommendation. SNS literature and empirical analy- Students 382 92.7
Company workers 17 4.1
sis were used. The study examined characteristics of SNS such
Service workers (sales, business) 4 1.0
as interaction, information-provide, enjoyment and reliability by Public servants 2 0.5
using literature and theses at home and abroad and Internet Occupation
Self-employed 0 0
material. Professional 5 1.2
At empirical analysis, the author distributed questionnaire on- Engineers & technicians 0 0
line and offline to verify models and hypotheses. The subject Miscellaneous 2 0.5

was the ones who were 17 years old or higher to be likely to

make use of SNS frequently. The questionnaire survey was
4.2. Use of SNS
done for 11 days from September 30, 2013 to October 10,
2013. The author distributed 450 copies and collected 430
copies. And, 412 copies were finally used for the analysis after This study investigated experience of each type of SNS to
excluding 18 copies having poor answers. find out use of SNS. Type of SNS was classified into
Cronbach's αand factor analysis were used. Regression anal- Communities (Daum, Naver Cafe), Blog (Daum, Naver blog),
ysis was done to investigate effects of characteristics of SNS Micromedia(Twitter, me2day), Social Networks (Facebook,
upon consumers’ awareness, and regression analysis was done Cyworld and Kakao Story) and Video(YouTube).
to investigate effects of characteristics of SNS upon purchase The interviewees experienced social networks (Facebook,
intention and recommendation. SPSS 18.0 was used. Cyworld and Kakao Story) the most (394 persons, 95.6%), fol-
lowed by communities (Daum, Naver Cafe) (322 persons,
80.6%), video (YouTube) (293 persons, 71.1%), blog (Daum,
Naver blog) (287 persons, 69.7%) and micromedia (twitter,
32 Yong-Min Kim, Anel A. Kireyeva, Myoung-Kil Youn / Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business 5-1 (2014) 27-37

me2day) (147 persons, 35.7%) in order. <Table 7> Use of SNS a day N(%)
Use of SNS was (Table 5): Gender Age
Description Wome total
Men <20 20~24 25~29 >30
<Table 5> Use of SNS N(%) n
Gender Age less than 53 59 8 73 28 3 112
Description Wo Total 1 hour (12.9) (14.3) (1.9) (17.7) (6.8) (0.7) (27.2)
Men <20 20~24 25~29 >30
men 1~less than 45 59 18 66 17 3 104
108 224 72 212 41 7 322 2 hour (10.9) (14.3) (4.4) (16.0) (4.1) (0.7) (25.2)
Yes
Commun (26.2) (54.4) (17.5) (51.5) (10.0) (1.7) (80.6) 2~less than 31 63 31 60 2 1 94
ities 50 30 24 43 13 80 Use a 3 hours (7.5) (15.3) (7.5) (14.6) (0.5) (0.2) (22.8)
No 0
(12.1) (7.3) (5.8) (10.4) (3.2) (19.4) day 3~less than 12 38 18 28 4 50
0
97 190 64 178 38 7 287 4 hours (2.9) (9.2) (4.4) (6.8) (1.0) (12.1)
Yes
(23.5) (46.1) (15.5) (43.2) (9.2) (1.7) (69.7) 4hours of 17 35 21 28 3 52
Blog 0
61 64 32 77 16 125 more (14.1) (8.5) (5.1) (6.8) (0.7) (12.6)
No 0
(14.8) (15.5) (7.8) (18.7) (3.9) (30.3) 412
x²(p-value) 11.083(.026) 57.168(.000)
50 97 44 77 21 5 147 (100.0)
Use Yes
Microme (12.1) (23.5) (10.7) (18.7) (5.1) (1.2) (35.7)
of
dia 108 157 52 178 33 2 265
SNS No
(26.2) (38.1) (12.6) (43.2) (8.0) (0.5) (64.3) The interviewees made use of smart phone the most
144 250 94 242 51 7 394 (91.3%), and SNS media were not independent at the gender
Yes
Social (35.0) (60.7) (22.8) (58.7) (12.4) (1.7) (95.6) (P<.05).
Networks 14 4 2 13 3 18
No 0 See Table 8 of SNS media.
(3.4) (1.0) (0.5) (3.2) (0.7) (4.4)
97 196 66 188 34 5 293
Yes <Table 8> SNS media N(%)
(23.5) (47.6) (16.0) (45.6) (8.3) (1.2) (71.1)
Video
61 58 30 67 20 2 119 Gender Age
No Description Total
(14.8) (14.1) (7.3) (16.3) (4.9) (0.5) (28.9)
Men Women <20 20~24 25~29 >30

Smart 135 241 92 229 48 7 376

The interviewees preferred social networks (Facebook, phone (32.8) (58.5) (22.3) (55.6) (11.7) (1.7) (91.3)
Cyworld, Kakao story) the most. The ones who were 20 to 24 7 5 11 1 12
Laptop 0 0
(1.7) (1.2) (2.7) (0.2) (2.9)
years old had significant difference (P<.05).
3 4 2 5 7
See Table 6. Tablet PC 0 0
SNS (0.7) (1.0) (0.5) (1.2) (1.7)
media 11 4 2 9 4 15
<Table 6> Type of SNS preferred N(%) PC 0
(2.7) (1.0) (0.5) (2.2) (1.0) (3.6)
Gender Age Miscellaneo 2 1 1 2
0 0 0
Description Wo Total us (0.5) (0.2) (0.2) (0.5)
Men <20 20~24 25~29 >30
men 412
x²(p-value) 14.018(.007) 12.151(.434)
15 19 4 19 11 34 (100.0)
Communities 0
(3.6) (4.6) (0.1) (4.6) (2.7) (8.3)
7 20 4 19 2 2 27
Blog
(1.7) (4.9) (1.0) (4.6) (0.5) (0.5) (6.6) Purposes of useof SNS were: The interviewees made use of
3 8 3 7 1 11 SNS for leisure and hobby (29.6%), followed by communication
Micromedia 0
(0.7) (1.9) (0.7) (1.7) (0.2) (2.7) (27.2%), learning of information and knowledge (19.2%), self-ex-
SNS Social 122 185 76 190 37 4 307 pression (11.9%), and human relation management (8.5%) in
preferred Networks (29.6) (44.9) (18.4) (46.1) (9.0) (1.0) (74.5)
order.
7 12 4 14 1 19
Video 0 Men made use of SNS for leisure and hobby (11.2%), while
(1.7) (2.9) (1.0) (3.4) (0.2) (4.6)
Miscellaneo 4 10 5 6 2 1 14 women did for communication (19.2%) (P<.05). The ones less
us (1.0) (2.4) (1.2) (1.5) (0.5) (0.2) (3.4) than 20 years old made use of SNS for communication (8.0%),
412 and the ones who were 20 to 24 years old did for leisure and
x²(p-value) 3.647(.601) 26.432(.034)
(100.0) hobby (18.4%), and the ones who were 25 to 29 years old did
for self-expression (3.4%) and the ones who were 30 years old
or more did for learning of information and/knowledge (0.7%),
The interviewees often made use of SNS less than one hour
and purposes of the use were not independent depending upon
a day. Men often made use of SNS less than one hour a day,
ages (P<.05).
and women did 2 to 3 hours a day.
Purposes of use of SNS were (table 9):
See Table 7 of use of SNS a day:
 Yong-Min Kim, Anel A. Kireyeva, Myoung-Kil Youn / Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business 5-1 (2014) 27-37 33

<Table 9> Purposes of Use of SNS N(%) The interviewees (62.1%) said that they experienced buying
Gender Age of an event of SNS, for instance, food (46.9%) to be the high-
Description Wo Total est, followed by fashion accessories and general goods (26.6%),
Men <20 20~24 25~29 >30
men mobile phone (9.8%), household items (4.3%), miscellaneous
Human goods (4.3%), game (3.1%) and home appliances (2.7%) in
20 15 4 23 8 35
relations 0 order.
(4.9) (3.6) (1.0) (5.6) (1.9) (8.5)
management
Kinds of buying varied depending upon ages: So, the ones
Self-expressi 21 28 10 25 14 49
0 who were less than 20 years old bought food (20.7%) the most,
on space (5.1) (6.8) (2.4) (6.1) (3.4) (11.9)
Communicat 33 79 33 74 3 2 112 and not only the ones who were 20 to 24 years old but also
ion (8.0) (19.2) (8.0) (18.0) (0.7) (0.5) (27.2) the ones who were 25 to 29 years old did fashion accessories
Leisure & 46 76 31 76 13 2 122 (22.7%) and general merchandise (3.1%), and the ones who
hobby (11.2) (18.4) (7.5) (18.4) (3.2) (0.5) (29.6) were 30 years old or more did mobile phone (0.8%).
Purposes
of use Learning of
Buying experience and kinds on SNS were (table 11):
information 30 49 14 50 12 3 79
and (7.3) (11.9) (3.4) (12.1) (2.9) (0.7) (19.2) <Table 11> Buying Experience and Kinds on SNS N(%)
knowledge
Gender Age
Economic 2 2 2 Description Wo Total
0 0 0 0 Men <20 20~24 25~29 >30
activities (0.5) (0.5) (0.5) men
Miscellaneo 8 5 4 5 4 13 59 161 72 148 31 5 256
0 Buying Yes
us (1.9) (1.2) (1.0) (1.2) (1.0) (3.2) (23.1) (39.1) (17.5) (35.9) (7.5) (1.2) (62.1)
Burying experie
412 63 93 24 107 23 2 156
x²(p-value) 13.616(.034) 37.856(.004) experien nce No
(100.0) (15.3) (22.6) (5.8) (26.0) (5.6) (0.5) (37.9)
ce
412
x²(p-value) 0.440(.507) 9.342(.025)
(100.0)
47 73 53 53 13 1 120
62.6% of the interviewees participated in an event of SNS in Food
(18.4) (28.5) (20.7) (20.7) (5.1) (0.4) (46.9)
order of free gift (38.8%), joint purchase (32.2%), discount cou- Fashion
pon (21.3%) and miscellaneous (5.4%). accessories
20 48 1 58 8 1 68
& general
The interviewees participated in an event by ages: joint pur- (7.8) (18.8) (0.4) (22.7) (3.1) (0.4) (26.6)
merchandis
chase of the ones who were less than 20 years old (16.7%), e
free gift of the ones who 20 to 24 years old (31.4%), and joint Mobile 10 15 8 10 5 2 25
phone (3.9) (5.9) (3.1) (3.9) (2.0) (0.8) (9.8)
purchase of the ones who were 25 to 29 years old (5.0%), and Kinds of
Game 5 3 1 7 8
joint purchase of the ones who were more than 30 years old buying 0 0
product (2.0) (1.2) (0.4) (2.7) (3.1)
(1.2%). Home 3 4 1 2 4 7
0
Purposes of use of SNS were (table 10); appliance (1.2) (1.6) (0.4) (0.8) (1.6) (2.7)
Household 5 12 4 11 1 1 17
items (2.0) (4.7) (1.6) (4.3) (0.4) (0.4) (4.3)
<Table 10> SNS Event Experience and Kinds N(%) Miscellaneo 5 6 4 7 11
0 0
Gender Age us (2.0) (2.3) (1.6) (2.7) (4.3)
Description Wom Total 256
Men <20 20~24 25~29 >30 x²(p-value) 5.102(.531) 69.839(.000)
en (100.0)
87 171 65 160 27 6 258
Event Yes (21.1) (41.5) (15.8) (38.8) (6.6) (1.5) (62.6)
Event experien
experien ce No
71 83 31 95 27 1 154 4.3. Validity and Reliability of Test Tools
(17.2) (20.1) (7.5) (23.1) (6.6) (0.2) (37.4)
ce
412
x²(p-value) 6.255(.012) 6.333(.096) This study investigated factors of test items of each variable
(100.0)

free gift
34 66 10 81 7 2 100 to examine factors of 29 items. The study investigated factors
(13.2) (25.6) (3.9) (31.4) (2.7) (0.8) (38.8)
by varimax rotation to regard 0.50 or more of factor loading as
Joint 24 59 43 24 13 3 83
an important variable. The study excluded questions with low
purchase (9.3) (22.9) (16.7) (9.3) (5.0) (1.2) (32.2)
Discount 18 37 2 47 6 55 factor loading (information supply 4). Cronbach'α was used to
0
coupon (7.0) (14.3) (0.8) (18.2) (2.3) (21.3) verify internal consistency between questions. Cronbach'α was
Kinds of Love related 1 2 2 1 3 0.70 or higher to test specific items at reliable level.
0 0
event products (0.4) (0.8) (0.8) (0.4) (1.2)
Table 12 of validity and reliability test was:
2 1 2 1 3
Job seeking 0 0
(0.8) (0.4) (0.8) (0.4) (1.2)
Miscellaneou 8 6 8 5 1 14
0
s (3.1) (2.3) (3.1) (1.9) (0.4) (5.4)
258
x²(p-value) 5.779(.328) 88.468(.000)
(100.0)
34 Yong-Min Kim, Anel A. Kireyeva, Myoung-Kil Youn / Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business 5-1 (2014) 27-37

<Table 12> Validity and Reliability Test Results

Factor Regression R-square of 25.6% and F of 32.064(p<.000) were
Factors Items eigen value Cronbach's α
loading significant (0.05) (Table 13). The interaction and in-
3 .836 formation-provide were not significant to have no correlation, and
2 .834 both enjoyment and reliability had influence upon consumers’
Interaction 2.707 .838
1 .830
awareness. The study partially adopted hypothesis 1 that both
4 .789
1 .860 enjoyment and reliability had positive influence upon the con-
Information sumers’ awareness.
2 .855 2.106 .785
provide
3 .797
4 .851 4.4.2. Relation between consumers’ awareness and Purchase
2 .839
Intention (hypothesis 2)
Enjoyment 3 .836 3.306 .868
5 .808 Hypothesis 2 of "The consumers’ awareness has positive in-
1 .726
fluence upon purchase intention" was tested (table 14):
3 .828
4 .819
2 .798 <Table 14> Hypothesis test 2
Reliability 1 .724 3.691 .845 Unstandardized Standardized
7 .685 coefficient coefficient
5 .631 Model t-value p-value
standard
6 .554 B β
error
3 .883
Purchase
2 .880 .756 .033 .749 22.671 .000
Attitude 2.966 .883 intention
1 .859
4 .821 R²= .562 F= 513.992 p-value= .000
1 .933
Purchase
2 .915 2.495 .899
intention Regression R-square of 56.2% and F of 513.992(p<.000)
3 .887
1 .942 were significant (table 14). Hypothesis 2 of "The consumers’
Recommendation 1.773 .871
2 .942 awareness has positive influence upon purchase intention" was
adopted.

4.4. Hypothesis Test 4.4.3. Relation between consumers’ awareness and

Recommendation (Hypothesis 3)
4.4.1. Relation between SNS Characteristics and consumers’
Hypothesis 3 of "The consumers’ awareness has positive in-
awareness (Hypothesis 1)
fluence upon recommendation" was adopted (table 15).
Regression was used to test hypothesis 1 of "SNS character-
istics has positive influence upon consumers’ awareness " <Table 15> Hypothesis test 3
(Table 13).
Unstandardized Standardize
coefficient d coefficient
<Table 13> Results of analysis of hypothesis test 1 Model t-value p-value
standard
B β
Unstandardized Standardized error
coefficient coefficient Recommendation .678 .037 .675 18.233 .000
Model t-value p-value
standard
B β
error R²= .456 F= 332.436 p-value= .000

Interaction -.005 .066 -.005 -.075 .940

Information Regression R-square of 45.6% and F of 332.436(p<.000)

.062 .066 .061 .949 .343 were significant (table 15). Hypothesis 3 of "The consumers’
provide
awareness has positive influence upon recommendation" was
Enjoyment .168 .059 .167 2.830 .005 adopted.
The hypothesis test results were (table 16):
Reliability .378 .054 .370 7.036 .000

R²= .256 F= 32.064 p-value= .000

 Yong-Min Kim, Anel A. Kireyeva, Myoung-Kil Youn / Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business 5-1 (2014) 27-37 35

<Table 16> Results of hypothesis test The study had implications:

Adopt or First, the findings of SNS users' behavior could be used to
Hypothesis Channel
reject be marketers' material for marketing tool of SNS in the future.
H1-3 Enjoyment → consumers’ awareness Adopt And, the study gave not only theories of SNS characteristics but
consumers’awareness → purchase also variables and test items that were verified at empirical
H2 Adopt
intention study.
Women mostly made use of SNS to communicate with
friends, school seniors, school juniors and intimates and so on:
Postscript and/or experience story of SNS users could create in-
5. Summary
terests of SNS users who had no information on brands and/or
products, and they might help intimates and/or friends share the
The findings were: information. And, compensation for the visit, comments and
First, the interviewees made use of social networks such as times of sharing could help SNS users visit and join regularly.
Facebook, Cyworld and Kakao Story the most, followed by com- The interviewees were found to join free gift events provided by
munities (Daum and Naver Cafe, 322 persons, 80.6%), video individuals and/or enterprises. Events joined by SNS users al-
(YouTube, 293 persons, 71.1%), blog (Daum, Naver, 287 per- lowed enterprises to advertise brands and/or products with small
sons, 69.7%) and micromedia (Twitter, me2day, 147 persons, amount of expenses. The communities (Daum, Naver Cafe) that
35.7%) in order. was another type of SNS had members of groups having same
The interviewees preferred social networks such as Facebook, purpose to produce better marketing effects.
Cyworld and Kakao Story the most. The interviewees often Second, both enjoyment and reliability had affirmative influ-
made use of SNS less than one hour: Men often made use of ence upon consumers’ awareness: So, SNS users thought much
SNS less than one hour a day, while women did 2 to 3 hours of not only enjoyment but also reliability in the use of SNS. The
a day. The interviewees made use of smart phone (91.3%) the users should be given pleasure and interests to devote them to
most among media owing to distribution of smart phone and SNS and to be given reliability to rely upon not only SNS func-
less sales of feature phone. tions but also product itself and to make use of SNS
The purpose of use of SNS was leisure and hobby (29.6%), continuously.
followed by communication (27.2%), learning of information Third, characteristics of SNS had affirmative influence upon
and/or knowledge (19.2%) and self-expression space (11.9%) purchase intention and recommendations. The consumers’
and human relation management (8.5%) in order. Men made awareness according to characteristics of SNS could help cus-
use of SNS for leisure and/or hobby (11.2%), while women did tomers have buying mind, and customers who experienced buy-
for communication (19.2%). The ones younger than 20 years ing expressed their experience on SNS to have influence upon
old made use of SNS for communication (8.0%), and the ones purchase intention of potential customers: So, SNS was likely to
who were 20 to 24 years old did for leisure and hobby (18.4%), be new marketing tool and channel.
and the ones who were 25 to 29 years old did for self-ex- Lastly, in information age, SNS is thought to be important
pression (3.4%), and the ones who were 30 years old or higher communication media and obtained results can be used not on-
did for learning of information and/or knowledge (0.7%). ly in South Korea but also in many other countries . SNS can
The interviewees (62.6%) participated in an event on SNS, do immediate action to the customers after being given service,
for instance, free gift (38.8%), group purchase (32.2%), discount quick inspection into phenomenon and supply of exact services
coupon (21.3%) and others (5.4%). enough to satisfy customers.
The ones who were younger than 20 years old did group Further studies were needed to overcome limitation of the
purchase (16.7%), and the ones who were 20 to 24 years old study:
did free gift (31.4%), and the ones who were 25 to 29 years First, in this study, variables of characteristics of SNS were
old did group purchase (5.0%), and the ones who were 30 not enough to reflect characteristics of SNS. Further studies
years old or higher did group purchase (1.2%). were needed to investigate many theories and to define varia-
The interviewees (62.1%) bought by an event on SNS, for in- bles of various kinds of characteristics and to research exactly
stance, food (46.9%) followed by fashion product and/or general and widely.
goods (26.6%), mobile phone (9.8%), household items (4.3%), Second, this study investigated not only high school students
miscellaneous (4.3%), game product (3.1%) and home appli- but also college students not to research the ones in various
ances (2.7%) in order. The ones who were younger than 20 kinds ofage groups. Further studies should collect information
years old often bought food (20.7%), and the ones who 20 to from wide range of age groups based on objective and general
24 years old did fashion product and/or general goods (22.7%), sampling.
and the ones who were 25 to 29 years old did fashion product Third, this study investigated by empirical analysis based on
and/or general goods (3.1%), and the ones who were 30 years precedent studies and did not give additional variables. SNS
old or higher did mobile phone (0.8%). users' ages should be widened considering young ages of smart
36 Yong-Min Kim, Anel A. Kireyeva, Myoung-Kil Youn / Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business 5-1 (2014) 27-37

phone users. An investigation with parameters of not only Attitudes, Purchase Intention, and Recommending
non-adult but also adult could investigate customized marketing. Behavior. Seoul, Korea: Yonsei University The Graduate
Further studies were needed to supplement the limitations School
and to establish various kinds of SNS marketing strategies in Kim, Eun-Mee, Lim, Sohye, & Ham, Sun Hea (2008). Effects of
detail. Interactivity and Involvement in the User’s Information
Processing and Emotional Responses. Korean journal of
journalism & communication studies, 52(4), 250-277.
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