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Recently, the development of virtual reality technology in the entertainment industry has applied social network capability. This study empirically analyzes how the introduction of social network characteristics as a diffusion strategy for virtual reality devices affects consumers’ intention to use. This survey was conducted with 350 people from South Korea, and TAM was used to analyze the acceptability of virtual reality. User adoption behaviors were analyzed rigorously, adding perceived enjoyment, social interactions, and strength of the social ties to the basic TAM. The results of this study indicate that social interactions and strength of the social ties increase perceived enjoyment, and perceived enjoyment has a more significant effect on intention to use than perceived usefulness, which is the main element of TAM. These results have theoretical implications for consumer adoption behavior and empirical implications for the best marketing strategies for virtual reality devices.

The convenience of mobile and biometric payments are making these systems increasingly popular in the Korean offline payments market. However, the diffusion of alternative offline payment systems such as mobile or biometric payments is slower than expected. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to analyze consumer preferences for payment systems and examine the effects of consumers’ characteristics on the marginal utility of mobile and biometric payments. It uses the discrete choice experiment consisting of five major attributes to estimate preference parameters, and analyzes the data using the mixed logit model. The results show that consumers preferred cards to mobile and biometric payments even if they displayed the same level of related attributes. The scenario analysis results based on consumer preferences also showed the need to develop the overall attribute level of mobile and biometric payments. Furthermore, consumers’ positive attitude or innovativeness toward hi-tech products has a significantly positive effect on preferences for alternative payments. Based on the results, this study provides theoretical implications for consumer preference studies on payment systems and proposes market strategies for the diffusion of major next-generation payment systems from multiple aspects.

Platform service providers in Korea and worldwide have launched over-the-top (OTT) bundled services, which increase market competitiveness. Forecasting the market expansion strategies of these providers can thus shed light on their future actions and influence government policies. In this context, this is the first study to analyze consumer preferences for bundled pay-TV and OTT services. However, due to a lack of market data availability, we conducted a discrete choice experiment and analyzed the marginal utilities of attributes using a mixed logit model. The results demonstrate that consumers expect an additional discount for pay-TV services when bundled with OTT services and that the more bundled services they currently use, the less sensitive they are to the discount rate. Furthermore, we found that OTT and TV broadcasting services have a complementary, rather than a substitute, relationship. Finally, according to a simulation analysis for the Korean broadcasting market, bundling OTT services to expand the market share of pay-TV service providers was largely ineffective.

South Korea has the highest expenditure on telecommunications among OECD countries, drawing national attention to the issue of reducing high prices. In response, the Korean government enacted the Mobile Device Distribution Improvement (MDDI) Act to eliminate information asymmetry by limiting mobile carriers’ mobile handset subsidies to consumers. This study examined factors affecting public trust in the MDDI based by analyzing responses to a questionnaire survey using the ordered probit model. The results show that the knowledge, expectations, and perceived effects of the MDDI have a meaningful effect on public trust in the policy. The results of this study confirm that it is essential for governments to promote their policies by continuously educating the public, especially in this case because the policy has a direct effect on telecommunications expenditures.