Sohyun Kim

Research

What consumers do when something new arrives

My work sits at the meeting point of consumer behavior and quantitative methodology. I am interested in processes that take time to complete — adoption, learning, complaint, habit — and in research designs that can credibly recover them from observational data.

Current focus

eWOM in retail, read longitudinally

My current projects analyze electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) in retail environments using secondary and large-scale behavioral data. Review volume, valence, and sales move together, but they also move together for reasons that have nothing to do with influence — seasonality, promotions, assortment changes, and the sales history that produced the reviews in the first place.

I approach this from a longitudinal and causal-inference perspective: encoding assumptions explicitly with directed acyclic graphs, exploiting within-unit variation over time, and using quasi-experimental designs where the data allow. The aim is an estimate of the sales effect of eWOM that comes with a clear account of how it was identified.

Alongside this, I work on how consumers accept and use what is new under technological and environmental change in retail and financial contexts. These projects share a premise with the eWOM work: adoption and response unfold over time rather than in a single moment, and I try to build designs that can follow them.

Research interests

Three lines of work

01

Consumer Technology Adoption and Use

Adoption treated as a sequence of steps rather than a binary outcome, and use as a question in its own right rather than the end of the story: what moves a consumer from awareness to trial to sustained use, and what the technology does in daily life once it has been taken up. Studied across AI and digital services, lifelogging, and autonomous driving.

stepwise adoption AI & digital services continued use perceived data ownership
02

Changing Consumption Environments

How consumers behave as the conditions around them shift — retail formats, household financial circumstances, and the information available at the point of decision. Current cases include eWOM and sales, the financial position of mid-life households, and the life-satisfaction cost of intergenerational support.

retail & information environments household finance financial well-being consumer voice
03

Cross-Cultural Consumer Behavior

How the same product, brand, or service is read differently depending on the market it lands in, and what travels — and what quietly does not — when a market-level finding is carried abroad.

country comparison global brands global consumer culture

Methodology

How the work gets done

Methodology is a standing interest for me, not just a means to an end. It is what makes it possible to come at a research question from more than one angle.

I use cross-sectional designs to look at a phenomenon flexibly, particularly while it is still taking shape. To examine relationships more robustly, I work from longitudinal and causal-inference perspectives. I also run qualitative and mixed-methods studies when that is what a question needs.

Methods training and coursework

Toolkit

  • R, Python, STATA
  • Panel and time-series modeling
  • Structural equation modeling; latent growth curves
  • DAG-based identification
  • Survey development; interview design; MAXQDA

Publications

Peer-reviewed articles

  • 2026 Nam, Y., Kim, S., & Park, S. A study on missing data handling in the 1372 consumer counseling data. Journal of Consumer Studies, 37(2), 43–65.
  • 2025 Kim, C., Kim, S., Kil, J. H., & Rha, J. Y. How does culture affect the nature of brand–travel relationships? A cross-country perspective. Journal of International Consumer Marketing, 1–20.
  • 2025 Kim, J.-H., Kim, S., & Rha, J. Y. Financial status analysis of middle-aged households cohabiting with adult children in their 30s and 40s. Financial Planning Review, 18(3), 53–87.
  • 2025 Rha, J. Y., Kim, S., Lee, H. R., & Gil, J. H. A study on regional differences in dietary behaviors and satisfaction in Korea, focusing on urban and rural comparisons: A cross-sectional study. Korean Journal of Community Nutrition, 30(2), 140–149.
  • 2025 Kim, S., & Rha, J. Y. Stepwise technology adoption by consumers: Example of autonomous driving technology. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 109, 860–879.
  • 2024 Rha, J. Y., Lee, H. R., & Kim, S. A study on the dietary satisfaction according to the dietary competence of senior consumers: Focusing on single-person households. Consumer Policy and Education Review, 20(2), 25–43.
  • 2024 Rha, J. Y., Lee, H., Kim, S., & Nam, Y. A study on the relationship between purchases of meal kits and home meal replacements. Nutrition Research and Practice, 18(3), 425–435.
  • 2023 Kim, S., Rha, J. Y., & Kim, H. K. Changes in consumer food lifestyles before and after COVID-19 examined through lifelog data. Journal of Consumer Studies, 34(5), 117–141.
  • 2023 Kim, S., & Rha, J. Y. Automobile consumers' adoption of autonomous driving as an incremental technology innovation. Journal of Consumer Studies, 34(2), 49–75.
  • 2019 Kim, S., & Brady, J. T. A phenomenological study on the information technology acceptance of the Korean baby boomer generation. International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology, 7(4), 172–186.
  • 2015 Kim, H. S., Kim, S., Choi, H. R., & Nam, Y. J. Comparison between clothing sizing systems of Korean and foreign SPA brands for clothing size satisfaction of tall women in their twenties. Fashion & Textile Research Journal, 17(3), 405–420.

In preparation

Dashed rail — not yet in the record.

  • In prep. Kim, S., Kim, J.-H., & Kim, K.-T. The double burden of intergenerational support for Korean baby boomers: A correlated random effects analysis of life satisfaction.
  • In prep. Kim, S., Rha, J. Y., & Kim, H. K. Changes in consumer social media usage behavior: A latent growth curve modeling analysis (2021–2023).
  • In prep. Kim, S., Kim, C. J., & Park, J. Y. Estimating the sales effects of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) using DAG-based causal inference.
  • In prep. Kim, C. J., Rha, J. Y., Lee, H. R., & Kim, S. Corporate social responsibility versus brand strength: Relationship among global product affinity, consumer learning, and country travel.
  • In prep. Nam, Y., Kim, S., & Hong, K. Perceived data ownership and consumers' use of personalized services.

Conference presentations

Talks and posters

  • 2026 Jul Nam, Y., Kim, S., & Hong, K. Perceived data ownership and consumers' use of personalized services. 32nd International Conference on Recent Advances in Retailing and Consumer Science, Berlin, Germany.
  • 2026 Apr Kim, S., & Kim, J.-H. The double burden of intergenerational support for Korean baby boomers: Within-between evidence on life satisfaction. American Council on Consumer Interests (ACCI) Conference, Long Beach, CA, USA.
  • 2025 Jul Nam, Y., Lee, H., Park, S., & Kim, S. Economic inequality and consumer complaint behavior. 15th Biennial Conference of the Asian Consumer and Family Economics Association (ACFEA), Hanoi, Vietnam.
  • 2025 Jun Kim, S., Tanaka, S., Lee, H. R., Rha, J. Y., & Kim, C. J. Corporate social contributions versus brand strength: Relationship among global product affinity, consumer learning, and country travel. Korean Marketing Association Conference, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
  • 2025 Apr Kim, S., Rha, J. Y., & Kim, H. K. Changes in consumer social media usage behavior: A latent growth curve modeling analysis (2021–2023). Consumer Research Conference, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
  • 2025 Apr Nam, Y., Park, S., Lee, H., & Kim, S. A study on the treatment of missing data in the 1372 consumer counseling dataset. Consumer Research Conference, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
  • 2024 Jun Rha, J. Y., Lee, H. R., Kim, S., & Gil, J. H. A study on the dietary satisfaction of senior consumers living alone. Poster, 25th World Congress of the International Federation for Home Economics (IFHE), University of Galway, Ireland.
  • 2024 Apr Rha, J. Y., Kim, S., Gil, J. H., & Lee, H. R. An investigation into regional variations in dietary behaviors and satisfaction: A comparative analysis between urban and rural areas. Consumer Research Conference, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
  • 2023 Nov Rha, J. Y., Lee, H. R., & Kim, S. Study on the satisfaction of dietary life according to the health-related interests and behaviors of senior consumers: Focused on single-person households. Poster, Consumer Research Conference, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
  • 2023 Oct Rha, J. Y., Nam, Y., Lee, H. R., & Kim, S. Trends in the replacement of home-cooked meals: HMR products vs. meal kits. Joint Colloquium of Seoul National University and the University of the Philippines, online.
  • 2023 May Kim, S., Rha, J. Y., & Kim, H. K. Changes in consumer food lifestyles before and after COVID-19 examined through lifelog data. Service Marketing Association Spring Conference, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
  • 2022 Nov Kim, S., & Rha, J. Y. Stepwise technology adoption by consumers: Example of autonomous driving technology. Poster, Consumer Research Conference, Seoul, Republic of Korea.

Projects

Funded and collaborative research

  • 2025– Senior Researcher — The development of international standards for safety services in unmanned stores. Consumer Analytics Lab, Seoul National University.
  • 2022– Co-researcher — Construction and analysis of big data linking information on agri-food consumption, nutrition, and health. Rural Development Administration and Consumer Information & Retailing Lab, Seoul National University.
  • 2022–25 Co-researcher — Consumption and lifelogging: Effects of lifelogging on consumers' self-expansion and enhancement. Supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea.
  • 2021 Graduate Research Assistant — Analysis of consumer evaluation of 3D point cloud technology. ETRI and Consumer Information & Retailing Lab, Seoul National University.
Full CV