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K-pop’s internationalization in the product adaptation and the upstream music supply chain in Korea, China, Japan, and the West

2023; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 29; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13602381.2023.2230156

1743-792X

Byeongsik Kim, Byeongwoo Kang,

Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy

ABSTRACTThe success of Korean popular music (K-pop) in foreign markets has attracted considerable attention from researchers. Previous studies have highlighted the factors in K-pop’s international success, such as its idol management system, marketing strategies, and digital distribution channels. However, to the best of our knowledge, the contributions of product adaptation and upstream music supply chains to K-pop’s international success have received little attention. To substantiate this argument, we analyse the formula setting of K-pop from the 1990s to the present and the efforts of the founders of entertainment agencies (e.g. SM, JYP, and YG) to model their success in the global market. The argument presented here theoretically contributes to international business studies and has implications for the success of intangible products in foreign markets.KEYWORDS: Cultural productinternational businessK-popproduct adaptationupstream supply chain AcknowledgementThe authors would like to thank Professor Chris Rowley, Professor Ingyu Oh, Professor Jangwoo Lee, Professor Lynn Pyun, and Professor Paul Lopes for organizing the special issue ‘The Globalization of Postcolonial Pop Music: Putting the Success of the K-pop Industries into Theoretical Perspectives’. The authors would also like to thank the workshop participants at Ewha Womans University, held in January 2023, and the anonymous referees for their constructive feedback. All the remaining errors are the author’s own.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1. This study provides two theoretical and conceptual frameworks: product adaptation and upstream supply chain. The former describes the adaptation of production to a particular market. As Calantone et al. (2006) explain, standardized products must overcome market barriers when exporting products so that customers easily identify the production. In contrast, the upstream supply chain refers to more production processes. Collaboration with organizations in other countries brings in other knowledge and skills (Powell 1998) to improve products.2. https://www.mofa.go.jp/region/asia-paci/korea/joint9810.html.3. The Oricon Charts are the Japanese music industry standard popularity charts issued by Oricon Inc. There are several categories, for example, the Oricon Singles Chart and Oricon Albums Chart. Each chart is issued daily, weekly, and yearly.4. We referred the website article ‘https://bunshun.jp/articles/-/46080’ and ‘https://saru.co.jp/prime/kpop-sedai/’ to clarify the definition of ‘(2 ~ 4th) generations’ for K-pop idol. Although such definition is different among fandoms, there are some common points that fandoms recognize in common.5. https://www.oricon.co.jp/prof/464186/rank/single/, https://www.oricon.co.jp/prof/464186/rank/album/.6. https://www.twicejapan.com/feature/4thworldtour3.7. https://danmee.jp/knews/k-pop/izone-topic-26/.8. https://aespa-official.jp/.9. https://variety.com/2022/global/news/korea-china-content-ban-1235439739/.10. https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/celebrity/article/3147814/how-will-chinas-strict-new-entertainment-rules-affect-k.11. Although these are key concepts in understanding K-pop’s international success, they explain different aspects of K-pop’s international success: product adaptation mainly focuses on how K-pop idols adapt to foreign markets and upstream supply chains, focusing on how the upstream part of production is developed by foreign producers/composers. We distinguished between these two concepts to avoid confusing readers. In addition, there also is a possibility that K-pop idols implemented product adaptation through internationalization in upstream music supply chain, as we explained in section 4.1. (e.g. multinational collaboration in upstream music supply chain for adaptation to international music market).12. https://dbkpop.com/db/all-k-pop-idols/.13. https://www.allkpop.com/article/2012/01/sm-entertainment-to-have-their-own-booth-at-the-2012-midem-in-france.14. Chris Lee, speech at The 3rd World Cultural Industry Forum, July 6th–7th, 2022, at Daegu, Korea.15. Adaptation is a broad concept used for technology-based products in the field of international business studies (Young 1983). This study attempts to explain K-pop’s international success as a culture-based product. In contrast to the adaptation of technology-based production, which is visible and tangible, that of culture-based production is ambiguous or difficult to determine. We intended to measure K-pop’s adaptation using a qualitative method, showing how it adapted to foreign markets by adopting foreign members, language lesions, and the role of managers that bridge Korean and foreign markets.16. When Apple released the first-generation iPhone in 2007, YouTube was installed on iPhone as a basic app.17. https://www.oricon.co.jp/prof/21206/rank/single/,https://www.oricon.co.jp/prof/21206/rank/album/.18. https://www.oricon.co.jp/prof/270150/rank/single/.19. https://www.oricon.co.jp/prof/270150/rank/album/.20. However, there is a limitation to measuring the product adaptation of K-pop idols. In other Calantone et al. (2004) measured production adaptation through surveys and data collection. It would be suitable to refer to this method to measure the adaptation of K-pop idols in future research.Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 20H00074.Notes on contributorsByeongsik KimByeongsik Kim is an assistant professor at Faculty of Urban Innovation, Asia University, Tokyo, Japan. He received his Ph.D. in business and commerce from the School of Business Administration, Hitotsubashi University. His main research topics include socio-economic analysis on innovation and entrepreneurship.Byeongwoo KangByeongwoo Kang is an associate professor at the Institute of Innovation Research, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, Japan. Prior to his current position, he was a research fellow at the Institute of Developing Economies – Japan External Trade Organization (IDE-JETRO) and a research engineer at LG Electronics. He holds a Ph.D. in technology management from The University of Tokyo and a B.S. and an M.S. in communications engineering from Tohoku University. His research interests lie in innovation management. His past works were published journals including Research Policy, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, and Telecommunications Policy amongst others. He has received awards for his research works from academia and industry.