K-Pop’s Global Success and Its Innovative Production System

Abstract

The global music market has witnessed the rapid rise of Korean pop music, K-pop, in recent years. While there has been an increased interest of scholars from various disciplines to account for the global success of K-pop, limited attention has been paid to the key players in the industry, music businesses. Based on a historical analysis of Korea’s music industry, we contend that the innovative production system of Korea’s music businesses has played a significant role in facilitating K-pop’s global success. In order to provide theoretical support to the argument, this paper critically reviews the existing literature to present debates on (i) the process of how value is created in distinctive stages in the music industry; (ii) cooperative and competitive interactions between firms within the music industry; and (iii) changes in the music industry’s competitive environment.