The internationalisation processes of cultural firms: a case of MBC, Korea

The words ‘Globalisation’ and ‘Internationalisation’ have received a great deal of interest from global nations, enterprises, citizens and academics especially since the late 20th century. Although the process of globalization began as a social trend for tracking the expansion of human population and the growth of civilization since as early as the 16th century, globalization became a business phenomenon in the 19th century from rapid growth in international trade and investment between the European imperial powers, its colonies and, later, the United States. Scholars of the 20th century vigorously attempted to theorise internationalisation of multinational enterprises (MNEs) based on MNEs’ internationalisation processes. As the vast majority of such theories were developed for the manufacturing industry, the validity of theories for the service industry became ambiguous. Despite the fact that one of the fastest growing sectors of global trade since the late 20th century is the trade in cultural goods and services, scholars haven’t attempted to validate such a phenomenon by reference to existing theories of internationalisation processes. This thesis attempts to dismantle the internationalisation processes of cultural firms and to explore the validity of existing internationalisation theories. Due to the inherent difficulties in analysing all sectors of cultural industries, this thesis has adopted a single in-depth case study method with qualitative data to support the findings of the thesis. Although the internationalisation processes of a firm consist of an abundant series of intermittent and continuous ventures by the firm, the particular focus of this thesis is on the longitudinal processes of a firm’s overall internationalisation processes. As one of the foremost runners of ‘Hallyu – Korean Wave’ phenomenon, MBC has been selected as a case study object for this thesis. With a history of internationalisation processes over 40 years, involving various internal and external environmental factors/forces interactively, the case of MBC offers an insight into the empirical study of the internationalisation processes of cultural firms. Although this thesis shows strong support for the dynamic capabilities theory—a theory that explains dynamic activities and behaviours of MBC’s internationalisation processes in accordance with, and as a result of, ever-changing both internal and external factors/forces of environments—dynamic capability theory itself is deficient in explaining the underlying sources and drivers of those factors/forces. In order to overcome such a shortfall, this thesis suggests an integrative approach of integrating multidisciplinary theories as a theoretical framework for future studies of internalisation processes theories especially for empirical and industry-specific studies. This thesis provides comprehensive framework for three components—motives, way-stations and performance—of internationalisation processes of cultural firms, thereby contributing to the under-researched field in the discipline of international business