Effects of the Cultural Appropriation on the Country of Origin Effect: Focusing on the Difference between International Students vs. Local Fans

Effects of the Cultural Appropriation on the Country of Origin Effect: Focusing on the Difference between International Students vs. Local Fans

This study aims to examine the effect of the intensity of experience on Korean culture in examining the country-of-origin effect of the Korean Wave. More specifically, this study aims to empirically analyze the differences between the groups of international students living in Korea (direct experience) and Hallyu fans living abroad (indirect experience). The research results are as follows. First, the influence of the cultural appropriation caused by the Korean Wave on attitudes toward a country and a product turned out to be positive. In addition, attitudes toward a country and a product turned out to have a positive effect on purchase intention. Next, as a result of examining the difference due to the intensity of cultural experience, the effect of cultural appropriation on the attitude toward a product was greater for international students in Korea than for local fans. However, the effect of the attitude toward a country (Korea) on purchase intention was greater among local fans than international students. Also, this study checked the mean difference in constructs between local fans and international students, and local fans showed larger values than international students in all constructs except for the attitude toward a country. The reasons for these results are considered that the experience of Korean culture through living in Korea had both positive and negative aspects compared to indirect experiences through the media. In other words, in addition to the strength of the Korean Wave in the two groups, these results may have appeared due to the difference in direction (i.e., positive vs. negative). Therefore, further research and analysis on the impact of direct cultural experiences in Korea, such as studying, will be needed.