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Product cover image for Big Hit Entertainment and BTS: K-Pop Reaches for a Global Breakthrough

Big Hit Entertainment and BTS: K-Pop Reaches for a Global Breakthrough

Robert D. Austin; Morgan Zhuo

Product #:9B18M190
Supplier:Ivey
Discipline:General Management, International Business
Setting:South Korea, 2018
Details:Case (PDF) • 16 pages • 2018-12-19

Subjects:

Business managementInternational businessLeadership and managing peopleManagement

Industries:

Media, entertainment, and professional sports

Geography:

South KoreaAsia
Your Price:$9.71

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Big Hit Entertainment, a Korean-based producer of popular music content, was promoting its hit "idol group," BTS, as a serious entry in the world’s mainstream musical entertainment business, alongside global performers such as Justin Bieber. The "K-pop machine" represented a complex set of practices for producing performances, many of which were unique to Korea and criticized as being "overly manufactured." The case raises questions about the extent to which processes and institutions designed to generate commercially valuable creative outcomes could be developed into a reliable, repeatable, or standardized form. Could a formula be used to generate successful and creative products?

Learning Objectives

This case is intended for an undergraduate- or graduate-level course on innovation, international business, or managing creative businesses. The case is appropriate to use midway through a course, in a module that examines how creative work processes are designed and executed. This case provides students with opportunities to:
  • examine a process for generating creative outputs that is designed and operated similar to how businesses often design and manage other processes that are standardized for reliability;
  • explore the concepts of originality and authenticity, how they are related to each other, and their importance to creative businesses; and
  • consider the challenges of achieving commercial success with creative products outside the cultural contexts in which they were created.
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    Case Study: Big Hit Entertainment and BTS: K-Pop Reaches for a Global Breakthrough (English version) | Ivey Publishing