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This article examines the phenomenal growth of Korean cultural industries and their export to East Asia and other parts of the world. In the early years of industrialisation, culture was used by the authoritarian regime as a form of ideological support. Strict controls were exercised over cultural production and presentation. Controls were later relaxed as the regime used entertainment and sport as popular distractions. However, the increase in television ownership, the growth of domestic electronics and home appliance industries, and rising incomes (especially among the middle class) provided the material base for the growth of cultural industries following democratisation in the 1990s. Cultural industries became key drivers of economic growth, innovation and employment, and were strongly promoted and supported by government in the style of the developmental state. The result was burgeoning production and international trade across a wide spectrum of cultural industries – film, television drama, animation, video games and music. As a reflection of the increasing integration of Korea into world markets, the government also had to ensure compliance with international trade regulations and clamp down on piracy. Today, the Korean Wave of popular culture has reached consumers in all parts of the world and makes a significant contribution to Korean gross domestic product and exports.

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.

Over the past two decades, Korea has established and maintained itself as one of the world’s leaders in e-government. This study explains why this has happened by using a political economy analysis. Qualitative case study methods have been utilized to enable sensemaking of Korea’s successful e-government development trajectory. Five complementary factors have been identified to account for this success. They are the legacy of the developmental state in defining government’s role in economic development; the impact of democratization on the nature of e-government services and provision; the shock impact of the Asian Financial Crisis that led to accelerated e-government development; the creation and maintenance of an effective policy process; an effective system of public administration. These factors have provided both the drivers and context for sustained successful e-government development. While the Korean experience supplies lessons for other countries’ e-government development, the whole model is not replicable as it is based on the particularities of Korean development.