The influences of cultural values on the cultural product trade: evidence from China, Japan and Korea

Purpose International trade flows of cultural goods have grown noticeably in the past few decades and the development of cultural products trade has been an important issue in the international business field. Therefore, this study aims to explore how per capita gross domestic product, distance, culture, Internet penetration and other factors affect the trade of cultural products. Design/methodology/approach The paper focuses on the international trade in cultural goods of China, Japan and Korea with other countries. To analyze the essential reason, the study has applied the classical gravity model along with variables, which mainly represent global connectedness to investigate which variables have the most impact on trade in cultural products. Findings The result shows that in terms of China, cultural similarity boosts the volume of trade volume with other countries, however, for South Korea and Japan, cultural similarity does not have a significant impact. On top of cultural similarity, individual cultural value dimension differences between countries show mixed results for each country and their directions of trade. Global connectedness, on the other hand, is not congruent with the general expectations of previous studies. Research limitations implications Due to the limited time for data collection, the research was done with a relatively small country list with a limited number of cultural good items. Second, the Kogut and Singh index is one of the most popular measures based on cultural dimension deviation. It is based on the Euclidean calculation method used by most scholars but some scholars believe that the Euclidean method has some shortcomings. Third, the authors do not actively promote robust testing after regression analysis this work would be carried out in the future. Finally, using the four basic cultural dimensions proposed by Hofstede in 1980 may be another limitation. Practical implications First, the authors should further promote the establishment of the China-Japan-South Korea Free Trade Area. The three countries should formulate special policies to favor the trade of cultural products and support the development of the cultural industry. Additionally, the three sides should also set up a joint research center to explore the issue of improving the international competitiveness of cultural products trade and find common solutions. And the three countries should further open their doors within the reasonable range, relax the restrictions on tourism and trade visas. Originality/value The analysis provides some different results as the previous papers. Distance variables show positive effect on trade which defines that long distance between countries do no matter on trade in cultural goods. Moreover, the variables of tourism receipt shows that global connectedness positively effects on trade. The cultural variables of the KS composite index show opposite result with the conventional logic which advocates that cultural dissimilarity enhances trade in cultural goods.