Can Emerging Markets Tilt Global Product Design? Impacts of Chinese Colorism on Hollywood Castings

Hermosilla, Manuel and Gutierrez-Navratil, Fernanda and Prieto-Rodriguez, Juan (2017): Can Emerging Markets Tilt Global Product Design? Impacts of Chinese Colorism on Hollywood Castings.

Abstract

In various cultural and behavioral respects, emerging market consumers differ significantly from their counterparts of developed markets. They may thus derive consumption utility from different aspects of product meaning and functionality. Based on this premise, we investigate whether the economic rise of emerging markets may have begun to impact the typical “one-size-fits-all” design of many international product categories. Focusing on Hollywood films, and exploiting a recent relaxation of China’s foreign film importation policy, we provide evidence suggesting that these impacts may exist and be non-negligible. In particular, we show that the Chinese society’s aesthetic preference for lighter skin can be linked to the more frequent casting of pale-skinned stars in films targeting the Chinese market. Implications for the design of international products are drawn.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Emerging Markets, Hollywood, Culture, Product Design, Innovation, Skin Color
• Subjects: L - Industrial Organization > L7 - Industry Studies: Primary Products and Construction; L - Industrial Organization > L7 - Industry Studies: Primary Products and Construction > L70 - General; M - Business Administration and Business Economics ; Marketing ; Accounting ; Personnel Economics > M3 - Marketing and Advertising; M - Business Administration and Business Economics ; Marketing ; Accounting ; Personnel Economics > M3 - Marketing and Advertising > M31 - Marketing; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O3 - Innovation ; Research and Development ; Technological Change ; Intellectual Property Rights; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O3 - Innovation ; Research and Development ; Technological Change ; Intellectual Property Rights > O30 - General; Z - Other Special Topics > Z1 - Cultural Economics ; Economic Sociology ; Economic Anthropology; Z - Other Special Topics > Z1 - Cultural Economics ; Economic Sociology ; Economic Anthropology > Z11 - Economics of the Arts and Literature

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