Factors influencing the export of cultural and artistic copyright in the Korean media industry

Chaeyun Jang and Seongcheol Kim

Telecommunications Policy, 2026, vol. 50, issue 1

Abstract: In the international economy, trading intellectual property rights (IPRs) as intangible assets is becoming increasingly significant in cross-border trade. In South Korea, the value of IPRs in the media industry has garnered particular attention, as exports of cultural and artistic copyrights have contributed to a national IPR balance surplus. South Korea has also transitioned from being a net importer of foreign culture to a major content exporter, with the growth of its media industry capturing global interest. The country now faces various challenges as it seeks to transcend content production as a product. Instead, it aims to secure and leverage IPRs through diverse strategies to generate higher added value. In this context, research investigating the driving factors associated with content-based IPR exports carries substantial academic and industrial significance. Therefore, this study empirically examines the factors affecting the export of cultural and artistic IPRs over 14 years from 2010 to 2023. By employing hierarchical-multiple regression and time-lagged regression analysis, it identifies the determinants of Korea's cultural and artistic copyright exports and quantitatively assesses their relative effects. The findings reveal that critical factors include public investment in content production support within Korea's media industry and global demand for Korean content, as indicated by subscriber growth on global over-the-top (OTT) platforms. Based on these results, this study offers academic, industrial, and policy insights for enhancing content-based IPR exports at the national level.

Keywords: Content-based IPRs (intellectual property rights); IPRs export; Cultural and artistic copyrights; Korean media industry; Hierarchical-multiple regression (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308596125001752
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:telpol:v:50:y:2026:i:1:s0308596125001752

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/30471/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... /30471/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.telpol.2025.103078

Access Statistics for this article

Telecommunications Policy is currently edited by Erik Bohlin

More articles in Telecommunications Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().