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

Manuel Hermosilla, Fernanda Gutierrez-Navratil and Juan Prieto-Rodriguez ()

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

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.

Keywords: Emerging Markets; Hollywood; Culture; Product Design; Innovation; Skin Color (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L7 L70 M3 M31 O3 O30 Z1 Z11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-09-30
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna, nep-cul and nep-mkt
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Journal Article: Can Emerging Markets Tilt Global Product Design? Impacts of Chinese Colorism on Hollywood Castings (2018)
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