Korean Wave Effect on Malaysian Young Consumer’s Satisfaction and Repeat Watch Intention Azaze-Azizi Abdul Adis, Izyanti Awang Razli Mohd. Rizwan Abdul Majid Faculty of Business, Economics and Accountancy Universiti Malaysia Sabah MALAYSIA

Introduction Hallyu, the Korean Pop culture, spread to Asian countries such Malaysia, Japan, China, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Taiwan and now also popular in Middle East, Europe and America. Korean dramas, fashions and music are now become a hot trend and culture in Asian nations.

Purpose To examine the relationship between Korean stars’ attractiveness, credibility, connectedness, audience involvement, commitment, cultural interest, lyrical, beautiful scene background and music to TV drama satisfaction and repeat watch intention.

Korean Star’s Characteristics Attractive, credibility and connectedness (Lee, 2015) Attractiveness Beauty of Korean star (Hogarth, 2013; McColl & Truong, 2013) Salesperson attractiveness influence product and services sales (McColl & Truong, 2013) Attractiveness of Korean star in TV drama also influence the satisfaction level and intention level of audience to watch Korean drama (Lee, 2015)

Korean Star’s Characteristics Credibility Reliability and credibility of the pop star having a positive relationship on the drama satisfaction (Lee, 2015). Credibility is the one of the factors that the audiences used to measured their satisfaction level on the particular drama (Lee, 2015).

Korean Star’s Characteristics Connectedness Korean dramas are “Asian-ness” because the popularity of the Korean waves are major on the East Asian countries (Hogarth, 2013). The storylines of the Korean drama are more related with the Asian culture, which are sibling love, Confucianism and oriental culture (Lee, 2015).

Audience Characteristics Involvement Involvement in an audiences on particular product or service refers to the perceive value from the product and service that related to an individual inherent need, values and interests (Zaickowsky, 1994). Korean drama introduced Korean products such as cosmetics, mobile phones, attires and arts that influenced audience to buy (Chung, 2011).

Audience Characteristics Commitment Relationship between commitment and satisfaction (Ligas, 2008; Spake & Bishop, 2009; Lee, 2015). People feels satisfied with the performance of specific association is due to the increases of strong commitments for that person (Hoffman, Agnew, Lehmiller & Duncan, 2009).

Cultural Interest Due to the Korean Drama, the phenomenon of Korean wave permeates through each corner of East Asia (Huang, 2009). Korean government feels the appeal of Korean pop culture is meaningful especially when the cultural exposed in Asians (Shim, 2006).

Lyrical, beautiful scene background and music Lyrical and appearances in the study refer to the importance of the beautiful background scene and appearances to the audiences. It shows that the TV media tends to stimulate the audience’s interest through the visual (Kim, Agrusa, Chon & Cho, 2008). Music is important to the television broadcast, no matter is advertising or drama (Cohen, 2001; Kellaris, Cox, and Cox, 1993).

Audience characteristics Korean star characteristics Attractiveness Credibility Connectedness Involvement Commitment Cultural interest Lyrical, beautiful scene, background and music Drama Satisfaction Repeat Watch Intention

Methods 600 sets of questionnaire were used to get the data from the young consumer in Malaysia. Students from Universiti Malaysia Sabah was used as a location to approach young consumer as the students are from all over Malaysia. Respondents were asked whether they have experience watched Korean drama. 596 questionnaires were collected and usable for further analysis. Multiple regression analysis.

Results Attractiveness, credibility, commitment, cultural interest, and lyrical, beautiful scene background and music were found influences Korean TV drama satisfaction. However, both connectedness and involvement of audience were not found to influence TV drama satisfaction.

Limitations The study only represents Malay and Chinese and other native ethnics in Malaysia. However, Indian respondent mostly are not interested to be interviewed.

Conclusion Attractiveness, credibility, commitment, cultural interest, and lyrical, beautiful scene background and music were found influences Korean TV drama satisfaction. Both connectedness and involvement of audience were not found to influence TV drama satisfaction. TV drama satisfaction is a significant mediator on repeat watch intention.