• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.77-89
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• 2019

What are the characteristics of firm executives who have led the fast-growing Korean entertainment industry since the Korean Wave in the early 2000s, and what management implications can be inferred from them? To search for the answer to these questions, we conducted a complete survey of 293 executives from 27 listed Korean entertainment companies. Research has shown that career path diversity has increased in order of general enterprise managers, IT experts, accountants, lawyers and artists, away from the limited human resources level around artists. Thirty three percent of the firms gave stock options to their CEO. This is a positive aspect as data implying that these companies have been striving to do specialization, transparent management, digital and network management, creativity management, and motivational management in the context of sustainablity. However, it was pointed out as an improvement task that the percentage of young(20s and 30s) and female executives is low, even though such people's creativity, sensitivity, initiative and dynamic quality are apt to bring out their advantages especially in the entertainment company, a typical knowledge-creative firms and that the period of the CEO's average tenure was relatively short to 4.02 years.