Asian Cosmetics in Global Market: A Comparative Study of Internationalization of Japanese, Korean, and Chinese Companies

Abstract

Asian cosmetics play an increasingly significant role in the global cosmetics industry, exemplified by the worldwide Korean Wave and China’s emergence as the world’s second largest cosmetics market. From the Japanese Shiseido to the numerous emerging brands in China, Asian cosmetics companies have gone through various internationalization paths over the past half century. The Japanese, Korean, and Chinese companies, at various points of time, have explored the Western and the neighboring Asian markets and encountered similar and different challenges. This thesis analyzes the driving forces of the successes and failures along the way and sheds some light on the future outlook of Asian cosmetics in the global context.