Harvard Business School in the United States has selected and adopted the successful process of K-food globalization as a research case for their textbook.
CJ CheilJedang on Jan. 14 said, “Written by professors Forest Reinhardt and Sophus A. Reinert from Harvard Business School, along with researcher Shu Lin, a textbook analyzing the success process of K-food globalization with a focus on the CJ CheilJedang case was unveiled during an executive education program on Jan. 10.” This is the first time Harvard Business School has used a Korean food company as a case study.
In the textbook, Prof. Reinhardt and others explain that “South Korea’s K-Culture has become a ‘cultural phenomenon’ that crosses borders worldwide. Through this, K-food has gained international recognition, and the size of the Korean food market has allowed it to expand to a global level.”
With its short history of industrialization and modernization, South Korea has always relied on government-led policies to export most of its products. Still, K-food is an unusual case in that the software of culture has opened up the Korean food market, expanded production facilities, and increased the size of the entire industry.
The Harvard Business School faculty highlighted CJ CheilJedang as a significant case in the global expansion of K-food, noting that it is not only the largest food company in South Korea but also has the largest market share in the U.S. for dumplings and frozen pizza. They said, “There are not many food companies in the world that do global business except Nestlé. Among K-food companies, CJ CheilJedang is the largest,” and noted the company’s global market expansion steps.
The professors first noted CJ CheilJedang’s K-culture marketing. They analyzed that the food maker made a strategic decision to expand its territory, judging that it was appropriate to pioneer the Korean food market because K-pop brought the Korean wave to the U.S.
“CJ CheilJedang’s acquisition of frozen food distribution channel Schwan’s Company, which grew its sales from $2.3 billion in 2019 to $3 billion in 2022, and the swift expansion of its logistics network by placing products in hypermarkets such as Walmart and Kroger served as a driving force for rapidly increasing its market share in the United States,” the professors analyzed.
They observed that CJ CheilJedang also paid attention to localization strategies when selling K-food overseas. “CJ CheilJedang selected global strategic products by closely analyzing trends in overseas markets. In the case of dumplings, for instance, it actively responded to market demands by making products with cilantro at a local factory in the U.S. or creating bite-sized items,” they wrote. “As a result, Bibigo dumplings surpassed 1 trillion won in global annual sales in 2020 as a single item and secured the leading position in the U.S. dumpling market since 2021.”
Prof. Reinhardt and others also noted the different strategies for each country. “By carefully examining each country’s population and income levels, as well as the number of Korean restaurants and cold chain infrastructure, CJ CheilJedang was able to expand its K-food business.”
