*Tengku Siti Aisha Tengku Mohd Azzman Shariffadeen, Tak Jie Chan, Krishnamurti Murniadi

Abstract:

As a result of the Hallyu phenomenon in the early 2000s, K-dramas have become very popular in Malaysia. Although the Korean culture may be divergent in a Muslim-majority country like Malaysia, K-drama audiences continue to show their enthusiasm for the culture by binge-watching episodes on streaming platforms. With streaming platforms, K-drama audiences can become more personally involved with their favourite K-dramas, by customising content and forming parasocial bonds with K-drama celebrities. Thus, this study aims to examine factors related to streaming audience involvement that influence consumer purchasing intentions among K-drama binge-watchers in Malaysia. Specifically, we predict that binge-watching (BW), parasocial interaction (PSI) and consumer cultural affinity (CCA) with Korea may influence intention to purchase (PI) Korean consumer products. Also, BW and PSI functioned as the mediators. Five hypotheses were proposed in this study to examine the predictors of PI.

Keywords: Audience involvement, binge-watching, consumer affinity, parasocial interaction, purchase intentions