Events

Dr. Johan Chu
Visiting Assistant Professor of Management and Organizations
Kellogg School of Management
Northwestern University

Technological advances now allow savvy actors to direct mass attention at scales previously unthinkable, enabling new, potent—but ill-understood—methods for instigating social change and capturing profit. This study investigates durable sources of power and competitive advantage in a setting where technologies for directing mass attention are consequential and highly evolved—the fast-moving, ultra-competitive Korean popular music industry. Drawing on extensive quantitative, archival, and interview data, we examine how a few dominant production companies repeatedly generate widespread attention and consumption for their offerings, focusing on three puzzles: How dominants tame the unpredictability of social influence-driven successes, why dominants’ advantage persists when competitors imitate their techniques, and why these techniques remain effective after consumers learn their attention is being manipulated. We find dominants trigger attention cascades, often by mobilizing fans to rush offerings to the top of rankings charts. Consumer knowledge of such ranking manipulation tactics benefits dominants. Knowledgeable consumers react positively to dominants’ offerings propelled up the charts but punish non-dominants, attributing unexplained non-dominant success to manipulation. Dominant advantage strengthens with increased competition and wider awareness of technologies for directing mass attention. These findings suggest sobering implications of more powerful, democratic, and open social ranking, rating, and recommendation platforms for society.