A Study Of The Liability Of Foreignness And Asset Of Foreignness Of Chinese And US Film Products

Since the implementation of the Film Industry Promotion Law of the People’s Republic of China on March 1,2017,China’s film industry and film market have gradually moved towards the path of standardized development.After the implementation of the law,the number of films exported by China and the United States to each other increased dramatically.American films are competitive in Chinese market have gained a lot of box office.However,the performance of Chinese films in the American market is not satisfactory.In order to get better box office,some films choose to use local actors.But the impact of local actors on the box office is quite different.The differences in film performance between China and the United States arouse the interest of this paper.As a foreigner in the market,the two countries face the same institutional and cultural distance in the process of exporting their products to each other.Why are American films full of competitiveness in the Chinese market,while Chinese films not in the American market? When films from different countries export to different countries,how could they change their foreign identity to get more box office?In order to answer these questions,this paper will build the research framework from an identity-based view based on the performance difference between Chinese and American exported films.This paper constructs the theory of how to overcome the liability of foreignness and utilize the asset of foreignness from two aspects,which are the compositions of foreign identity and the methods to change it.This paper uses the data of the mutual export of Chinese and American films to study the identity-adjust method that films should adopt.This paper also explores the impact of these methods on the box office.This paper analyzes literature content and secondary data in detail with literature research method and empirical analysis method.By using the empirical research methods such as propensity score matching,general linear regression and Heckman two-step test,this paper analyzes the mutual export data of Chinese and American films from 2000 to 2018,and draws the following conclusions:First,the foreignness of Chinese films is presented as liability in the American market,and the foreignness of American films is presented as asset in the Chinese market.Due to the powerful influence of American culture in the world and the highly mature production technology of Hollywood film industry,American films can obtain sufficient cultural advantages and unique competitive advantages from their home country.These advantages can bring unique competitiveness to American films,so that their foreignness can be presented as assets,helping American films to get more box office in the competition with Chinese films.However,the Chinese film industry is still in the development stage,and China’s cultural soft power is not as strong as that of the United States’.Therefore,the foreignness of Chinese films in the American market is presented as liabilities,which lead to poor box office of Chinese films.Second,the adjustment of the meaning and label of foreign identity can effectively overcome the liability of foreignness,while the adjustment of the label of foreign identity can effectively enhance the asset of foreignness.Chinese films face liability of foreignness in the American market,which makes them inferior to American films.Chinese films can effectively overcome the liability of foreignness and achieve more box office by adjusting their foreign identity’s meaning and label.This kind of identity adjustment can help films perform better than other Chinese films facing the same liability.American films with asset of foreignness can get more box office in the competition with other American films with the same asset of foreignness by adjusting the foreign identity’s externally label,compared with other American films with the same asset of foreignness.Third,in the long run,Chinese films’ adjustment of foreign identity is playing a weaker role in overcoming the liability of foreignness,while the effects of American films’ identity adjustment are not affected by their entry time.This paper argues that the reason why American films can continue to rely on their identity adjustment to increase the impact of asset of foreignness in the Chinese market is that the firm-specific advantages of American films are still unable to be replicated in China.In this case,the identity adjustment of American films can continue to increase the influence of asset of foreignness,so as to help films get more box office.The theoretical and practical contributions of this paper are mainly reflected in the following aspects:First of all,this paper has a certain contribution to the theory of liability of foreignness and asset of foreignness.In previous studies,liability of foreignness has always been the main concern of scholars,however,scholars have not been paid enough attention to the asset of foreignness.This paper verifies that in the environments of different host countries,the foreignness of products is also different.When facing different types of foreignness,efficient countermeasures which enterprises can adopt are also different.This paper enriches the theoretical framework of the liability of foreignness and asset of foreignness,especially the related content of the asset of foreignness,and makes a comparison between liability of foreignness and asset of foreignness,which has a certain theoretical contribution.Secondly,this paper enriches the relevant theories of the research on international sales of film products.In this paper,the films are regarded as the products produced by the film production companies.This paper analyzes how to carry out international sales of film products from the perspective of film production companies,making up for the previous research gap caused by focusing on film products from the marketing perspective.The research perspective of this paper provides a theoretical basis for film production companies to design and adjust their products according to the market environment of the host country.Finally,this paper focuses on the mutual export process of cultural products between China and the United States,which enriches the relevant theories of cultural product research.Due to the particularity of cultural products,the existing research focuses on the export of cultural products from the developed countries to the underdeveloped countries and the export between countries with similar cultural strength.This paper pays attention to the mutual export of cultural products between two countries with large cultural differences,especially the process of China,a country with weak cultural strength,exporting cultural products to the United States,a country with strong cultural strength.This paper holds that,in this unique situation,the identity adjustments taken by cultural products to fit the host country’s environment are different from other export situations.This paper makes up for the related research framework of cultural products,which has certain theoretical contributions.This paper also has some practical contributions.First,this paper can provide some suggestions for the development of China’s film industry.In recent years,the rapid growth of Chinese films’ box office has brought a lot of opportunities and challenges to the development of China’s film industry.Although domestic films account for more than half of the box office in the domestic market,a large number of box office is still obtained by foreign films,especially American films.The reason why Chinese films lack competitiveness in domestic market is that American films have asset of foreignness in Chinese market.Chinese films must form core competence to compete with American films,so that they can have an absolute advantage in the local market.Secondly,this paper provides practical guidance on how Chinese films can get more box office in the international market.In "going out" process of Chinese film products,adjustment of foreign identity is efficient in the short term,while in the long run,film production companies still need to focus on the improvement of film quality.In order to achieve long-term development,Chinese films must conquer the host country’s market with excellent quality and cannot rely solely on the improvement of Chinese cultural influence.Finally,this paper provides guidance on how film products from US can gain more box office when entering into undeveloped countries’ market.Based on our conclusion,the asset of foreignness of American films can give them enough competitive advantages on the market with weak culture power.American films should pay more attention to the packaging and marketing of products,and obtain the recognition of consumers by changing the label of products.The specific method to change the label of foreign identity should be chosen based on different market situations.As the increasing influence of China’s culture on international market,Chinese film products should use the similar identity adjustment method as American films when entering into the market with relatively weak culture power.To sum up,this paper provides a comprehensive and systematic theoretical analysis framework for the identity adjustment methods and the performance of films’ international box office.From the sources,effect and countermeasures of liability of foreignness and asset of foreignness,this paper provides a theory and practical reference for how film products can obtain better performance in the host country.The conclusion of this paper can also be applied to similar research context of multinational companies.