An Empirical Analysis on Effects of ‘Cultural Partnership Initiative’ in Korea

Abstract

This Study examined the effectiveness of the on-going cultural diplomacy program, Cultural Partnership Initiative on changing images of Korea. The policy was mainly purposed to improve the images of Korea among thearts community in developing countries as part of Oversea Development AidProject. Gartner(1993) and Russel(1983) mainly suggested theoreticalarguments on the importance of both cognitive and affective imges to assessthe effectiveness of this interpersonal residence training program. The survey were conducted to all participants (72 People) of the 2013 Cultural Partnership Initiative who performed for 6 months in Korea and the research method is pre-post surveys. Questionnaires are developed fromprevious research and consisted of cognitive and affective country image variables, interpersonal contact variable and behavior intention variables measurement parts. The results found Korea’s country image before/after the cultural trainingprogram showed a significant difference. Specifically the survey on subfactors of the cognitive country image before/after the program showed that except politics, the country image was improved in economy, society and culture. Also, affective images, attractive factors such as pleasure,excitement and kindness were improved after the program participation. The findings imply affective image was significantly related to revisit and recommendation purpose, and the cognitive image did not show any significant difference. Therefore the current residence policy was effective for improving interpersonal contact with several alternatives in implementing policy.