KOREAN WAVE AND KOREAN FOOD FRANCHISE EXPANSION IN BANGKOK THAILAND

The objectives of this research were to investigate the relationship between Korean Wave and current Korean restaurant franchise business expansion in Bangkok and to investigate the factors affecting the decision of Thai customers who came to Korean franchise restaurants, such as general information, source of information, cost of meal, and motivation to have Korean food. This research aims to study the expansion and development of the Korean restaurant business in the case of changing popularity of Korea popular culture in the future from the perspective of Korean restaurant owners. The sample of research is customers who came to consume the Korean food at Korean restaurants in the Bangkok area and also the Korean restaurant owners from 3 stores. Questionnaires for customers were distributed and in-depth interviews with Korean business owners were conducted. The author uses quantitative approach and qualitative approach to analyze data. The sampling group are Thai teenagers and Thai workers aged 15-40 years old, the results show that, the first reason the samples customers decide to eat Korean food is because of social media. The second, is friend’s invitation. Moreover, for the reason why Korean food become a popular food in Thailand, first is taste of food. And second is popularity of Korean singers. On the part of the business owners, it is interesting that they decided to open a Korean food franchise from Korea directly, because of the popularity of Korean culture in current time.