On building up a closer psychic distance as a fundamental ground of relationship between India and Korea: focusing on Jeonlanam-Do in Korea

The Uppsala model (Johanson and Wiedersheim-Paul, 1975) identifies cultural differences, market attractiveness, and core competence of nations or firms as the key factors affecting international market selection. Among these three factors, psychic distance caused by cultural differences is regarded as the most important factor. However, the psychic distance between India and Korea is not very close. The main objective of this paper is to examine the ways to boost economic relationships between India and Korea by building up a closer relationship of psychic distance. We suggest Jeonlanam-Do including Gwangju Metropolitan City (JDGC) in Korea as a stepping stone to make both countries' psychic distance closer as JD has several common grounds of intangible assets with India which includes its adherence to democracy, human rights and peace; the diverse food culture; and the religious zeal to Buddhism. We propose these common interests as a way to enhance the awareness of national brand 'India' in Korea which will attribute to a strategically developed economic relationship between Korea and India.