A Comparative Study of Coffee Culture between Italy and South Korea: An Exploratory Study

This exploratory research compares two particular features of coffee culture, namely thereason why a particular coffee shop is frequented and the reason for going to the chosencoffee shop in Italy and South Korea. A survey was carried out targeted at current undergraduateuniversity students in both countries with data being collected in the late spring and earlysummer of 2017. The main impetus for this research was to investigate the aforementionedareas given the fact that Italy has such a long standing coffee culture that dates back centuriesand is still an industry dominated by independent coffee houses while the Korean coffeeindustry started developing in the early 1980s and taking off after the 1988 Olympic Games. The Korean coffee industry, in contrast, is driven by the franchise coffee shops such asStarbucks, Café Benne, and The Coffee Bean among others. While both countries have welldeveloped coffee cultures, they developed along very different lines. Data collected fromrespondents are tabulated and presented followed by an analysis and interpretation of the data. Finally, some suggestions on how to conduct further research in order to better understandingthe underpinnings and contributing factors in understanding consumer choice and coffeeculture in both Italian and Korea are suggested.