Formulating blue ocean strategy to revitalize a regional industry: a case of rafting industry in Korea

The framework of ‘blue ocean strategy (Kim and Mauborgne, 2005)’ applies to not only business firm level but also region or regional industry level. The paper suggests an approach of survey-based blue ocean strategy formulation. The result from survey on customer group and non-customer group gives information on positions of value curves for regions on strategy canvas and hints on how to reposition the focal region's value curve for both increases in value for customers and decreases in cost for local government, i.e., value innovation. In the context of rafting industry in Korea, this study shows the process how blue ocean strategy can be formulated with results from the survey on customers and business people in rafting industry. Relative positions of value curves on strategy canvas and importance scores for strategy elements provides the local government in region A with implications on which elements to raise or to reduce to create ‘blue ocean’ in rafting industry under fierce inter-region competition.