Page 72 - GHES-2-3

Global Health Economics and
Sustainability
Sustainability with luck-dependent decision-making

group, who wanted to create a community of artists using on organizations described as “huge” (Wei et al., 2021).
the K-pop training system. The leader, Bang Chan, himself Despite this, Stray Kids demonstrated organizational
trained with JYP Entertainment (JYP Entertainment resilience and were able to grow their international fan base,
Corp., 2024) from the time of his successful audition in music units, and merchandise sales (McIntyre, 2023) at a
his home country of Australia at the age of 13 (KapanLagi, time when panic buying of essentials was prevalent (Lahiri &
2021) until the age of 20, when he received the assignment Sinha, 2021). Stray Kids debuted on March 25, 2018, where
to create a group that he would lead (Wicks, 2023) based the opening price for JYP Entertainment stock was ₩17,350.
on the values he considered most important—developing After rising somewhat in the first few years after Stray Kid’s
a long-lasting, successful K-pop group that wrote and self- debut, with the announcement of the pandemic on March
produced its music (Kelley, 2019). Members expressing 11, 2020 (Cucinotta & Vanelli, 2020), the opening price for
a vision in common with the group leader were selected JYP Entertainment was virtually the same at ₩17,500 (Dow
(Spotify, 2022). Jones, 2024). However, during a time when businesses were
When making group-wide decisions, Stray Kids more likely to fail as a result of the pandemic conditions
prioritize maintaining their close connection to permit (Amankwah-Amoah et al., 2021), the growth of JYP was
the successful continuation of the group with all original robust, in no small measure, as a result of the dominant rise
members. Despite individual preferences, such as one of Stray Kids (Lee, 2023). During the height of the pandemic
member known for a principled approach to decision- in South Korea, in March 2022 (Shin & Smith, 2022),
making (Bell, 2022), Stray Kids have adopted the use of luck, JYP Entertainment’s opening price was ₩50,100 (Dow
most often by playing the Rock-Paper-Scissors game to Jones, 2024). By the time the pandemic officially ended in
decide the winner (or loser), where players simultaneously South Korea in May 2023 (Kim, 2023), the opening price of
produce a hand signal indicating their choice of “rock,” JYP Entertainment had risen to ₩90,400, reaching a high
“paper,” or “scissors.” The rules are that rock beats scissors, of ₩135,500 in August 2023 (Dow Jones, 2024). The JYP
paper beats rock, and scissors beats paper. Since group Entertainment stock has since declined to ₩55,600 in June
cohesion is paramount to Stray Kids, once the game is 2024 due to a reduction in album sales as no new albums
over, the members accept the result, regardless of the have been released (Jeong & Lee, 2024). A recent substantial
outcome. The importance of this game for their decision- acquisition of stock by the founder of JYP Entertainment
making strategy is evident in the first episode of their has demonstrated his confidence in the company (Lee,
“2 Kids Show” that began airing on November 22, 2023 2024). A new album by Stray Kids, anticipated to be their
(Stray Kids, 2023, 15:33) and at a 2024 conference they most significant, was expected for the end of April (Salomon
held to assess their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, Quotes, 2024c). The album release date is confirmed as July
and threats (Stray Kids, 2024b, 10:34; Stray Kids, 2024d, 19, 2024 (Ha, 2024; JYP Entertainment Co., Ltd., 2024).
26:33, 26:36, 35:27, 40:06 – 50:01, 51:12). As well, noting Regarding the business history of their parent company,
its importance to the group, two self-composed songs— Stray Kids not only anticipated how to react to the pandemic
one penned and recorded by an individual group member crisis, but their group also demonstrated robustness and
(Iwalyzy, 2021) and the other created by the self-producing recoverability. These qualities should again take their parent
team of the group—3 Racha (Bell, 2022)—and recorded company out of the recent downturn.
by the group as a whole (Stray Kids, 2023a)—reference the Recognizing the socioeconomic stability of Stray
game. As an intentional community, the primary concern
of Stray Kids is making decisions based on each member’s Kids, this study will investigate the features of the group
interests and abilities in writing, producing, performing, members playing Rock-Paper-Scissors to settle their
and promoting their music and the group, while ensuring group-wide disputes using the historical research method.
group cohesion remains intact. What this means for Stray Examined are the strengths and weaknesses of using the
Kids is that decisions requiring a quick resolution in daily historical method for investigating Stray Kids’ use of Rock-
matters are made using luck, primarily through Rock- Paper-Scissors as the decision-making method. For society
Paper-Scissors, where maintaining their close family-like to improve its institutions in their social and economic
bond takes precedence over winning. sustainability in meeting Goals 10 and 16, offered insights
show how this method can apply.
The socioeconomic stability of an organization is affected
by several factors, most recently studied regarding three 2. Methods
aspects of organizational resilience: Crisis anticipation, 2.1. Data
organizational robustness, and recoverability (Rai et al.,
2021). Socioeconomic stability was particularly problematic The data for this study were gathered from primary
during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the negative impact sources, representing first-hand information, as well as

Volume 2 Issue 3 (2024) 3 https://doi.org/10.36922/ghes.3191