Interorganizational Relations and Destination Marketing in Anime-Induced Tourism: The Effect of Joint Dependence

Traveling to locations featured in anime has become a significant tourism behavior as the number and popularity of Japanese anime works have increased. The widespread phenomenon of anime-induced tourism has called for destination marketing that welcomes anime fans. This study focuses on the dyadic relationship between destination marketers and anime production teams, who hold definitive discretion over copyrights in anime-induced tourism. Using the concept of joint dependence derived from the theoretical assumptions of resource dependency theory, this research investigates how organizations with imbalanced power relations choose to collaborate. By comparing three qualitative cases that distinctly demonstrate temporal structural changes in anime tourism, this study reveals that joint dependence facilitates interorganizational cooperation through domain consensus between destination marketers and anime production teams. The current study makes a significant theoretical contribution to the fields of interorganizational relations, destination marketing studies, and anime-induced tourism research. Additionally, it provides highly practical insights into tourism development strategies for destination marketers and anime production companies.