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Impacting Forces on eBook Business Models Development

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Publishing Research Quarterly Aims and scope

Abstract

As eBook and related technologies continue their relentless advance, book publishers face a veritable digital siege. Nevertheless, technology remains an enabler, a set of tools and facilitators, albeit linked to the potential for new entrants to the market and indeed, disintermediation. However, the fundamentals are to do with markets, organizational strategies and structures, and with finding answers to hard commercial questions about cost and profit, infrastructure management and sustainability all as reflected in appropriate business models. Underlying these is a range of internal and external forces, not all of which are negative in their effects, as witness signs of improvement in an eBook market faced with greatly reduced planning horizons and the need for dynamic product and marketing mixes. This paper addresses a range of responses by book publishers to such challenges and concludes by reviewing the resulting several business models currently in place for eBook publishing.

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  1. Faculty of Higher Education, Swinburne University of Technology, Lilydale, Australia

    Xuemei Tian & Bill Martin

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  1. Xuemei Tian
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  2. Bill Martin
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Correspondence to Xuemei Tian.

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Tian, X., Martin, B. Impacting Forces on eBook Business Models Development. Pub Res Q 27, 230–246 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12109-011-9229-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12109-011-9229-0

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