The Impact of E-book Distribution on Print Sales: Analysis of a Natural Experiment

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Chen, Hailiang; Hu, Yu Jeffrey; Smith, Michael D.
• 署名单位: City University of Hong Kong; University System of Georgia; Georgia Institute of Technology; Carnegie Mellon University
• 刊物名称: MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0025-1909
• DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2017.2940
• 发表日期: 2019
• 页码: 19-31
• 关键词: digital distribution; channel; publishing industry; natural experiment

摘要

Digital distribution introduces many new strategic questions for the creative industries-notably, how the use of new digital channels will impact sales in established channels. We analyze this question in the context of e-book and hardcover sales by exploiting a natural experiment that exogenously delayed the release of a publisher's new Kindle e-books in April and May 2010. Using new books released simultaneously in e-book and print formats in March and June 2010 as the control group, we find that delaying e-book availability results in a 43.8% decrease in e-book sales but no increase in print book sales on Amazon.com or among other online or offline retailers. We also find that the decrease in e-book sales is greater for books with less prerelease buzz. Together, we find no evidence of strong cannibalization between print books and e-books in the short term and no support for the sequential distribution of books in print versions followed by e-book versions.