Special Libraries, October 1984

Volume 75, Issue 4https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_sl_1984/1003/thumbnail.jp

Something Old, Something New: How Chapbooks and Crowdfunding can Reduce Financial Risk for Small Publishers

Small publishing houses often follow lean and nimble business models, yet the financial risk inherent in publishing for niche readerships can be a barrier for such entrepreneurial practices. Exploring the dual conditions of a less expensive and more eco-friendly format of a chapbook instead of an initial hardcover illustrated book, while determining pre-order interest through a crowdfunding platform, this paper looks at a process to reduce financial risk for small publishers who can’t necessarily do accurate comparative analysis for their sales projections. Common terminology is defined, supplemented by a literature review and a detailed ethnographic approach, including a case study of the author’s crowdfunded chapbook project. The case study includes data on social media advertising and other marketing activities. This paper stands out from existing research in terms of the extent of other publishers interviewed, data collected and the analysis of the marketing information, as well as the children’s picture book and chapbook history that is explored. This case study also occurred during the 2020 pandemic, limiting all marketing activities to online

Must there be war?

https://stars.library.ucf.edu/prism/1549/thumbnail.jp

A resource-based view of the firm : integrating the role of IT as a strategic resource - an empirical study of South African personal financial services (Assurance) firms, 1999-2003

Includes bibliographical references (p. 502-531).This research explores an "inside the black box" view on how IT enables sustainable competitive advantage. Most researchers have investigated IT competitive competencies that make up a firm's strategic framework to understand competitive advantage. However, Resource-Based Theory (RBT) probes into the inner workings of a firm, suggesting that a firm's IT assets and resources are the basis of a firm's "rare" core competencies to compete successfully. Using RBT and research in the economics, strategy, and IT literatures, an initial "Framework of Sustainability" was created, against which the case studies were conducted. This framework was used as foundation to develop semi-structured questionnaires in which 45, 90 minute (on average) interviews were conducted with managers in the four firms. Both internal and external documents about the firms and the industry were used as sources of corroborating evidence. In addition, a "bottoms up" view was obtained with evidence gathered from a short questionnaire and focus groups discussions held with 178 staff employees in the four firms