Case study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 24

Case Study Example The advent of the internet has enabled the book publishers as well as book retail stores like B&N to sell e-books, devices to read them on, and apps that improve the reading experience. The publishing companies have been forced to commence releasing books as apps in addition to physical books. Book apps are adding new features, such as flip through photo albums, image enlargement, listen to music characters within the book, and read instant messages. The online booksellers as well as e-books do not have overhead costs. Following Porters value chain analysis, the primary activities are directly associated with physical creation, sale and support of the product (Porters, 2006). They comprise of: inbound logistics are processes related to receiving, storing and distributing inputs internally. The publishers print the books and store them internally; operations involve the activities that change inputs into outputs sold to consumers. This entails transformation of content to digital form; outbound logistics entails delivering the product to the customer. This is usually attained through apps; marketing and sales of e-books has been very competitive with firms like Amazon and B&N outdoing each other; service involves maintaining the value of the product. The booksellers have ensured that they develop an e-reader, market it, and set manufacturing and retail operations for the device. The publishing industry has been significantly affected by the new market entrants. The major competitors of B&N in the e-selling of books include Google, Amazon and Apple. The publishing companies are investing in resources like Kindle and iPads as delivery platforms for their books. In order to gain market share, a company needs to contend with increased competition. In the case of B&N, for them to gain market share and stay afloat they needed to contend with stiff competition from Apple, Google, and Amazon. Competitors such as Amazon aims at eliminating the publishers