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- All HBS Web
(119)
- News (87)
- Research (19)
- Events (1)
- Multimedia (14)
- Faculty Publications (4)
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- 2020
- Working Paper
Reinventing Retail: The Novel Resurgence of Independent Bookstores
By: Ryan Raffaelli
This study examines how community-based brick-and-mortar retailers can achieve sustained market growth in the face of online and big box retail competition. The appearance of Amazon.com in 1995 led to a significant decline in the number of independent bookstores in the... View Details
Keywords: Bookstores; Competitive Strategy; Business and Community Relations; Customization and Personalization; Growth and Development; Retail Industry; United States
Raffaelli, Ryan. "Reinventing Retail: The Novel Resurgence of Independent Bookstores." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-068, January 2020.
- Article
Organizational Emplacement as a Response to Digital Threat: The Novel Resurgence of Independent Bookstores
By: Ryan Raffaelli and Ryann Noe
This study reveals how incumbent actors leverage physical place as source of differentiation in response to the threat of digital commoditization. Through a longitudinal, qualitative analysis of the U.S. independent bookselling industry from 1995 to 2019, we outline... View Details
Keywords: Retail; Place Making; Bookstores; Industry Evolution; Digital; Commoditization; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Adaptation; Business Strategy; Digital Transformation; E-commerce; Distribution Channels; Civil Society or Community; Value Creation; Retail Industry
Raffaelli, Ryan, and Ryann Noe. "Organizational Emplacement as a Response to Digital Threat: The Novel Resurgence of Independent Bookstores." Administrative Science Quarterly (in press). (Pre-published online May 3, 2025.)
- 06 Sep 2022
- Cold Call Podcast
Reinventing an Iconic Independent Bookstore
- 21 Jan 2020
- Research & Ideas
Lessons for Retailers from the Rebirth of Indie Bookstores
As big box bookstores Barnes & Noble and Borders spread across the landscape in the 1990s, retail observers sounded the death knell for small, independent booksellers. But they had no idea of the onslaught that was coming. Amazon.com... View Details
- 20 Nov 2017
- Research & Ideas
How Independent Bookstores Have Thrived in Spite of Amazon.com
Click HereIndependent bookstores provide a story of hope by focusing on core values that include community, curation, and convening. (Video by Amelia Kunhardt) When Amazon.com burst onto the nascent online retail scene in 1995, the future... View Details
- 2022
- Working Paper
Institutional Emplacement and the Novel Resurgence of Independent Bookstores
By: Ryan Raffaelli and Ryann Noe
This study reveals how actors leverage physical place as an asset to facilitate organizational
adaptation and industry evolution. Through a longitudinal, qualitative analysis of the U.S.
independent bookselling industry from 1995 to 2019, we outline how dispersed... View Details
Keywords: Industry Growth; Small Business; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business Processes; Retail Industry; Publishing Industry; United States
Raffaelli, Ryan, and Ryann Noe. "Institutional Emplacement and the Novel Resurgence of Independent Bookstores." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 23-033, December 2022.
- 25 Feb 2020
- Working Paper Summaries
Reinventing Retail: The Novel Resurgence of Independent Bookstores
- March 1997 (Revised April 1998)
- Case
Amazon.com (A)
Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon.com, an Internet-based bookseller, has created one of the most successful ventures for electronic commerce on the Web. With revenue growing at a pace of 30% per month, Bezos attributes the success of Amazon.com to its value... View Details
Rayport, Jeffrey F., and Dickson Louie. "Amazon.com (A)." Harvard Business School Case 897-128, March 1997. (Revised April 1998.)
- 17 Dec 2012
- Research & Ideas
Teaming in the Twenty-First Century
Even as academic journals and business sections of bookstores fill up with titles devoted to teams, teamwork, and team players, Harvard Business School Professor Amy C. Edmondson wonders if many might be barking up the wrong tree. "I've... View Details
Keywords: by Maggie Starvish
- 06 Jan 2014
- Working Paper Summaries
Mechanisms of Technology Re-Emergence and Identity Change in a Mature Field: Swiss Watchmaking, 1970-2008
- 06 Jan 2014
- Research & Ideas
Technology Re-Emergence: Creating New Value for Old Innovations
renewed competitive identity. "Independent bookstores were founded on the idea of community building," Raffaelli says. "And today they have shifted their sole focus away from the books they sell—Amazon can do that. Rather,... View Details
- 11 Jul 2019
- Sharpening Your Skills
Deconstructing 'Customer Experience'
With the help of LEGO bricks, business executives discover how design principles can serve as building blocks to create a great customer experience. How Independent Bookstores Have Thrived in Spite of Amazon.comIndy booksellers have... View Details
- 10 May 2010
- Research & Ideas
What Top Scholars Say About Leadership
Works on the subject of leadership weigh down bookstore shelves the world over. Tomes tell you how to be a 30-second manager, how to inspire your employees like Churchill, and the three keys to "strength-based leadership."... View Details
- 14 Aug 2019
- Sharpening Your Skills
The Manager's Guide to Leveraging Disruption
drive disruption—customers do. A recent book argues that successful disruptors spot and serve emerging customer needs faster than larger competitors. How Independent Bookstores Have Thrived in Spite of Amazon.comBook retailers were among... View Details
Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne
- 19 Feb 2018
- Sharpening Your Skills
Amazoned: Is Any Industry Safe?
Made-up Holiday The company is throwing itself a party where all its Prime customers get the gifts. How Independent Bookstores Have Thrived in Spite of Amazon.com Independent bookstores managed to survive... View Details
- 14 Sep 2007
- Research & Ideas
How to Profit from Scarcity
company. It wasn't just direct sales of these two products that benefited from the scarcity illusion, however: The heavy crowds drove sales of related products in Apple stores and bookstores during a relatively slow sales month. But there... View Details
- 15 Aug 2016
- Research & Ideas
Black Swans and Big Trends Can Ruin Anyone's Internet Prediction
speculates about whether Microsoft or Adobe would be better positioned to establish the dominant ebook standard. The possibility that the world’s biggest bookstore might eventually win that race hadn’t dawned on me. Social networks. We’d... View Details
- 08 Jul 2024
- Research & Ideas
The Critical Computer Science Principles Every Strategic Leader Needs to Know
its own inventory. Today, Amazon is a classic example of “platformization”: The company grew from an online bookstore into a vast technological hub that provides logistics and advertising to third-party retailers and public cloud services... View Details
- 31 Jul 2015
- Research & Ideas
The Faculty Reader: Who is Reading What This Summer?
Chinua Achebe, A Daughter of Han, by Ning Lao T'ai-t'ai, and No Future Without Forgiveness, by Desmond Tutu. Joseph Fuller There is something special about visiting your local independent bookstore in anticipation of finding the perfect... View Details