First issued as Inaug.-Diss.--Zürich.

This research examines the implementation of marketing both by chain and online booksellers, and consumer responses to this marketing and a reading of the current trade press revealed calls for research into consumer wants and needs (Watson, 2002; Holman, 2007; Horner, 2007a). While BML (Book Marketing Limited) carries out a valuable range of research into publishing and bookselling on an ongoing basis, nevertheless, both are relatively new research areas, and bookselling is particularly underdeveloped. It would appear that research in the field of bookselling has yet to be examined in an academic context. With specific respect to the development of a comprehensive understanding of consumer responses to bookshop marketing, the research is original, timely and useful, and builds upon the foundations of existing research, as detailed above. The mixed-method approach adopted in this study enhanced the level of triangulation possible, with interviews, surveys and focus groups serving to consolidate and support sets of results. This empirical research has uncovered rich source material from consumers both online and offline, revealing complex responses to traditional and online bookselling environments. Key original findings include: the widespread perception of homogeneity across chain bookshops by consumers; the presence of a coffee shop can enhance the concept of the bookshop as a social space and that consumer behaviour online was found to tend towards linear, goal-oriented book buying, whereas traditional book shopping tends to be much more about browsing, and have a serendipitous quality to it. The research has developed a comprehensive understanding of the approaches to marketing taken by chain booksellers, but more especially, the range of consumer responses and behaviour in both traditional chain and online bookshops. It has built upon the existing scholarly material available in these fields, as well as extending and developing research in the new academic field of bookselling. There is considerable scope for further investigation in both traditional and online bookselling, as outlined in the Conclusions chapter, building on the findings emerging from this research.

Thèse--Paris, 1913. / Bibliographical references included in "Préface."

Thesis--Frankfurt am Main. / Vita. Bibliography: p. 227-236.

First part issued as thesis, Utrecht.

Thesis--Columbia University. / "150 copies printed. No. 35." Bibliographical references included in "Notes" (p. [125]-131) "Checklist of works written, compiled, edited, published, or reprinted by Louis Alexis Hocquet de Caritat": p.[132]-139.

Thèse--Paris, 1913. / Bibliographical references included in "Préface."

Thèse--Paris, 1913. / Bibliographical references included in "Préface."

"In view of his success in making notable contributions to the literature of America, this writer wondered as to why Carey, apparently an important contributor of his age, had received so little credit among the historians of American culture. This perplexity gave rise to this paper in which his contributions as an editor, publisher, and bookseller are being examined. In so doing his position among his contemporaries is being studied to ascertain his proper place among the leaders in the periodical world, and to discover when writers to whom he gave a helping hand lived through the years, why Carey, who encouraged them, published their works even though financial returns were very uncertain, and introduced them to the American public, fails to receive proper recognition"--Introduction. / Typescript. / "August, 1952." / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts." / Advisor: Robert G. Clapp, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 42-43).

This thesis is concerned with the rise of independent booksellers in China since the late 2000s. Drawing on the findings of a qualitative study I conducted with 55 independent booksellers between 2014 and 2015, I argue that independent bookselling in China is an economic activity politicized, and the emergence and development of independent booksellers has been a process shaped by both economic and socio-political factors stemming from both inside and outside the book industry. Studying independent bookselling, a significant change in the Chinese book industry in recent years, my thesis advances our understanding of the transformation of the book industry in China. The notion of ‘politicization’ provides a useful analytical framework for understanding bookselling and publishing in parallel contexts. Finally, by elucidating the distinctive relationship between the evolution of the book industry and some wider social, political and economic processes in China, my thesis adds to the political economy of the media industry in non-Western societies and contributes to the de-Westernization of this long-dominant and yet problematic approach to the study of the media and media industries.