Even though the e-book market is increasing, little research has been done on readers who are late adopters of e-books, and their resistance and scepticism to e-book adoption. The Swedish and Japanese e-book market have had similar adoption rates since 2010. However, even though their adoption rates resemble each other, how readers gain access to e-books differ in Sweden and Japan. Swedish readers use the library, and subscription services, while Japanese readers mostly use mobile apps that specializes in certain genres, such as manga or special mobile novels called keitai shousetsu.This study investigates the similarities and differences between late adopters of e-books in Sweden and Japan, with the use of the diffusion of innovation-theory by Everett Rogers (2003). Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted in spring 2017 with five Swedish and five Japanese respondents, all readers who had yet to adopt e-books. The analysis found that the main factors for the respondents’ choice to reject or resist e-book adoption are an emotional bond to the print format, and the reading experience. The factors were related to trust issues, and an uncertainty in how e-books would affect their personal lives as well as their social systems. There were few differences between the Swedish and Japanese respondents. The main difference was that the Swedish respondents would talk about books with people outside of their immediate family to a larger extent than the Japanese respondents.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:hb-23672 |
| Date | January 2020 |
| Creators | Streiffert, Elin |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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