Electronic book publishing : perception among Malaysian university presses /by Hussaini Musa

Abstract

Malaysian publishers perceived electronic publishing as complex and hard to maintain and seem to be contented with print publishing. This leads to the slow adoption of electronic publishing. E-book publishing is not fully researched. The previous researchers and works on publishing in Malaysia focused more on e-journal publishing. This study investigated the status and perceptions of publishers towards e-book publishing among Malaysian university presses. The study employed mixed method strategy for the collection and analysis of the data. It adopted the Theory of Planned Behaviour as the theoretical base for the study. A purposive sampling technique was used to select five university presses for surveys and interviews. Data was collected from five sampled university presses through a questionnaire survey. Ninety-four staff who works in the university presses out of a total of one hundred and seventy-nine participated. Ninety-four questionnaires were returned and used for analysis. The qualitative data were collected through interviews with the five directors of the sampled university presses. The quantitative and qualitative data collected were analysed separately and the qualitative findings complement the quantitative results. The findings revealed that the level of progress in e-book publishing is appreciable as most of the responses on the status of e-book publishing show evidence of e-book publishing activities among the university presses. The findings showed that the lack of technological expertise is a greater barrier to publishers’ efforts in implementing e-books publishing in the university presses. Factor analysis was employed to discover potentially problematic items and to provide a preliminary indication of the validity. In all, the outcomes of the PLS structural model proved to have statistically measured the variables. The interceding influence of e-book publishing is influenced directly by attitudes which is reported as significant (?=0.111, t=2.639, p<0.008), subjective norms which have no influence on the publishers’ perception towards e-book publishing has no significance (?=-0.084, t=1.149, not significant) and Perceived behavioural control influence has a significant positive influence at (?=0.981, t=15.118, p<0.000). Attitude and perceived behavioral control are presumed to positively influence publishers’ perception towards the implementation of e-book publishing. Therefore, the findings suggested a set of factors that influence publishers’ perception which consist of personal feelings and views of the ease or difficulty, which can be said to influence their perceptions. This study has contributed significantly to the theory and academic understanding of the status as well as publishers’ perceptions towards e-book publishing in the area of the publishing industry, particularly in Malaysia. It can be used to guide the publishers to better improve their perceptions towards e-book publishing in the university presses.