China's Book Distribution Industry Study On Sustainable Development

With China's transition from a planned economy to a market economy, the adaptation to the challenges of the market economy for the state-run book distribution industry on path to sustainable development has been the focus of attention of the entire book distribution industry. At present, the book distribution in China has become increasingly rich in category, with that of education and science, arts and sports, industrial technology, and economics as the top ranking among the total categories, and the focus of the subjects gradually turns to concerns about people's livelihood and about economic and social development. The distribution structure as well as the supply chain of books is undergoing profound changes. At the same time, with the state-owned Xinhua Bookstore as the main body, private bookstores increasingly become an important part of the book distribution market, and foreign-funded enterprises of books become a useful supplement to various distribution channels. The book distribution mode in China continues to innovate. In addition, China's book distribution industry is characterized by co-exist of monopoly vs. market, tradition vs. modernity, extensiveness vs. intensiveness, the combination of the price increase and issue at a discount, and an obvious urban-rural gap.Generally speaking, China's book distribution industry has such problems as obsolete management principles, inadequate marketing ideas, lack of brand concept, neglect of image ideas and inaccurate market positioning. Compared with foreign-funded distribution enterprises of books, China's book distribution industry lacks for the awareness of cooperation based on competition and the initiative of business development. Without a clear line between the functions of the government and enterprises and lack of clarity of property rights, the state-run book distribution industry is weak in the risk management and book logistics management system and is imperfect in its financial management system, all of which are direct obstacles to the sustainable development of China's book distribution industry.The reason as we explore lies in that with little pioneering and innovative spirit, the state-owned book distribution enterprises have insufficient understanding of the book distribution market. Some private bookstores have just small scale of operation and low management level, while foreign-capital bookstores haven't been so competitive as to form independent distributors in the market.On the basis of a full study and absorbing the successful experience of the book distribution industry at home and abroad, we think that China's book distribution industry should change from three aspects of innovation including the development concept, development mechanism and science and technology, so as to achieve the sustainable development of China's book distribution industry.