2022
Working Paper
HBS Working Paper Series

Institutional Emplacement and the Novel Resurgence of Independent Bookstores

Format:Print
| Language:English
| Pages:64

Abstract

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 organizational actors responded to the rise of Amazon.com, an online retailer that threatened to displace traditional brick-and-mortar retail. While many analysts predicted that Amazon’s emergence would incite a “retail apocalypse,” independent bookstores proved to be far more resilient than expected. We introduce institutional emplacement—a collective process by which actors infuse value into physical “spaces,” thereby transforming them into sacralized “places”—as a novel mechanism of industry evolution. Several practices are associated with this mechanism, including architecting the physical design and use of space, anchoring to the local community, and articulating the sacred meaning of place. Together, this study offers a counterbalance to narratives of virtual ascendancy and shows how physical place can be marshalled for organizational adaptation in mature industries.