Abstract
Purpose- this paper aims to investigate the barriers of the development of e-textbook publishing from the cultural and economic perspectives and to propose appropriate strategies for improving it and resolving the current problems in Iran. Method/approach of research-A field survey was conducted among 294 students, experts, managers, and publishers of e-textbook. In order to analyze data, one-sample t-test and confirmatory factor analysis were used by LISREL and SPSS software. Findings- From the experts’ viewpoint, the components of “production” (with an average of 23), “distribution” (with an average of 26), and “sales” (with the average 22) from the economic perspective and the components of “cultural institutions” (with an average of 22), “digital literacy” (with an average of 16) and the “culture-making” (with an average of 18) from the cultural perspective were lower than average level of 50. It means that the respondents are not satisfied with the current status of cultural and economic components.Conclusion- The majority of respondents had negative opinion about the current status of the components. In other words, all the economic components (production, distribution and sale) and cultural components (cultural institutes, digital literacy and culture-making) has a high capacity for the development of electronic publishing. Major problems in the industry include book auditing and the weaknesses of related regulations, economic barriers (high costs of production, distribution failures, and inadequate advertisement), the weakness of public culture, the lack of digital libraries, and the lack of technical and cultural facilities of publishers.

Keywords
Analog publishing, Electronic publishing, Digital media

Cite this paper
Parisa Mehrani Adl, Barriers to the development of electronic textbook publishing from the economic and cultural perspectives , SCIREA Journal of Education. Volume 1, Issue 1, December 2016 | PP. 99-116.

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