The academic publishing landscape is dominated by a small group of major publishers who have successfully adapted to the digital era by employing vertical integration strategies and leveraging dynamic capabilities. This article examines how publishers have capitalized on digital transformation to consolidate their control over the academic publishing market. In contrast, academic institutions remain hindered by institutional inertia. Using a critical qualitative approach, we explore how vertical integration has strengthened publisher power and highlights the slow response of academia to their business model innovation. Our findings demonstrate that publishers have mobilized dynamic capabilities and advanced digital technologies to sustain their market dominance, notably their capability to reframe the ethos of the institution of scientific publishing in order to reconfigure in their own interest, while academic institutions struggle with socio-cognitive, technological, economic, psychology and political factors. This highlights an urgent need for academia to address these disparities and adapt effectively to the ongoing digital evolution in research publishing.
