Business Models

The term business model became popular with the rise of the Internet and electronic businesses as a means to explain how an organization works. With innovations also the way how customers interact with firms and thus with their products has changed, leading to a world, where companies compete on the basis of their business models. This is also reflected in the many facets of today’s business model, ranging from definitions and taxonomies to software supported business model design. This article gives an overview on business model research, discusses trends and suggests a research agenda of particularly interesting domains for future research. 

Research Questions

We have identified a number of research qustions in different domains: 

Business Model Innovation, Renewal & Co-Creation, e.g.: 

• What are building blocks of business model innovation 
• How can business model co-creation leverage societal value creation 

Business Model Mapping & Diffusion, e.g.: 

• What are common characteristics of winning or loosing business models? 
• What would be a comprehensive, multi-stakeholder success metric? 

Business Model Governance, e.g.: 

• What legal regulations are setting the boundaries for business models? 
• What would be appropriate approaches to efficiently manage value networks? 

Societal Implications of Specific Business Models, e.g.: 

• How do business models influence different stakeholders in good and in bad? 
• What are societal implications of selected business models?