The Business Model: Recent Developments and Future Research

TLDR

The paper reviews the literature on business models through multiple subject‑matter lenses. The authors conduct a broad, multifaceted review of the received literature on business models. The review finds that scholars disagree on the definition of a business model and that the literature is fragmented, yet emerging common themes—such as treating the business model as a new unit of analysis, adopting a system‑level holistic approach, emphasizing firm activities, and focusing on value creation—could guide a more unified study.

Abstract

The paper provides a broad and multifaceted review of the received literature on business models in which we examine the business model concept through multiple subject-matter lenses. The review reveals that scholars do not agree on what a business model is, and that the literature is developing largely in silos, according to the phenomena of interest to the respective researchers. However, we also found emerging common themes among scholars of business models. Specifically, 1) the business model is emerging as a new unit of analysis; 2) business models emphasize a system-level, holistic approach towards explaining how firms "do business"; 3) firm activities play an important role in the various conceptualizations of business models that have been proposed; and 4) business models seek to explain how value is created, not just how it is captured. These emerging themes could serve as catalysts towards a more unified study of business models.