Drawing on research undertaken in the history and philosophy of science, with particular reference to the extensive literature which discusses the use of models in biology and economics, we explore the question 'Are Business Models useful?' We point out that they act as various forms of model: to provide means to describe and classify businesses; to operate as sites for scientific investigation; and to act as recipes for creative managers. We argue that studying business models as models is rewarding in that it enables us to see how they embody multiple and mediating roles. We illustrate our ideas with reference to practices in the real world and to academic analyses, especially in this Long Range Planning Special Issue on Business Models.

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The History of Econometric Ideas covers the period from the late-nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth century, illustrating how economists first learnt to harness statistical methods to measure and test the 'laws' of economics. Though scholarly, Dr Morgan's book is very accessible and does not require a high level of prior statistical knowledge.

A comparison of models and experiments supports the argument that although both function as mediators and can be understood to work in an experimental mode, experiments offer greater epistemic power than models as a means to investigate the economic world. This outcome rests on the distinction that whereas experiments are versions of the real world captured within an artificial laboratory environment, models are artificial worlds built to represent the real world. This difference in ontology has epistemic consequences: experiments have greater potential to make strong inferences back to the world, but also have the power to isolate new phenomena. This latter power is manifest in the possibility that whereas working with models may lead to 'surprise', experimental results may be unexplainable within existing theory and so 'confound' the experimenter.