The Constructs of a Business Model Redefined: A Half-Century Journey

Abstract

Despite its growing popularity, the term business model has not been uniquely defined so far. Within the management science and practice, it has been frequently confused with other popular terms. This article aims to bring clarity into what stands behind the business model concept by providing a review of the most common themes used in defining business model elements. It also discusses the relationship between the concept of a business model, on one hand, and strategy and sustainability, on the other. A few conclusions emerge. First, although there are no generally accepted definitions for either the business model or its building blocks, academics and practitioners agree that a business model is all about value. Second, a business model is not the same as a strategy but it has an important role in strategy implementation. Third, sustainability is found to be a hot topic for business models and has been increasingly used in symbiosis with this concept. Besides being a theoretical contribution to a definition of the business model as an independent concept, the findings may be particularly helpful to managers and business practitioners seeking ways to enable their firms to deal with complex market challenges and gain competitive advantage.

Toward Collaborative Cross-Sector Business Models for Sustainability

“…Originally, the business models literature was dominated by a commercial logic and focused primarily on value created for, and captured by, customers and profiteers respectively (Laasch, 2018, p. 158). However, the commercial perspective on business models fell short in capturing the concerns of a broader set of stakeholders and sustainability more generally (Freudenreich et al, 2019;Lüdeke-Freund, Carroux, Joyce, Massa & Breuer, 2018;Peric, Durkin & Vitezic, 2017). Therefore, business model thinking gradually evolved into a broader The need to better integrate sustainability into mainstream business model thinking has led to the formulation of alternatives, including triple bottom line business models (Joyce & Paquin, 2016), green business models (Bisgaard, Henriksen, & Bjerre, 2012), social business models (Yunus, Moingeon, & Lehmann-Ortega, 2010), shared value business models (Lüdeke-Freund, Massa, Bocken, Brent, & Musango, 2016), and flourishing business models (Upward & Jones, 2016).…”

“…Originally, the business models literature was dominated by a commercial logic and focused primarily on value created for, and captured by, customers and profiteers, respectively (Laasch, 2018, p. 158). However, the commercial perspective on business models fell short in capturing the concerns of a broader set of stakeholders and sustainability more generally (Freudenreich et al, 2020; Lüdeke-Freund et al, 2018; Peric et al, 2017). Therefore, business model thinking gradually evolved into a broader framework for analyzing the architecture of businesses’ operations, value creation rationales, and sustainability efforts (Lüdeke-Freund & Dembek, 2017; Pedersen et al, 2018; Schaltegger et al, 2016).…”

A Typology of Digital Sharing Business Models: A Design Science Research Approach

“…in [20] cited in [21]), it was during the mid-90s when the term turned into a buzzword in the business area, and in the late 90s when it particularly came to attention with the commercialization of the Internet [21]. As the literature on BMs is heterogeneous, there is no generally accepted definition of the BM concept yet [22][23][24]. Nevertheless, BM is a concept often used to describe how a firm works [25].…”

Improving Business Processes in a Construction Project and Increasing Performance by Using Target Costing

“…The theory explaining the concept of BPM has evolved from a simple focus on providing value by reducing costs and increasing efficiency in customer orientation (De Oliveira & Cortimiglia, 2017;Gassmann et al, 2014). Thus, the customer experience has become the business priority for most organizations, which is why our study aims to meet these requirements and tries to demonstrate the optimization of business processes in a construction project and increase performance (Peric et al, 2017;Yusof et al, 2014).…”