برنامه های کاربردی از مدل کسب و کار در مطالعات موفقیت، نوآوری و طبقه بندی شرکت : تجزیه و تحلیل تحقیقات تجربی از سال 1996 تا 2010

Although there is no widely agreed upon definition and composition of the business model concept, it is evident from the continued presence of the term in both scholarly and broader business literature, that managers and researchers alike find it a useful descriptive and analytical construct. This paper reviews research in the field of business models from 1996 to 2010. Electronic database searches of scholarly journals spanning 1996 when the term business model first appeared in multiple publications to 2010 reveals 69 articles that use the business model concept in empirical research. The empirical studies are analyzed revealing that European information, media and telecommunications firms feature most frequently. Three themes emerge from an analysis of the papers: (1) the business model as the basis for enterprise classification, (2) business models and enterprise performance, and (3) business model innovation. This paper identifies, organizes and analyzes existing empirical research to highlight the value of the business model as a research construct and improve the general understanding of the business model concept.

The business model concept, although variously defined is used in a wide range of business and management research (Al-Debei and Avison, 2010, LeCocq et al., 2010 and Zott et al., 2011), and is frequently referred to in annual reports, newspaper articles, scholarly journals, and conference proceedings. Business model literature is replete with research that provides definitions, components and classifications of business models all of which contribute to the knowledge of what a business model is. This diverse body of conceptual and analytic research adds to the understanding of the business model concept, how it can be utilized in other research and applied in practice. Whilst drawing on the conceptual research and recognizing its contribution to management research in general, this paper supports an empiricist epistemology, using the body of existing empirical business model research to (1) raise the awareness of the business model concept in the minds of management researchers, (2) better understand the concept, and (3) recognize ways in which the concept can contribute to other management research. The numerous papers published in the scholarly literature since 1990 contribute to defining components and concepts of business models and this discourse continues. Notwithstanding the divergent views regarding the business model concept, research that uses or studies the business model in a larger context has emerged and continues to grow. The classification research organizes what is known about the business model in ways that make it more accessible to researchers and meta-analysis highlights relationships between otherwise discrete pieces of research thereby advancing knowledge of the business model concept itself. Research that proposes design methods and modeling tools aid in instantiating frameworks, ontologies, change methodologies and adoption factors, and evaluation models apply the business model concept to broader management issues. Although much of the research is analytic and archival, empirical research is emerging that either tests conceptual research or is exploratory in nature. The contribution of this paper is to identify and organize the otherwise disjointed and seemingly incongruent empirical business model research in such a way that its relevance to other management research becomes apparent. It is anticipated that scholars will gain leverage from existing research and recognize how it can be replicated in other situations and contexts. Scholars new to the business model concept will find this paper a succinct précis of existing empirical business model research, an exposé of the academic journal publication profile for empirical business model research, and an insight into the industries that have attracted empirical business model research. This paper is reporting on a search of scholarly literature for the period 1996 to 2010 which identified 69 empirical research papers using the business model concept. These papers were analyzed according to the research fields in which the studies are published, the industry and geographic region of the study’s subjects, and the focus of the study. Three dominant themes emerged from the analysis: (1) the business model as the basis for enterprise classification, (2) business models and enterprise performance, and (3) business model innovation. This paper is structured as follows. In the next section, an overview of the business model concept that highlights its relevance to other management research is presented. The third section describes the method employed to select the sample of empirical business model literature and review it. The fourth section is an overview of the literature, including the sources and subjects of the research and the research design and focus. The three dominant themes that emerged are discussed in the fifth section. The contribution that this research makes to broader management research is in the sixth section and concluding comments and limitations of this research are in the final section of the paper.

Empirical research on business models has been analyzed with the intention of raising the awareness of the business model concept in the minds of management researchers, to get a better understanding of the concept, and to recognize ways in which the concept contributes to other management research. A thorough search of scholarly literature uncovered 69 empirical research papers published between 1996 and 2010 which used the business model concept. The majority of these papers are published in journals in the business and management disciplines. Most studies set out to collect data which adds to the understanding of the business model concept. However, there is an increasing trend to use the business model concept for collecting information about some other phenomena. These studies all measure and tell you what it is like now but there is no empirical research that aims to predict firm success so there is potential for future research. The purpose of each study was analyzed to reveal three main themes: (1) the business model as the basis for enterprise classification, (2) business models and enterprise performance, and (3) business model innovation. Many studies used the business model concept to provide a perspective for which to view an industry or group of enterprises. Studies of this nature permit hypotheses regarding the case enterprise to be projected to the class of business model to which the enterprise belongs. Classification of this nature provides a way of dividing enterprises into homogeneous groups that can be subjected to other management studies such as discovering the relationship between business models and firm performance and business model innovation. As such, several studies that aimed to identify the business model type also fell into the second category, business models and enterprise performance, as they searched for a business model type that most frequently related to enterprise success. Other studies that were classified into the business model and enterprise performance theme attempted to identify business models or elements of a business model that impacted on firm success and test causal relationships between elements of business models and various success factors. The third identified theme, business model innovation, has a focus on business model change, the motivation for change and the key to successful change. The ability of the enterprise to change and adapt to suit changing conditions has the potential to improve enterprise performance. Although there has been conceptual business model research published we have focused on the empirical studies only. Our intention is to bring to light the diverse applications of the business model concept in empirical research and to this end we did not restrict our population to high ranking journals, rather we included all scholarly journals. A limitation of the sample is the requirement that the papers include the term ‘business model’ in the title. It is possible that there are studies that meet our intention for inclusion but, because they do not use business model in the title of the paper, they have not been included in this study. We did scan papers that included business model in the abstract but not the title and found no studies that met our intention. Although our data may not be exhaustive, we believe that it is representative of the extant business model empirical research. Not all of the 69 papers have been individually discussed and not all common themes have been identified. We have tried to discuss the studies that show the most promise in terms of their method or their context, and that are novel applications of the business model concept. We realize that there are other studies that may be of interest for future research so have listed all 69 papers in Table 2 classified under the dominate themes. This review and critique of the empirical research provides insights that are relevant to management scholars. Disjointed and incongruent empirical business model research is identified and organized in such a way to highlight the research links and gaps. Researchers in this field will find this paper useful as a succinct analysis of existing empirical business model research and a useful starting point for further research. The steadily increasing number of scholarly papers being published in business and management journals supports the view that the business model is a notion that has bearing on traditional management research agendas. George and Bock (2011, p.107) go so far as to say that ‘an integrated approach to research on business models presents an opportunity to unlock entrepreneurial processes, evaluate firm configuration effects, and explain and predict entrepreneurial outcomes’. The business model concept emerges from entrepreneurship and information systems theories but its application as an alternative unit of analysis in empirical research make reciprocal contributions to those and other more mature research fields. Opportunities for future research exist with respect to the investigation of the relationships between strategy theory and business models as well as the process of successful business model innovation and its relationship with organizational learning, leadership, entrepreneurship and change management.