BUSINESS MODELS: CHANGE OF SCOPE AND SCOPE OF CHANGE

Paper in proceeding, 2013

The literature on business models has grown in recent years following new Internet-based business opportunities. Over time, the suggested conceptualisations of business models have also become more general. In this paper we aim at scrutinising the business model literature in relation to the industrial network approach in order to (1) point at problems inherent in current conceptualisations, and (2) suggest a framework that supports analysis of change or development of business models in view of network embeddedness. When problems inherent in current conceptualisations are concerned we discuss three issues; (1) their focus on the firm as the main unit of analysis, (2) the mixing of theoretical assumptions, and (3) their static nature. Moreover, most current conceptualisations set the focus on the selling firm’s perspective and thus focus on making and selling but do not include buying and using. As a result, network level aspects of business models are rare. In contrast to firm-centred approaches suggested by other authors, we suggest a focus on the ‘offering’ as the focal element of business model analysis. We identify three categories of change with regard to offerings and suggest an approach to analyse the consequences of such changes in terms of emerging business models.