Multi-perspective View on Business Models: Review and Research Agenda

This paper provides a broad review of extant literature on business models in which the authors examine the sources of differences, commonalities, shared dimensions, antecedents and levels of analysis of the concept through multilevel lenses. With the objective to shed light on the ambiguity in research, the authors identify three existent perspectives on business model research permanent in received literature – choice perspective, activity system perspective, and normative perspective – and outline how these perspectives reveal value creation and appropriation mechanisms. The authors conclude with fruitful avenues for future research which could serve as a catalyst for a more unified study of business models independent of the phenomena or context at hand.