Journal of managemer Vo.37No.4,July201l10191042 DOI:10.11770149206311406265 C The Author(s)2011 Reprintsandpermissionhttp://ww sagepub. com/journals Permissions.nav The Business Model: Recent Developments and Future research Christoph Zott IESE Business school Raphael Amit Lorenzo massa usiness school This article provides a broad and multifaceted review of the received literature on business models in which the authors examine the business model concept through multiple subject latter lenses. The review reveals that scholars do not agree on what a busines interest of the respective researchers. However, the authors also found emerging common themes among scholars of business models Specifically (1) the business model is emerging as a new unit of analysis; (2) business models emphasize a system-level, holistic approach to explaining how firmsdo business"()firm activities play an important role in the various conceptualizations of business models that have been proposed; and (4) business models seek to explain how value is created, not just how it is captured. These emerging themes could serve as catalysts fora more ified study of business models Keywords: innovation; business model; value creation, value capture;strategy In recent years, the business model has been the focus of substantial attention from both academics and practitioners. Since 1995, there have been at least 1, 177 articles published in anomymous reviewers on earlier drafts of this ar orenzo Massa acknowledge the support of IESE in sponsoring this research. Raffi Amit is eBusiness initiative and to the robert B orresponding author: Christoph Zott, IESE Business School, Av Pearson 21, 08034 Barcelona, Spain Email Downloadedfromjom.sagepub.comaFudaNUnivLibonMarch13,2012The Business Model: Recent Developments and Future Research Christoph Zott IESE Business School Raphael Amit University of Pennsylvania Lorenzo Massa IESE Business School This article provides a broad and multifaceted review of the received literature on business models in which the authors examine the business model concept through multiple subject￾matter lenses. The review reveals that scholars do not agree on what a business model is and that the literature is developing largely in silos, according to the phenomena of interest of the respective researchers. However, the authors also found emerging common themes among scholars of business models. Specifically, (1) the business model is emerging as a new unit of analysis; (2) business models emphasize a system-level, holistic approach to explaining how firms “do business”; (3) firm activities play an important role in the various conceptualizations of business models that have been proposed; and (4) business models seek to explain how value is created, not just how it is captured. These emerging themes could serve as catalysts for a more unified study of business models. Keywords: innovation; business model; value creation; value capture; strategy In recent years, the business model has been the focus of substantial attention from both academics and practitioners. Since 1995, there have been at least 1,177 articles published in Acknowledgments: We gratefully acknowledge the very helpful comments and suggestions of the editor and of two anonymous reviewers on earlier drafts of this article. Chris Zott and Lorenzo Massa acknowledge the support of IESE in sponsoring this research. Raffi Amit is grateful to the Wharton eBusiness Initiative and to the Robert B. Goergen Chair for financial support of this research. Corresponding author: Christoph Zott, IESE Business School, Av. Pearson 21, 08034 Barcelona, Spain Email: czott@iese.edu Journal of Management Vol. 37 No. 4, July 2011 1019-1042 DOI: 10.1177/0149206311406265 © The Author(s) 2011 Reprints and permission: http://www. sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav 1019 Downloaded from jom.sagepub.com at FUDAN UNIV LIB on March 13, 2012