Zott et al. The Business Model 1021 Quarterly (as), Journal of Management (OM), Journal of Management Studies (JMS) Management Science (MS), MIS Quarterly, Organization Science (OS), and Strategic Management Journal (SM). To these we added three of the leading practitioner-oriented journals, namely, the California Management Review(CMR), Harvard Business Review(HBR), and MIT Sloan Management Review(MSM). Focusing on articles that contain the term business model in the title or keywords, our initial search revealed 70 articles on business models of which 10 had been published in academic journals and 60 had appeared in CMR, HBR, and MSM his relatively small set of articles(especially those published in academic outlets) led us to extend our search, using the EBSCO Business Source Complete database as a starting point(see Certo, Holcomb, Holmes, 2009: Laplume, Sonpar, Litz, 2008 ). This database ncludes more than 1,300 business journals and represents one of the most complete sources on business studies. We searched the database for academic articles published from January 1975 to December 2009 containing the term business model in the title, abstract, or keywords As a result of this process, we obtained 1, 202 articles, which we added to our initial sample of 70 articles. As 19 of the newly added articles were already present in the initial sample, our overall sample contained 1, 253 articles An initial cursory analysis of these articles, performed by reading article titles, journal names, abstracts, and introductions, revealed that not all the articles identified by our search would be useful for the purpose of writing this review. Many of these articles were case studies, summaries of articles published elsewhere, or studies in which the business model is not really the subject of the analysis To identify relevant articles, we adopted the following three additional criteria for our iterature review on business models. first to be included in our review an article must deal with the business model concept in a nontrivial and nonmarginal way. Second, an article also must refer to the business model as a concept related to business firms(as opposed to, e.g economic cycles). Finally, the journal in which the article appeared must be ranked in the ISI Web of Knowledge. As a result, we eliminated 1, 120 articles that did not fit these criteria, which left us with a sample of 133 articles Through reading these 133 articles in depth, we became aware of further works on bus ness models(in particular, books)that appeared relevant and that we therefore decided to include in our review. We also found working papers that our database research had failed to reveal, some of which were subsequently published and are included in the reference section, which lists their updated publication status. Moreover, our careful reading of these articles also allowed us to exclude studies in which the business model was treated in a rather arginal or trivial way. Our final sample, therefore, included 103 publications Moreover, as we highlight below in the Discussion section, our analysis of these publica- ions suggested some common themes, such as(1)the business model as a new unit of analysis, (2)a holistic perspective on how firms do business, (3)an emphasis on activities, and(4)an acknowledgement of the importance of value creation. These themes led us to review adjacent literatures that might be relevant for the study of business models but do not directly refer to the concept--namely, the literatures on new organizational forms, ecosys- tems, activity systems, and value chains and value networks. Drawing on these literatures could help put future research on business models on a more solid conceptual footing. Given the space and scope considerations for this article, however, we present our brief reviews of these adjacent literatures in an appendix that is available upon request from the authors Downloadedfromjom.sagepub.comaFudaNUnivLibonMarch13,2012Zott et al. / The Business Model 1021 Quarterly (ASQ), Journal of Management (JOM), Journal of Management Studies (JMS), Management Science (MS), MIS Quarterly, Organization Science (OS), and Strategic Management Journal (SMJ). To these we added three of the leading practitioner-oriented journals, namely, the California Management Review (CMR), Harvard Business Review (HBR), and MIT Sloan Management Review (MSM). Focusing on articles that contain the term business model in the title or keywords, our initial search revealed 70 articles on business models of which 10 had been published in academic journals and 60 had appeared in CMR, HBR, and MSM. This relatively small set of articles (especially those published in academic outlets) led us to extend our search, using the EBSCO Business Source Complete database as a starting point (see Certo, Holcomb, & Holmes, 2009; Laplume, Sonpar, & Litz, 2008). This database includes more than 1,300 business journals and represents one of the most complete sources on business studies. We searched the database for academic articles published from January 1975 to December 2009 containing the term business model in the title, abstract, or keywords. As a result of this process, we obtained 1,202 articles, which we added to our initial sample of 70 articles. As 19 of the newly added articles were already present in the initial sample, our overall sample contained 1,253 articles. An initial cursory analysis of these articles, performed by reading article titles, journal names, abstracts, and introductions, revealed that not all the articles identified by our search would be useful for the purpose of writing this review. Many of these articles were case studies, summaries of articles published elsewhere, or studies in which the business model is not really the subject of the analysis. To identify relevant articles, we adopted the following three additional criteria for our literature review on business models. First, to be included in our review, an article must deal with the business model concept in a nontrivial and nonmarginal way. Second, an article also must refer to the business model as a concept related to business firms (as opposed to, e.g., economic cycles). Finally, the journal in which the article appeared must be ranked in the ISI Web of Knowledge. As a result, we eliminated 1,120 articles that did not fit these criteria, which left us with a sample of 133 articles. Through reading these 133 articles in depth, we became aware of further works on busi￾ness models (in particular, books) that appeared relevant and that we therefore decided to include in our review. We also found working papers that our database research had failed to reveal, some of which were subsequently published and are included in the Reference section, which lists their updated publication status. Moreover, our careful reading of these articles also allowed us to exclude studies in which the business model was treated in a rather marginal or trivial way. Our final sample, therefore, included 103 publications. Moreover, as we highlight below in the Discussion section, our analysis of these publica￾tions suggested some common themes, such as (1) the business model as a new unit of analysis, (2) a holistic perspective on how firms do business, (3) an emphasis on activities, and (4) an acknowledgement of the importance of value creation. These themes led us to review adjacent literatures that might be relevant for the study of business models but do not directly refer to the concept—namely, the literatures on new organizational forms, ecosys￾tems, activity systems, and value chains and value networks. Drawing on these literatures could help put future research on business models on a more solid conceptual footing. Given the space and scope considerations for this article, however, we present our brief reviews of these adjacent literatures in an appendix that is available upon request from the authors. Downloaded from jom.sagepub.com at FUDAN UNIV LIB on March 13, 2012