Business Model Theory Evolution: Multi-Perspective Analysis

He Ning

By analyzing the current literature, it’s obvious that although the management community has always struggled to reach a clear definition for the BM in theory and practice , the relationship between BM and other similar terms such as strategy management, value creation, revenue model, still remains fuzzy . Recently, there  is  an obvious shift  from researching the BM of a single company to designing ecosystemic BM .Essentially, the ecosystem view of BM belongs to the theories of open innovation .Because the traditional approach ignores  the  co-evolving  nature  of  business  ecosystem, the new approach views BM as a concept for explaining  the complex mechanisms of value creation inside the whole business ecosystem.  For the purposes of this article, through an analysis of representative literature, the author tries to reconcile various viewpoints to explore the BM evolution process ,especially , the dynamic created by interactions between  BM’s components.