The Business model: A Means to Understand the Business Context of Information and Communication Technology

The business model concept is becoming increasingly popular, within traditional strategy theory, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) research, and in the emergent body of literature on e-business. However, the concept is often used relatively independently from theory, mening model components and interrelations are relatively obscure. This paper proposes an outline for a theoretical business model, as well as the theoretical underpinnings, claiming that a business model should include customers and competitors, the offering, activities and organisation, resources and factor market interactions, as well as the causal relations between these factors.