The current literature on business models lies mainly in the literature on strategy and competitive advantage and focuses on their role as descriptors of actual phenomenon, often by reference to taxonomic categories. In this essay we explore how business models can be seen as a set of cognitive...

The study of interorganizational imitation has been an important strand in the recent literature on institutional theory. This paper offers new insights for our understanding of mimetic isomorphism and its reliance on legitimacy: we suggest that legitimacy-based reference groups guide firms in...