Cognitive perspectives: conceptualizing the business model

The concept “business model” has now for a number of years been enjoying increasing attention of strategy and management scholars. The concept first started to be used widely by practitioners (investors, journalists, entrepreneurs and consultants), especially in the context of e-business, without a precise definition (Lecocq, et al., 2010, p.219). Today business model concept is largely institutionalized in the practice world. In the first chapter of my thesis I explore how the multiplicity of meanings implied when talked about business models stems from the multiple cognitive processes triggered by this concept. Rather than debating different definitions of the concept, I suggest that in order to appreciate the depth of this concept it may be useful to employ our knowledge of how we in general understand abstract concepts. Connecting business model literature with the literature on cognition allows exploring further the role of business models as a cognitive tool for visualization (Arend, 2013, p.392), and as a device that allows for better business decisions to be made (Hacklin et al., 2012). In the subsequent chapters of my thesis I pick up on some of the key ideas of chapter 1: chapter 2 is an empirical study, which addresses the central question - how shared representations of business models emerge; in chapter 3 I explore how scholars conceptualize business models, often implicitly, as type and token models, and discuss assumptions they make about the ontological status of business models.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

phd

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

City, University of London

Year dc:date.issued

2016

Author dc:creator

• Mikhalkina, T.

• HD28 Management. Industrial Management