Introduction to the SEJ Special Issue on Business Models: Business Models within the Domain of Strategic Entrepreneurship

Abstract

The study of business models involves exploring how firms do business at the system level. It lies at the intersection of strategy and entrepreneurship research and is, therefore, a topic of interest for scholars of strategic entrepreneurship. The purpose of this special issue is to publish work that develops theory on business models, or empirically investigates the phenomenon, and to inspire future research on the topic. In our introduction, we briefly review the main conceptual developments of the past two decades. We highlight three contributions that business model research is poised to make to the domain of strategic entrepreneurship, and, by extension, to its constituent disciplines of strategy and entrepreneurship: (1) reconnecting strategy with entrepreneurship; (2) suggesting a more central place for customers in our frameworks and analyses; and (3) emphasizing the importance of implementation. We subsequently present the articles in this special issue and explain how they relate to these themes. We conclude with suggestions for future research. Copyright © 2015 Strategic Management Society.