The Business Model Conundrum: A Systematic Theme-Centric Literature Review and Future Research Directions

Business models (BMs) are extensively studied by academics and practitioners alike. Yet, there is still no consensus for the term’s precise interpretation, dimensions, and idiosyncratic features. Considering that the BM literature is constantly evolving and nowadays firms commercialize ideas and technologies through their BMs more than ever, this shortcoming poses a major challenge to both the academic and business community. In this vein, scholars have made concerted efforts to offer several literature reviews. Nonetheless, in the methodological front most of them rely on fragmented suggestions without clear guiding frameworks. At the conceptual level, a majority of these contributions is disproportionally oriented toward digital-driven business model innovation. In view of the steady increase in BMs’ importance within the academic and organizational milieu, we aim to revisit the literature and provide a multi-method review; with the overall scope to accommodate the diverse research objectives pertinent in the extant research and trace a future roadmap. Our combination of systematic literature review (SLR) analysis with bibliometric elements assessed 174 peer-reviewed publications and concluded in four – partly overlapping – research streams: (1) business model concept, (2) business model design, (3) business model innovation, and (4) business model portfolios. Suggestions for future research endeavors in each one of these streams are further discussed.