An Assessment Framework for Business Model Ontologies to Ensure the Viability of Business Models

A. D'Souza, N. R. T. P. van Beest, G. B. Huitema, J. C. Wortmann, H. Velthuijsen

2014

Abstract

Organisations operate in an increasingly dynamic environment. Consequently, the business models span several organisations, dealing with multiple stakeholders and their competing interests. As a result, the enterprise information systems supporting this new market setting are highly distributed, and their components are owned and managed by different stakeholders. For successful businesses to exist it is crucial that their enterprise architectures are derived from and aligned with viable business models. Business model ontologies (BMOs) are effective tools for designing and evaluating business models. However, the viability perspective has been largely neglected. In this paper, current BMOs have been assessed on their capabilities to support the design and evaluation of viable business models. As such, a list of criteria is derived from literature to evaluate BMOs from a viability perspective. These criteria are subsequently applied to six well-established BMOs, to identify a BMO best suited for design and evaluation of viable business models. The analysis reveals that, although none of the BMOs satisfy all the criteria, e3-value is the most appropriate BMO for designing and evaluating business models from a viability perspective. Furthermore, the identified deficits provide clear areas for enhancing the assessed BMOs from a viability perspective.

References

  1. Adhikari, R. S., Aste, N., and Manfren, M. (2012). Multicommodity network flow models for dynamic energy management-smart grid applications. Energy Procedia, 14:1374-1379.
  2. Al-Debei, M. M. and Avison, D. (2010). Developing a unified framework of the business model concept. European Journal of Information Systems, 19(3):359-376.
  3. Allee, V. (2002). A value network approach for modeling and measuring intangibles. Transparent Enterprise, Madrid.
  4. Amit, R. and Zott, C. (2001). Value creation in e-business. Strategic management journal, 22(6-7):493-520.
  5. Belton, V. and Stewart, T. (2002). Multiple criteria decision analysis: an integrated approach. Springer.
  6. Bowman, C. and Ambrosini, V. (2000). Value creation versus value capture: towards a coherent definition of value in strategy. British Journal of Management, 11(1):1-15.
  7. Chesbrough, H., Vanhaverbeke, W., and West, J. (2006). Open innovation: Researching a new paradigm. Oxford university press.
  8. De Reuver, M. and Haaker, T. (2009). Designing viable business models for context-aware mobile services. Telematics and Informatics, 26(3):240-248.
  9. Engelsman, W. and Wieringa, R. (2012). Goal-oriented requirements engineering and enterprise architecture: Two case studies and some lessons learned. In Requirements Engineering: Foundation for Software Quality, pages 306-320. Springer.
  10. Eriksson, H. E. and Penker, M. (2000). Business modeling with UML. Wiley Chichester.
  11. Gordijn, J. and Akkermans, J. M. (2003). Valuebased requirements engineering: exploring innovative e-commerce ideas. Requirements engineering, 8(2):114-134.
  12. Gordijn, J., Osterwalder, A., and Pigneur, Y. (2005). Comparing two business model ontologies for designing e-business models and value constellations. Proceedings of the 18th Bled eConference, Bled, Slovenia, pages 6-8.
  13. Henderson, J. C. and Venkatraman, N. (1993). Strategic alignment: Leveraging information technology for transforming organizations. IBM systems journal, 32(1):4-16.
  14. Keen, P. and Qureshi, S. (2006). Organizational transformation through business models: a framework for business model design. In System Sciences, 2006. HICSS'06. Proceedings of the 39th Annual Hawaii International Conference on, volume 8, pages 206b206b. IEEE.
  15. Kraussl-Derzsi, Z. (2011). OPerationalized ALignment: Assessing feasibility of value constellations exploiting innovative services. Amsterdam: Vrije Universiteit.
  16. Lambert, S. (2003). A Review of the Electronic Commerce Literature to Determine the Meaning of the Term 'Business Model'. School of Commerce, Flinders University of South Australia.
  17. Lambert, S. (2010). A conceptual model analysis framework: Analysing and comparing business model frameworks and ontologies. PhD thesis, International Business Management Association (IBMA).
  18. Lankshorst, M. (2009). Enterprise architecture at workmodelling, communication and analysis. Enterprise Architecture at Work-Modelling, Communication and Analysis, pages 92-93.
  19. Lepak, D. P., Smith, K. G., and Taylor, M. S. (2007). Value creation and value capture: a multilevel perspective. Academy of management review, 32(1):180-194.
  20. Mäkinen, S. and Seppänen, M. (2007). Assessing business model concepts with taxonomical research criteria: A preliminary study. Management Research News, 30(10):735-748.
  21. McCarthy, W. E. (1982). The rea accounting model: A generalized framework for accounting systems in a shared data environment. The Accounting Review, 57(3):554-578.
  22. Osterwalder, A. and Pigneur, Y. (2002). An e-business model ontology for modeling e-business. In 15th Bled electronic commerce conference, pages 17-19. Bled, Slovenia.
  23. Osterwalder, A. and Pigneur, Y. (2005). Clarifying business models: Origins, present, and future of the concept. Communications of the association for Information Systems, 16.
  24. Osterwalder, A. and Pigneur, Y. (2010). Business model generation: a handbook for visionaries, game changers, and challengers. John Wiley & Sons.
  25. Pateli, A. G. and Giaglis, G. M. (2004). A research framework for analysing eBusiness models. European Journal of Information Systems, 13(4):302-314.
  26. Roelens, B. and Poels, G. (2013). Towards an integrative component framework for business models: identifying the common elements between the current business model views. In Forum at the 25th International Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering (CAiSE-2013), volume 998, pages 114-121.
  27. Ross, J. W., Weill, P., and Robertson, D. C. (2006). Enterprise architecture as strategy: Creating a foundation for business execution. Harvard Business Press.
  28. Rother, M. and Shook, J. (2003).
  29. Value Stream Mapping to Create Value and Eliminate Muda.-Version 1.3. Learning Enterprise Institute.
  30. Sharma, S. and Gutiérrez, J. A. (2010). An evaluation framework for viable business models for mcommerce in the information technology sector. Electronic Markets, 20(1):33-52.
  31. Tapscott, D., Lowy, A., and Ticoll, D. (2000). Digital capital: Harnessing the power of business webs. Harvard Business Press.
  32. Teece, D. J. (2010). Business models, business strategy and innovation. Long range planning, 43(2):172-194.
  33. Weill, P. and Vitale, M. (2002). What it infrastructure capabilities are needed to implement e-business models. MIS quarterly Executive, 1(1):17-34.
  34. Zott, C., Amit, R., and Massa, L. (2011). The business model: recent developments and future research. Journal of management, 37(4):1019-1042.
Download


Paper Citation


in Harvard Style

D'Souza A., R. T. P. van Beest N., B. Huitema G., C. Wortmann J. and Velthuijsen H. (2014). An Assessment Framework for Business Model Ontologies to Ensure the Viability of Business Models . In Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems - Volume 3: ICEIS, ISBN 978-989-758-029-1, pages 226-235. DOI: 10.5220/0004890402260235


in Bibtex Style

@conference{iceis14,
author={A. D'Souza and N. R. T. P. van Beest and G. B. Huitema and J. C. Wortmann and H. Velthuijsen},
title={An Assessment Framework for Business Model Ontologies to Ensure the Viability of Business Models},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems - Volume 3: ICEIS,},
year={2014},
pages={226-235},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0004890402260235},
isbn={978-989-758-029-1},
}


in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems - Volume 3: ICEIS,
TI - An Assessment Framework for Business Model Ontologies to Ensure the Viability of Business Models
SN - 978-989-758-029-1
AU - D'Souza A.
AU - R. T. P. van Beest N.
AU - B. Huitema G.
AU - C. Wortmann J.
AU - Velthuijsen H.
PY - 2014
SP - 226
EP - 235
DO - 10.5220/0004890402260235