AIMS AND SCOPE

The Journal of Business Models (JOBM) is an international, peer-reviewed journal dedicated to advancing business model research as a distinctive and evolving domain of scholarly inquiry within business and management studies. The journal provides a platform for rigorous, original, and theory-informed research that deepens understanding of how organizations create, deliver, and capture value for business and society in increasingly complex, uncertain, and dynamic environments. JOBM welcomes conceptual and empirical contributions that advance the development, refinement, integration, and critical examination of business model theory and practice across diverse organizational, industry, technological, and societal contexts. The journal encourages research spanning multiple levels of analysis (e.g., individuals, organizations, ecosystems, industries, or societal systems) and invites inter-, multi-, and transdisciplinary perspectives that expand the intellectual boundaries of business model research and engage with diverse epistemological traditions.

In general, the following types of research are welcomed:

  1. Theoretical contributions (with a clear theoretical grounding and contribution)
  2. Empirical contributions (both quantitative and qualitative)
  3. Literature reviews (e.g., systematic or integrative reviews, but not pure bibliometric studies)
  4. Design science-based contributions (scientifically guided artifact development)
  5. Essays (opinion pieces and reflections, on invitation only)

In particular, the journal encourages research in the following interconnected areas:

  1. Foundations and Boundaries of Business Model Research
    Conceptualizing, theorizing, and positioning business models within and across strategy, organization theory, entrepreneurship, innovation, sustainability, and related fields.
  2. Business Model Design, Innovation, and Transformation
    Understanding the mechanisms, processes, and dynamics through which business models are designed, innovated, adapted, transformed, and renewed across industries, technologies, and organizational life cycles.
  3. Implementation, Execution, and Commercialization
    Examining how business model ideas are translated into organizational practice, including issues of alignment with structures, processes, capabilities, governance arrangements, and scaling dynamics.
  4. Ecosystems, Partnerships, and Networked Value Creation
    Investigating interdependencies, complementarities, roles, and collaborative arrangements within and across business model configurations, ecosystems, and networked forms of value creation.
  5. Digital, Technology-Driven, and Innovation-Intensive Contexts
    Exploring business models in digitally transformed, platform-based, AI-enabled, and innovation-intensive environments, including emerging technological and socio-technical systems.
  6. Business Model Performance and Measurement Challenges
    Advancing understanding of how business models create and capture value, including tensions, trade-offs, multidimensional performance outcomes, and challenges associated with sustainability-oriented value creation.
  7. Methods, Tools, and Visual Representations
    Developing, evaluating, and reflecting on analytical frameworks, methodological approaches, and practical instruments for business model analysis, innovation, experimentation, and communication, including business model patterns and visual representations.
  8. Sustainability- and Impact-Oriented Business Models
    Examining business models for sustainability (BMfS) and related approaches aimed at generating social, environmental, and economic value, as well as their role in enabling broader system transitions and transformations.
  9. Values and Value in Business Model Studies
    Exploring the normative, ethical, and values-based foundations of business model design, innovation, and implementation, including values-based business model innovation and alternative conceptions of value creation.
  10. Education and Training on Business Models
    Theoretically informed and empirically grounded research on educational formats, pedagogical approaches, and learning environments related to business models in higher education, executive education, vocational training, and related contexts.

JOBM aims to foster rigorous and impactful scholarship that advances business model research as a cumulative and theoretically informed field of inquiry. The journal particularly values contributions that offer conceptual clarity, theoretical depth, and empirical insight, while demonstrating the broader relevance of business model research for organizational practice, societal challenges, and transformative change.