¹ELTRUN: The E-Business Center, Athens University of Economics and Business, Athens, Greece

Correspondence: Adamantia G Pateli, ELTRUN: The E-Business Center, Athens University of Economics and Business, 47A Evelpidon Street, 11362, Athens, Greece. Tel: +30 210 8203663; Fax: +30 210 8203664; E-mail: pateli@aueb.gr

Received 28 June 2004; Revised 29 August 2004; Accepted 24 September 2004; Published online 9 November 2004.

Abstract

As eBusiness is moving towards maturity, research interests shift to the investigation of opportunities for market exploitation of eBusiness technologies. As a result, the debate around business models naturally becomes more topical. However, while many researchers and practitioners are contemplating business models, there is an alarming lack of theoretical tools in the literature to structure and codify knowledge in the area. This paper draws on an extensive review of the literature to propose an analytic framework that decomposes the area of business models into eight research sub-domains. The proposed framework is then applied to organize and critically review existing research under each sub-domain as well as to define an agenda of future challenges on business model research. The framework can benefit future research by allowing researchers to better concentrate their efforts and place their contributions in an overall context, thus assisting in building a coherent body of knowledge in the challenging research domain of business models.