The Business Model and its Core Elements. Proposal of Definition and Table of Core Elements

Abstract

The concept of the business model has garnered the attention of business administration researchers and professionals for over 50 years, and especially since the last decade of the 20th century, as a result of the appearance and widespread use of the internet in business. Despite the large number of doctrinal contributions, studies and analyses carried out, these years of research have not resulted in consensus among authors and professionals regarding either a definition or the core elements of a business model. This article provides a proposal for the definition of business model, as well as a proposal for a table of elements which includes those that we believe will be of great importance in the future of organisations, such as their approach to security, the code of ethics and their own capacity for transformation. To create the definition and table of elements, numerous publications regarding the concept of the business model were analysed, mainly from between 1996 and 2017, when the concept was most highly developed in the academic literature. The article suggests future lines of research to study the evolution of the concept of the model, the greater or lesser importance of certain elements, as well as the impact on the bottom line of the transformation of and innovation in the model itself.

Keywords: business model, value proposition, market segmentation, transformation, code of ethics, security

JEL Classification: M10, A13