Business Meta-Models and the Saga of Business-IT Strategic Alignment
Proceedings of the Fifteenth Americas Conference on Information Systems, San Francisco, California, August 6th-9th, 2009
10 Pages Posted: 16 Nov 2009 Last revised: 19 Nov 2009
Date Written: August 16, 2009
Abstract
This paper argues that applying the idea of a meta-model, derived from modeling in computer science, to the more informal notions of business models found in the management literature provides researchers with a useful lens through which to view the relationship between IT and business strategy. It provides a brief description of the concepts of a business model and a meta-model and presents four case studies using a particular meta-model for organizations that have achieved strategic innovations. Three of the cases, Amazon, Dell and eBay are well known and are based on secondary sources; the fourth case, a wedding list service called '1001 Listes', is less widely known and is based on both literature and primary research. The paper concludes with some observations on the role played by IT in business strategy and some suggestions about how the approach of using meta-models could be developed further.
Keywords: Business model, Meta-model, Strategic alignment, Strategic innovation
JEL Classification: L1
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation