Critique of Article

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Critique of Article
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Critique of Article
The concept of business models is increasingly gaining traction in various disciplines.
It is widely used by managers in different types of companies [1]. The purpose of this report
is to review a particular academic paper that relates to Business Model. The identified article
is titled Clarifying Business Models authored by Alexander Osterwalder and colleagues. The
selected article will be reviewed by explaining its intention and content, commenting on the
issues that its authors have emphasized, and discussing what the authors concluded and their
relevance to what I am studying in this semester.
Intention of the article
According to the authors of the identified article, the topic of business models has
been covered rather superficially by the extant literature. Also, previous scholars have mainly
discussed business models without having an understanding of the origins of this topic, its
potential, as well as its role [2]. For this reason, the intention of their article is to elucidate the
starting point of the business model concept, its current as well as its future, especially within
the domain of Information Systems (IS) [2]. The authors discuss the place of the concept
within companies as the blueprint of how an organization carries out its business.
Content of the article
The content of the article focuses on the topic of business models. Osterwalder,
Pigneur and Tucci [2] begin by describing business models as a concept and defining the
term business model which is made up of two different words: business and model. A
business refers to the activity that involves industrial, commercial, and financial facets, and it
entails providing services and goods. On the other hand, a model is understood as a
simplified representation and description of a process or entity that is intricate. The term

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business model can therefore be defined as a theoretical tool that contains concepts, objects,
as well as their connections with the aim of expressing a company’s business logic [2]. It is
worth mentioning that the definition encompasses the various reflections on business models
in a wide range of fields including management, computer science, Information Systems, and
even electronic business or e-business.
After providing a definition of business models, the authors proceed by describing the
origins of the concept. The concept first appeared in the year 1957 before rising to eminence
in the late 1990s. The notion of business models became growingly important in the ‘90s
largely because of the increasing use of Internet by companies as well as the surge of the
NASDAQ stock market for firms that relied heavily on technology [2]. Starting from the
1990s, the phrase business model was mainly utilized in connection with the Internet.
Over the years, the concept of business model has undergone evolution through five
different phases. Phase 1 was when the concept started becoming prominent. It was during
this stage that different writers provided definitions and classifications of the concept. In
Phase 2, writers began completing the definitions by suggesting the components that belong
into a business model [2]. In Phase 3, exhaustive descriptions of the various constituents of a
business model were provided. In Phase 4, scholars began modelling the constituents
theoretically [2]. Phase 5 is still ongoing in the present day as the application of reference
models in both Information System applications and management is taking place.
Since business model is a rather new concept, its place in the firm and the role it plays
in business organizations is still not very clear. A business model is distinguished from a
business process model in that while business process model focuses on how a business case
is executed in processes, a business model is mainly about a view of the company’s logic for
creating value and commercializing it [2]. Business model has a number of building blocks,