After explaining why business executives and academics should consider thinking about a rigorous approach to e-business models, we introduce a new e-Business Model Ontology. Using the concept of business models can help companies understand, communicate and share, change, measure, simulate and learn more about the different aspects of e-business in their firm. The generic e-Business Model Ontology (a rigorous definition of the e-business issues and their interdependencies in a company's business model), which we outline in this paper is the foundation for the development of various useful tools for e-business management and IS Requirements Engineering. The e-Business Model Ontology is based on an extensive literature review and describes the logic of a "business system" for creating value in the Internet era. It is composed of four main pillars, which are Product Innovation, Infrastructure Management, Customer Relationship and Financial Aspects. These elements are then further decomposed.

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This paper aims to clarify the concept of business models, its usages, and its roles in the Information Systems domain. A review of the literature shows a broad diversity of understandings, usages, and places in the firm. The paper identifies the terminology or ontology used to describe a business model, and compares this terminology with previous work. Then the general usages, roles and potential of the concept are outlined. Finally, the connection between the business model concept and Information Systems is described in the form of eight propositions to be analyzed in future work.

As the evolution of e-business technology has passed from the early phase of hype and innovation to the mature phase of adoption and use, the research interest of both the academic and business communities is shifting to investigating opportunities for market exploitation of e-business technologies. As a result, the debates around established e-business models, as well as the way to achieve business model innovation, are ever increasing. However, while many researchers and practitioners are contemplating business models, there is a distinct lack of appropriate theoretical tools in the literature to structure and codify the extant knowledge in the area. The existing research contributions are featured by a great degree of diversity, which is due to the existence of

In this paper we demonstrate why executives and academics should consider thinking about e-business models. We show that the business model concept is an interesting tool for understanding, designing, sharing, measuring, changing and even simulating businesses. Based on an extensive review of e-business and business model literature we develop an e-business model ontology. This ontology defines the concepts in e-business models and the relationships between them and shall be the foundation for a variety of management tools that facilitate business decisions. Our e-business model ontology outlines what value a company offers to which customer segments. It describes the architecture of the firm and its network of partners for creating, marketing and delivering value and relationship capital, in order to generate profitable and sustainable revenue streams.

In this paper, we present a novel system for selling bundles of news items. Through the system, customers bargain with the seller over the price and quality of the delivered goods. The advantage of the developed system is that it allows for a high degree of flexibility in the price, quality, and content of the o#ered bundles. The price, quality, and content of the delivered goods may, for example, di#er based on daily dynamics and personal interest of customers.

Organizations are increasingly inter-connected as they source talent, goods and services from other organizations located in disparate parts of the world. They seek new ways of creating value for themselves, customers and partners. They operate outside and across traditional industry boundaries and definitions. These innovations have lead to a focus on business models as a fundamental statement of direction and identity. This paper highlights what is known about the business model concept and where and why it differs from more established concepts of business strategy. It illustrates how the application of business models has transformed organizations. The contribution of this paper is the guidance that it provides for business model design and the insight it provides into business models and their effects on organizations. Following an analysis of how business models can transform organizations, this paper concludes with practical recommendations for business model design. 1.

The evolving literature on the new Software as a Service (SaaS) concept gives a coherent picture of the technical arrangements required between the vendor and the customer in order to enable the new online renting of applications. Many of these articles describe the new SaaS model as a new and customer-friendly way of IT outsourcing, where the vendor will own both the software and the IT infrastructure required for the online service, and where both parties will benefit from simple and attractive revenue logic, which is no longer based on the application development investment. What is not clearly observed yet is that the SaaS model will ultimately change the supplier-customer relationship from one-to-one to one-to-many. Therefore, it will also change the customer-vendor relationship to a typical utility based ecommerce relationship. Better understanding of the Software as a Service model will therefore require applying an ecommerce business model. In this paper we will use the value creation model of Amit and Zott (2001) to analyze the value drivers proposed in the research articles and software industry organization reports of the SaaS concept. We will synthesize the benefits and risks of the major stakeholders and discuss the types of value sources covered. We conclude that the promised customer benefits are not easily realized as many of them are at the same time major risks for the provider. Therefore, the SaaS model will require both an effective supplier network and an innovative and fair revenue logic involving lock-in in order to enable a continuous flow of shared software innovations and to succeed in transforming the software product business into service business.

Business models have been an important topic in various disciplines and particularly e-business. Yet, little research has tempted to compare and integrate the different business model approaches. This paper compares two business model ontologies, the Business Model Ontology BMO and the e 3 value ontology, for the design of business models and value constellations. For that purpose it introduces a framework that allows the comparison of different conceptual approaches to business models. The two ontologies are illustrated through a case study in the domain of rights music management. The outcome of the analysis is twofold. Firstly, it permits a better understanding of business model research. Secondly, it highlights the possible paths to integrate the two ontologies in order to improve the representation, design, and analysis of business models. 1

ERP implementations have the potential of significantly complementing the use of business-to-business e-commerce technologies. We consider the sources of this complement by drawing on transaction cost economics, the resource-based view of the firm and the theory of swift even flow. Analysis of 115 firms shows that perceived transactional efficiencies are greater for B2B e-commerce technologies in the presence of ERP, and are in fact magnified when ERP implementation specifically precedes B2B e-commerce initiatives. These findings imply a distinct system adoption strategy for firms pursuing e-commerce opportunities.