Two Black Boxes: Understanding the Coherence between Business Models & Business Model Eco Systems – A Contribution toward a Definition of the Object for Business Model Innovation and the Question of “Where to Look”?

摘要

This paper is conceptual and aims to contribute to the ontological, epistemological and methodological discussion toward a theory of business model and business model innovation. In the Lakatos sense the paper aims to contribute to the establishment of a research program for business model innovation on the one side and on the other side the paper aims to support the practical BMI efforts to implement concrete BMI actions in the businesses. The paper contributes by qualifying with an answer to “Where must managers look in order to release the BMI potential of their business?” during deepening the understanding of the two black boxes – a business and the surrounding of the business – and the coherence between them. We simply cannot take the two black boxes for given.