ABSTRACT
Although originating in the 1950s, it was not until the 1990s that the term ‘business model’ became widely accepted and that business modelling was employed as an essential business practice (Lawrence et al. 2003). The business model concept gained momentum at that time partly through the growth of eBusiness, together with the effects of globalization and related strategic challenges (Cassidy 2002). It has taken time for anything like a clear perspective on the nature and implications of business models to emerge, with progress being impeded by continuing ambiguity. One area of confusion lay in the perceived relationship between business models and business process modelling. It is important at the outset to draw a clear distinction between the two concepts, the detailed activity of business process modelling serving a very different purpose from that of the higher-level representation of business logic, found in business models (Gordijn and Akkermans 2000). Not so much a matter of confusion, but another point that needs to be made at the outset, is that the activity of business modelling is exactly that. It involves making models that are conceptual representations of the real world as seen through the theoretical eyes of the model builder. While extremely useful for illuminating relationships between players and processes in business contexts, these models are rarely so clearly demarcated or so straightforward in operation in the real world as they are on paper.
