Reconceptualizing Business Models as Practices Nets

The concept of business models has gained of importance regarding the competitiveness and future viability of organizations. However, little research has explored day-to-day practices that underlie the process of how business models are formed, stabilized, and transformed, or even dissolved. In this conceptual contribution, I argue that a practices-based understanding of business models not only supports an understanding of the performative side of strategy, but also contributes to a more spatially and temporally more flexible presentation. Reconceptualizing business models as practices nets consisting of emergent and interconnected practices offers a novel approach to theoretical grounding and thus methodological framing of business model (innovation) processes. At the same time, this framing supports practitioners by naming dominant practices and their interconnections that require the design and continuous renewal of the business model. In this way, I hope to change the conversation on existing scholarly approaches and to propose developing new questions and ways of looking at business models, and thus at strategy in general.