Business model archetypes: a systematic literature review

The purpose of this study is to review the existing body of knowledge about business model archetypes (BMA) and, based on that, determine trends and gaps in the scientific literature. Forty-eight articles were found through the systematic literature search. The articles are analyzed using descriptive and thematic analysis, where the overview of the reviewed articles' profile, BMA definitions and related terminology, classifications and keyword occurrence is presented in the results. This study detects the gap of clarity in existing literature between how different authors define BMA. Furthermore, most of the literature focuses on specific business fields, where sustainability, circular economy and business model innovation (BMI) gets most of the attention. Moreover, a lack of universal BMA research is identified. These findings stress the need for a profound BMA definition and the necessity for a generally applicable BMA classification.