Towards a critical practice of business models, strategy & innovation

The concept of business model has recently been developing as a new theory in strategic management and entrepreneurship, which shifts the way researchers theorise and practitioners solve the strategic business issues of the organisations. Whilst the systemic features of the concept are rewarding for the modern strategy practices, the same complexity has led to a multitude of philosophical and theoretical interpretations among researchers. Therefore, not only has it made it difficult for a practitioner to choose between different approaches to different business problems, but it has also overshadowed the advancement of academic research in most promising areas. This research presents a pluralistic classification framework that can surmount these obstacles. It shows how practitioners and researchers may utilise this framework to engage in a highly critical, holistic and creative praxis, so that they can carve out the best potential of the existing diverse knowledge-base as well as the attractive features of the concept. This study also discovers the eclipsed, yet promising perspectives of the construct, thereby promoting the advancement of theoretical research in more fruitful areas for a critical practice.