Business model frameworks in iot context – a literature review

Employing the Internet of Things (IoT) in business changes the way in which value is offered to customers. To enable and ensure effective value exchange, proper business models are required. In this literature review study (n=56), business model frameworks created for the IoT context were evaluated.

The results show that although most of the frameworks emphasize the ecosystemic nature of IoT, even they still largely do not describe the connections, dynamics, and causality between the business model components. While IoT as such does not necessarily need a specific business model, the ecosystemic nature of IoT is bound to influence the business model, thus making IoT business models more integrative, inter-relational, and complex. The results also suggest that the ecosystem-level co-creation of business models needs to be emphasized and studied further.