Business Models

Typology

"Malone et al. developed a general business model classification based on each company's revenue stream by means of two variables.

The first variable is the type of user rights sold to customers.

The four defined types include the:

• creator who sells the right of ownership by significantly transforming the asset

• distributor who sells the right of ownership without significantly transforming the asset

• landlord who sells the right to use the asset, such as companies that license the use of software

• broker who sells the right to be matched with potential buyers or sellers of another asset

The second variable is the type of asset used to create the market offer and includes four generic asset types:

• physical: durable and non-durable items, such as food and hardware

• financial: monetary assets such as cash, stocks, bonds and insurance policies

• intangible: non-physical assets such as protected intellectual property (IP), knowledge, goodwill, brand image, and software

• human: people's time, effort, knowledge and skills

The combination of the two variables results in 16 detailed business model archetypes that could be used as a tool for business model analysis." (http://www.osbr.ca/ojs/index.php/osbr/article/view/827/800)

More Information

1. The Open Source Business Resource
2. Open Source Software Business Models
3. Open Source Software - Business Aspects
4. Open Source Commercialization
5. Open Business ; Open Business Models; Open Source Business Models