Business Model Ontology (BMO): An Examination, Analysis, and Evaluation.

Defining business model constitutes a major challenge. This is primarily because there are many different aspects to a business, hence when we talk of business models, it means different things to different people. Difference lies in the very concept of what constitutes a business (key aspects) and how such a concept can be represented using a common notation. One solution to the problem is to use ontology to communicate. Ontologies are agreed upon frameworks for representing concepts in any domain area. Hence, ontologies are used to represent knowledge, processes, business motivations, business strategies, enterprise structure, and more including business models. The Business Model Ontology (BMO) is one such ontology. Designed and developed by Alexander Osterwalder, it is aimed specifically at representing, understanding, communicating and analyzing business models. This paper is an evaluation of the Business Model Ontology (BMO). The paper consists of two parts. In the first part the researchers describe the four pillars, the nine elements and their sub-elements comprising the ontology. In the second part the ontology is reviewed and evaluated using nine criteria. The fundamental aim is to examine the ontology capabilities – its strength and weaknesses.