A Classification for Business Model Types in E-commerce

Abstract

Internet business models have been widely discussed in literature and applied within the last decade. Nevertheless, a clearunderstanding of some e-commerce concepts does not exist yet. The classification of business models in e-commerce is oneof these areas. The current research tries to fill this gap through a conceptual and qualitative study. Nine main e-commercebusiness model types are selected from literature and analyzed to define the criteria and their sub-criteria (characteristics). Asa result three different classifications for business models are determined. This study can be used to improve theunderstanding of essential functions, relations and mechanisms of existing e-commerce business models