Towards a Reference Ontology for Business Models

Ontologies are viewed as increasingly important tools for structuring domains of intrests. In this paper we propose a reference ontology of business models using concepts from three established business model ontologies; the REA, BMO, and e3-value. The basic concepts in the reference ontology concern actors, resources, and the transfer of resources between actors. Most of the concepts in the reference ontology are taken from one of the original ontologies, but we have also introduced a number of additional concepts, primarily related to resource transfers between business actors. The purpose of the proposed ontology is to increase the understanding of the original ontologies as well as the relationships between them, and also to seek opportunities to complement and improve on them.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: ER
• Authors: Birger Andersson, Maria Bergholtz, Ananda Edirisuriya, Tharaka Ilayperuma, Paul Johannesson, Jaap Gordijn, Bertrand Grégoire, Michael Schmitt, Eric Dubois, Sven Abels, Axel Hahn, Benkt Wangler, Hans Weigand
• Keywords: Business Model, Database, ER 2006, Original Ontologies, Reference Ontology