Business model tooling: where research and practice meet

This special issue bundles a series of papers on business model tooling. Business model tools are methods, frameworks or templates to facilitate communication and collaboration regarding Business Model analysis, (re-)design, adoption, implementation and exploitation. In this introduction to the special issue, we position business model tooling in the broader literature, going beyond the mere use of tooling to disseminate academic knowledge. We point out the unique contributions on business model tooling that information systems scholars can bring. After giving an overview of business model tools and ontologies, we sketch a brief research agenda comprising seven research directions: (1) design of tooling; (2) interfaces and usability; (3) evaluation and testing; (4) adoption, diffusion and commercialization of tooling; (5) privacy and security of tool users; (6) the use of tooling in business model education; and (7) future tooling enabled by big data and machine learning.