Ricerc@Sapienza

Our paper consist of a literature review about business model research in academia, which represents a premise to identify the main topics, as well as the evolution of the studies.
As for the methodology, we used EBSCO database, searching for academic papers having ―business model‖ in the title and in the abstract published from 1975 until now.
This paper contributes to the literature in two ways. First, it provides a wide analysis of the extant literature on business models. Besides the classification by main topics, we aim to outline the trend of these studies over time.

Purpose – This study aims to identify the legitimacy issues raised during a sustainable business model innovation, deployed by an Italian company, which was analyzed through the lens of the legitimation theory and the business model innovation theory.
Design/methodology/approach – A single case study methodology is employed for empirical research.
Semistructured interviews, with top and middle management, were conducted together with the analysis of several internal and external documents, to corroborate the case analysis.

The company Strategic Formula (SF) is a theoretical business model. The SF defines the strategic profile of the firm by considering two different strategic front: the Internal strategic front, defined by the choices on corporate governance, on organizational structure, on operating processes and on strategic resources and the External strategic front, defined by the choices in real markets, capital markets, social context. Both the internal and the external strategic fronts are strictly related by systemic and dynamic bidirectional relationships.