Business Models and Planning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Business Models and Planning - Essay Example A business plan is the formal account of the venture’s goals, the rationales as to why the goals are attainable, and the step-by-step process to be used towards reaching the goals. Often, it may also contain fundamental information on the team or the organization trying to reach the set targets and goals. On the other hand, a business model is a description of the ways in which a venture creates, captures and delivers value – either social, economic, or in other form. Business model designing forms a part of the business strategy. The descriptions covered in a business model include the purpose, strategies, offerings, organizational structure, infrastructure, the policies, operational processes and the trading practices to be implemented. The core functions of a business model include the model by which the venture offers value to its customers, attracts customers into paying for the value offered, and the way it converts the payment to profit.1 Discussion From Zott, Am it, and Massa (2010), business models have formed a highly debatable area of inquiry among practitioners and scholars. This is evident from the high number of peer reviewed journals written on the subject – these amounting to 1,177. There has also been an acute rise in the number of practitioner-oriented inquiries, over the same subject. From a careful review of the issues of debate; the issues that scholars and practitioners do not agree upon include a clearly unanimous definition of a business model; the phenomena of importance, with regard to the areas of growth – these including e-business and use of technology, strategy issues like competitive advantage, value creation, and venture performance; and technology management and innovation. Thirdly, there are widespread acknowledgements – that the business model is an area calling for further analysis and that the field reaches beyond the venture. Acknowledgements are further offered on the fact that business mo dels accentuate a holistic, systematic view of ventures and that the activities of the venture act as vital contributors in explaining how ventures carryout business. Lastly, business models communicate the value creation and value capture aspects of a venture. These indicators were collected from a broad-based review of literature on business models, where the evaluation was done from a multi disciplinary approach – utilizing highly developed issues lenses.2 As depicted through a critical analysis of the different literatures and comparing these with other sources on the subject of business models, it was evident that the concept of the business is used to address an array of concerns, across varied contexts and with reference to a variety of management areas. Also, scholars are known to use the same term, â€Å"business model,† to explain and solve a variety of phenomena, including value creation, business types, and value capture by establishments – as well a s how technological innovation operates, towards solving the difficulties presented by the management of business ventures. Further, the lack of consensus in defining the field may be traced to its recent emergence – where conceptual and definitional overlaps and inclusions are bound to exist – especially due to the wide nature of the concept. However, despite the lack of consensus, the importance of the concept of business models include the identification of the importance of emergent business

The European Occupation of the Middle East Literature review

The European Occupation of the Middle East - Literature review Example The problems which had begun with the European occupation continued to increase after independence to such an extent that they led to the Arab Spring between 2011 and 2012. Despite the fact that these countries were given independence, the western powers have continued to exert their influence on the region to such an extent that they have come to inspire the hostility of the Middle Eastern population. During the European occupation of the Middle East, the population in the occupied territories was denied any political freedoms. They could not directly elect their representatives, and where they were allowed to do so, these representatives did not have enough power to effectively represent their people. Many in the Middle East, therefore, agitated for the independence of their countries in order to regain the political freedoms that they had lost. They felt that it was their right to have self-determination, and not have their future decided for them by the European colonial powers. When the occupied territories in the Middle East were finally given independence, there was a high expectation among the populace that it was the start of a new age of freedoms (Cleveland 2010, p.408). This, however, turned out not to be the case because the governments which came to power tended to be autocratic which worked towards further denying their people their basic freedoms so that they could remain in power. The failure to deliver on their promises at independence led to their lack of legitimacy among the populace and the only way that they could legitimately remain in power was through the use of force. The vast oil reserves that were discovered in the Middle Eastern countries were used by these regimes to gain the necessary financial power to retain their authority (Cleveland 2010, p.514). It is the lack of political freedom in their countries which led the populations of various Middle Eastern nations to recently stage demonstrations against their governments, and it is these demonstrations, and at times military conflict, which came to be termed as the Arab Spring. One of the means through which the European powers established their dominance in the region was the favoring of the Christian population over the Muslim one. Since the European powers were Christian, they chose to strengthen the influence of their fellow Christians in the Middle East as well as to protect them from what they perceived to be a threat from the Muslim population.