The Network is the Business

The importance of interoperability for businesses is undoubted. After an evolution from electronic data interchange to interoperability in electronic business and enterprise interoperability both the scientific and the practitioners' community are today discussing the notion of interoperability service utilities. Furthermore, researchers are studying decentralized and distributed interoperability approaches such as peer-to-peer networks, for example. However, a comprehensive investigation of business models for such decentralized approaches to interoperability is still missing. Drawing from recent literature on business modeling on the one hand and interoperability research on the other hand this paper designs a business model reference for interoperability services. The business model reference assumes interoperability information as an economic good and is applied in two case studies and evaluated from multiple perspectives. The paper contributes to the scientific body of knowledge as it proposes a novel design artifact which lays the foundation for a number of future research opportunities.