The Sharing of (Mental) Business Models

Cognition and emotions can be shared between individuals. Thus, the business model as a cognitive construct too can be shared. This construct exists in the minds of actors involved with the organization and is shaped, shared, and adapted over time. In this chapter I discuss how this sharing between individuals takes place. I reflect on some of the managerial and organizational cognition literature related to social cognition and explore how this literature has been used in studies on cognition and business models. I place particular emphasis on the means by which sharing takes place, including linguistic means such as framing, and the role of cognitive aids and boundary objects. Finally, I remain critical of the extent to which mental business models are really shared in practice, and the extent to which our methods accurately capture the shared elements of the mental business model.