Crafting Business Architecture: the Antecedents of Business Model Design

Anchored in the broad design literature, we derive four antecedents of business model design: goals, templates, stakeholder activities, and environmental constraints. These business model design antecedents are illustrated using interview data from nine new ventures in the peer‐to‐peer lending space. We proceed with the theoretical development to link the design antecedents to the design themes of business models and conclude with implications for business model research and entrepreneurial leaders. Copyright © 2015 Strategic Management Society.