[Air-L] Critical Business Model Studies: Open Panel @ 4S 2026 Toronto

[Shapiro, Aaron Murray]

For colleagues studying political economy and/of technology, please consider submitting to an open panel on “critical business model studies” at the Society for Social Studies of Science conference (October 2026, Toronto).

(21) Critical Business Model Studies

Devika Narayan, University of Bristol;  Aaron Shapiro, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

We invite papers that unpack the formation and transformation of business models. This includes fundamental questions about what a business model is and how it is negotiated by various actors. How do new business models come into existence and how do they gain traction? Apart from analysis of business models as unstable, inchoate structures in making, we also invite papers that focus on well-established, entrenched business models. How are dominant business models reproduced, disrupted, or transformed? Although business model and monetization are essentially industry speak for accumulation and commodification practices (Streeter, 2022), academics interested in the mechanics of profit extraction lack an equivalent concept for capturing the ‘unity between production and exchange’ (Harvey 1982). We use ‘business model’ specifically to identify an overall strategy of defining value and profit making at the firm level (Narayan 2024), one that might be considered not just a corporate buzzword, but also a prescriptive template, an abstract plan or a plan in action (Doganova and Eyquem-Renault 2009).

The critical study of business models can entail looking into the material and moral dimensions of unique mechanisms of revenue generation, such as subscription (Shapiro 2026) and advertising (Murdock, 2018), as well as genealogies of organizational format and entrepreneurship (Watkins & Stark, 2018; Weigel & Cameron, 2026). It might also entail looking at a range of generic and sector specific corporate practices such as cross-subsidization, bundling, platform adoption, patent use, appropriating commons, hype and speculation, formation of new business units and use values, sales efforts, narrative creation, and so on.

Areas of special interest:


  *   Cloud, platforms, and data dimensions of business model transformation
  *   Organizational politics and management practice
  *   Finance, growth-before profits strategies
  *   Hype and anticipation
  *   Sales and marketing
  *   The subscription model
  *   Tangible and intangible assets
  *   Big tech
  *   Industrial case studies of business model change, disruption, renewal (retail, automotive, finance, healthcare, film/tv, manufacturing…)


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Aaron Shapiro
Associate Professor of Technology Studies
Woody Durham Scholar
Director of Graduate Admissions
Department of Communication
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill