Introduction
The business model has evolved from a simple operational blueprint into a complex, adaptive system. Osterwalder and Pigneur (2010) define it as the logic by which an organization creates, delivers, and captures value. In recent years, environmental uncertainty has increased the emphasis on dynamism and adaptability. Business model innovation is now seen as a core capability for sustaining competitive advantage—going beyond product or process innovation to a fundamental reconfiguration of how the firm operates. Organizations today face complex, uncertain environments that intensify during economic, political, social, or health crises. Static, traditional business models have proven vulnerable, as shown by COVID-19 and global conflicts. Resilience, dynamic capabilities, digitalization, and temporary innovation are widely recognized as critical elements of crisis-ready business models. Semantic network models offer a systematic way to represent and analyze relationships among concepts in nonlinear, complex domains (Schops & Jaffrentz, 2024). Drawing on cognitive psychology, semantic networks can map how concepts are mentally associated and support clearer understanding of how managers conceptualize business models under instability. This study uses semantic network analysis to identify key dimensions of a crisis-compatible business model and to examine how those dimensions interact.
Research Questions
l. What are the key dimensions of a business model suited to crisis conditions?
2. What relationships and interactions exist among the dimensions and components of a crisis-compatible business model?
Literature Review
Research on business models in crisis contexts has grown substantially. Facchinetti and Petruzzelli (2021) pioneered semantic network analysis combined with big data to study business model innovation and revealed hidden patterns in conceptual linkages. Schops and Jaffrentz (2024) highlighted semantic network analysis as a powerful tool for understanding complex conceptual relationships in marketing and consumer research. Martínez et al. (2021), studying SMEs in developing countries during COVID-19, found that firms able to redesign their business models navigated the crisis more successfully. Behroozian (2024), in the UAE oil and gas sector, emphasized transparency and speed in strategic crisis management. Garrido-Moreno et al. (2024) showed that organizational resilience mediates the relationship between service innovation and business performance. Ou and Rakthin (2025) confirmed the mediating role of innovation quality between absorptive capacity and organizational resilience in Thai SMEs. In the Iranian context, Davari et al. (2021) reported positive effects of all corporate resilience dimensions (human resources, marketing, finance, supply chain, and services) on SME performance during COVID-19. Khabazan et al. (2023), in a review, stressed flexibility and innovation in unstable environments. Despite this body of work, three limitations remain: (1) many studies focus on narrow aspects such as digitalization or resilience rather than a multidimensional view; (2) there is little systemic understanding of synergistic interactions among business model components in crises; and (3) few studies combine quantitative network findings with qualitative validation (e.g., expert interviews) in a mixed-methods design.


Methodology
This is an applied, mixed-methods study using qualitative and quantitative content analysis and semantic network analysis. Data were analyzed with VOSviewer and Gephi for network construction, clustering, and visualization. Articles published from 2020 to 2025 on business model design were identified in John Wiley, Scopus, and Web of Science. Initial retrieval yielded 223 records; after title and abstract screening against inclusion criteria, 190 remained; after full-text review, duplicate removal, exclusion of non-generalizable case studies, conference papers, short notes, inaccessible texts, and low-quality studies, 150 articles entered the final analysis. Selection followed a PRISMA-based, two-stage screening process (title/abstract, then full text) by two independent reviewers, with a third reviewer resolving disagreements. Inclusion required publication between 2020 and 2025 in peer-reviewed or review journals, with clear reference in title, abstract, or keywords to business model design/formulation or business models in crisis/unstable conditions. Exclusion criteria removed duplicates, purely descriptive case studies without generalizable frameworks, and methodologically weak or off-topic papers. Articles were also scored on internal validity, external validity, structural validity, dependability, and relevance/novelty; low-scoring items were dropped. Abstracts and keywords underwent two-stage preprocessing: removal of stop words, special characters, and numbers; spelling normalization; synonym merging; and stemming (NLTK for English, HAZM for Persian). Co-occurrence networks were built in VOSviewer (minimum occurrence threshold = 5; association strength normalization; modularity-based clustering). Sensitivity analyses varied occurrence thresholds (4 and 6) and normalization methods to assess stability. Gephi was used for centrality analysis (LinLog layout; Jaccard-normalized link weights). Inter-cluster relationships were summarized with external link density.
Discussion
Findings aligned with Salampour et al. (2023), who proposed that business model innovation affects crisis management through entrepreneurial capability, resilience, and performance. The network structure supported business model as the integrative core, with crisis management and innovation acting as bridges among clusters. Mohammadi Hassanzadeh et al. (2024), using expert judgment and the analytic hierarchy process, ranked “adaptability to crisis conditions” as the top criterion for evaluating crisis-compatible business models, followed by innovation, compatibility, unity, comprehensiveness, and performance. High centrality of innovation and crisis management in the present network is consistent with that ranking. A crisis-compatible business model should combine: (1) flexibility and resilience; (2) continuous innovation in model components; (3) entrepreneurial and dynamic capabilities; (4) diversified revenue models; (5) customer orientation; (6) flexible organizational structures; (7) preventive and reactive strategic actions; and (8) strategic collaborations to reduce vulnerability. Practical levers include agile decision-making, supply chain and revenue diversification, strategic reserves, experimental learning, open innovation, customer intelligence systems, and scenario-based crisis planning.
Conclusion
Using semantic network analysis of 150 scholarly articles (2020–2025), this study identified eight interrelated dimensions of a business model suited to crisis conditions and quantified their interactions. “Business model” forms the conceptual core; crisis management, innovation, resilience, and digital transformation are critical connectors. The eight-cluster framework offered a systemic basis for designing and adapting business models under instability. Future research could combine bibliometric networks with qualitative expert validation and sector-specific case studies to strengthen external validity and managerial applicability.