The popularity of Osterwalder’s (The business model ontology a proposition in a design science approach [Ph.D. Thesis], Université de Lausanne, Faculté des hautes études commerciales, 2004) business model canvas has led researchers to develop analogous artifacts in a variety of domains. However, we still lack a conceptual foundation explaining the essential and common characteristics of the canvas, regarded as domain-independent artifact. In this study, we focus on how the canvas helps representing and theorizing about a particular behavior or structure. We develop a framework for canvas design, which characterizes the canvas design at the surface and deep levels. While the surface level concerns a lightweight representation, using components and implicit relationships, the deep level involves theorizing about a particular behavior or structure, using a systems perspective and considering a static and a dynamic view of the canvas. The proposed framework is demonstrated in a case addressing the design of the research contribution canvas. This study contributes to a domain-independent conceptualization of the canvas, which can be used to design canvases in various domains.

Osterwalder（商业模型本体论是设计科学方法中的一个命题 [博士论文]，洛桑大学，Faculté des hautes études Commerciales，2004 年）商业模型画布的流行导致研究人员在各种域。然而，我们仍然缺乏一个概念基础来解释画布的基本和共同特征，被认为是与领域无关的工件。在这项研究中，我们专注于画布如何帮助代表和理论化特定的行为或结构。我们开发了一个画布设计框架，该框架在表面和深层描述了画布设计。虽然表层涉及使用组件和隐含关系的轻量级表示，但深层涉及对特定行为或结构的理论化，使用系统视角并考虑画布的静态和动态视图。提出的框架在一个解决研究贡献画布设计的案例中得到了证明。这项研究有助于画布的领域独立概念化，可用于设计各个领域的画布。