Business models of factories of the future: identification and economic and mathematical description

Modern technology development is challenging entrepreneurship, encouraging businesses to revise traditional business models' concepts, adapting them to the Industry 4.0 environment. The purpose of this study was to develop an economic and mathematical description of the business model of a factory of the future, which would help make informed management decisions based on a quantitative assessment. The authors considered the concept of a factory of the future by analyzing its types, technologies used and the beneficial effect at various production process stages. The modern approaches to the definition of the business model term were systematized, among which the process and descriptive ones were distinguished. An overview of scientific papers that mention the business models' elements was presented, in which a significant discrepancy in their identification was revealed. As universal elements of the business model of any factory of the future, the authors proposed the following: value creation, value capture (retention), and value offer. A review of modern methods for assessing the effectiveness of business models was carried out, which showed that today this direction is poorly studied and extremely relevant. The stated conclusions allowed the authors to build the basis for the original model of the economic and mathematical description of the business model of factories of the future. The theoretical and practical significance of the proposed model lies in its ability to assess the effectiveness of the existing business models and substantiate management decisions related to their innovations.