I see the term often used as if there is a concrete distinction between the two when discussing MVC for OO languages. From what I get from context it is that business models perform an action to mutate the data models. Is that a correct way to express the difference.
I guess what confuses me though is that most examples of models mix both of these roles and on the surface it feels natural to do. Often the methods that change objects states are inside of those objects themselves. I guess I have trouble coming up with an example of how this works in the real world. It seems more natural that methods to change an object be inside that object. Can any one explain this a little more clearly?
Business models consist of how the flow of data moves within functions of a business. This does not take the data model into consideration, but helps guide how the data will be stored.
Data models are built with the data in mind - where the logic of the business model is based on processes/procedures/just the flow of how things are done, the data model is designed to structure the data in the most normalized way possible that will reflect the needs of the business model.