The Ontological Foundation of REA Enterprise Information Systems.docx

The Ontological Foundation of REA Enterprise Information Systems.docx

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TheOntologicalFoundationofREAEnterpriseInformationSystems

TheOntologicalFoundationofREAEnterpriseInformationSystems

November1999,March2000,August2000

GuidoL.Geerts

AssistantProfessorofAccounting&MIS

TheUniversityofDelaware

Newark,DE19711

EMAIL:

geertsg@be.udel.edu;TEL:

302-831-6413

&

WilliamE.McCarthy

ProfessorofAccountingMichiganStateUniversityEastLansing,MI48864USA

EMAIL:

mccarth4@msu.edu;TEL:

517-432-2913

CommentswelcomedThispaperhasbenefitedfromworkshopcommentsreceivedattheUniversityofFlorida,theUniversityofDelaware,ArizonaStateUniversity,theUniversityofSanDiego,theUniversityofKansas,VirginiaTechUniversity,theUniversityofSouthFlorida,theUniversityofMinnesota,theUniversityofWisconsin,andthe2000AAANationalMeeting.ThesuggestionsofCherylDunnandJulieSmithDavidareespeciallyacknowledged.TheontologicalconstructsandtheirdefinitionshavealsobenefitedtremendouslyfromcritiquesandcommentsoftheebXMLBusinessProcessTeam,especiallyPaulLevine（Telecordia）,KarstenRiemer（Sun）,andJimClark（Edifecs）.OurmostsignificantacknowledgementgoestoBobHaugen（LogisticalSoftware）whoseinsightfulcommentariesandcritiqueshavecausedmultiplechangestotheontology.

TheOntologicalFoundationofREAEnterpriseInformationSystems

Authorsandaffiliations

GuidoGeerts,TheUniversityofDelaware

WilliamE.McCarthy,MichiganStateUniversity

ABSTRACT:

Philosophershavestudiedontologiesforcenturiesintheirsearchforasystematicexplanationofexistence:

“Whatkindofthingsexist?

”Recently,ontologieshaveemergedasamajorresearchtopicinthefieldsofartificialintelligenceandknowledgemanagementwheretheyaddressthecontentissue:

“Whatkindofthingsshouldwerepresent?

”Theanswertothatquestiondifferswiththescopeoftheontology.Ontologiesthataresubject-independentarecalledupper-levelontologies,andtheyattempttodefineconceptsthataresharedbyalldomains,suchastimeandspace.Domainontologies,ontheotherhand,attempttodefinethethingsthatarerelevanttoaspecificapplicationdomain.BothtypesofontologiesarebecomingincreasinglyimportantintheeraoftheInternetwhereconsistentandmachine-readablesemanticdefinitionsofeconomicphenomenabecomethelanguageofe-commerce.Inthispaper,weproposetheconceptualaccountingframeworkoftheResource-Event-Agent（REA）modelofMcCarthy（1982）asanenterprisedomainontology,andwebuildupontheinitialontologyworkofGeertsandMcCarthy（2000）whichexploredREAwithrespecttotheontologicalcategorizationsofJohnSowa（1999）.Becauseofitsconceptualmodelingheritage,REAalreadyresemblesanestablishedontologyinmanydeclarative（categories）andprocedural（axioms）respects,andwealsoproposeheretoextendformallythatframeworkboth

（1）verticallyintermsofentrepreneuriallogic（valuechains）andworkflowdetail,and

（2）horizontallyintermsoftypeandcommitmentimagesofenterpriseeconomicphenomena.Astrongemphasisthroughoutthepaperisgiventothemicroeconomicfoundationsofthecategorydefinitions.

I.INTRODUCTION

Philosophershavestudiedontologiesforcenturiesintheirsearchforasystematicexplanationofexistence:

“Whatkindofthingsexist?

”Recently,ontologieshaveemergedasamajorresearchtopicinInformationSystemswheretheyaddressthecontentissue:

“Whatkindofthingsshouldwerepresent?

”Theanswertothatquestiondifferswiththescopeoftheontology.Ontologiesthataresubject-independentarecalledupper-levelontologies,andtheyattempttodefineconceptsthataresharedbyalldomains,suchastimeandspace.Examplesofupper-levelontologiesareCYC（LenatandGuha1990）,JohnSowa’sontology（Sowa1999）,andtheWeberandWandontology（WandandWeber1990,Weber1997）basedontheworkofMarioBunge（1977,1979）.Domainontologies,ontheotherhand,attempttodefinethethingsthatarerelevanttoaspecificapplicationdomain.Examplesofdomain-specificontologiesincludeaircampaignplanning（Valenteetal.1999）,scheduling（SmithandBecker1997）,andmedicine（Gangemietal.1998）.Inthispaper,wegenerallyexploretheareaofenterpriseontologies（Foxetal.1993,Uscholdetal.1998）,andwespecificallyproposeaconceptualaccountingframework–theResource-Event-Agent（REA）model（McCarthy1979,1982）--asanenterpriseontology.Becauseofitsconceptualmodelingheritage,REAalreadyresemblesanestablishedontology,andwealsoproposeheretoextendthatframeworkbothverticallyintermsofentrepreneuriallogicandworkflowdetailandhorizontallyintermsofphysical-abstractcharacterizationsofenterpriseeconomicphenomena.Beforewestartourexplorationweneedtoaddressanumberofbroaderissues:

“Whatisanontology?

”“Whystudyontologies?

”“Howtoconstructanontology?

”and“Whatisagoodontology?

”Answerstothesequestionshelpustoframetheresearchquestionaddressedinthispaper.

Whatisanontology?

ThemostwidelyaccepteddefinitionofontologyistheonegivenbyGruber（1993）:

“anexplicitspecificationofconceptualization.”GruberusesthedescriptiongiveninGeneserethandNilsson（1987）tofurtherrefinethetermconceptualizationas“theobjects,concepts,andotherentitiesthatareassumedtoexistinsomeareaofinterestandtherelationshipsthatholdamongthem.”Thisdefinitionresemblesthetraditionaldescriptionofadatabaseconceptualschema;however,itdoesdifferinatleastthreeimportantways:

objective,scopeandcontent.First,theobjectiveofanontologyistorepresentaconceptualizationthatisshareable/reusableandwhereidiosyncrasiesofspecificapplicationsareignored.Second,thescopeofanontologyisallapplicationsinthedomain,notjustone.Andfinally,anontologycontainsknowledgespecificationswherethemeaningofthestructuresrepresentedisexplicitlyspecifiedandconstrainedandwheretherulestoinferfurtherknowledgeareexplicitlydefined.

Whystudyontologies?

Theinterestinontologieshasemergedinthecontextofthecurrentdistributed,heterogeneouscomputingenvironment--inparticulartheInternet--andinthefastgrowinginterestincomponent-basedsoftwareengineering.Thegeneralconsensusisthatontologiesareabletoimprovecommunication,sharingandreuse（UsholdandGruninger1996）.Lackofanexplicitlyspecifiedconceptualizationoftenresultsinpoorcommunicationfrompeopletopeople,frompeopletocomputers,andespeciallyfromcomputerstocomputers.Forexample:

"Whatisthemeaningofthetermsaccount,businessprocessandmarket?

Interpretationofthesetermsisdifferentwithindepartments,acrossdepartments,acrossorganizations,andacrosscomputersystems.Animportantobjectiveofontologiesistomakethemeaningofconceptsexplicitinordertoimprovecommunication.Interoperability,thecommunicationbetweenseparatecomputersystems,hasbeengivenincreasedattentionwiththeemergenceofdistributedandheterogeneouscomputingenvironments,anddifferentapproacheshavebeenproposedinsupportofinteroperability.Inafirstapproach,knowledgeistranslatedintoacommonformatsuchasKIF–theKnowledgeInterchangeFormat（Fikesetal.1991）--andthisintermediateformatcanthenbeusedforknowledgesharingandreuse.AsecondapproachistheuseofanAgentCommunicationLanguage（ACL）thatisgroundedinanontology.AgoodexampleofanACLisKQML（Fininetal.1994）.Agentsusetermsthatarepartoftheontologytocommunicatewiththeunderlyingimplementationbeingirrelevant.

Lackofreusabilityhasbeenwidelyrecognizedasamajorweaknessoftraditionalsystemsdevelopment.Reusecansubstantiallyreducetimeandcostofinformationsystemsdesign,implementationandmaintenance.Inrecentyearsmuchattentionisgiventothedesignofsoftwareapplicationswherepartsofexistingapplicationscanbereused.Thesepartsmightincludedesigns,knowledgestructures,orsoftwarecomponents.Theaccomplishmentofreusabilitylargelydependsonthesharingofasimilarconceptualization.

Manyusesofontologieshaveemergedwithimportantdifferencesinsophisticationandobjectives（Musen1992,UsholdandGruninger1996）.Here,wedistinguishamongthreebroadcategoriesofontologyuse:

（1）asaknowledgedictionary,

（2）asasupportforconceptualdesign,and（3）inoperationaluse.

∙AKnowledgeDictionaryexplicitlyrecordsthemeaningofthedomainconcepts,therelationshipsbetweenconcepts,andtheconstraintsthatapplytoconcepts.Theexplicitlyrecordeddefinitionsimprovecommunication,integrationandconsistency.

∙ConceptualDesignSupport.Ontologiesofferimportantguidanceforconstructionofapplicationmodelsinaspecificdomain.AsUsholdandGruninger（1996）pointout,benefitsincludeabetteridentificationofrequirementsandincreasedreliability.

∙ForOperationalOntologies,theconcepts,relationshipsbetweenconceptsandconstraintsareexplicitlyrecorded,andthesethenbecomepartoftheapplicationsthemselves（Guarino,1998）.Theexplicitrecordingoftheontologyasknowledgespecificationsenablestheiruseforinference.

Theseusesareneitherexhaustivenorexclusive.Forexample,conceptualdesignsupportbenefitsfromtheexistenceofaknowledgedictionary,andanexcellentexampleofoperationaluseofanontologyistheautomatedsupportofconceptualdesign.

Howtoconstructanontology?

Recognitionofthecomplexityofontologicalengineeringhasresultedinincreasedresearchonmethodologiesforontologyconstruction.Gomez-Perez（1998）,forexampledistinguishesthefollowingphasesinontologyconstruction:

knowledgeacquisiti