Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
The horizontal layering in REA enables the analysis of economic exchanges
at different points in time on all three vertical layers described above. There-
fore, the REA ontology considers an
accountability infrastructure
and a
policy
infrastructure
[5]. The REA accountability infrastructure conceptualizes actual
business events and captures ”what has occurred” or ”what is or has been”. The
policy infrastructure conceptualizes what ”could be” or ”should be” within the
context of a defined portfolio of a firm's resources and capabilities [5]. In this
paper we focus on the concepts associated with the REA accountability infras-
tructure. Concepts associated with the policy infrastructure like commitments,
agreements, and type images are not covered here but are subject to future work.
In the following section the REA ontology is applied to a simplified example
in order to demonstrate how the REA constructs can be used to specify an
entrepreneurial script.
2.2 REA Ontology Example
The simplified example used to apply the REA ontology is taken from [13]. It is
based on an actual company and is called
Sy's Fish
and is introduced below:
Sy's Fish is a distributor of seafood and provides his base of restaurant cus-
tomers with over 50 types of fish which can be stored at all locations or stores.
However, each store usually specializes in local favorites. Fish are purchased from
local fishers, cleaned at the store, and then sold at restaurants to customers. Cus-
tomers are allowed to buy on credit, and all pay on the last day of the month.
Most employees are generalists and can perform many duties such as purchasing,
cleaning, and delivering fish. They fill out time cards fortnightly upon which they
may note the percentage of time devoted each day to buying, cleaning and selling
fish. Non-generalist employees for the most part comprise of cashiers. Sy's also
possesses a fleet of trucks, used to bring fish from the docks and to deliver fish
to the restaurants. Both the truck and the employees involved in each purchase
and sale of fish are noted. All trucks are leased on yearly contracts, and lease
payments are made monthly. Cash receipts and disbursements are made to/from
one of the multiple checking accounts of the firm.
The value chain of Sy's Fish (i.e. the entrepreneurial script) comprises the
processes payroll, truck acquisition and store processing. The last process is
give
«stock-flow»
give
«stock-flow»
«EconomicResourc...
Cash
«EconomicEvent»
CashDisbursementLease
«EconomicEvent»
CashDisbursementLabor
«EconomicResourc...
Cash
«EconomicEvent»
PaymentForFish
give
«stock-flow»
«EconomicResource»
Cash
give
«stock-flow»
«duality»
«duality»
«duality»
take
«stock-flow»
«EconomicResourc...
Truck
take
«stock-flow»
«EconomicResourc...
Labor
«EconomicEven...
FishObtained
take
«stock-flow»
«EconomicResource»
Fish
«EconomicEvent»
Lease
«EconomicEvent»
LaborAcquisition
give
«stock-flow»
give
«stock-flow»
give
«stock-flow»
give
«stock-flow»
give
«stock-flow»
«EconomicEvent»
FishSale
«EconomicEvent»
TransportIn
«EconomicResourc...
Fish
«EconomicEve...
CleanIn
give
«stock-flow»
take
«stock-flow»
«duality»
«duality»
«duality»
take
«stock-flow»
take
«stock-flow»
«EconomicEvent»
TransportOut
«EconomicResource»
Fish
«EconomicEve...
CleanOut
«EconomicEvent»
Cash
«EconomicEve...
Payment
give
«stock-flow»
Fig. 2.
REA Sy's Fish Example
