Birger Andersson’s research while affiliated with Stockholm University and other places

Numerical identity is the relation that an individual thing bears to itself and only itself, which is not dependent on any other object. However, in the discourse of identity management, identity is often something else: an identifier that an organization has assigned to some entity, here called social identity. These two notions of identity are closely related, as social identities are designed to mirror numerical identities from an organisational point of view. But this mirroring can easily break down or be misaligned. This paper offers an ontological analysis of the relationships between numerical and social identity, with a focus on identifying different forms of their misalignments and potential causes for these. For the analysis we rely on the Unified Foundational Ontology (UFO), and for the conceptual modelling we use OntoUML. The result of the ontological analysis takes the form of a conceptual model. We envisage that this model can not only clarify theoretical concepts related to identity, but also have practical applications in addressing issues of rights and agency in digital identity management.

From a design science perspective, information systems and their components are viewed as artifacts. However, not much has been written yet on the ontological status of artifacts or their structure. After March & Smith’s (1995) initial classification of artifacts in terms of models, constructs, methods and instantiations, there have been only a few attempts to come up with a more systematic approach. This conceptual paper provides an ontological analysis of the notion of artifact grounded in the foundational ontology UFO. Its core is an ontological characterization of artifacts, and technical objects in general from a Design Science Research perspective, developed in conversation with other approaches. This general artifact ontology is applied in a systematic classification of IS artifacts. We include practical implications for Design Science Research.

From a design science perspective, information systems and their components are viewed as artefacts. However, not much has been written yet on the ontological status of artefacts or their structure. After March & Smith’s (1995) initial classification of artefacts in terms of models, constructs, procedures and instantiations, there have been only a few attempts to come up with a more systematic approach. After reviewing previous work, this conceptual paper introduces an ontology of IS artefacts. It starts with an ontological characterization of artefacts and technical objects in general and proceeds to introduce a systematic classification of IS artefacts and compare it with existing work. We end with some practical implications for design research.

The concept of cocreation of value has been widely accepted in the management literature and service science. Value modeling approaches such as e3value focus on the exchange of value rather than cocreation. In this paper, a new value modeling approach is proposed that builds on e3value but highlights the notion of a "value encounter." Value encounters are defined as interaction spaces where a group of actors meet and derive value by each one bringing in some of its own resources. The paper provides a formal value encounter ontology. It is shown that this ontology captures the concept of value cocreation and offers a useful instrument for open innovation projects. A case study is provided in which the approach has been applied in the development of a "green" hospital.

The term service is today defined and used in a multitude of ways, which are often ambiguous and contradictory. The absence of a commonly agreed-upon definition of the term makes it difficult to distinguish, describe and classify services. In order to address these issues, this chapter proposes a model of services that helps in analysing the concept. The model encompasses three perspectives: service as a means for cocreation of value, service as a means for abstraction and service as a means for distributing rights. The model does not suggest a definition of the term service but shows how the service concept can be analysed using a number of related concepts, like service resource, service process and service offering. The model has its theoretical foundation in the Resource-Event-Agent (REA) ontology and Hohfeld’s classification of rights.

Compliance has become a strategic concern for many companies and organizations. To prove actual compliance, the organization must disclose itself (be auditable). A plethora of advanced tools has been developed to support compliance management and auditing processes. However, not all organizations are the same. To apply these tools effectively and efficiently, the organization itself and the maturity of its management control should be considered as well. The goal of this exploratory paper is to define auditability on a general conceptual level. We introduce four levels of auditability, where each level adds to the self-knowledge and being-in-control of the organization.

Currently there exists a multitude of views of service creating problems for designers and users of models with respect to reasoning, description and classification of services. The diversity of conflicting views and definitions suggest that a multi-perspective approach is required to explicate the notion of service. The purpose of this paper is to introduce an integrated view of the service notion based on a literature survey. Our approach is to start with an analysis of service-as-a-resource and argue that this view will benefit from being complemented with a service-as-a-process view. These views are then integrated and represented in a conceptual model.

The term service is today defined and used in a multitude of ways, and there is no usage characteristic that is common for all of these ways. As a consequence natural language terms used for describing services are ambiguous and often confusing. The lack of a common agreed upon definition of the term makes it difficult to understand and classify services as well as distinguish them from non-service concepts. In this paper, we do not propose a new definition of service but a model of services that helps in analysing the concept. The model is based on three perspectives: service as a means for co-creation of value, service as a means for abstraction, and service as a means for providing restricted access to resources. Keywordsservice–service model–service definition–service resource–service process–service delivery–Resource-Event-Agent ontology–Hohfeld’s classification of Rights–conceptual modeling

The Service-Oriented Architecture has rapidly become the de facto standard for modern information systems. Although recently considerable research attention has been paid to the management of services, several gaps can still be observed. Service management as far as it is automated is either mixed up with the operational service logic itself, or handled in a separate not service-oriented system, such as a BAM platform. In addition, there is a growing business demand for value-driven service management. In this paper, a general framework for management service design is presented that covers both business services and software services and is rooted in the business ontology REA, extended with a REA management ontology. The framework is applied to two different case studies, one in the Italian wine industry and one related to a robot cleaner.