Journal of Information Systems Engineering and Management

Journal of Information Systems Engineering and Management, 2020 - Volume 5 Issue 4, Article No: em0128
https://doi.org/10.29333/jisem/8533

Published Online: 08 Sep 2020

Views: 904 | Downloads: 555

The current digital transformation may impact on the economic and social aspects of entities of the social economy and on the practices of accountability. The accountability is, in some cases, a mandatory requirement for those entities and an element of recognized merit for the good management. This paper aims to present a component developed in a more comprehensive project, in the context of Private Institutions for Social Solidarity (IPSS) in Portugal. This component, using technologies and information systems and a SaaS Multi-tenant approach, consists of a database and a web platform which collect, process, store and disseminate data and indicators (substantiated and supported by a conceptual framework) capable to assess the financial, social and economic impact of the IPSS in Portugal. Therefore, this work helps these entities to be more accountable and to comply with legal requirements. The innovation and relevance of this project is related to its capability of enabling transparency and accountability and promoting entities’ performance. Based on the Design Science methodology, this paper conceptually presents the digital platform that supports the project.

multi-tenancy SaaS cloud accountability social economy design science

• Ball, C. (2009). What Is Transparency?. Public Integrity, 11(4), 293-308. https://doi.org/10.2753/PIN1099-9922110400
• Bender, A., Spring, N, Levin, D. and Bhattacharjee, B. (2007). Accountability as a Service. SRUTI, 7, 1-6. Available at: http://static.usenix.org/event/sruti07/tech/full_papers/bender/bender.pdf (Accessed: 19 May 2019).
• Bertot, J. C., Jaeger, P. T. and Grimes, J. M. (2010). Using ICTs to create a culture of transparency: E-government and social media as openness and anti-corruption tools for societies. Government Information Quarterly, 27(3), 264-271. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2010.03.001
• Christensen, L. T. and Cornelissen, J. (2015). Organizational transparency as myth and metaphor. European Journal of Social Theory, 18(2), 132-149. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368431014555256
• Connolly, C. and Kelly, M. (2011). Understanding accountability in social enterprise organisations: a framework. Social Enterprise Journal, 7(3), 224-237. https://doi.org/10.1108/17508611111182386
• Cotterrell, R. (1999). Transparency, mass media, ideology and community. Cultural Values, 3(4), 414-426. https://doi.org/10.1080/14797589909367176
• Devlieghere, J., Bradt, L. and Roose, R. (2019). Electronic information systems as means for accountability: why there is no such thing as objectivity. European Journal of Social Work. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691457.2019.1585335
• Ferreira, A., Marques, R. P., Santos, C. and do Carmo Azevedo, G. M. (2019). Evaluation of the Online Accountability of the Portuguese Private Institutions of Social Solidarity. In Ferreira, A., et al. (eds) Modernization and Accountability in the Social Economy Sector. Hershey, PA: IGI-Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-8482-7.ch011
• Ferreira, A., Marques, R. P., Santos, C., Azevedo, G. and Mendes, H. (2016). Avaliação da Presença na Internet das Instituições Particulares de Solidariedade Social Portuguesas. Estudos do ISCA, (14). https://doi.org/10.1234/ei.v0i14.4730
• Guo, Z. and Ma, D. (2018). A Model of Competition Between Perpetual Software and Software as a Service. MIS Quarterly, 42(1), 101-120. https://doi.org/10.25300/MISQ/2018/13640
• Gustavsson, M. (2017). Digital Platforms as dislocators on digitalization and limits of discourse. University of Gothenburg.
• Hevner, A. and Chatterjee, S. (2010). Design Science Research in Information Systems. In Design Research in Information Systems. Springer US, pp. 9-22. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5653-8_2
• Hevner, A. R. (2007). Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems A Three Cycle View of Design Science Research A Three Cycle View of Design Science Research. Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems © Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems, 19(192), 87-92. Available at: http://aisel.aisnet.org/sjis (Accessed: 25 May 2018).
• Karatas, G., Can, F., Dogan, G., Konca, C. and Akbulut, A. (2017). Multi-tenant architectures in the cloud: A systematic mapping study. In 2017 International Artificial Intelligence and Data Processing Symposium (IDAP). IEEE, pp. 1-4. https://doi.org/10.1109/IDAP.2017.8090268
• Kenney, M. and Zysman, J. (2016). The Rise of the Platform Economy. Issues in Science & Technology, 32(3), 61-69. https://doi.org/10.17226/21913
• Lewandowski, C. M. (2013). Choosing a future in platform economy. Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling, 53(18), 1689-1699. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107415324.004
• Li, Q. and Liu, K. (2016). Interactive data visualisation: Facilitate the accountability disclosure through the lens of organisational semiotics. In IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology. Springer New York LLC, pp. 133-142. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42102-5_15
• Marques, R. P., Santos, C. and Duarte, R. (2019). Uma Plataforma Web Baseada numa Arquitetura SaaS Multi-Tenant para Promover a Accountability do Setor da Economia Social. In Atas da Conferencia da Associacao Portuguesa de Sistemas de Informacao. Lisboa: Associação Portuguesa de Sistemas de Informação.
• Marques, R. P., Santos, C. and Duarte, R. (2020). Promotion of Accountability and Performance of the Social Economy Entities with SaaS Multi-Tenant Information Systems. In 2020 15th Iberian Conference on Information Systems and Technologies (CISTI). IEEE, pp. 1-6. https://doi.org/10.23919/CISTI49556.2020.9140813
• Marrone, M. and Hazelton, J. (2019). The disruptive and transformative potential of new technologies for accounting, accountants and accountability: A review of current literature and call for further research. Meditari Accountancy Research, 27(5), 677-694. https://doi.org/10.1108/MEDAR-06-2019-0508
• Marshall, M., Vines, J., Wright, P., Kirk, D. S., Lowe, T. and Wilson, R. (2018). Accountability work: Examining the values, technologies and work practices that facilitate transparency in Charities. In Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings. New York, New York, USA: Association for Computing Machinery, pp. 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1145/3173574.3173849
• Meijer, A. (2015). Government Transparency in Historical Perspective: From the Ancient Regime to Open Data in The Netherlands. International Journal of Public Administration, 38(3), 189-199. https://doi.org/10.1080/01900692.2014.934837
• Myers, M. D. (1997). Critical Ethnography in Information Systems. In Information Systems and Qualitative Research. Springer US, pp. 276-300. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-35309-8_15
• Peffers, K., Tuunanen, T., Rothenberger, M. A. and Chatterjee, S. (2007). A Design Science Research Methodology for Information Systems Research. Journal of Management Information Systems, 24(3), 45-77. https://doi.org/10.2753/MIS0742-1222240302
• Rawlins, B. (2009). Give the emperor a mirror: toward developing a stakeholder measurement of organizational transparency. Journal of public relations research: a quarterly publication of the Public Relations Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, 21(1), 71-99. https://doi.org/10.1080/10627260802153421
• Rong, K., Lin, Y., Shi, Y. and Yu, J. (2013). Linking business ecosystem lifecycle with platform strategy: a triple view of technology, application and organization: International Journal of Technology Management, 62(1), 75. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJTM.2013.053042
• Santos, C., da Conceição Santos Ferreira, A., Figueiredo Marques, R. P. and do Carmo Azevedo, G. M. (2018). EAGLE_Index: Enhancement of an accountability guide for learning E-Government. Handbook of Research on Modernization and Accountability in Public Sector Management. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-3731-1.ch006
• Santos, C., da Conceição Santos Ferreira, A., Figueiredo Marques, R. P., do Carmo Azevedo, G. M. and Inácio, H. (2019). Modernization and Accountability in the Social Economy: A Systematic Review. In Ferreira, A., et al. (eds.) Modernization and Accountability in the Social Economy Sector. Hershey, PA: IGI-Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-8482-7.ch001
• Tenbensel, T., Dwyer, J. and Lavoie, J. (2014). How not to kill the golden goose. Public Management Review, 16(7), 925-944. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2013.770054
• Tizzei, L. P., Nery, M., Marcelo Nery, Segura, V. C. V. B., Cerqueira, R. F. G. (2017). Using Microservices and Software Product Line Engineering to Support Reuse of Evolving Multi-tenant SaaS. In Proceedings of the 21st International Systems and Software Product Line Conference - Volume A on - SPLC ‘17. New York, New York, USA: ACM Press, pp. 205-214. https://doi.org/10.1145/3106195.3106224
• Truyen, E., Van Landuyt, D., Reniers, V., Rafique, A., Lagaisse, B. and Joosen, W. (2016). Towards a container-based architecture for multi-tenant SaaS applications. In Proceedings of the 15th International Workshop on Adaptive and Reflective Middleware. ACM; New York, NY, USA, pp. 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1145/3008167.3008173
• Turilli, M. and Floridi, L. (2009). The ethics of information transparency. Ethics and Information Technology, 11(2), 105-112. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-009-9187-9
• Upward, A. and Jones, P. (2016). An Ontology for Strongly Sustainable Business Models. Organization & Environment, 29(1), 97-123. https://doi.org/10.1177/1086026615592933
• US Air Force (2004). SMC Systems Engineering: Concepts, Processes, and Techniques (2nd ed.). Washington, D.C.: US Air Force.
• Vaccaro, A. (2012). To Pay or Not to Pay? Dynamic Transparency and the Fight Against the Mafia’s Extortionists. Journal of Business Ethics, 23-35. https://doi.org/10.2307/41413242
• Windrum, P., Schartinger, D., Rubalcaba, L., Gallouj, F. and Toivonen, M. (2016). The co-creation of multi-agent social innovations: A bridge between service and social innovation research. European Journal of Innovation Management, 19(2), 150-166. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJIM-05-2015-0033
• Yao, J., Chen, S., Wang, C., Levy, D. and Zic, J. (2010). Accountability as a Service for the Cloud. In 2010 IEEE International Conference on Services Computing. IEEE, pp. 81-88. https://doi.org/10.1109/SCC.2010.83
• Zysman, J. and Kenney, M. (2017). The Next Phase in the Digital Revolution: Platforms, Automation, Growth, and Employment. CACM.

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.