Abstract
This paper explains how the financial industry is solving its data, risk management, and associated vocabulary problems using semantic technologies. The paper is the first to examine this phenomenon and to identify the social and institutional mechanisms being applied to socially construct a standard common vocabulary using ontology-based models. This standardized ontology-based common vocabulary will underpin the design of next generation of semantically-enabled information systems (IS) for the financial industry. The mechanisms that are helping institutionalize this common vocabulary are identified using a longitudinal case study, whose embedded units of analysis focus on central agents of change—the Enterprise Data Management Council and the Object Management Group. All this has important implications for society, as it is intended that semantically-enabled IS will, for example, provide stakeholders, such as regulators, with better transparency over systemic risks to national and international financial systems, thereby mitigating or avoiding future financial crises.
Chapter PDF
References
Gordon, R.S.: The Solution Became the Problem. The Long View (August 25, 2012), http://online.barrons.com/article/SB50001424053111904881404577603452851756694.html (accessed February 2013)
Bennett, M.: Semantics standardization for financial industry integration. In: Collaboration Technologies and Systems (CTS), May 23-27, pp. 239–445. IEEE (2011)
Furnas, G.W., Landauer, T.K., Gomez, L.M., Dumais, S.T.: The vocabulary problem in human-system communication. Commun. ACM 30(11), 964–971 (1987)
Rodier, M.: OMG and Enterprise Data Management Council to Develop Data Standards for Financial Reform. Wall Street and Technology (March 15, 2011), http://www.wallstreetandtech.com/data-management/omg-and-enterprise-data-management-counc/229301007 (accessed March 2013)
Stephens, S.: The Enterprise Semantic Web: Technologies and Applications for the Real World. In: Hepp, M., Lytras, M., Cardoso, J. (eds.) Semantic Web and Beyond Computing for Human Experience, vol. 6, pp. 17–37. Springer, NY (2008)
Lara, R., Cantador, I., Castells, P.: Semantic Technologies for the Financial Domain. In: Hepp, M., Lytras, M., Cardoso, J. (eds.) Semantic Web and Beyond Computing for Human Experience, vol. 6, pp. 41–74. Springer, NY (2008)
Scott, W.R.: Institutions and Organizations. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks (1995)
Orlikowski, W.J., Barley, S.R.: Technology and Institutions: What Can Research on Information Technology and Research on Organizations Learn from Each Other. MISQ 25, 145–166 (2001)
DiMaggio, P.J., Powell, W.W.: The Iron Cage Revisited - Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields. Am. Sociol. Rev. 48, 147–160 (1983)
Campbell, J.L.: Institutional Change and Globalization. Princeton University Press, Princeton (2004)
Hedström, P., Swedberg, R.: Social Mechanisms: An Analytical Approach to Social Theory. Cambridge University Press, New York (1998)
Gross, N.: A Pragmatist Theory of Social Mechanisms. Am. Sociol. Rev. 74, 358–379 (2009)
Hedström, P.: Dissecting the Social. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2005)
Campbell, J.L.: Where do we stand? Common mechanisms in organizations and social research. In: Davis, G.F., McAdam, D., Scott, W.R., Zald, M.N. (eds.) Social Movements and Organization Theory, pp. 41–68. Cambridge University Press, New York (2005)
Davis, G.F., Marquis, C.: Prospects for Organization Theory in the Early Twenty-First Century: Institutional Fields and Mechanisms. Organ. Sci. 16, 332–343 (2005)
Elster, J.: Explaining social behavior: More nuts and bolts for the social sciences. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2007)
Yin, R.K.: Case Study Research Design and Methods. Sage Publications, California (2003)
Jorgensen, D.L.: Participant Observation: A Methodology for Human Studies. Sage Publications, California (1989)
Patton, M.Q.: Qualitative Evaluation and Research Methods. Sage Publications, California (1990)
Chell, E.: Critical incident technique. In: Symon, G., Cassell, C. (eds.) Qualitative Methods and Analysis in Organizational Research, pp. 51–72. Sage Publications, London (1998)
Tolbert, P.S., Zucker, L.G.: Institutionalization of Institutional Theory. In: Clegg, S., Hardy, C., Nord, W. (eds.) Handbook of Organizational Studies, pp. 175–190. Sage Publications, London (1996)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing
About this paper
Cite this paper
Butler, T., Abi-Lahoud, E. (2014). A Mechanism-Based Explanation of the Institutionalization of Semantic Technologies in the Financial Industry. In: Bergvall-Kåreborn, B., Nielsen, P.A. (eds) Creating Value for All Through IT. TDIT 2014. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol 429. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-43459-8_17
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-43459-8_17
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-662-43458-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-662-43459-8
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)