Dimensions of Accountability in Inter-organizational Business Processes

Abstract

Inter-organizational business processes are the basis of a globalized, highly dynamic, and digitalized world, en-abling faster and cost-effective transactions. At the same time, they raise business vulnerabilities. A partic-ular vulnerability is linked to the substantiation of trust between actors in dynamic business relationships, as trust affects interdependencies and complexity. An ap-proach to address this vulnerability is the introduction of accountability mechanisms. Extant research suggests that accountability enables revealing causality and a transparent allocation of responsibilities for each pro-cess step. Thereby, corresponding actors can judge upon misbehavior and verify trust claims. Unfortu-nately, a thorough understanding of accountability and its dimensions accountability in the context of IBP is still missing. To address this gap, we develop a framework with dimensions of accountability. We demonstrate the resulting framework in an industrial supply chain case and derive implications for theory and practice.