Innovative e-commerce ideas are characterized by commercial products yet unknown to the market, enabled by information technology such as the Internet and technologies on top of it. How to develop such products is hardly known. We propose a interdisciplinary approach, e -value , to explore an innovative e-commerce idea with the aim to understand such an idea thoroughly and to evaluate it for potential profitability. Our methodology exploits a requirements engineering's way of working, but employs concepts and terminology from business science, marketing and axiology. It shows how to model business requirements and improve business-IT alignment, in sophisticated multi-actor value constellations that are common in electronic commerce. In addition to the e -value approach methodology, we also present the action research-based development of our methodology, by using one of the longitudinal projects we carried out in the field of online news article provisioning.

process semantics of its constellation of economic objects at multiple levels of abstraction, and the firm can use these semantics as an explicit domain conceptualization, both within the firm and between the firm and its trading partners. The extended REA structures also let a firm build a semantic enterprise model that links to other initiatives, such as the introduction of business-process reengineering and workflow management or the movement toward activity-based management. REA accounting as a script In starkly simple terms, all business enterprises operate in the same manner. Somebody has an idea about how to provide a new or improved service or product. This entrepreneur acquires some initial financing (debt or equity for the enterprise), then engages in a chain of economic exchanges with other parties (such as vendors and employees)---each time giving up an economic resource (perhaps money) in return for another resource of greater value. Value is defined as

this paper.

Applying object orientation to the task of modeling the value-added processes of a business enterprise is a task that should be examined both conceptually and practically. This paper does both, but its main theme is a conceptual reliance on a standardized object template-the REA (resource-event-agent) model-- at various levels of abstraction as that template is used to model the economic activities of an enterprise. Deployment of REA concepts in business object design and implementation is a semantic strategy for increasing reusability and interoperability. We explain the components and use of REA models in the context of a simple example, and we discuss also its predictable patterns of implementation compromise. The paper finishes with a discussion of the adaptation of various object-oriented analysis and design techniques to the task of REA modeling of enterprises.

The authors wish to thank Patricia Everaert (Ghent University) and two anonymous reviewers of the 2 nd Int’l Workshop on Conceptual Modeling Quality (IWCMQ’03) for their useful comments and suggestions on previous versions of this paper. D/2004/7012/05

Abstract — In recent years business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce has been subject to major rethinking. A paradigm shift from document centric file-based interchange of business information to process-centric and service-based information exchange can be observed. On a business level, a lot of work has been done to capture business models and collaborative business processes of an enterprise. On a technical level, the focus in software development is moving towards service-oriented architectures (SOA). These transitions on both levels promise a market entry at lower costs and an easier adjustment to changing market conditions. Hence, an overwhelming quantity of specifications and approaches emerged in the past targeting the area of B2B- these are partly competing and overlapping. In this paper, we provide a survey of the most promising ones at both levels and classify them using the Open-edi reference model standardized by ISO. Furthermore, we discuss how individual specifications on different levels fit together- starting from business models via business processes to artifacts ready for deployment. I.

Ontologies are viewed as increasingly important tools for structuring domains of interests. In this paper we propose a reference ontology of business models using concepts from three established business model ontologies; the REA, BMO, and e3-value. The basic concepts in the reference ontology concern actors, resources, and the transfer of resources between actors. Most of the concepts in the reference ontology are taken from one of the original ontologies, but we have also introduced a number of additional concepts, primarily related to resource transfers between business actors. The purpose of the proposed ontology is to increase the understanding of the original ontologies as well as the relationships between them, and also to seek opportunities to complement and improve on them.

It is increasingly recognized that business models offer an abstraction that is useful not only in the exploration of new business networks but also for the design and redesign of operational business processes. Among others, they can be used as input for a risk analysis that is crucial in cross-organizational business process design. However, the notion of value object is up till now not clearly defined. In this paper we investigate the notion of value, value objects and the activities involved when transferring value objects between business actors. We illustrate the proposed value object model by applying it on the wellknown conference case.

This paper reviews several relevant agent concepts developed in the intelligent agents and multiagent systems area, and makes suggestions how to extend current IS technology on the basis of these concepts. Since it presents work in progress, the 3

The concepts of processes and services can be used to structure both businesses and software systems. From a business perspective, the use of processes promises efficient management of organizations. From a software perspective, executable process descriptions provide a way to structure software systems according to the business process the systems should support. Furthermore, the concept of software services allows systems to be partitioned in a modular fashion, thereby enabling large-scale system integration on a technical level. By combining process descriptions with software services in service-based processes, it is feasible to address both business and more technical software needs. Aligning the business and software perspectives of processes and software services is, however, challenging, since implemented executable processes and software services need to cater for operational and strategic business needs as well as existing legacy software systems. In this thesis, several instruments are presented that aim at aiding the design