An Executable Axiomatization of the REA2 Ontology

Abstract

ABSTRACT The formalization of the REA2 ontology presented in this paper offers a minimal set of operationalized semantics for a single white-box model relevant to all business stakeholders independent of their role or involvement in economic activities. This paper's theoretical innovations are the use of MERODE to model increment and decrement semantics as fundamental stand-alone concepts that simultaneously affect economic resources, event, agents, and the semantics of the stock-flow, participation, and ownership associations and the formalization of the REA axioms as executable finite state machines. MERODE's possibilities for model execution through fast prototyping allowed validation through the modeling of an archetypical exchange scenario. Both innovations contribute to the reliability of a generic semantic model for finance and logistics in both the traditional, as well as the sharing, economy, thus promoting traceability and accountability in value networks and supply chains supported by both centralized and decentralized ledger technologies.