Financial Information Integration in the Presence of Equational Ontological Conflicts

7 Pages Posted: 6 Feb 2003

See all articles by Aykut Firat

Aykut Firat

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Sloan School of Management

Stuart Madnick

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Sloan School of Management

Benjamin Grosof

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Sloan School of Management

Date Written: October 2002

Abstract

While there are efforts to establish a single international accounting standard, there are strong current and future needs to handle heterogeneous accounting methods and systems. We advocate a context-based approach to dealing with multiple accounting standards and equational ontological conflicts. In this paper we first define what we mean by equational ontological conflicts and then describe a new approach, using Constraint Logic Programming and abductive reasoning, to reconcile such conflicts among disparate information systems. In particular, we focus on the use of Constraint Handling Rules as a simultaneous symbolic equation solver, which is a powerful way to combine, invert and simplify multiple conversion functions that translate between different contexts. Finally, we demonstrate a sample application using our prototype implementation that demonstrates the viability of our approach.

Keywords: Financial Information Integration, Equational Ontological Conflicts, Multiple Accounting Standards, Constraint Handling Rules

JEL Classification: M41, M44, M47, L22

Suggested Citation

Firat, Aykut and Madnick, Stuart E. and Grosof, Benjamin, Financial Information Integration in the Presence of Equational Ontological Conflicts (October 2002). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=376840 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.376840

Aykut Firat

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Sloan School of Management ( email )

100 Main Street
E62-416
Cambridge, MA 02142
United States

Stuart E. Madnick (Contact Author)

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Sloan School of Management ( email )

E53-321
Cambridge, MA 02142
United States
617-253-6671 (Phone)
617-253-3321 (Fax)

Benjamin Grosof

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Sloan School of Management ( email )

E53-317
Cambridge, MA 02142
United States
617-253-8694 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.mit.edu/~bgrosof

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