Controllable accountabilities: the Internet of Things and its challenges for organisations

Daniel Boos, Hannes Guenter, Gudela Grote and Katharina Kinder

Behaviour and Information Technology, 2013, vol. 32, issue 5, 449-467

Abstract: Current expectations are that the use of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies (e.g. radio frequency identification devices (RFID) in supply chains) will improve accountability in organisations. However, it remains unclear if, why and when such expectations will actually be met. This is because new technologies not only address, but also produce new accountability demands and human actors might experience difficulties in satisfying these accountabilities. This article presents a theoretical framework for understanding how IoT technologies enable or constrain control capabilities of actors and how this influences actors' capabilities to satisfy accountability demands. We discuss multiple dimensions of accountability (i.e. visibility, responsibility and liability) and control (i.e. transparency, predictability and influence), and explain how control and accountability are constitutively entangled with the capacities of IoT technologies (i.e. informate, automate and transform). To illustrate the framework, we provide vignettes from an IoT application used to detect counterfeits in the supply chain. The article contributes to the on-going debate on benefits and risks of IoT technologies and emphasises the importance of predicting organisational issues already in early stages of technology development.

Date: 2013
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/0144929X.2012.674157 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:tbitxx:v:32:y:2013:i:5:p:449-467

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/tbit20

DOI: 10.1080/0144929X.2012.674157

Access Statistics for this article

Behaviour and Information Technology is currently edited by Dr Panos P Markopoulos

More articles in Behaviour and Information Technology from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().