Abstract
Online accountability is increasingly becoming a critical issue in contemporary debates over creating more open and transparent organizations. Broadly defined, online accountability refers to the extent that an organization discloses financial and performance data on the organization’s Website, and the level of stakeholder interaction supported by the organization’s Website. Online accountability is positively correlated with outcome metrics such as organizational success, increased charitable contributions, and enhanced public trust. However, our understanding of the determinants of online accountability is limited. Informed by organizational ecology theory, this research-in-progress seeks to enhance our understanding of this key issue by developing and testing a model of the determinants of online accountability. Our preliminary analysis of secondary data on a regional population of 653 organizations in the Northeast United States revealed that only 12.09% of the organizations have implemented online accountability. We argue that organizations that fail to implement online accountability measures can negatively impact their chances of survival in complex and uncertain environments.
Recommended Citation
Lee, Roderick L. and Joseph, Rhoda C., "Survival of the Fittest: Online Accountability in Complex Organizational Populations" (2012). SAIS 2012 Proceedings. 30.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/sais2012/30