This class comprises a temporary relationship between two or more partners consisting of an obligation to make compensating provisions, normally with the goal to completely fulfill the obligation. An instance of socExxx Obligation may implicitly come into being by an agreed-on initial provision of one partner, or by a formal contract. It ends with the agreement by the partners that compensation is completed, or arbitration by a responsible institution. The obligation may be quantifiable in terms of a currency, by the provision of some service, the provision of a physical thing, or some combination of these.

Informal obligations, such as those initiated by gifts or attempts of bribery, and obligations by other social interactions that cannot be formally compensated or terminated do not fall under this class and may be modelled as other forms of obligation sharing more general traits with this class.

This class comprises a temporary relationship of a socially accepted form between two business partners consisting of an obligation to make compensating provisions to each other, normally with the goal to terminate the obligation immediately or within some agreed time-span. An instance of SOxxx Business Obligation may implicitly come into being by an agreed-on initial provision of one partner, or by a formal contract. It ends with an agreement of the partners about completed compensation or the arbitration by a responsible social institution. The obligation may be accountable, i.e., quantifiable in terms of a currency, and compensation may be agreed to be defined arithmetically based on monetary values and counter-values, such as when paying for a purchase in a supermarket, but also when paying back a loan with interest rates for years. In other cases, partner may agree to define the compensation of obligations by a set of particular material provisions, or by a combination of monetary exchange and provisions without a defined monetary counter-value, as characteristically in small communities, earlier societies but also in exchanges between cultural heritage institutions. Even in a modern industrialized society, business obligations may be supported by but are not defined by mathematical accounting. Economic difficulties of partners regularly lead to agreements overriding the defined monetary counter-values. Even if the units of provisions made are well-defined, partners may not agree on the termination of the obligation and appeal to an arbiter.

Informal obligations, such as those initiated by gifts or attempts of bribery, and obligations by other social interactions that cannot be formally compensated or terminated, in whatever form of community or society, do not fall under this class and may be modelled as other forms of obligation sharing more general traits with this class.