Interdependence and accounting information exchanges in inter-firm relationships

These days, the locus of business operations is difficult to define and is subject to continuous modifications. On the one hand, firms form clusters of quasiintegrated partners; on the other, they outsource internal activities to external entities. Such inter-firm relationships have been studied in both the strategic and organizational fields, because they possess specific characteristics that challenge the extant theoretical frameworks and conclusions. Management accounting scholars have recently recognized the importance of these agreements and have started to study inter-organizational accounting information sharing, which supports inter-firm collaboration. Yet, the conditions that foster the exchange of this information between external partners, i.e., open book accounting, are still underexplored. Through some exploratory evidence, and a case study in the fashion industry, we focus on analysing one under-investigated factor, i.e., interdependence, suggesting that, ceteris paribus, this variable may explain several functions played by the accounting information in inter-organizational settings.