The Uses and Roles of Interfirm Accounting in Strategic Alliances: Does Transparency Make a Difference?

The aim of the contribution is twofold. On the one hand, we present a review of the most relevant studies on the uses and functions of accounting information exchanges in partnerships and inter-firm alliances. More specifically, we describe the accounting techniques and practices used in boundary-spanning contexts as well as the possible roles that accounting information may play within such forms of organizing, including supporting inter-firm value creation processes. On the other hand, we try to illustrate what the main unaddressed issues in this area are as a premise to exploring one possible way to advance research in this area. In doing so, we interpret transparency as a precise design choice that needs to take into consideration the interrelatedness of alliances’ networked contexts as well as of their underlying processes of value creation. Our design approach underlines the influence of the network architecture on inter-organizational accounting and draws on some measures typical of Social Network Analysis that can be used to direct attention to the peculiar features of alliances and inter-firm contexts and to their inter-organizational accounting information flows.