Rapid globalization has forced companies to
outsource their intra-organizational activities and collaborate
otherwise with previously unrelated partners. As the importance
of networking and forming inter-organizational relationships is
increasingly emphasized in industrial environments, there is also
a need for inter-organizational methods, models and tools to
manage network interdependencies. Especially in the industrial
maintenance context, the interplay between a customer, a service
provider and an equipment provider requires triadic and
transparent collaboration.
An open-book accounting -supported implementation
framework for inter-organizational decision-making models,
featuring a relational dimension and a process dimension is
created in the study. The theoretical framework is established
through a literature review. Furthermore, the prerequisites and
potential pitfalls of increasing real-life inter-organizational
openness are studied framework-wise. The empirical data has
been gathered in workshop events with companies acting in the
field of industrial maintenance.
Firstly, the study reveals that the companies are not yet
prepared to disclose intra-organizational information networkwide,
rather a willingness to promote dyadic transparency and
focal company -coordinated disclosure is highlighted. Secondly,
the present state of companies’ cost accounting systems seems to
be relatively poor, which hinders the adoption of interorganizational
models. Thirdly, a lack of systematic network
infrastructure appears as well.