Compartilhamento de informações gerenciais no contexto interorganizacional: estudos de casos múltiplos em cadeias de suprimentos

Abstract

The research aimed to analyze how the type of relationship developed between the industry and the supplier can influence the sharing of managerial information, in the context of interorganizational relationships, in the supply chain. The literature provides little empirical evidence on the sharing of managerial information in relationships among companies, thus expanding knowledge with its application in three sectors. Qualitative research was developed through multiple case studies in three supply chains: automotive, pharmaceutical and naval. To collect the data, the following procedures were used: documentation, observation and semi-structured interview in which the discourse was treated through content analysis. The results obtained show that companies share managerial information, regardless of having an integrated system between industry and supplier; however, this type of system shares only non-financial information. Other forms of sharing information occur through meetings, visits, phone calls, emails, or free mobile messaging applications. Of the many accounting tools cited in literature as being used and applied in inter-organizational relationships, only openbook accounting was mentioned in the three studied chains, with the aim of sharing costrelated information once a year on account of contract requirement or on a voluntary basis. It was also found that open-book only shares the supplier’s financial cost information to the industry in a detailed form when established by contract, whilst on-site visits in industry remain necessary, with the purpose of verifying the actual need to update product price with a view to favoring industry alone. In this way opportunistic behavior is characterized, which may increase costs in the monitoring of transactions. The voluntary open-book does not share information on product costing, but only cost items that have been subject to price adjustments, so that the industry may justify the increase in the price of the product. The spontaneous sharing of non-financial managerial information was also identified in the studied chains. It was perceived that the inter-organizational accounting is a supporting tool in joint decisions, with a view to a better performance for both companies. The results show that the supply chains studied develop a greater or lesser interaction between the industry and the supplier due to the development of joint activities, consequently influencing in a greater or lesser sharing of managerial information. It was observed that the time of the relationship is a factor that contributes to increase trust, in such a way as to further strengthen the relationship between industry and supplier, with the possibility of reducing transaction costs. It was also found that the mutual benefit resulting from the sharing of managerial information is the improvement in product quality. Finally, the main barrier to not share financial information consists in protection from competition, because when showing cost information one exposes the profit margin, thus reducing bargaining power in the negotiations among companies.