ABSTRACT: (REPORTING IN NETWORKS: A CASE OF ACTION RESEARCH IN “SANITA’ NET”). The paper illustrates a case of action research focused on the reporting framework of the network “Sanità Net”, a strategic alliance formalized according to Italian Law 122/2010 (“network agreement”) promoted by five Umbrian companies mainly specialized in health care and hospital services. The work aims to understand the main purposes of a “network reporting system” investigating how its different dimensions and components can interact to meet the information needs of stakeholders. In addition the paper aims to identify the role played by the accounting tools in a collaborative framework, paying particular attention to the level of innovation required to make the reporting system consistent with strategic and organizational context of the network. The methodological approach is based on action research. The results are obtained through an active participation to the definiton and solution of the real-case issue concerning the reporting system of SanitàNet. The theme is firstly analysed in the context of network management and accounting literature and then interpreted in a theoretical perspective consistent with the scientific framework identified. The case demonstrates that the reporting system for a networked organization has to meet a complex set of purposes, to be designed on multilevel entities carefully integrating the internal perspective, aimed at facilitating the cooperation and the strategic focus of the partners, and the external perspective, closely related to statutory, tax and other specific obligations. In the new horizontal features overcoming the traditional dichotomy between financial and managerial accounting, the reporting in networks has to be based on quantitative and qualitative information that can assume equal importance, depending on the characteristics of the network. Finally, the case demonstrates the potential role played by the innovative forms of reporting that, alongside an innovative adoptinon of traditional tools, can assure the reporting system to be consistent on a case by-case basis with the strategic and organizational characteristics of the network . The paper is intended to fill a gap of empirical research regarding the reporting issues related to an innovative phenomenon such as enterprise networks, and represents one of the first studies addressed to investigate the influence of the legal framework established by Law 122/2010 on reporting system.
KEYWORDS: networks, reporting system, action research, accounting tools.
Cardoni, A. (2015). La rendicontazione nelle reti di impresa: research in action in “Sanità Net”, RIREA, n.2, pp. 180-200.
