ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the accounting as an engine for the development of innovative capabilities in inter-organisational relations. It argues that innovation is an effect of how accounting mediates relations between a focal firm and its suppliers. Accounting helps to develop the type of values that account for interactions between firms, and accounting develops the means by which not only who in the focal and supplier firms communicate with each other but also what they communicate about. Interactions between HearingCorp and its suppliers were followed over a period of 3 years. HearingCorp developed, manufactured and sold advanced hearing aids. According to product development engineer's miniaturisation, artificial intelligence, microphones, transducers and microchip capacity were central in ambitions to win new market shares. Supply chain balanced scorecard (SC-Scorecard) displayed a series of financial and non-financial top-level performance indicators. With SC-Scorecard, HearingCorp's managers could simulate scenarios and calculate consequences.
