Accounting Information Systems as Sensemaking Tools in Decision-Making Processes of Small Firms

Considering the relevance of small firms in modern economy, accounting literature has little deepened about the way of decision making in these contexts. Scholars have highlighted the rationality of decision making processes in large firms, asserting how peculiarities of small firms could hinder the diffusion of such rationality criterion. Coherently, scholars agree that small firms are characterized by such unstructured strategic processes, in which accounting information systems are not so widespread and adopted by the entrepreneurs. On this issue, this paper try to investigate how accounting information systems could support decision-making processes of small firms, adopting a theoretical approach that considers reality as socially constructed. We consider how accounting information systems could influence the sensemaking process, which is a way of interpreting organizations: first something happens, then we can try to make sense of it. Even if sensemaking has been largely discussed, it is still unexplored in the accounting literature and in small firms. More research is needed on how accounting could help to interpret how things are done and how they were socially constructed. In this view, we consider accounting information system as a sensemaking tool in decision-making processes of small firms.