Relational Work and Accounting: What Venture Capital Analysts Do with Accounting and Other Information in Situations of Uncertainty

Abstract

Analysts in venture capital (VC) organizations are important mediators in the entrepreneurial economy, operating as both ‘scouts’ and ‘coaches’ of early-stage ventures. Research shows that these analysts invest heavily in collecting and scrutinizing accounting and a wide range of other information at all stages of their work. However, we lack an integrative theorization of how, in the presence of fundamental or ‘Knightian’ uncertainty, analysts effectively use this information. We explore this topic through interviews with VC analysts and project makers operating in Denmark in 2009 and 2010. Drawing on and extending the work of Viviana Zelizer, we show, firstly, how the multiple, different uses of accounting and other information function in relation to each other and the communication and transformation of social relations. Each stage of analyst work involves a double movement in which economic media is differentiated and the relationships between analysts and project makers and their ventures are created, negotiated, maintained, and changed. Secondly, we show how this double movement provides an indirect and ‘ontological’ mode of handling situations of uncertainty in which accounting information adds matter and form to the new business venture. We conclude by exploring opportunities for further applications of relational work in accounting research.