Agrifood supply chains are characterised by high levels of complexity, biological variability and increasing regulatory and societal pressures for transparency, traceability and sustainability. In such contexts, knowledge management (KM) plays a critical role in enabling coordination among heterogeneous actors, including farmers, processors, quality managers, accountants and auditors. However, existing literature has largely conceptualised KM in supply chains in abstract terms, focusing on information sharing and integration, while paying limited attention to the everyday practices through which knowledge is produced, translated and made actionable.
This study addresses this gap by examining how knowledge is managed in practice within an agrifood supply chain and by exploring the role of accounting and auditing artefacts in mediating this process. Drawing on an ethnographic research design based on one year of participant observation within a large Italian agrifood processing firm and its network of partners, the study provides a fine-grained analysis of the micro-practices through which knowledge is transformed into organizationally relevant forms.
The findings show that knowledge management is not a linear process of data transfer, but a situated and ongoing accomplishment. Three key mechanisms are identified. First, translational practices convert tacit and experiential knowledge into standardized categories and inscriptions, such as quality classifications, traceability records and cost analyses. Second, accounting and auditing artefacts operate as boundary objects that enable coordination across different communities of practice while shaping visibility and accountability. Third, governance routines, including audits, meetings and performance reviews, serve as arenas in which knowledge claims are validated and stabilised.
The study contributes to knowledge management literature by demonstrating that knowledge conversion is materially mediated by calculative and documentary practices. It also extends accounting research by showing that accounting functions as a knowledge infrastructure linking quality, traceability, cost and sustainability. Overall, the paper advances an accounting-mediated view of KM, highlighting the central role of accounting and auditing artefacts in making knowledge visible, credible and actionable in complex agrifood supply chains.