Abstract This paper argues that inter-organizational management controls such as open book accounting and target cost management/functional analysis create new possibilities for management intervention. When such controls were introduced in the two firms analysed in this paper they not only had a role in enabling control of and insight into inter-organizational processes at a distance. They also took part in re -presenting corporate phenomena such as technology, organization and strategy and thereby re-translating the ‘identity’ or ‘core competence’ of the firms. Therefore, inter-organizational management controls craft for themselves a new space for management, which has not only inter - but also intra -organizational effects.