Following the rapid development and maturity of Blockchain (BC) and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, this study proposes two applications of a BC-IoT transaction model in the accounting field. The BC-IoT transaction model is capable of automatically collecting, uploading and recording all relevant data in the enterprise transaction process under the premise of satisfying certain assumptions. This model does not require manual intervention at any point in the process; no data recorded on the distributed ledgers can be tampered with or revoked. The data collected using this model can be used as information on events, providing data support for the events approach to basic accounting theory. This practice responds to the important insight of Sorter, who proposes the provision of accounting information in real time and on demand to substantially improve the usefulness of accounting information. This study also identifies that BC technology can significantly improve the relevance, faithful representation, timeliness, comparability, and other aspects of accounting information quality.

We construct the parent-subsidiary industrial network within listed business groups in China. The results show that the higher the density of parent-subsidiary industrial network, the lower the quality of accounting information of listed companies. The more the parent company is in the centre of the industrial network, the higher the quality of accounting information of the listed company is. Geographical diversification of subsidiaries will intensify the adverse impact of industrial network density on the accounting information quality, and will restrain the parent-subsidiary industrial network governance effect in terms of the centrality of the listed parent company’s industrial network. Based on agency theory and the empirical results of our research, it can be inferred that the parent-subsidiary relationship in the accounting information manipulation of listed business groups is more inclined to a parent company’s supervision of its subsidiaries rather than the ‘collusion’ manipulation of the parent-subsidiary companies.