Well‐managed organizations must handle transparency strategically, but although research about transparency constitutes a great concern in businesses, management, society, and ethics, definitions are very diverse depending on the environment. The concept of transparency is revisited in this contribution, aiming to map the territory of transparency by surveying the terms and definitions in literature. The overview of these terms identifies two approaches of analysis: according to the content and according to the context. According to the context, two perspectives have been found: collective perspective and individual perspective. According to the content of the definition, two perspectives have been found: instrumental perspective and purposeful perspective. This survey helps to determine that transparency is an intrinsic aspect of business strategy since it is interweaved with all organizational components and systems of the strategic management process. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment