Abstract ABSTRACT: This study investigates how differences in corporate-level budgeting systems are related to corporate size, diversity, and degree of decentralization, and how different choices in system design and use are related to organizational performance and manager motivation and attitudes. A model was developed from related findings in research in accounting and organizational behavior, and the expectations in the model were explored with data gathered from 19 firms in the electronics industry. The results generally support the model. They show that budgeting, as part of the corporate control strategy, is related to the corporate context. Larger firms tend to make relatively high use of more formal administrative, as opposed to interpersonal, controls. In all firms, the more formal and elaborate budgeting processes are generally received well by the managers, but in larger firms they appear to be more positively linked with performance.
Kenneth A. Merchant (Thu,) studied this question.