Thesis (M.B.A.)--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2005. / Thesis Advisor(s): Philip J. Candreva, John Mutty, Keebom Kang. Includes bibliographical references (p. 113-117). Also available online.

Zugl.: Köln, Universiẗat, Dipl.-Arbeit, 1984.

The objective of this study is to investigate planning-programming-budgeting systems (PPBS) as a method for rationalizing public expenditure decisions, and the evaluation of subsequent performance within the framework of the Canadian Federal Government. Based on a research of the literature, the rationale for such a system is presented, together with a detailed description of its operational mechanics, impact and areas which might cause difficulty in its practical implementation throughout the Federal Government. An operational casting study from a small field organization is presented to illustrate the data requirements and the problem of obtaining the relevant information with a traditional budgeting system. The thesis concludes that despite the commitment to PPBS at the Cabinet and Senior Executive level within the Canadian Federal Government, this has not yet penetrated to the operational managers in the field departments who will be increasingly required to think in these terms if the approach is to be successfully implemented throughout the sphere of government operations. Several recommendations are made to enable the approach to be installed at the operational level, not the least of which is a management education programme to outline the concepts, aims and requirements of PPBS as it affects managers at this level. The measurement of benefits and the problem of joint costs are mentioned as two vital areas which have as yet not been fully considered within the government and are overdue far detailed study. In conclusion it is hoped that this dissertation outlines the disparity between the allocation process as it is outlined by senior government officials, and the process as it actually occurs within the field, making suggestions to enable the PPBS approach to be both accepted and workable at the field organisation level. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

Corporations budget and strategize to set targets for planning purposes. Review of the literature indicated that methods of budget creation, including input from operational employees, are not fully understood by corporate budget officers. The problem addressed in this study was whether a collaborative approach to budgeting would improve implementation of the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles of relevance and reliability within the budgeting process. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the benefits of a collaborative approach to budgeting since non-inclusive budget preparation could alienate members of the operations team. Participative leadership was the conceptual framework guiding this study and formulated the research questions, which focused on inclusion of operation. An intrinsic case study was conducted by interviewing 20 operational and finance professionals, from the metro Houston area with significant budget experience, in order to assess their paradigms on the benefits of a collaborative approach. The structured interviews included questions regarding the budget experience, how budget development can be improved, and how to incorporate greater participation in the budget. Pattern-matching was used to analyze the data. Operational employees' business insight was identified as a strength, whereas the budget process needed improvement. These findings suggest that other, similar organizations that promote collaboration could have a more attainable and meaningful budget document. Financial analysts can use these data to influence social change by enhancing investor confidence, refining the use of business resources, and improving economic stability of organizations through enhanced financial variance analysis.

This study is based on a combination of existing theoretical knowledge and recently conducted empirical research. The analysis of knowledge that has come from the academic world has resulted in an extensive review of budgeting. The review starts at the inception of budgets in the nineteenth century, where it was just a tool to manage cost and cash flows. The study follows the trajectory of the evolution of budgeting from Traditional Budgeting practices that lasted for decades to, what is known today as, Better Budgeting. The evolution of budgeting has been driven by the desire of organisations to mitigate business challenges which result from the economic volatilities of the day as well as to remain competitive. This desire to mitigate business challenges remains relevant today and demands that organisations be equipped with best practice management tools, systems and business processes. In order to manage organisations effectively and efficiently, Management Accounting as a discipline is in a state of constant development. Over the years, a number of new innovations have been introduced in the field of Management Accounting. These include (but are not limited to) concepts such as Activity Based Costing (ABC), Activity Based Management (ABM), Activity Based Budgeting (ABB), Target Costing, Strategic Cost Management and Economic Value Added (Budgeting)(EVA™), Zero Based Budgeting (ZBB), Rolling Budgets and Forecasting (RBF), Balanced-Score Card (BSC) and Beyond Budgeting. These innovations aim to provide business managers with practical value adding solutions for a better understanding of the organisation’s product or service costing and planning strategies. The focus of this study is on innovations relating to the planning strategies of the organisation. Innovations that relate to planning include: Activity Based Budgeting, Zero Based Budgeting and Rolling Budgeting and Forecasting. The budget evolution is not short of academic value; researchers have conducted empirical surveys and have provided a theoretical perspective on the subject matter with fruitful findings. There appears to be a consensus regarding a total overhaul of Traditional Budgeting with the clear intention to move towards Better Budgeting. In the midst of this continued research work, there has been an emergence of a radical view about budgeting. This radical view concerns pursuing an agenda that suggests that organisations must stop preparing budgets. The gist of this radical development can be summed up as the limitations presented by budgeting in organisations. This recent concept has been coined as Beyond Budgeting. To remain globally competitive, South African organisations must keep abreast with the latest developments in management practices. This study therefore provides a good platform for South African organisations to obtain knowledge in what other countries are already doing around the subject of budgeting. The study has a two-pronged problem statement. Firstly, do organisations still budget? Secondly, what do organisations feel is the future for budgeting? Are they keeping with Traditional Budgeting, moving towards Better Budgeting or rather going further and looking Beyond Budgeting? The South African business community is no exception to this global budget debate about Traditional Budgeting, Better Budgeting and Beyond Budgeting. To gather evidence, the study made use of an online survey questionnaire that is attached as Appendix 2. An email invite containing an Internet hyperlink was sent to respondents. Respondents were expected to click on the hyperlink to gain access the pre-designed online survey questionnaire. Upon the analysis of the results, it was concluded that the South African business community still relies on budgeting, with 90% of the respondents saying that budgeting is indispensable, as their organisations will not manage without budgeting. Furthermore, there was a clear-cut move from Traditional Budgeting towards Better Budgeting. The study also concluded that the move towards Better Budgeting is supported by the inability of Traditional Budgeting to keep up with the rapid changes in macro and micro-economic factors. Also interesting to note is the revelation that 0% of the respondents indicated that they had adopted and implemented Beyond Budgeting. This resistance by the South African business community to the adoption of Beyond Budgeting and the resulting slower pace of this new practice's implementation is actually similar to the pace at which global organisations have received this radical budgeting practice. / Dissertation (MCom) University of Pretoria, 2012 / am2013 / Financial Management / unrestricted

<p><strong>SAMMANFATTNING</strong></p><p><strong>Datum:             </strong>2009-05-29</p><p><strong>Nivå:                 </strong>Magisteruppsats i ekonomistyrning, 15 högskolepoäng<strong></strong></p><p><strong>Författare:       </strong>Sofi Gustafsson                                   Therese Johansson </p><p><strong>Handledare:     </strong>Ulla Pettersson<strong></strong></p><p><strong>Titel:                 </strong>Budgetlös styrning - inom Handelsbanken och Ahlsell</p><p><strong>Problem:          </strong>Styrning med budget har kritiserats, exempel på kritiken är att den uppdateras alldeles för sällan, det är en tidskrävande arbetsprocess och den baseras på antaganden och gissningar. Ett resultat av kritiken är att ett fåtal företag har valt att överge budgeten för den budgetlösa styrningen. Litteraturen beskriver enbart de budgetlösa styrmodellerna teoretiskt och det kan vara svårt att förstå hur de tillämpas i verkligheten.</p><p><strong>Syfte:                </strong>Vår undersökning syftar till att bidra till en djupare förståelse för hur den budgetlösa styrningen tillämpas i praktiken genom att undersöka hur Handelsbanken och Ahlsells budgetlösa styrning tillämpas, för att se kopplingen mellan teori och deras egna system, samt att undersöka budgetlös styrning i förhållande till styrning med budget.</p><p><strong>Metod:              </strong>I denna Magisteruppsats har vi använt oss av litteratur om budget och budgetlös styrning, för att skapa referensramen. Vi har även använt intervjuer som metod för att samla in material till empirin. Dessa avsnitt är sedan sammankopplade vilket resulterade i vår analys och våra slutsatser.</p><p><strong>Slutsats:            </strong>I vår undersökning har vi kommit fram till att Handelsbanken använder sig av den modell Wallander grundade, Handelsbanksmodellen och de använder sig också av benchmarking. Ahlsells budgetlösa styrning är främst nyckeltal.</p><p>Det finns ett fåtal likheter mellan budgetlös styrning och budget, men det finns fler skillnader. Dessa skillnader grundar sig på att många beslut fattas på lokal nivå och att den budgetlösa styrningen kan justeras och därför blir planen aldrig föråldrad.</p><p>Det är viktigt att ha en målsättning att styra emot oavsett vilken styrform företaget använder. Det beror även på vilken verksamhet företaget har, om det bästa alternativet är budgetlös styrning eller styrning med budget. Det är anmärkningsvärt att det är få företag som tillämpar budgetlös styrning med tanke på dess fördelar. Den budgetlösa styrningen lämpar sig inte till alla typer av verksamheter, men för många företag är det ett bra alternativ till budgeten.</p>

SAMMANFATTNING Datum:             2009-05-29 Nivå:                 Magisteruppsats i ekonomistyrning, 15 högskolepoäng Författare:       Sofi Gustafsson                                   Therese Johansson  Handledare:     Ulla Pettersson Titel:                 Budgetlös styrning - inom Handelsbanken och Ahlsell Problem:          Styrning med budget har kritiserats, exempel på kritiken är att den uppdateras alldeles för sällan, det är en tidskrävande arbetsprocess och den baseras på antaganden och gissningar. Ett resultat av kritiken är att ett fåtal företag har valt att överge budgeten för den budgetlösa styrningen. Litteraturen beskriver enbart de budgetlösa styrmodellerna teoretiskt och det kan vara svårt att förstå hur de tillämpas i verkligheten. Syfte:                Vår undersökning syftar till att bidra till en djupare förståelse för hur den budgetlösa styrningen tillämpas i praktiken genom att undersöka hur Handelsbanken och Ahlsells budgetlösa styrning tillämpas, för att se kopplingen mellan teori och deras egna system, samt att undersöka budgetlös styrning i förhållande till styrning med budget. Metod:              I denna Magisteruppsats har vi använt oss av litteratur om budget och budgetlös styrning, för att skapa referensramen. Vi har även använt intervjuer som metod för att samla in material till empirin. Dessa avsnitt är sedan sammankopplade vilket resulterade i vår analys och våra slutsatser. Slutsats:            I vår undersökning har vi kommit fram till att Handelsbanken använder sig av den modell Wallander grundade, Handelsbanksmodellen och de använder sig också av benchmarking. Ahlsells budgetlösa styrning är främst nyckeltal. Det finns ett fåtal likheter mellan budgetlös styrning och budget, men det finns fler skillnader. Dessa skillnader grundar sig på att många beslut fattas på lokal nivå och att den budgetlösa styrningen kan justeras och därför blir planen aldrig föråldrad. Det är viktigt att ha en målsättning att styra emot oavsett vilken styrform företaget använder. Det beror även på vilken verksamhet företaget har, om det bästa alternativet är budgetlös styrning eller styrning med budget. Det är anmärkningsvärt att det är få företag som tillämpar budgetlös styrning med tanke på dess fördelar. Den budgetlösa styrningen lämpar sig inte till alla typer av verksamheter, men för många företag är det ett bra alternativ till budgeten.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 297-318).

This article studies the role of participation in the budgeting process when the company has to coordinate two interdependent divisions. The focus lies on the design of the budgeting process (top-down vs. participative budgets) and the underlying supply of information. This is studied in a principal agent model where two divisions (agents) jointly generate earnings. With the participative budgeting process, the company (principal) implements an information system that provides the division managers with private information. Two economic effects occur. First, the company can benefit from the division managers' private information by perfectly coordinating the divisions' operations. Second, the company has to induce the managers to provide productive effort and with participation, to additionally report truthfully. Thus, the company incurs incentive costs. The two considered budgeting processes trade off these effects diametrically. For a low importance of coordination, the company prefers the top-down budgeting process and not installing an information system that allows the managers to obtain private information. Otherwise, the participative budgeting process is used. In contrast to the company, managers always prefer the participative budgeting process. In addition, the model predicts that a higher earnings potential increases the attractiveness of participative budgets.

Historically, air and water have been considered common property resources and, therefore, over utilized as waste receptors. Dairy waste is a leading environmental concern in the North Bosque River watershed in Texas. Changing societal attitudes are forcing dairies and policymakers to balance environmental concerns with farm profitability. Dairies are entering a realm filled with technologies to combat waste concerns. Anaerobic digester technology may play a role in helping dairies balance profit and the environment. Digesters capture methane from livestock waste and transform it into electricity which can be sold to utilities or used on-farm. Because a digester facility is confined, air and water pollution can be reduced. Technological advancement and institutional factor changes allowing the sale of on-farm produced electricity and green power requirements have increased the economic feasibility of digesters. The study of the economic implications of anaerobic digesters for Texas dairies provides producers and policymakers with information to make good decisions concerning adoption and subsidization of this technology. At the beginning of this study, no digesters were operating in Texas. Dairies operating digesters in four states, therefore, were interviewed on-site to provide necessary data. The expected net present value, E(NPV), of a plug-flow digester is negative with and without selling electricity, indicating it should not be constructed based strictly on its financial contribution. At the current electricity-selling price, digesters are less economically feasible than current waste management strategies, lagoons, even after considering potential environmental penalties. However, selling electricity and capturing by-product heat for cost savings makes the digester's E(NPV) less negative than lagoons. The E(NPV) of a covered lagoon digester is positive. This indicates digesters are a potentially feasible waste management strategy. For plug-flow digesters to show a positive E(NPV), the selling price needs to be approximately 82.38% higher than the current price. The breakeven selling price is 12% higher than the current price. Below the breakeven price, lagoons have a larger E(NPV) than plug-flow digesters, therefore making lagoons the preferred waste management strategy. Results suggest changes in rules and technology efficiency make digesters economically competitive with current waste management systems.