Budgetary control has been used and researched for years by both Western academics and practitioners. In China, it is re-emerging as a tool to implement management control, but might be used in different ways both in terms of understanding and operation. The research objective of this thesis is to examine the applicability of Western theories of change in management accounting in the context of budgeting in Chinese corporations. Challenges can exist because of the differences between Western assumptions and Chinese reality. The current thesis focuses on difficulties Chinese companies encounter in practical and deeper ideological ways: firstly, Western market-based ideology conflicts with an ideology which has been shaped by central-planning for decades; secondly, difficulties stem from the different cultural context of China which emphasizes hierarchical politeness, kinship ties, trust based on personal relationships, collectivism and social harmony, diligence and individual modesty, and less developed modern legal regulatory systems – these all contribute to China’s own way of doing things. This thesis also focuses on the transition process in China. Based on the assumption that budgetary changes do not happen in isolation from other management accounting changes, this thesis discusses these changes which synchronically took place while the case-study companies were implementing budgetary systems. This thesis adopts a longitudinal and in-depth qualitative case study research design, after adjustments made during the learning experience of the pilot study. It takes an interpretive and constructive philosophical underpinning, which allows the researcher to observe and understand the process of change, as well as the differences between Chinese practices and Western theories. Findings show that certain Western management accounting theories of change and Western theories of budgeting work in the case study Chinese corporations. Management accounting theories using an interpretive approach (for example, Berry et al., 1985; Scapens and Roberts, 1993; Ahrens and Chapman, 2002) lead the researcher to interpret management accounting practices from the practitioner’s points of view, and they have provided a range of terms to explain success or failure of management accounting changes. This approach together with Scapens et al.’s Institutional theory approach in management accounting have been found especially useful, in explaining the differences between Chinese vs. Western context. Furthermore, the contingency theory approach in management accounting gives a ‘platform’ which allows the researcher to assess a wide range of possible factors and their relationships with budgetary systems in studied companies. This approach is found useful in this thesis to present changes in other management accounting perspectives. Last but not least, this thesis finds existing Western literature in technical perspective of budgetary objectives, budgetary evaluation and participation, and budgetary effectiveness useful in a different context of China. By describing the change management process, an aspect which is not addressed frequently in the research literature, this thesis argues that to sufficiently understand Chinese companies’ budgetary changes, one also needs to understand unique cultural, social-economical and religious circumstances, and to adjust literature and methodology to adapt to these circumstances. This thesis provides an empirical experience concerning these issues. This thesis contributes to the understanding of management accounting change in China, and the tension which exists when Chinese companies are moving into Western management accounting practices.

Submitted by Geyciane Santos (geyciane_thamires@hotmail.com) on 2015-10-27T15:32:55Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação - Felipe de Oliveira Santos.pdf: 1371804 bytes, checksum: 92ff0353280906c9be4f6a2470a05f0d (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Divisão de Documentação/BC Biblioteca Central (ddbc@ufam.edu.br) on 2015-10-27T20:23:13Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação - Felipe de Oliveira Santos.pdf: 1371804 bytes, checksum: 92ff0353280906c9be4f6a2470a05f0d (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Divisão de Documentação/BC Biblioteca Central (ddbc@ufam.edu.br) on 2015-10-27T20:37:24Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação - Felipe de Oliveira Santos.pdf: 1371804 bytes, checksum: 92ff0353280906c9be4f6a2470a05f0d (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-10-27T20:37:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação - Felipe de Oliveira Santos.pdf: 1371804 bytes, checksum: 92ff0353280906c9be4f6a2470a05f0d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-10-28 / Não Informada / The system of managerial control (SCG) is shaped by the environment and by contingent factors that surround, and the structure of the SCG and the artifacts of managerial accounting using depend on the ability to adapt the internal factors to changes in the environment. The goal of the research is to assess the influence of contingent factors about setting and changing the system of managerial control of a group for classifying it as descriptive case study, bibliographic, documentary, qualitative and quantitative survey. The target population of the survey were the directors and managers of a group for the North region of Brazil, with 70 years of existence and 22 companies, having been validated 28 questionnaires. Were used Cronbach's alpha, descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling (MEE). The results indicated that the economic group faces a scenario with high level of complexity and diversity and that the most important strategies are speed in delivery, effective after-sales service, the broad distribution channel and low-cost production, in addition to the heavy use of financial and non-financial indicators, with decisions based on the goals of the planning. The economic group is proud of the social and environmental actions that undertakes, positioning within the Organization of sustainable best practices, using the marketing in favor of appreciation of your image and brands. It was concluded that: (i) the internal contingencies influence the SCG configuration; (ii) the internal contingencies has low influence on the changes in SCG, which occurs indirectly through the SGC configuration; (iii) the configuration of the SGC and the environment have a direct influence on the mutation of the SCG; (iv) external factors have little influence on the occurrence of internal contingent factors; (v) external contingent factors not directly influence the SCG configuration of the economic group. / O sistema de controle gerencial (SCG) é moldado pelo ambiente e pelos fatores contingenciais que o cercam, sendo que a estrutura do SCG e os artefatos de contabilidade gerencial usados dependem da habilidade de adaptação dos fatores internos às mudanças do ambiente. O objetivo da pesquisa é avaliar a influência de fatores contingenciais sobre a configuração e mutação do sistema de controle gerencial de um grupo econômico, classificando-se como descritiva, estudo de caso, documental, bibliográfica, de levantamento, qualitativa e quantitativa. A população alvo da pesquisa foram os diretores e gerentes de um grupo econômico da região Norte do Brasil, com 70 anos de existência e 22 empresas, tendo sido validados 28 questionários. Foram usados alfa de Cronbach, estatística descritiva e modelagem de equações estruturais (MEE). Os resultados indicaram que o grupo econômico enfrenta um cenário com alto nível de complexidade e diversidade e que as estratégias mais importantes são a velocidade na entrega, o efetivo serviço de pós-venda, o canal de distribuição amplo e a produção a baixo custo, além do uso intenso de indicadores financeiros e não financeiros, com decisões fundamentadas sobre as metas do planejamento. O grupo econômico tem orgulho das ações sociais e ambientais que realiza, posicionando a organização entre as de melhores práticas sustentáveis, usando o marketing em favor da valorização de sua imagem e marcas. Concluiu-se que: (i) as contingências internas influenciam a configuração do SCG; (ii) as contingências internas tem baixa influência sobre as mutações do SCG, o que ocorre de maneira indireta por meio da configuração do SCG; (iii) a configuração do SCG e o ambiente possuem influência direta sobre a mutação do SCG; (iv) fatores externos pouco influenciam na ocorrência dos fatores contingenciais internos e; (v) os fatores contingenciais externos não influenciam diretamente na configuração do SCG do grupo econômico.