This thesis is concerned with accounting for the brand management function. Two distinct perspectives are taken: the first derives from aspects of organisational and behavioural accounting research, and the second concerns organisational implications of brand valuation. Both perspectives were initially approached by means of exploratory interviews and a literature review. Hypotheses pertaining to the first perspective were analysed via survey data collected in nine strongly-branded, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies. Propositions concerned with the implications of brand valuation were developed and used as the basis for measuring attitudes to brand valuation. A questionnaire concerned with brand valuation attitudes was administered to senior-ranking officials in strongly-branded, FMCG companies. The final methodological phase, for both perspectives, involved a case study conducted in a strongly-branded, FMCG company. Significant findings arising from this study include: 1) Managers who see their company as being short-termist, hold more positive attitudes to brand valuation. 2) Marketing-orientated managers are more favourably disposed to brand valuation than accounting-orientated managers. 3) Organisational benefits arising from brand valuation are more strategically, than operationally, orientated. 4) Brand manager budget participation is significantly negatively-related to job-related tension, and positivelyrelated to trust in superior and attitude to reliance on accounting performance measures. 5) Budget participation is more effective in reducing jobrelated tension in situations of high, compared to low, task uncertainty situations. 6) Reliance on a brand manager's accounting performance is positively related to brand manager performance and motivation, and negatively associated with job-related tension.

Final qualifying work (master's thesis) is devoted to the study of financing of budgetary institutions. The subject of the study are the economic relations arising between the state and the Department of the interior Ministry in the process of obtaining and using funds from the Federal budget. The aim of the work is to develop recommendations for improving the financing of the internal Affairs bodies of the Russian Federation, on the example of the Main Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Sverdlovsk region. As a result of the work is the development of ways to improve the financing Of the main Department of the Ministry of internal Affairs of Russia in the Sverdlovsk region. / Выпускная квалификационная работа (магистерская диссертация) посвящена исследованию финансирования бюджетных учреждений. Предметом исследования выступают экономические отношения, возникающие между государством и Управлением МВД в процессе получения и использования денежных средств из федерального бюджета. Целью работы является разработка рекомендаций по совершенствованию финансирования органов внутренних дел Российской Федерации, на примере Главного управления Министерства Внутренних Дел по Свердловской области. В качестве результата работы выступает разработка путей совершенствования финансирования Главного управления МВД России по Свердловской области.

In order to provide enough economic growth so that the majority of individuals within the jurisdiction are satisfied with government services, state governments typically pursue two budgetary choices for economic growth: overall increased production and stabilization (Bivens, 2014). According to two budgetary choices as a path to economic growth, this research investigates the relationship between capital expenditure or savings and economic growth. It covers the years 1990 through 2013 and uses a paneled data set at the state level in the United States. The first model for this study is the structural equation model (SEM), which examines the direct and indirect effects of capital expenditure and state government savings on economic growth by including the volatility of the total expenditure as a mediating factor. Then, this dissertation investigates the relationships among capital expenditures, the total expenditure volatility and savings by using the endogenous growth or the OLS regression model. This dissertation can conclude that both of the two budgetary choices for state governments are effective for economic growth. Under controlling state characteristics, they are positively related to economic growth, which supports the allocation role of government for economic growth. However, this study finds that state governments do not find any supportive evidence on the fact that they can attain the stabilization role of government for economic growth. Even though they spend money on savings or capital expenditure from Keynesian macroeconomic theory, it does not lead to budgetary stabilization of the total expenditure. Thus, this dissertation leaves the missing links of the relationship between both fiscal policies and volatility inconclusive while it supports that volatility can negatively affect economic growth.

The goal of this dissertation was to model and test whether political parties once in power skew the federal budget in favor of their base. The theory includes the formation of a comprehensive theoretical model, which divided the budgetary instruments into two categories: monetary and political transfers. Using statistical tools, the dissertation examines the budgetary bias itself, the timing of its usage across the electoral cycle, and the substitutability of the instruments. The results found that political parties do bias budgetary funds towards their base. However, they tend to use tools, which are less visible to the opposition party and more evident to their base. The results confirmed that when parties use more of one type of transfer, they use less of the other. Finally, parties use alterations in total transfers to influence their base early in the election cycle, and move on to other means, such as platform alterations, as the next election draws closer. / Economics

This article examines the often studied guns vs. butter tradeoff within the context of federal military spending and means-tested social welfare spending in an effort to focus academic attention on the impact of military expenditure on America’s poorest populations. Using OLS regression on federal budgetary data ranging from 1962 to 2020, I test for a tradeoff between military spending as a proportion of the discretionary budget and means-tested welfare spending as a proportion of the mandatory budget. I also include several covariates that previous literature has shown to be relevant to a potential tradeoff — including war status, poverty rate, unemployment rate, economic growth, inequality, and legislator ideology — to determine whether they play a mediating role between military and means-tested welfare spending. I also conduct a qualitative analysis of platforms published by the Democratic and Republican parties during select election years between 1940 and 2020 in order to find a causal mechanism for a budgetary tradeoff. These analyses conclude that there is significant statistical evidence of a tradeoff between these two spending categories, and that party attitudes about who/what is more deserving of federal funding — which are consistently expressed by each party throughout the 80-year period — provide a causal mechanism for such a tradeoff. These attitudes, which are constructed through the priorities expressed in platforms over time, cause legislators to provide funding to groups (either the military or the American poor) that they find deserving, and subtract funding from those they find undeserving. In finding that military expenditure directly undermines life-saving assistance, this article encourages greater study of how seemingly unrelated budgetary decisions (especially those relating to national defense) may play an active role in America’s worsening inequality crisis.

This study assesses the quality of national budget institutions and legislative budgetary power in the Euro Area (EA) and examines their implications on fiscal discipline. Following the sovereign debt crises, common EA requirements have been introduced for national budget institutions, most notably for fiscal rules and independent fiscal councils. Meanwhile, the legislature has a key role to ensure that budgetary decisions are democratically legitimate, but strong legislative budgetary power is generally associated with less fiscal restraint. Two comprehensive composite indices are produced, based on recent data which captures reforms implemented after the Crisis. The findings show that overall, budget institutions in the EA are of medium quality, whilst legislative budgetary power is weak. Notwithstanding the thrust for a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach, the specific characteristics of budget institutions differ considerably among the EA countries. Furthermore, results from a two-way fixed effects panel model for 2006-2015 show a positive relationship between the quality of budget institutions and the budget balance, but, in contrast to previous studies, the effect is rather weak. Being supra-nationally mandated, recent reforms to budget institutions in EA member states may suffer from a lack of ownership, thus impinging on their effectiveness to instil fiscal discipline. A qualitative case study on Malta provides further insight into the limitations of centrally-mandated institutional reforms. Finally, the findings suggest that stronger legislative budgetary power does not necessarily jeopardise fiscal discipline, if this involves a broad role of the legislature in the budgetary process, beyond amendment powers.

In 2009 Operation Clean Audit was launched with the objective that all municipalities must achieve a clean audit by the 2014 financial year. A clean audit is an audit opinion when the financial statements are unqualified; no adverse findings were identified on compliance with laws and regulations as well as on predetermined objectives. The overall aim of the programme is to clean up the governance of municipalities and to enhance service delivery. In both the public and the private sector internal control is crucial. It is seen as one of the key elements of good governance, it provides assurance of the rendering of reliable financial statements, of compliance with legislation and it also indicates how the organisation performs against its objectives. Budgetary control in local government can be used as an effective internal control method by legally limiting the authorised expenditure and to monitor the actual service delivery against the budgeted targets. If variances are identified in the budget or with regard to service delivery objectives, remedial action can be taken. If municipalities do not provide services to communities in a sustainable manner, it contravenes its constitutional mandate as stipulated in section 152(1)(b) of the Constitution of South Africa. The qualitative research method, in the format of a case study of the Tlokwe City Council, a local municipality in the North West Province, was chosen for this research. In the 2010 financial year, the Auditor General reflected that the Tlokwe City Council experienced deficiencies in the key fundamentals of internal control: leadership, financial and performance management, and governance which could directly be linked to the basis of the qualification of the financial statements, findings on predetermined objectives and compliance with legislation. The material underspending of the capital budget was also found to be affecting service delivery negatively. The purpose of this study is to benchmark the internal budgetary control systems of municipalities in South Africa, which have already achieved clean audit reports for consecutive years, to improve the internal budgetary control system of the Tlokwe City Council. This research was formulated in such a way that — through the findings obtained in the literature study with regard to the legislative framework regulating the budget formulation, internal and budgetary control of the local government sphere in South Africa, analysis of the internal budgetary control deficiencies at the Tlokwe City Council and the benchmarking exercise with the Swartland and Steve Tshwete local municipalities — a strategy can be developed to provide for effective budgeting and to improve the internal control system of the Tlokwe City Council. Potential benefits that can arise from the implementation of the recommended strategy to improve the internal budgetary control system of the Tlokwe City Council are the attainment of a clean audit opinion by the Auditor General and subsequently the enhancement of service delivery to the community. / MCom (Management Accountancy), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

In 2009 Operation Clean Audit was launched with the objective that all municipalities must achieve a clean audit by the 2014 financial year. A clean audit is an audit opinion when the financial statements are unqualified; no adverse findings were identified on compliance with laws and regulations as well as on predetermined objectives. The overall aim of the programme is to clean up the governance of municipalities and to enhance service delivery. In both the public and the private sector internal control is crucial. It is seen as one of the key elements of good governance, it provides assurance of the rendering of reliable financial statements, of compliance with legislation and it also indicates how the organisation performs against its objectives. Budgetary control in local government can be used as an effective internal control method by legally limiting the authorised expenditure and to monitor the actual service delivery against the budgeted targets. If variances are identified in the budget or with regard to service delivery objectives, remedial action can be taken. If municipalities do not provide services to communities in a sustainable manner, it contravenes its constitutional mandate as stipulated in section 152(1)(b) of the Constitution of South Africa. The qualitative research method, in the format of a case study of the Tlokwe City Council, a local municipality in the North West Province, was chosen for this research. In the 2010 financial year, the Auditor General reflected that the Tlokwe City Council experienced deficiencies in the key fundamentals of internal control: leadership, financial and performance management, and governance which could directly be linked to the basis of the qualification of the financial statements, findings on predetermined objectives and compliance with legislation. The material underspending of the capital budget was also found to be affecting service delivery negatively. The purpose of this study is to benchmark the internal budgetary control systems of municipalities in South Africa, which have already achieved clean audit reports for consecutive years, to improve the internal budgetary control system of the Tlokwe City Council. This research was formulated in such a way that — through the findings obtained in the literature study with regard to the legislative framework regulating the budget formulation, internal and budgetary control of the local government sphere in South Africa, analysis of the internal budgetary control deficiencies at the Tlokwe City Council and the benchmarking exercise with the Swartland and Steve Tshwete local municipalities — a strategy can be developed to provide for effective budgeting and to improve the internal control system of the Tlokwe City Council. Potential benefits that can arise from the implementation of the recommended strategy to improve the internal budgetary control system of the Tlokwe City Council are the attainment of a clean audit opinion by the Auditor General and subsequently the enhancement of service delivery to the community. / MCom (Management Accountancy), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Burundi realiza una práctica presupuestaria cercana a los modelos jurídicos napoleónicos y Westminster usados en los sistemas presupuestarios de los países de la OCDE. Es un país sin ingresos fiscales interiores suficientes porque el 90% de la población vive de la economía de subsistencia. Esto provoca una dependencia de las transferencias y préstamos externos de los presupuestos generales del Estado. Este trabajo analiza cualitativamente y descriptivamente los presupuestos generales del Estado burundés. Se muestra que el marco institucional presupuestario está modernizado y armonizado con la contabilidad por partida doble sin integrarse en la contabilidad estatal que sigue siendo de line ítems. Las cifras presupuestarias muestran una preponderancia de las transferencias externas, lo que dirige los fondos correspondientes hacia programas aislados del marco de control presupuestario clásico, propio de las economías avanzadas. Por consiguiente, los presupuestos corrientes se ajustan al comportamiento de los ingresos externos favoreciendo así la corrupción. / States as Burundi implement budgeting practices similar to the napoleonic and Westminster legal models used by OECD states budgeting systems. Burundi State has not enough budgeting domestic fiscal receipts because 90% of his population lives in a subsistence economy. That causes exterior aid and debt dependence respect to Burundi State general budget which is analyzed qualitatively and descriptively in this study. This analysis shows that the institutional budget legal framework is modernized with an accrual budgeting and accounting basis but it practically stays working in line items practices. Budgetary aggregates evolution shows a speculation on exterior aid/grants and debt. This problem orients correspondent founds to isolated programs from a classic budget control framework in advanced economies. In this way, the ordinary budget is adjusted to exterior receipts behavior which favors corruption. / Les Etats comme le Burundi réalisent une pratique budgétaire proche des modèles juridiques napoléoniens et Westminster utilisés par les systèmes budgétaires des Etats de l’OCDE. C’est un Etat sans recettes fiscales intérieures suffisantes, 90% de la population vivant dans une économie de subsistance. Cela provoque une dépendance aux dons et à la dette extérieure du budget général de l’Etat burundais que ce travail analyse qualitativement et descriptivement. L’étude montre que son cadre institutionnel budgétaire est modernisé par une prévision budgétaire harmonisée avec la comptabilité à partie double sans l’implanter dans la comptabilité de l’Etat qui reste de line items. Aussi, l’évolution des agrégats budgétaires montre une spéculation sur l’aide/don et la dette extérieure, ce qui oriente les fonds correspondants vers des programmes isolés du cadre de contrôle budgétaire classique des économies avancées. Ainsi, le budget courant s’ajuste au comportement des recettes extérieures ce qui favorise la corruption.

Les études juridiques portant sur les Finances publiques africaines n’abordent que très rarement les questions depolitiques budgétaires. Le caractère économique de la matière n’y est sans doute pas étranger. Or, la constitution d’espacesd’intégration économique entre Etats, partageant une même monnaie, conduit le droit, notamment communautaire à s’emparerdes questions de politiques budgétaires. Tout laxisme budgétaire de la part d’un Etat, se répercute sur les autres Etats membreset sur la stabilité de l’Union monétaire. Le renforcement de l’intégration économique, en Afrique de l’ouest, avec le TraitéUEMOA de 1994, a ainsi été accompagné de la mise en place d’un dispositif de convergence des politiques budgétaires desEtats membres. Celui-ci consiste, à travers un cadre institutionnel communautaire, à surveiller le respect par les Etats, decertains critères essentiellement budgétaires. La convergence des politiques budgétaires renvoie donc à la discipline budgétairecommune que devront respecter les Etats membres de la zone UEMOA. L’instauration d’un tel dispositif, aboutitnécessairement sur le plan normatif, à la transformation du droit public financier des Etats. Le respect de la discipline budgétairecommunautaire passe par une autodiscipline que les Etats doivent s’imposer dans la gestion de leur Finances publiques. Cenouveau pouvoir communautaire influence donc les Finances nationales au travers de leur contenu, choix de politiquespubliques comme de techniques de gestion. L’objectif de cette étude est de s’intéresser à l’un des facteurs déterminants destransformations des systèmes nationaux de gestion des Finances publiques dans les Etats membres de la zone UEMOA. / Legal studies on African Public Finance rarely address fiscal policy issues. The economic nature of this subject isprobably the reason. Yet the creation of economic integration space between states sharing the same currency led the law,including community law, to take a firm hold on fiscal policy issues. Any fiscal laxity from a state has repercussions on theothers and the stability of the monetary Union. The strengthening of economic integration, in west Africa, with the WAEMUTreaty of 1994 has been accompanied by the setting up of a converging measures of budgetary policies of states members. This consists in monitoring, through a community institutional framework, compliance by states with some criteria, mainlybudgetary. The convergence of budgetary policies thus refers to common budgetary discipline to be observed by the statesmembers of the WAEMU area. The establishment of such measures necessarily ends at the normative level by thetransformation of public finance law of states. The compliance with community budget discipline goes through self-discipline that states must self-impose in the management of their public finances. This new community power has an effect on national finance through their content, their public policy choices and management techniques. The aim of this study is to take an interest in one of the determining transformations factors of national public finance management systems in the states members of the WAEMU area.