Niels Sandalgaard

Uncertainty and budgets: an empirical investigation

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to report the findings of a study of the relation between perceived environmental uncertainty and the abandonment of traditional annual budgets.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on the use of data from a survey among the largest Danish companies. The hypothesized relationships are tested by the use of logistic regression.Findings – The results show no sign of a relationship between perceived environmental uncertainty and the abandonment of traditional annual budgets. Instead, the results show a positive relationship between competition in the environment and the adoption of rolling forecasts.Research limitations/implications – Instead of focusing on the budgeting system in isolation, future research should, to a larger extent, focus on management control systems as a package.Practical implications – The results indicate that a competitive environment could be handled by retaining budgets but supplementing them with rolling forecasts.Originality/value – ...

Beyond Budgeting and change: a case study

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate reasons for going Beyond Budgeting and the practical issues organizations face when they change their management accounting system based on inspiration from the Beyond Budgeting model. Design/methodology/approach – The authors apply a case study approach. The primary data source is interviews. The case company is a global company in the agri-food industry that is organized as a cooperative. Findings – The authors propose that many organizations that change their management accounting system on the basis of inspiration from Beyond Budgeting will maintain fixed budget targets. Furthermore, the authors propose that even when the use of budgets at the corporate level focuses on few line items, the diagnostic use of budgeting at lower levels in the organization may focus on a larger number of line items. Research limitations/implications – The study is subject to the usual limitations of case-based research. The propositions made in the paper should be further investiga...

The interaction between motivational disposition and participative budgeting: Evidence from a bank

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a study of how dispositional factors of motivation rooted in personality interact with participative budgeting to affect budget goal commitment.Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on a survey among bank managers from a Scandinavian regional bank. To assess the motivational disposition of the bank managers, the short version of the multi‐motive grid test (MMG‐S) is used. The management accounting variables are measured by traditional and well‐tested instruments.Findings – The results indicate that the effect of increased budgetary participation on budget goal commitment is largest for subordinates with a high need for power or a low need for affiliation. For subordinates with a low need for power or a high need for affiliation the effect of budgetary participation is small.Research limitations/implications – The study confirms that the interaction between personal‐level psychological variables, e.g. motives, and situational varia...

The importance of task compatibility for web-enabled business intelligence success in e-government

Due to digital transformation and its derivative effects on tasks, it is essential to investigate the connection between task and technology in an e-government setting. This paper examines how task compatibility affects web-enabled Business Intelligences (BI) success in the public sector. BI success is measured based on use, user satisfaction, and individual impact. A positive and significant relationship exists between task compatibility and use, user satisfaction, and individual impact. Additionally, user satisfaction mediates task compatibility and individual impact. No relationship was found between use and individual impact. The study shows that it is important to include task compatibility in system selection, public procurement, system development, and implementation rather than exclusively technical criteria in the public sector.