Perceptions and Attitudes of Different User-groups to the Role of the Budget,Budget Pressure and Budget Participation

This paper examines the perceptions and attitudes of three distinct user-groups to three important budget-related issues. The three user-groups are: accountants, senior non-financial managers and first line managers, each of which has direct contact with budget data in their normal work. The issues, which have been examined by questionnaire and interviews in thirteen medium or large UK companies, are: (a) the perception of the role of the budget in medium and large companies; (b) the use of the budget as a control device, the pressure that may be felt when this occurs and the behavioural consequences of such pressure; (c) the degree of participation in budget setting and whether there is any desire for increased participation. In some instances there were important differences between the user-groups; in particular concerning budget pressure and participation. The general textbook picture of the budget-setting process was not confirmed in certain important aspects. These results raise issues concerning the budgetary control process, including the effects of self-generated pressure, and the desire among accountants for greater participation in the budget process.     

基于预算的考核、预算氛围和预算副效应

预算作为一种管理控制工具被广泛运用于实务,并有许多企业根据预算进行业绩考核。基于218个问卷样本,本文运用结构方程(SEM)研究了基于预算的考核执行、预算氛围和预算副作用之间的关系。结果表明,基于预算的考核执行与预算副作用正相关,预算氛围与预算副作用负相关。这表明严格的预算考核执行会带来副作用,而恰当的预算氛围可以降低副作用。该结论与权变理论的系统性适应相吻合,即在有较好预算氛围的公司,严格的预算考核执行更为适应,这类公司往往管理更规范。     

Antecedents of Budget Participation: Leadership Style,Information Asymmetry,and Evaluative Use of Budget

This study explores the causes or antecedents of budget participation to understand more fully the role of participation in the workplace. The study focuses on the reasons why superiors encourage the budget participation of their subordinates and draws upon several theoretical perspectives including leadership theory, agency theory and organizational justice. To examine the issues, a survey was administered to managers and supervisors in several companies. Results of path analysis suggest that superiors encourage subordinate participation when the superior's leadership style is considerate. This implies that budget participation may mediate the relation between leadership style and work outcomes. Results also suggest that superiors encourage participation when budget goals are used in the performance evaluation of subordinates, in which case, the study argues, the superiors encourage participation because of concerns about organizational justice. This finding implies that budget participation may mediate the relation between the evaluative use of budget and those work outcomes that prior research has linked to organizational justice. The proposed relation between information asymmetry and budget participation is not supported.     

政府间收入分成与财政收入预算偏离

降低收入决算和预算之间的偏离程度是现代预算制度的基本要求,长期以来,中国政府的收入预算偏离一直处于高位运行状态。本文研究了政府间财政收入分成对收入预算偏离的影响。理论上,财政收入分成的上升会对下级政府产生减小财政压力和加大财政扩张两种截然相反的影响,前者会减少政府的收入预算偏离,而后者则会扩大收入预算偏离。运用市县层面加总的预决算数据,实证分析较为稳健地支持了财政压力机制:财政收入分成降低1个百分点,收入预算偏离会增加0.3个百分点。进一步分析表明,收入分成对预算偏离的影响相比市县级,在省本级层面不显著,并且其对预算偏离的影响会随着经济发展水平的上升而降低。本文研究的现实意义是,政府间收入划分的改革方案要兼顾长期稳定性与财力支持性,这对于降低收入预算偏离、推进现代预算制度建设和国家治理现代化具有重要作用。     

Contingent Factors,Extent of Budget Use and Performance: A Structural Equation Approach

The present study investigates the contextual factors that impact the extent of budget use and performance based on contingency theory. For this purpose, we carried out a questionnaire survey of Turkish firms. In order to analyse the data, confirmatory factor analysis and covariance‐based structural equation modelling were used. We find that the extent of budget use and performance are affected significantly by contextual factors. Size, structure, perceived environmental uncertainty (PEU) and information technology (IT) determine the extent of budget use. The study also finds that performance is significantly affected by the extent of budget use and other contingent factors (i.e., structure, PEU, functionality of IT). Furthermore, there is a mediating role of budget use between contextual factors and performance.     

Organization size, budget cycle, and budget related influence in city governments: An empirical study

This paper explores the relationship between budgeting and perceived power in city government organizations. Data are reported from a survey of perceived budget influence in six city governments in Texas. The findings suggest that perceived influence varies by stage of budget cycle, city size, level of hierarchy, department function, and vertical vs horizontal direction of influence. For example, during budget formulation city managers were perceived as having the most vertical power. During budget implemetation, there was a perceived increase in department head vertical power and a decrease in city council power. Perceptions of horizontal power suggested that budget departments generally had greater perceived influence than operating departments for budget formulation, but not for budget implementation. The findings are used to develop a strategic contingencies model of budget-related power, and to suggest some research steps for testing the proposed model.     

Management Discussion and Analysis: An Evaluation of Practice in UK and US Companies

The Accounting Standards Board has proposed the inclusion of an Operating and Financial Review in the annual reports of large UK companies, similar to the Management Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) required by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the USA. This paper explores the nature of the MD&A reports already existing in the case of 42 UK companies which report to the SEC and compares these with a sample of 42 large US companies. Techniques of content analysis and a subjective scoring system were used to quantify the differences between observed practice of UK and US companies within the same set of regulations. UK companies were found to provide more informative reports with respect to disclosure of aspects of risk and uncertainty, as well as providing more forward-looking information. In both the UK and the USA there was no evidence of homogeneity of form and content within or between industry groupings. It is concluded that it is feasible for UK companies to produce the type of report envisaged by the Accounting Standards Board and that a wide range of practice exists within the framework of the SEC regulations. Research into user needs will be required to identify the most useful disclosures.     

关于预算调整的理论思考

预算执行阶段是整个公共预算管理的关键,在这一过程中调整预算是不可避免的.而如何界定预算调整的范畴,在我国<预算法>中并没有一个较清晰的表述,导致了各级政府及预算部门的一些不规范操作,严重削弱了预算的法律权威性.本文从预算执行的控制目标及政府与人民代表大会的关系两方面来理顺预算调整的内涵.     

高等学校预算管理中的预算松弛问题研究

预算管理作为高等学校内部管理的重要组成部分,越来越受到人们的重视.然而预算管理在高等学校普遍认同并加以实施的过程中,其效果并非尽如人意,还存在许多问题.预算松弛问题就是高等学校预算管理中的一个主要问题,它是高等学校预算管理中的一种常见现象.预算松弛的存在对高等学校的预算管理既有积极的一面,也有负面的影响,预算松弛积极作...     

Some behavioral aspects of budgeting for control: An empirical study

The research reported in this article empirically evaluated the relationships between perceived participation in the budget process, perceived reward dependency of budget performance, and perceived attainability of the budgeted goals, and the dependent variable of motivation to achieve the budget. The results indicated that there were two dimensions to a manager's effort expended (motivation) to achieve the budgeted goals for which he is responsible; they are a goal-directing effort and an evaluative effort. It was found that perceived participation had the most significant relationship with the goal-directing effort, whereas perceived reward dependency had the most significant relationship with the evaluative effort. The relationships between perceived attainability and both dimensions of effort expended (motivation) were either not significant or only moderately significant.     

国有资本经营预算与国有企业发展--基于丝绸之路经济带核心区建设的视角

新疆作为丝绸之路经济带核心区,其地方上市公司中有一半是国有企业,如何通过国有资本经营预算来发挥国有企业的优势,是一个值得探讨的课题。故本文在梳理新疆国有资本经营预算发展历程的基础上,主要从理论与数据两个方面分析了新疆国资预算与国企发展之间的关系,最后给出相应建议与对策,以期进一步优化国资预算管理,助推国企改革与发展,助力"丝绸之路经济带核心区"建设。     

The Accessibility and Perceived Usefulness of Information on the Capital Expenditure Intentions of UK Quoted Companies

This paper presents the results of two questionnaire surveys concerned with the accessibility and perceived usefulness of information relating to the capital expenditure plans of UK companies. The evidence presented indicates that such information is perceived as potentially useful for external investment purposes by analysts and by corporate financial managers. Moreover, it would appear that analysts do take steps to obtain such information. With regard to accessibility there would appear to be considerable cross-firm variation in the extent to which such information is made available to external investors. The findings also suggest that companies are more likely to disclose news about their capital expenditure intentions (a) when their finance directors perceive the information to be useful to external shareholders, (b) where there is an associated requirement to raise additional external finance, and (c) where the news relates to an increase, as opposed to a decrease, in capital expenditure. These findings are related to the literature on the economics of financial disclosure.     

A survey of corporate perceptions of short-termism among analysts and fund managers

There is a popularly held view that institutional investors and stockbrokers' analysts take a short-term view when making or advising on investment decisions. Short-termism is held to be a particular problem for economies such as the US and the UK which rely heavily on stock exchanges to price securities and help reallocate resources through take-over. This is deemed to be detrimental to long-term corporate development and overall economic growth. The paper seeks to show the extent to which directors of large UK companies perceive that analysts and institutional investors evaluate their companies on short-term criteria. The role of institutional investors in the context of short-termism is important because they own a large proportion of equity. The paper then seeks to explain why some company directors appear to believe in short-termism while others do not. Hence the paper is not investigating whether ‘the City’ is short-termist but is examining the reasons why directors of large publicly quoted companies believe ‘the City’ is or is not short-termist about their company. The conclusion of this paper is that there is some evidence to support the view that ‘the City’ is perceived as being short-termist towards some companies but that the phenomenon is more narrowly focused and of lesser importance than its supporters claim.     

年度预算与中期预算:比较及借鉴

传统上,政府预算是以年度为基础进行编制的。目前,许多OECD国家则已转向中期预算,以弥补年度预算的缺陷。本文对年度预算和中期预算进行了比较,并指出了中期预算对我国预算改革的借鉴意义。     

Financing Devolution in Practice: The Barnett Formula and the Scottish Budget, 1999–2003

This article examines the impact of the Barnett formula on the Scottish public finances since devolution. Forecasts of a spending squeeze and budgetary constraint have not materialized and Scotland's share of the UK budget has remained stable. The real budgetary problem for the Scottish Parliament has been managing spending growth not squeeze. While there are calls to replace Barnett, its benefits in terms of providing budgetary stability and the flexibility to deal with specific funding problems are significant and Barnett is well suited to the incremental approach through which the British public finances are managed.     

适时修改《预算法》的几点建议

近年来 ,由于经济形势的变化以及各项改革措施的推出与我国现行《预算法》中的一些规定产生了一定的矛盾 ,同时 ,现行《预算法》中的一些空白也使得有关预算管理制度实施缺少法律依据 ,因此 ,为使政府预算真正具有法律效力 ,建立良好的社会主义市场经济秩序 ,应适时修改和补充我国现行《预算法》。     

Perceived auditor independence and audit firm fees

Regulations requiring the disclosure of fees paid to an auditor for audit and non-audit services (NAS) respond to concerns that such payments are potentially detrimental to auditors' actual or perceived independence. Although empirical studies have failed to produce unequivocal evidence of detrimental effects on auditor independence, the actions of regulators, audit firms and companies are consistent with the belief that economic bonding generated by fees can impair perceived levels of auditor independence.

Using a sample of UK companies over a six year period to March 2006, we study perceived impairment of auditor independence by examining the relationship between levels of total relative fees (combined audit and NAS fees payable by a company to its auditor as a proportion of the audit firm's UK income) and market value. This paper's methodological innovation is its use of a valuation framework in this setting. A further contribution lies in dropping the assumption of linearity found in most prior empirical studies. We provide evidence that shareholders perceive a threat to auditor independence only at high total relative fee levels. At lower levels, total relative fees are positively related to company value. These results suggest that disclosure of NAS and audit fees are of relevance to investors, as is information about auditor income. Our results support the view that regulation by reference to the threshold at which total relative fees are perceived negatively is more consistent with investor preferences than prohibition of the supply of NAS by auditors to their audit clients.     

Aggregate Stability and Balanced‐Budget Rules

It has been shown that under perfect competition and a Cobb‐Douglas production function, a basic real business cycle model may exhibit indeterminacy and sunspot fluctuations when income tax rates are determined by a balanced‐budget rule (BBR). This paper introduces in an otherwise standard real business cycle model a more general and data‐coherent class of production functions, namely, a constant elasticity of substitution production function. We show that the degree of substitutability between production factors is a key ingredient to understanding the (de)stabilizing properties of a BBR. Then we calibrate the model consistently with the empirical evidence; that is, we set the elasticity of substitution between labor and capital below unity. We show that compared to the Cobb‐Douglas case, the likelihood of indeterminacy under a BBR is greatly reduced in the U.S., the EU, and the UK.     

Note on a New Zealand replication of the Innes et al. UK activity-based costing survey

Activity-based costing (ABC) is a well known technique for costing products and providing management information. This note reports the results of a faithful replication in New Zealand (NZ) of Innes et al.’s 1999 UK survey of ABC usage and a comparison of the results of the two surveys.Adoption rates were found to be similar, with NZ companies showing slightly lower rates of implementation of ABC than UK companies. However, once they had implemented the method, NZ companies demonstrated greater commitment to ABC across more areas of the firm than UK companies. ABC systems in NZ tended to display less complexity than their UK counterparts. Strong correlations were found in the different uses of ABC by industry sector, but there were contrasting perceptions on the success and importance of some ABC applications.This study provides an insight into ABC in NZ, data on trends in ABC experiences between two countries of widely differing size and geographic location, and suggestions for further research.     

高校预算管理转型研究

本文将我国高校现行预算管理模式概括为依附型预算管理,并结合政府管理体制和高校预算管理的实际,分析了依附型预算管理的各种现实表现及其弊端,在此基础上,提出了解决的根本出路在于尽快由依附型向以实现高校可持续发展的自主发展型预算管理转型,并从预算管理对象的内容特性、预算管理理念更新、多层次预算管理原则设计、预算编制方法创新、预算管理机构设置、预算管理程序规范设计等方面,勾勒出了自主发展型预算管理模式的基本架构。