Multiple facets of budgeting: an exploratory analysis

Abstract

This paper investigates four potential reasons for budgeting in organizations (operational planning, performance evaluation, communication of goals, and strategy formation), their antecedents (e.g., organizational strategy and structure), and several budgeting characteristics (e.g., target difficulty and budget emphasis) that potentially influence these reasons-to-budget's performance. While the idea of multiple uses of budgets in organizations is not new, the rationale for this study is that prior research has tended to look at the same (one) reason for budgeting (primarily performance evaluation), or at only one reason in isolation. Based on survey data from 57 managers responsible for preparing the budget for their organizational unit, our analyses suggest that while the four reasons-to-budget exhibit overlap, they are also substantively unique in their own use. Moreover, we demonstrate that the reasons-to-budget arise in different circumstances and that each reason-to-budget's performance is associated with different budgeting characteristics. We also demonstrate a link between the performance of the individual reasons-to-budget and overall budget satisfaction and organizational unit performance.