We would like to thank, first of all, our interview partners for their willingness to participate in our research and especially Robin Fraser and Niels Pfläging for their feedback on previous

Existe uma grande variedade de tais recursos – incluindo sistemas, conceitos de participação, modelos e estrutura organizacional. Devem ser considerados como componentes das práticas gerenciais. Cada empresa pode ser caracterizada como tendo uma configuração singular, única, em termos de ferramentas que pode ser reconhecida como perfil da empresa. Esta pesquisa analisa a aderência conceitual (que é uma relação entre a teoria e o que foi encontrado no mercado) em relação às práticas gerenciais das empresas Brasileiras de médio e grande portes. A utilização da estatística multivariada permitiu a identificação de cinco clusters dentro do grupo de empresas estudadas. A principal conclusão, para a amostra, é que a aderência conceitual aos componentes táticos é maior do que aos estratégicos. Adicionalmente, ficou evidenciada que os componentes de contribuições mais recentes são aqueles menos utilizados, similarmente ao que foi constatado pelos pesquisadores americanos e britânicos. Palavras-chave: gestão; contabilidade; práticas gerenciais. BSTRACT Companies must have resources that provide competitive advantages and are important factors for success. There is a great variety of such resources—including information systems, concepts of participation, models, and organizational structures. These can be referred to as components of managerial practice. Each company can be characterized as having a unique configuration of tools that can be recognized as the company profile. This paper analyzes the conceptual adherence (i. e., the relationship between theory and practice) of the managerial accounting practices of medium-sized and large Brazilian companies. Statistical multivariate analysis has allowed for the identification of five clusters within the group of companies studied. The main conclusion for the sample is that conceptual adherence to tactical components is greater than to strategic components. In addition, it is apparent that the newer components have not been widely adopted in the sample, similar to other field studies in the UK and USA. Key words: management; accounting; managerial practices. 2 INTRODUC NTRODUCTION

Firstly, all honour and glory to my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ for blessing me with the strength to complete the task. I would also like to dedicate this research to my late father. His belief in me gave me the energy to complete the task. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the following individuals: ● My husband, Dudley, for his patience and understanding in the past few years ● My family, friends and colleagues for all their encouragement. ● Professors Piet du Plessis and Bienkie Shuttleworth, my supervisors, for their invaluable guidance, advice and moral support. ● Andries Masenge, who assisted me with the questionnaire and statistical matters. ● Professors Deon Tustin and Carel van Aardt, for their advice. ● Lynette Van den Heever for assisting me with the tables and graphs. ● All the respondents who participated in the study for their time and valuable contributions. ● Moya Joubert. for her professional and critical editing of the manuscript.

Abstract The prevailing trend in ISD is one of poor project performance, with budget overruns commonly in excess of 300 % and many failing altogether. To ad-dress this trend ISD research always focuses on the ISD process, user involve-ment, and the people involved. Rarely, if ever are wider organisational processes questioned. This paper argues for a cohesive and ongoing inclusion of wider or-ganisational factors in efforts to address and improve ISD project performance. Given the poor budgetary performance of ISD projects, budgeting is one are we feel requires particular attention. Contemporary research in budgeting (e.g. Be-yond Budgeting) and in ISD (e.g. agile methods) attempts to address similar issues albeit from a different angles. This paper draws on 2 case studies of 7 ISD teams to apply the Beyond Budgeting model to an ISD environment. We demonstrate the value of using the Beyond Budgeting model to develop a cohesive research agen-da within ISD used to identify gaps and suggest improvements to agile methods, probably the most well known and accepted contemporary ISD approach.

For centuries, annual budgets have played a central key role in most organizations serving the main purposes of planning and control. Yet, more recently the budgeting practice has been subject to severe criticisms, among which stands its ineffectiveness to deal with uncertainty. In order to avoid some of the major problems associated with the preparation and usage of budgets, two alternative approaches have been proposed: Better Budgeting and Beyond Budgeting. This study aims to understand which factors companies perceive as uncertainty, and how budgets, either in their traditional form or through new approaches, might be able to help companies deal with them. To do so, two companies with different dimensions, operating in different business sectors and thus subject to different economic contexts were analyzed. Evidence collected seems to indicate that companies are indeed taking a new approach to budgeting, either simplifying it or complementing it with other techniques. The Balanced Scorecard, due to its capacity to link the short with the long-term strategy as well as to link different perspectives of the companies, comes up as one of the most useful techniques to complement budgets to face uncertainty.

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A longitudinal study of the adoption of an activity-based planning system in the Crown Prosecution Service of England and Wales, UK Citation for published version: Mitchell, F, Liu, L & Robinson, J 2008, 'A longitudinal study of the adoption of an activity-based planning

This study provides that though the budgetary system is not perfect, its usefulness cannot be over emphasized. The primary source of data was used and data were collected through the use of questionnaire. A Non-Parametric test-Chi-square test and the descriptive statistics were used for data analysis. The study reveals that budgeting is perceived by managers a worthwhile exercise and a value creation process. It is recommended therefore that, researches should be directed towards budgetary system improvement rather than its total abandonment.

This paper has been peer-reviewed but does not include the final publisher proof-corrections or journal pagination. Citation for the published paper:

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