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Analysing Flexibility and Integration Needs in Budgeting IS Technologies

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Accounting Information Systems for Decision Making

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Information Systems and Organisation ((LNISO,volume 3))

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Abstract

The duality characteristics of budgeting between the flexibility driven decision-making and the integration focused management control inspire the author to investigate how the flexibility and integration domains influence controllers’ choices of IS technologies used in budgeting. This includes the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, business intelligent (BI) and spreadsheets. Guided by the human agency concept, twenty-one controllers in eleven companies in Thailand are interviewed. The analysis shows that flexibility and integration in budgeting IS technologies can be viewed from four domains: organisation-in-focus, personal requirement, business requirement and reporting requirement. The analysis shows that there are conflicts between these four domains. It is found that spreadsheets are used when flexibility is needed. However, the ERP system and BI are employed to support integration. The major implication is that controllers apply several IS technologies to support budgeting because each IS technology is designed for its own respective purposes and intentions.

This paper has been submitted to ECIS 2012 and subjected to a double-blind review.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The levers of controls is used in line with previous interpretations in budgeting research, namely Abernethy, M.A., Brownell, P.: The role of budgets in organizations facing strategic change: an exploratory study. Accounting, Organizations and Society. 24, 189–204 (1999). Therefore the author omits the two remaining control systems-boundary system and belief system- since they are not related to budgeting.

  2. 2.

    The Federation of Accounting Professions (Thailand) plans to align the existing Thai accounting standards (TAS) with IFRS effective from 2011 onwards commencing with Thailand’s fifty largest listed companies. (Source: www.fap.or.th).

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Acknowledgments

The author is grateful for insightful ideas and contributions from Sven Carlsson, Björn Johansson, Ulrike Schultze as well as colleagues from the Department of Informatics, Lund University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Informatics, School of Economics and Management, Lund University, Ole Römers Väg 6, 22 363, Lund, Sweden

    Wipawee Uppatumwichian

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  1. Wipawee Uppatumwichian
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Correspondence to Wipawee Uppatumwichian .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Parthenope University of Naples, Via Medina 40, Naples, 80133, Italy

    Daniela Mancini

  2. , School of Economics and Management, Tilburg University, Spoorlaan 293, Tilburg, 5038, Netherlands

    Eddy H. J. Vaassen

  3. Via Vivaldi 2, Genova, 16126, Italy

    Renata Paola Dameri

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Uppatumwichian, W. (2013). Analysing Flexibility and Integration Needs in Budgeting IS Technologies. In: Mancini, D., Vaassen, E., Dameri, R. (eds) Accounting Information Systems for Decision Making. Lecture Notes in Information Systems and Organisation, vol 3. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35761-9_18

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