The first hypothesis, developed from the perspective of the Individualism Collectivism dimension, stated that U.S. companies will use communication and coordination in budget planning processes to a greater extent than Japanese companies. The difference in the means of the two samples (4.03 for the U.S. and 3.70 for Japan) was significant in the hypothesized direction
{t=3.26, p .001), supporting the hypothesis.
The second hypothesis, based on the Uncertainty Avoidance dimension, stated that Japanese companies, compared to the U.S. companies, will use a broader time horizon for budgetary planning. This hypothesis was not supported (the means for the two samples being 3.51 for the U.S. companies and 3.52 for the Japanese companies).
Three possible outcomes were conjectured for the next hypothesis-HJ (i-iii), not knowing which of the two dimensions will exert a greater influence on the structuring of the budget planning processes, or if the influence of one would negate that of the other. The nonsignificant mean difference found would seem to indicate that the two dimensions of Individualism-Collectivism and Uncertainty Avoidance might exert an equal and opposite effect on the structuring of budgetary processes. There is also a remote possibility that neither of the two dimensions had a significant impact on the structuring of budget planning processes.
The fourth hypothesis, similar to the previous one, postulated three possible outcomes with regard to the tendency or predisposition to build slack in the budget (depending upon which of the two cultural dimensions of Individualism Collectivism and Uncertainty Avoidance would have a greater influence on such predispositions). The results point to the greater influence of the Individualism Collectivism dimension on building slack in budgets. It should, however, be noted that the difference in the means for building slack for U.S. companies (3.08) and that for the Japanese companies (2.89) was significant at the conventional (p