It is undeniable that Hope and Fraser (2003b) havemade
a valuable contribution to the discipline. They have provided
a cogent and insightful analysis documenting the
weaknesses of budgeting and have caused us to think
deeply about how to improve the entire management process.
However, our findings suggest that budgeting systems
continue to play a key role in firms’ control systems and
that most companies have no plans to abandon this practice,
although many are planning to take steps to improve
their budgeting systems to overcome some of the common
criticisms. Further, given these findings (and in further support
of them), it is not surprising that the average firm in
our sample rates its budgeting system as providing good or
better value. That said, 18 and13%of Canadian andUSfirms,
respectively, report little or no value or negative value from
their budgeting systems (a score below 60), and approximately
20% of responding firms in both countries do not use
budgets for control. Thus there are some firms that may be
receptive to the Beyond Budgeting message.