Beyond Budgeting and Management Control Practices within Small and Medium Enterprises

Purpose - This paper aims to explore the implementation of Beyond Budgeting in a small and medium size enterprise in the education technology industry. Design/methodology/approach - Based on an exploratory in-depth case study, this paper analyses the impact of Beyond Budgeting on the combination of management control elements through the lenses of the control package literature (see Malmi and Brown, 2008).
Findings – Although proponents of beyond budgeting suggest a complete abandonment of traditional budgets, the findings of this study suggest that an incremental approach is preferred in which various management control elements can replace some functions of budgets, without eliminating budgeting entirely. This paper further discusses the main criticisms of traditional budgeting and the elements facilitating and hindering the implementation of beyond budgeting from a holistic perspective i.e. taking the combination of management control elements into consideration.
Research limitations/implications – The findings of this study suggest that further research is needed on the challenges of implementing beyond budgeting in different organizational settings. Moreover, future research should address the practical adjustments performed on the beyond budgeting principles to reach an alignment with organizational practices and routines. Originality/value – This study contributes to the beyond budgeting and management control literature by illustrating the implementation of beyond budgeting ideas and suggesting the importance of a gradual approach in line with the existing control elements. Moreover, while management accounting literature suggests that beyond budgeting is usually adopted by large companies in their maturity stage, this paper discusses the use of the concept within a small and medium sized enterprise in the initial stages of its life cycle.