The impact of the budget process on budgetary slack: The moderating role of uncertainty avoidance and individualism

Slack is one of the most controversial issues in budget research. The empirical literature is increasingly interested in identifying the conditions under which budgetary slack is likely to be controlled. The design of the budgetary process may have an impact on the slack, however several studies suggest that this impact depends on the cultural context. This paper investigates the impact of formalization, controllability and national culture on managers? creation of budgetary slack. Using survey data from 226 managers working in French multinational banks located in France and Morocco, this study demonstrates that national culture has a moderating effect on the relationship between formalization, controllability and the propensity to create budgetary slack. The collected data shows that formalization decreases the propensity to build budgetary slack in Morocco whereas formalization has no effect on this propensity in France. The research also indicates that the application of the controllability principle decreases the propensity of managers to create budgetary slack in France, whereas the application of the controllability principle has no effect on this propensity in Morocco. The results of our research suggest that control systems have different impacts on the level of budgetary slack in different cultures. Our study contributes to the growing research exploring the interface between control systems and national cultures, by recognizing the importance of national culture for understanding the relationship between formalization, controllability of the budget and the creation of budgetary slack by managers.