Purpose: Budgeting is central in public organizations. From a research viewpoint, it is an extremely multifaceted and potentially rich field to investigate and develop. The changing institutional and socio-economic landscape, moreover, requires a profound reassessment of its roles and features. So far, however, budgeting has been remarkably under-investigated and under-theorized. The aim of this paper is to review the existing European literature on public budgeting, looking at how public administration, public management, and accounting contribute to current theories and practices and, to advance a proposal on how they can individually and jointly contribute in the future. Design/methodology/approach: We collect and analyse all the papers on public budgeting in the European context that were published in all the issues of 15 major accounting and public management journals since 1980. Findings: Budgeting has so far played a rather marginal role in European public management and accounting research. Among the existing papers, most focus on the Anglo-Saxon context, look at the intra-organizational aspects of budgeting, emphasise its managerial and allocative functions, either adopt an interpretive theoretical framework or make no explicit reference to theory, and rely on qualitative analyses. Public budgeting lies at the intersections between different disciplines and professions, but this multifacetedness has been largely neglected by the existing literature. These intersections thus offer significant opportunities for future research. Building on the distinction between the intra- and inter- organizational foci of budgeting, between its different functions (i.e. allocative, managerial, external accountability), and between the accounting and the public administration and management perspectives, we propose possible future research topics. Originality/Value: Budgeting plays a central role in public organizations and is used to allocate a large share of national incomes. This paper explores the existing literature and puts forward some potentially fruitful avenues for future research.

Public sector budgeting: a European review of accounting and public management journals

Anessi Pessina, Eugenio;Barbera, Carmela;Sicilia, Maria Francesca;Steccolini, Ileana
2016

Abstract

Purpose: Budgeting is central in public organizations. From a research viewpoint, it is an extremely multifaceted and potentially rich field to investigate and develop. The changing institutional and socio-economic landscape, moreover, requires a profound reassessment of its roles and features. So far, however, budgeting has been remarkably under-investigated and under-theorized. The aim of this paper is to review the existing European literature on public budgeting, looking at how public administration, public management, and accounting contribute to current theories and practices and, to advance a proposal on how they can individually and jointly contribute in the future. Design/methodology/approach: We collect and analyse all the papers on public budgeting in the European context that were published in all the issues of 15 major accounting and public management journals since 1980. Findings: Budgeting has so far played a rather marginal role in European public management and accounting research. Among the existing papers, most focus on the Anglo-Saxon context, look at the intra-organizational aspects of budgeting, emphasise its managerial and allocative functions, either adopt an interpretive theoretical framework or make no explicit reference to theory, and rely on qualitative analyses. Public budgeting lies at the intersections between different disciplines and professions, but this multifacetedness has been largely neglected by the existing literature. These intersections thus offer significant opportunities for future research. Building on the distinction between the intra- and inter- organizational foci of budgeting, between its different functions (i.e. allocative, managerial, external accountability), and between the accounting and the public administration and management perspectives, we propose possible future research topics. Originality/Value: Budgeting plays a central role in public organizations and is used to allocate a large share of national incomes. This paper explores the existing literature and puts forward some potentially fruitful avenues for future research.
2016
Anessi Pessina, Eugenio; Barbera, Carmela; Sicilia, Maria Francesca; Steccolini, Ileana
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
acceptance aaaj budgeting.docx

non disponibili

Descrizione: acceptance letter
Tipologia: Allegato per valutazione Bocconi (Attachment for Bocconi evaluation)
Licenza: NON PUBBLICO - Accesso privato/ristretto
Dimensione 17.1 kB
Formato Microsoft Word XML
17.1 kB Microsoft Word XML   Visualizza/Apri
Paper AAAJ final 2015-05-29 accepted.docx

non disponibili

Descrizione: Paper
Tipologia: Documento in Pre-print (Pre-print document)
Licenza: NON PUBBLICO - Accesso privato/ristretto
Dimensione 201.27 kB
Formato Microsoft Word XML
201.27 kB Microsoft Word XML   Visualizza/Apri

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11565/3981121
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus 108
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 83
social impact