Budget

BUDGETING AND

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

- A qualitative study about budgeting and

Business Intelligence in relation to the

ongoing budget debate

Master Thesis in Business Administration

Management Accounting

Spring Term 2012

Tutors: Christian Ax

Elin Larsson

Authors: Jenny Jönsson

Sandra Åkerlund

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This thesis has been written during ten executive weeks at the University

of Gothenburg, School of Business, Economics, and Law. We would like

to thank our tutors Christian Ax and Elin Larsson who during the course

of the thesis have offered their guidance and constructive criticism.

We would also like to thank our respondents; Gunilla Myrén at Elfa

International, Christer Karlsson at IKEA Components, Anna Hansson at

Mölnlycke Health Care, and Stefan Sjöberg at Pipelife for taking their

time to be interviewed and provide us with valuable data. Finally, we

would also like to thank Wiveka Sund at IKEA IT.

Gothenburg, June 2012

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Jenny Jönsson

Sandra Åkerlund

MASTER THESIS IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Title:

Date:

Authors:

Tutors:

Key Words:

Budgeting and Business Intelligence – a qualitative study about budgeting and

Business Intelligence in relation to the ongoing budget debate

Spring Term 2012

Jenny Jönsson and Sandra Åkerlund

Christian Ax and Elin Larsson

Management Accounting, Budgeting Process, Traditional (fixed) Budget,

Rolling Forecasts, the relevance of the Budget, Information Technology,

Business Intelligence.

ABSTRACT

Background The world we are living in is becoming more and more globalized.

and Problem Organizations are competing worldwide and in order to be part of the

Discussion

development, it is crucial for organizations to respond to the changes. At the

same time, there is a debate about the relevance of the budget which has

created an intense discussion on budgeting. Critics mean that the budget is an

outdated means of control that...