Agency and structure in budgeting: Thesis, antithesis and synthesis

The accounting literature has used agent-centered and structure-centered theories to explain the design, operation and consequences of budgeting systems. These perspectives have traditionally been presented as alternative and mutually exclusive approaches to understanding budgeting phenomena – as thesis and antithesis. We return to Macintosh and Scapens’ (1990) call to reexamine the relationship between agency and structure in management accounting research and explore the emerging synthesis that could provide new directions for research on budgeting.