The influence of culture on budget control practices in the

The role of culture in budget control practices in the US and Japan is explored. It is conjectured that the 2 culutal dimensions of individualism-collectivism and uncertainty avoidance (on which the 2 countries maximally differ) would explain any differences that might exist in budget control practices in the 2 countries. Six specific hypotheses are developed to test the influence of either or both the cultural dimensions on particular aspects of budget control practices. Three of the 5 hypotheses relating to the cultural dimension of individualism-collectivism are substantiated. More specifically, the results indicate that the US culture, which is high on individualism, predisposed the US companies to: 1. use more communication and coordination, 2. build more slack in the budget, and 3. resort to short-term performance evaluations, more than the Japanese companies.