How can we explain the diversity of budgetary control practices? This research, based on contingency and new institutional theories, explores the reasons that underscore such diversity. Data have been collected from 246 management controllers or CFOs. We show that taking into account institutional factors (belonging to a parent corporation, type of shareholder and functional background of the CEO) allows for a better understanding of budgetary control diversity than traditional contingency factors (environment uncertainty, technology, decentralization and strategy). We suggest that budgetary control can be seen as a device that helps organizations to be legitimated in specific institutional environments.
