Better budgeting in recent years may have been seen as a movement from 'incremental budgeting' to alternative budgeting approaches. However, academic studies (e.g., 'Beyond Budgeting' by Hope and Fraser) argue that the annual budget model may be seen as (i) having a number of inherent weaknesses, and (ii) acting as a barrier to the effective implementation of alternative models to use in the accomplishment of strategic change.

What are the fiveinherent weaknesses of the annual budget model irrespective of the budgeting approach that is applied?

Why the traditional budgeting process may be seen as a barrier to the achievement of the aims of each of the following models for the implementation of strategic change:

(i) benchmarking;

(ii) balanced scorecard; and

(iii) activity-based models.