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The purpose of the current study is to examine how employees from different cultures respond to participative budgeting when the budget planning horizon is congruent or incongruent with their cultural time orientation. We conducted a 2×2 quasi-experiment in which cultural time orientation (short term or long term) was measured and budget planning horizon (short term or long term) was manipulated. A total of 164 employees participated in the experiment – 87 from China and 77 from the United States, representing long-term and short-term cultural time orientations, respectively. The results indicate that satisfaction with participative budgeting was greater when cultural time orientation and budget planning horizon were congruent, relative to incongruent. Also, the differential reaction between congruence and incongruence was less extreme for the Chinese participants than the U.S. participants, which is consistent with Confucian thought of “The Doctrine of the Mean.” The results of this study contribute to participative budgeting literature and suggest that managers who operate in different countries should be cognizant of cultural differences when employing participative budgeting processes.

The purpose of this chapter is to examine what small business strategic management and long-term planning involves as practised by successful growth-oriented small businesses. The aim is to provide insight into the strategic learning, control and development processes, including indicative detail of the underpinning day-to-day practices and actions that make up those processes. Key focus is the overall strategic control activity of more progressive owner managers and their use of an idiosyncratic mentally held ‘strategic planning and thinking framework’ that guides and informs strategic decision-making, strategic adjustment to existing markets, products and processes activities and long-term strategic direction.

The research approach is underpinned and informed by personal construct theory which gives emphasis to the highly complex nature of the task of small business strategic control and highlights the need for a creative and innovative research methodology to facilitate close and detailed investigation of the phenomenon. To this end, a multidisciplinary case study research methodology was developed by the authors to underpin examination of strategic development and planning within micro-, small- and medium-sized businesses.

The chapter enhances understanding of small business strategic management practice in growth-achieving micro and small enterprises. The findings of this research, whilst demonstrating the key role of entrepreneurial learning in small firm strategic control of the uncertain external environment, also provides a multidimensional lens through which to dissect and better understand the small firm strategy development process – drawing upon and integrating grains of truth from the differing schools of management thought embedded in the literature.

The findings of this study also facilitate the addressing of the ‘black box’ of hazy insight within the literature which fails to reveal micro-level fine detail understanding of the managerial and organisational actions and activities that make up strategy process. The authors commence provision of such black box insight within this chapter – this as lead-through to the follow-on chapter which affords specific attention to enhancing understanding of the micro-level fine detail minutia of managerial, organisational and work activities that make up strategy process within small businesses.

The research is of a comparative dimension focussing on small business development within the developed economy context of the UK, the emerging economy contexts of Malaysia and Ghana and the transitional economy contexts of Russia. Thus, time and resource limitations bound the studies.

This paper offers a personal perspective on the author's experience working with issues relating to the long-term management of nuclear contaminated sites, from the programmatic to the site-specific. Long-term care is and will be far more challenging than remediation activities; thus, the dynamics of long-term care require different approaches to problem solving. The need for nonlinear thinking will challenge management that has traditionally relied on linear approaches. Integrated risk management potentially offers some powerful and flexible tools for identifying and managing uncertainties. Managing uncertainties involves not only traditional budget, schedule, cost, and worker safety issues, but also other influences that are not easily quantifiable, including regulatory, cultural, social, political, legal, and “quality” issues. Understanding and incorporating changes in social context is critical to the planning and implementation processes of long-term care; the Department of Energy (DOE) must utilize processes that have consistency over time and that involve the public throughout the process. Management in the long term must reflect an understanding of how human systems function and how they couple with technological systems. DOE's relative success with its Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Program exhibits some of these components. Many are now recognizing these components as key needs for any long-term care program for long-lived hazards.

Etihad Rail Company is planning to implement a mega infrastructure project in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). They have included freight rail system as part of the 2030 Abu Dhabi economic vision and the UAE national Charter 2021. The plan is to link the UAE’s main cities via the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) border. This ambitious project presents a formidable task for the Etihad Rail Company and the region as there is no previous railway history of this kind. The project requires coordination of rail standards from East of Ghwefatet and the Northern Emirates cities and will ultimately be combined with the Western Saudi Arabia borders. The transportation system in the region will be improved greatly with the introduction of a cargo and passenger railway system in addition to the current road system and other means of transportation. The Etihad railway network is the first infrastructure project in the UAE and it will bring economic, strategic, social and environmental changes to the country. This case aims to present an overview of the strategic management dimensions of the Etihad Rail and the processes involved. This case will analyze whether Etihad’s top management team should make a decision to focus only on freight rail or to include passenger transportation as well. Many questions will be addressed in this paper such as the following: What steps should Etihad take in order to start passenger rail? Will economical, strategic and environmental aspects affect it? And if so, how? The case will focus on the analysis of the different aspects of Etihad Rail by using strategic management tools as guidance for implementation and determining its success factors.