User:Genepride/sandbox

Annotated Bibliography

Bunch, Beverly, and Christina Tang. "A Response To "Zero-Based Budgeting In China: Experiences Of Hubei Province." Journal Of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management 18.4 (2006): 511-515. Business Source Complete. Web. 21 Oct. 2016.

This source reveals the once-widespread use of this concept, Zero-Based Budgeting, has dwindled down to just having various parts of the concept utilized instead of the whole of it. For instance, this resource talks of having "departments submit budget requests reflecting (1) the current level of spending, (2) a cut of a certain percentage, and (3) an increase of a certain percentage." (pg 514). This article is a response to another article that details how Zero-Based Budgeting is being used in China, specifically in the Hubei Province. The source talks of the similarities and differences between how China uses this concept, and how the United States of America uses it as well.

Fitzpatrick, Matt, and Kyle Hawke. "The Return of Zero-base Budgeting." McKinsey & Company. N.p., Aug. 2015. Web. 21 Oct. 2016.

This source talks primarily of the history of the concept of Zero-based budgeting. The author describes of when this budgeting plan was first introduced to the public, which was in 1970 in an article by Peter A. Pyhrr. The article then transitions into how this concept blew up and became widespread throughout the world but little by little, this concept gradually dwindled due to the many unforeseen loopholes in it. But in modern day, more companies are starting to once again take a look at Zero-base Budgeting and utilizing that concept, and it doesn't matter what size or whether it's private/public owned. Then, the article transitions into revealing the five grand factors of success derived from this concept and they are: (1) Deeper visibility into cost drivers, (2) Dual-ownership governance model, (3) Rigorous processes for planning and monitoring, (4) aligned incentives, (5) mindset.

Investopedia. "What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Zero-based Budgeting in Accounting?." Investopedia. N.p., 15 May 2015. Web. 21 Oct. 2016.

This source was written in hopes of informing readers of not only the advantages of Zero-Base Budgetting, but also the disadvantages. JUst like any concept that was introduced to the world, there will always be pros and cons to it. The article describes of the advantages of Zero-Base budgeting which are focused operations, flexbile budgets, lower costs, and more disciplined execution. As for the disadvantages, they are revealed as "resource intensiveness, possibility of of being manipulated by savvy managers and a bias towards short-term planning." The article then talks of how exactly this brand new concept that was introduced by Pete Pyhrr in the 1970s differs exactly from the traditional budgeting. In conclusion, the aim of this article talks of how many critics argue that the time cost required by zero-base budgeting is not worth the benefits. And to add on to that, this concept would make the workers of a company feel expendable and that is not a good feeling.

Jun, Ma. "Zero-Based Budgeting In China: Experiences Of Hubei Province." Journal Of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management 18.4 (2006): 480-511. Business Source Complete. Web. 21 Oct. 2016.

This article first introduces the idea that China went on for many years without having any budgeting system that was/is seen in the western hemisphere of the world. But then, eventually beginning around the 1999, China started implementing a concept called the Zero-Based budgeting specifically in the Hubei province. The article first describes of the budgeting background history of Hubei which was The Plan-Dominated Period from 1949 to 1978. It talked of how a centralized economic planning system was practiced by the whole nation which meant the resource allocation was determined by the plan. Then, it transitions into The Transitional Period which took place form 1978 to 1999, the market-oriented economic reform caused a decline in the previous resource plan. And because there was no set effective plan to help transition China into this revolution, a huge hole was developed and many companies took control of the financial transactions.

Versel, Mark J. "Zero-Base Budgeting: Setting Priorities Through The Ranking Process." Public Administration Review 38.6 (1978): 524. Business Source Complete. Web. 21 Oct. 2016.

This source primarily describes the major elements of Zero-base budgeting or otherwise known as ZBB. In reference to the major elements, there are 3 main ones: Decision package formulation, decision unit determination, and ranking. After identifying these three major elements, the author, Mark Versel goes on to talk in depth about the details of each of these elements. He defines what each element is as well as how're they are used in practice by corporations. Following that, Mark Versel goes on to describe the order of business in terms of what process takes first, second, and so on; or better known as the procedural processing of Zero Base Budgeting. And in order to determine the procedural process, they first must determine the organization's priorities, ranking techniques, and evaluation criteria. Finally, once all the information has been gathered and processed, the organization then develops certain guidelines and assigns certain jobs per individual/employee.

Article Evaluation

In evaluating the article, majority of the facts are appropriate and reliable. The facts all have a reference in which users can see where the writer received their research from. Although, i believe some of the quotes that were written in the article could have been condensed instead of simply quoting and copy&pasting multiple paragraphs from another source. This article served more of an informative rather than an argumentative piece of work. The article described of the history as well as both the advantages, and the disadvantages to this new process or term. The writer spoke of the history as to its' origins as well as how the process was implemented. Beginning with the macroscopic look on Zero-Based Budgeting, the writer first defined what this term even meant. From there, the writer then goes into the micro details which really allowed the reader to dive into it. While writing the article, the writer held an unbiased tone through to the end in my opinion. The writer described of the times when Zero-Based Budgeting was quite widely used but then eventually comes to describe the end of Zero-Based budgeting. One gripe about this article that i would have is that in the references list, the references are quite outdated as some are already over 20 years old. There has only been one reference that has been listed that can be considered as recent. And even on that note, the recent reference contained only a single line as compared to other references. If someone presents a new reference, it would be for the best to provide more details to the readers in their reference.