Mitigation of Budgetary Slack Behavior Through Islamic Religiosity and Budget Control: An Empirical Study of Indonesian Local Companies

This study aims to obtain empirical evidence about the cognitive effect of Islamic religiosity and budget control in reducing budgetary slack behavior. This study involved 176 managers as respondents in 10 local companies in Eastern Indonesia. Managers who are respondents in thus study work and are spread across 14 provinces in Indonesia. Probability sampling method has been used for this study from the total population with certain criteria. Data analysis has been done using Warp PLS-SEM technique. The results showed that Islamic religiosity cognitive and budget control had a direct negative effect on budgetary slack behavior. The two variables also fully mediate the relationship between participatory budgeting and budget-based compensation schemes on the behavior of budgetary slack in a negative and significant way. These results mean that the two variables are proven to reduce budgetary slack behavior. This empirical evidence at the same time corrects the agency theory’s assumptions about opportunistic human nature and always maximizes every potential economic profit. In addition, the results also show that Islamic religiosity cognitive is stronger in reducing budgetary slack behavior. These results can be used to improve the company’s budget control system by incorporating elements that motivate religious goals so that it is more effective in reducing budgetary slack behavior.