engleski

INSTITUTIONAL ASPECTS OF CONTROLLING IN SME’S IN NORTHWEST CROATIA

Small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) represent a very important segment of the Croatian economy as is the case in many other countries. That is the main reason for a growing number of studies about the problems they face. The first identified problem is a necessity for adjustment to a turbulent environment. Another important problem is internal weaknesses of SMEs, including errors on the side of management that stand out. Controlling (field which in many aspects overlaps with management accounting in international discourse) and controllers provide support to management by performing various tasks that are important for SMEs. These are the tasks related to the two management subsystems: Planning and control and Information and reporting. However, in many SMEs where these tasks are indeed performed, they are predominantly done by managers themselves, which leads to their overburdening and an increased number of errors. In this paper the emphasis is on institutional aspects of Controlling. We investigate to what extent is Controlling present in SMEs (in institutional sense) and who performs Controlling tasks related to the management subsystems. Since Controlling is mostly developed in the German-speaking countries and most intensive studies about Controlling are carried out in these countries, some of them served as guidance to our study. The study was conducted in Northwest Croatia. The following hypothesis is set out in the paper: Within SMEs in the Varazdin County Controlling is not present in the institutional sense and tasks in the field of Controlling are performed by managers themselves, with the help of employees in finance or accounting/bookkeeping. The results of our empirical research confirm the hypothesis, which means that Controlling tasks are not performed within SMEs in a manner that would enable increased efficiency of management.

Controlling ; Management accounting ; SMEs

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