Volume 3 Issue 1

Borders of countries and continents have become more and more blurred by now, while distances have turned out to be less important. Markets of continents or countries are not separated anymore therefore competition between companies has gotten fiercer and much faster than earlier. What kind of instruments may companies in the processing industry use to maintain their existence and to remain competitive in the fragile system following the economic crisis in 2008? This research aims at finding out how the effects of components belonging to the concept of strategic management system influence outstanding achievement and success. It primarily analyses, in what ways instruments considered being the most determinative, i.e. strategic a structural success factors affect the processing industry. In order to do that the research defines the factors having an influence. Thereafter it explains successful operation of companies with factors emerging via the use of regression models. It uses the balance scorecard as a tool for success criteria describing success. The research tackles the issue of sustainability with a high priority in this system as a success component: the fifth perspective among the other four classic ones. Thus the results of the research will show how strategic and structural success factors can make a company successful and the satisfaction of which groups of interest they affect the most.

Small Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) are of grave importance to the South African economy as they are legally obliged to support in the alleviation of poverty, the diminution of unemployment and the equal dissemination of wealth throughout the country. Despite the importance of these entities, prior research suggests that these entities are not mainly sustainable as between 70% and 80% of South African SMMEs fail after being in operation for five years. More often than not the latter dispensation is believed to stem from the realization of risks which, in turn, is cultivated by the ineffective management of economic factors. Among the economic factors which have a direct influence on the existence of South African SMMEs is the effectiveness of accounting information system(s). Here it is argued that a small organization is more likely to attain sustainability if its accounting information system(s) provide relevant, reliable and recent information, to management, for better business-related decision making. From a SMME dispensation, prior research justifies that accounting information systems can be regarded as critical ‘decision-making-tools'. In fundamental nature, this research study was conducted to determine the actual value which utilized accounting information systems add to South African SMMEs. This research study was descriptive in nature and fell within the positivistic research paradigm. Data were purposively collected from 32 SMME owners and/or managers, in the Cape Metropolis, who had to adhere to strict delineation criteria. It was found that although SMMEs have informally implemented accounting information systems, they add extreme value to SMME leaders when having to make sound business decisions.

Rates of worldwide environmental, social, technological and other crises are perceived to be constantly increasing – if nothing else due to almost instant broadcasting by media and internet. The Tourism Industry is especially vulnerable to such crises as numerous Stakeholder Groups on the one hand and large numbers of travelers on the other hand are or might be affected. Therefore, Tourism Industry Stakeholder Groups claims regarding transparency can t be denied. This Research Paper focuses on Crisis Management processes from the aspect of the Hotel Industry in a Tourism Context considering a variety of Tourism Market Players. Theoretical foundations combined with empirical research reveal prerequisites, Status Quo as well as opportunities and challenges towards an integrated Crisis Management Model. Finally, key success factors for a Stakeholder Relationship Management based approach are introduced.

One of the qualitative characteristics of financial reporting is relevant. Its manifestation can be seen from the timeliness of reporting. Timeliness could be judged from the audit report lag, which is the length of time from the end of company's fiscal year to the date of auditor's report. This research aims to empirically examine the influence of firm size, operation complexity, auditor quality, and auditor's opinion on audit report lag of manufacturing companies listed in Indonesia Stock Exchange. The population of this research consists of manufacturing companies, listed on Indonesia Stock Exchange from 2008 to 2012 as many as 111 companies with the research's sample of 65 companies or 325 observational data, which were selected by purposive sampling method. The data are secondary data obtained from Indonesia Stock Exchange. The research proves that simultaneously, all variables significantly influence the audit report lag. Subsequently in partial, variables ‘firm size', ‘auditor's opinion' have a significant and positive effect on audit report lag, the ‘auditor quality' has a significant and negative effect on audit report lag, while the variable ‘operation complexity' has no significant effect on audit report lag. The coefficient of determination (R²) in this study was 0.192 or 19.2 % and the remaining 80.8% is influenced by other factors that were not examined.

The concept of Small Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) were introduced by the South African government by way of the Small Business Act No. 102 of 1996. Here SMMEs are defined as small business entities that are managed by one or more owner(s) while operating in any sector or sub-sector of the national economy. The main roles of SMMEs are to alleviate poverty, reduce unemployment and uplift the South African economy. South African SMMEs are responsible for employing more than half of the national workforce and are believed to contribute up to 34.8% towards the national Gross Domestic Product. Unfortunately an estimated 80% of South African SMMEs fail within their first 5 years of existence; particularly due to the realisation of micro economics factors and macro economic factors. Included in micro economics factors which influence SMMEs is the utilisation of formal financial performance measures. For this research study the main objective of this paper was to establish the extent to which cash budgets (a formal financial performance measure) assist SMME leaders to make sound business decisions in the Cape Metropolis. The study was descriptive in nature and quantitative research methods were used to collect data from 51 SMME leaders. All respondents had to adhere to a set of pre-determined delineation criteria. From the analysed data it is evident that SMME leaders (managers and/or owners) regard cash budgets as important to make sound business decisions however, respondents made limited use thereof.