The Use of Management Accounting Techniques by Small and Medium‐Sized Enterprises: A Field Study of Canadian and Australian Practice

Small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) represent a large and important part of developed economies. However, little is known about the extent to which SMEs use contemporary management accounting (MA) techniques such as costing systems, budgets, responsibility center reporting, and analysis for decision making. To address this gap in the literature, we conducted in‐depth field interviews at 22 SMEs to: (1) determine the extent to which common MA techniques and tools are being used by SMEs; and (2) explore the underlying reasons why specific MA techniques are not being used. We find that of the 19 common MA techniques covered in our interviews, a very small number are moderately or highly used by our respondent companies. Moreover, we find that manufacturing companies in our study are more likely to use a broader set of techniques such as costing systems, operating budgets, and variance analysis and that smaller, early‐stage SMEs are the lightest users of MA tools overall. We identify three main factors affecting the adoption and use of MA techniques: (1) the perceived decision‐usefulness of the technique; (2) the complexity of the SMEs’ operating environment; and (3) the age of the SME. We discuss the contributions of our study and its potential implications for MA educators, developers of professional education programs, designers of SME control systems, and textbook authors.     

安徽省工业经济结构评价体系及其应用研究

安徽经济近年取得较大发展,工业经济是经济增长的关键。文章首先介绍安徽工业经济结构现状,运用理论结合实际、与周边省市对比分析、定性定量结合分析(AHP方法)及Delphine技术等方法建立评价指标体系,在分析研究现状的基础上发现存在的问题,为未来安徽工业经济结构调整提供理论依据,同时为安徽经济发展出谋划策。     

制约国家审计发挥作用的因素分析——来自河北省的调查结果

审计的本质是国家治理这个大系统中一个内生的具有预防、揭示和抵御功能的"免疫系统",是国家治理的重要组成部分,国家治理是审计工作的最终目标。我国的审计工作虽然在国家治理中发挥了积极作用,但在新形势下仍表现出体制机制制约、审计机关权限不足、审计人力资源不足等影响审计作用发挥的制约因素。因此,要有效发挥审计的功能,就必须优化审计体制、健全审计机制、完善审计制度。     

英语中几种常见的否定转移及其翻译

否定转移是英语句法特有的表达习惯。本文讨论了英语中九种常见的否定转移及英文汉泽的方法。     

基于“PC＋软件”的数字语音实验室构建及维护技术

随着计算机技术和网络技术的飞速发展，语音实验室已经向数字化、网络化、自主化、开放式发展，成为“一室多用”的纯软件数字语音实验室。其优势是有专业化的师生课堂交互系统，能提供听、说、读、写全方位训练，性价比高。“PC＋软件”数字语音实验室的构建要遵循先进性、实用性、可靠性、经济性、灵活性、扩充性、智能化和规范性原则，在星型网络拓扑结构基础上，建立课堂教学平台、个性化自主学习平台、考试平台、备课平台和管理平台，采用一键Ghost做好服务器和教师机的备份、病毒防范和学生机的维护3种方案进行日常管理和维护。     

A Framework for Valuing Web Site Personalization

ABSTRACT

Web related initiatives are a viable method for many companies seeking to enhance their customer focus. Web personalization is a technique that can be used by firms to develop and foster relationships with their customers. Web personalization may not be suitable for all types of businesses. Web personalization is used to generate individualized content for each visitor. Personalization techniques include content filtering, collaborative filtering, and a rules-based engine approach. The scope and technique chosen for the personalization initiative determine the resources required for successful implementation. This paper presents a framework to help firms ascertain the value of web personalization. The components of the framework include the ability to classify the popular features of the website, the degree the product is considered personal, the competitiveness of the market, and the value customers place on personalization. A survey was conducted and results of the survey are presented to help determine factors that influence an individual's value for personalization. The factors we found that influence the value an individual places on personalization include: sites that belong to an established brick and mortar company, sites that let visitors download music, and sites that offer the possibility of winning something. The first two factors were found to positively impact the value an individual places on personalization, while the ability to win something was found to have a negative impact on personalization. We also found that education played a part in determining whether an individual values personalization. Other characteristics such as age group and gender were found not to influence an individual's value for personalization.     

Estimating loss-given default through advanced credibility theory

The New Basel Accord allows internationally active banking organizations to calculate their credit risk capital requirements using an internal ratings based approach, subject to supervisory review. One of the modeling components is the loss-given default (LGD): it represents the credit loss for a bank when extreme events occur that influence the obligor ability to repay his debts to the bank. Among researchers and practitioners the use of statistical models such as linear regression, Tobit or decision trees is quite common in order to compute LGDs as a forecasting of historical losses. However, these statistical techniques do not seem to provide robust estimation and show low performance. These results could be driven by some factors that make differences in LGD, such as the presence and quality of collateral, timing of the business cycle, workout process management and M&A activity among banks. This paper evaluates an alternative method of modeling LGD using a technique based on advanced credibility theory typically used in actuarial modeling. This technique provides a statistical component to the credit and workout experts’ opinion embedded in the collateral and workout management process and improve the predictive power of forecasting. The model has been applied to an Italian Bank Retail portfolio represented by Overdrafts; the application of credibility theory provides a higher predictive power of LGD estimation and an out-of-time sample backtesting has shown a stable accuracy of estimates with respect to the traditional LGD model.     

矿井防灭火技术研究与发展

近年来煤炭生产任务加重,矿井开采深度增加,煤炭开采面临的问题增加,尤其是因瓦斯、通风等引起的矿井火灾。矿井火灾通常伴随大量有毒有害气体产生,还可引发矿井瓦斯爆炸,给矿工及生产设备安全造成严重威胁。本文从引起矿井火灾的各个方面,分析了其具体应对措施,对于指导矿井实际火灾防治具有一定的参考意义。     

On-line group decision support by preference programming in traffic planning

Preference programming is a decision support technique which allows decision makers to give preference statements of weight ratios in terms of intervals instead of single numbers in a value tree. Individual preferences, based on single number statements, can be combined into an interval model, and the negotiation proceeds by focusing on decreasing the width of the intervals. The preference programming approach was evaluated with a realistic traffic planning problem by using the HIPRE 3+ Group Link software. The results from nine test groups indicate that preference programming is an operational group decision support technique which initiates negotiations and efficiently directs the discussion towards issues which are relevant in reaching a consensus.     

¿Han sido el IBEX35 y el IPC definiciones financieramente eficientes del portafolio de mercado?

The present paper questions the financial efficiency of the most used market portfolio proxies in Spain and Mexico (IBEX35 and IPC) in order to determine if these can be considered a proper market portfolio proxy. The paper questions if they can be used as “neutrals”, according to Black & Litterman (1992) proposals in portfolio management. For this purpose, two discrete event simulations that use the Markowtiz-Tobin-Sharpe-Linter model (Markowitz, 1987, p.5) are performed with monthly data of the stock members of these indices in a February 2001 to December 2010 time window. The results are compared by using the Sharpe ratio (Sharpe, 1966) and show that the equilibrium assumptions in the market do not hold, leading to conclude that these market portfolio proxies are inefficient.