Entrepreneurship in a Transition Economy: An Examination of Venture Creation in Hungary

This study examines entrepreneurs and new ventures in a transition economy, Hungary, and identifies what variables distinguish between Hungarian entrepreneurs and their new ventures in the pre-1988 transition period from that which followed. The variables that discriminate most strongly are their business strategies. The newer firms had a concentration strategy while the older firms had a new product development strategy. Other variables that discriminated between the groups include reacting to the political environment, satisfaction with firm performance, encouragement from investors, recent investment in building improvement, and family history of entrepreneurship. The newer entrepreneurs had more family role models of entrepreneurship

Alliances and Networks: Cooperative Strategies for Small Businesses

Research on large firms shows that cooperative strategies have the potential to improve performance by helping firms gain access to necessary resources, enter new markets, and spread the risk over several partners. Interviews with thirty-four small business managers show small firms also can profit from using a cooperative network. Highly-allied small businesses entered alliances to gain resources and based their alliances on a distinctive competence. The highly allied businesses grew more rapidly than the less allied firms. Mutual goals and joint decision making were viewed as critical to the high level of satisfaction achieved

Formalized Planning in Small Business: Increasing Strategic Choices

A study of 188 small businesses was conducted to examine three distinct relationships in the planning process planning formality in relation to strategic decision processes, planning formality in relation to the strategies adopted, and planning formality in relation to firm performance. The results demonstrated that firms with formal planning emphasized more aspects of the strategic choice process, adopted a wider range of competitive and cooperative strategies, and grew more rapidly than did non-formal planners

Improving financial information literacy in introduction to financial accounting

The motivation for this study came from a desire to improve teaching of the use of accounting information for decision making. The information literacy standards and related performance indicators guided the development of a semester-long case study by accounting faculty and academic business librarians. Their collaboration yielded a series of instruction modules and related student exercises leading up to a group activity involving the evaluation of a company as a potential investment for retirement savings. Students enrolled in two sections of an introductory accounting course volunteered to participate in this study. They provided information about their knowledge before and after all of the activities using a repeated measures research design involving pre-test and post-test questionnaires. The results of the study suggest significant improvements in financial information literacy upon completion of the case study

Assessing Accountability in U.S. Public Education

Public education accountability rests almost exclusively with schools rather than governments. This paper explores its three dimensions: economy, efficiency, and effectiveness. Performance indicators of these dimensions were developed which facilitated testing of significant differences in means over time using analysis of variance. Only salary and wage expenditures per instruction personnel exhibited greater economy. Instructional equipment per pupil was related to increased efficiency. Several indicators suggested enhanced effectiveness. Student/teacher ratio declined and top performers in public schools improved in achievement. Graduation rate, an indicator of achievement and participation, significantly rose in recent years. In summary, several effectiveness indicators revealed encouraging trends with school accountability. The absence of government accountability was associated with limited progress in the remaining dimensions of economy and efficienc