Listening to micro-business operators: what are their social and educational needs?

This paper discusses issues that had been revealed during 15 in-depth interviews and a subsequent questionnaire survey of 91 micro-business (five or fewer employees) operators in Hamilton, New Zealand. ‘How to support micro-business operators in their efforts to achieve successful, sustainable self-employment within this changing social world?’ has been the guiding research theme. The questionnaire was used to gauge opinions on and the extent of attitudes and feelings about being self-employed that had been revealed during the in-depth interviews and small business literature. This work gives voice to the perspectives of micro-business operators rather than that of experts or small business operators in general. Findings from this research suggest that micro-business operators need to be provided with opportunities for support and education to cope with psychological and social factors, particularly with fears, anxiety and isolation. Further, it appears that support is not available to micro-business operators in a way they can readily engage with. Lack of time appears as a reoccurring theme. Given the global trend towards self employment as a career option in the 21st Century, social policy makers need to be aware of the changing social and education needs and provide support to enhance micro-business start-up, survival and growth by encouraging initiatives that facilitate co-operative relationships and build social skills

The political economy of convergence: The case of IFRS for SMEs.

This paper examines the processes used by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), in achieving widespread convergence to the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) by developing economies. Global convergence of financial reporting standards is a politically motivated agenda. The movement towards standardisation of financial reporting has been described in various ways including, adoption, application, transitioning, implementation (Brown and Tarca 2012), harmonization (Strouhal 2012) and convergence (Stevenson 2012; Street 2012; Pawsey, Brown and Chatterjee 2013). In this paper the term convergence encapsulates the efforts by developing countries to revise their national standards to be the same as IFRSs. The IFRS for Small and Medium sized Enterprises (IFRS for SMEs) was partly to facilitate developing economies’ commitment to convergence (UNCTAD 2009). Introducing a two-tier system implied by a special IFRS for SMEs is the first synthesis of the international convergence process (Rodrigues and Craig 2007). Given that small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly important in the global economy, it is equally important that there is a clear set of principles underpinning financial reporting for these entities. However, there is limited discussion on the development of the IFRS for SMEs in the academic literature. Only very recently have academics from developing countries engaged in discussions on IFRS for SME adoption (Phang and Mahzan 2013). Therefore, this paper provides an understanding of the activities that led to the promulgation of the standard and the efforts of the World Bank, the United Nations and other international organisations to bring this issue onto IASB’s agenda since early 2000. This paper is timely as the IASB has commenced its comprehensive review of the IFRS for SMEs (IASB 2012)

Credit guarantee schemes supporting small enterprise development: A review

Access to finance has become increasingly difficult, particularly for new and service-based industries without tangible assets to use as security. Globally, credit guarantee schemes (CGS) are seen as important instruments to facilitate achievement of national economic goals, as they enable entrepreneurs to gain access to finance for venture creation and development. We reviewed CGS literature between 1990 and early 2011. We discovered largely descriptive studies on the various conditions of the guarantees, and considerable research gaps. The desirability of CGS appears to be assumed whilst measurement of CGS performance provides ambiguous results. We recommend research in a variety of areas including: identification of factors that minimise risk, the impacts of varying risk sharing ratios, unintended CGS consequences, reporting the social dimensions, valuing intangibles, default rates in Asian countries, and collateral in a knowledge based economy

Accounting for the costs of recruiting and training

We investigate the investments made by accounting firms into recruiting and training new employees into entry-level positions. This includes developing a model to capture both the direct and indirect investments/ costs associated with recruitment and training. We quantify time, effort, resources, and associated opportunity costs, on entry-level recruits. The model was converted into a quantitative questionnaire and administered to accounting firms. We administered it to twelve accounting firms. The findings from this study build upon earlier studies (Bliss, 2001; Hansen, 1997; Phillips, 1990) which estimated the cost to recruit and train new employees at approximately 150% of their annual salary. Results revealed that the true investment in recruitment and training is significantly greater for the accountants in our study. On average accountants in our study invest an additional 241% of new employees’ annual salary. The findings provide insight into the true financial investments firms make during recruitment and the first year of employee training for entry-level positions. Our model is a simple tool which managers can use to quantify their investments in new employees during their first year of employment. It has proved insightful for accounting firms and has potential for use in other industries. Further, we found that generally new employees do not reach full productivity within their first year of employment. This highlights the importance for employers to retain new employees to maximise their returns on investment

Retention and intentions of professional accountants

This paper enhances understanding of factors underlying professional accountants’ high turnover rates. Various researchers, institutions and government bodies have identified accountants’ retention is of concern. However, traditional explanations, such as job satisfaction and organizational commitment, do not sufficiently account for the turnover rates observed in the accounting profession. A New Zealand (NZ) sample of professional accountants enabled us to identify a range of factor. Intentions to stay were very low, 50% of accountants expected to leave their current employer within 3 years of the survey date. Satisfaction with two core job characteristics, feedback and skill variety, in addition to work life balance (WLB) accounted for 65% of the variance of overall job satisfaction. WLB, or at least a lack of access to flexible work arrangements was strongly indicated as the primary consideration when choosing to remain with the present employer

Firm bribery and credit access: Evidence from Indian SMEs

This study investigates the effect of paying bribes on access to credit for small, and medium enterprises (SMEs). Bribery is variously portrayed in the literature as greasing the wheel (helping) or sand in the wheel (impeding) when applying for credit leaves the issue unresolved. Using The World Bank Enterprise Surveys of SME data, an answer for India emerges using an instrumental variable probit model. SME bribery is detrimental to accessing credit and more so for firms that have been in business for many years and operating on a small scale. There are supply and demand side forces involved, culminating in differing size effect reactions. From a supply side perspective, when corruption is high, financial institutions find it harder to control borrower risk and recover loans. In that case, financial institutions reduce their lending to SMEs, which mostly belong to a high-risk category. Unlike large firms, SMEs paying bribes to grease the wheel are drawn to the informal sector, avoiding attention from officials. Where SMEs pay bribes in the formal sector it is noticed and is likely to increase the probability that other parties will also demand payments. The demand side argument regards bribes as a tax, increasing the cost of loans to the SMEs. Consequently, making significant bribes decreases these SMEs’ profitability. Less profitable SMEs may not obtain access to credit. From a policy perspective, anti-corruption measures are vital for developing SMEs. Generalising these findings to other emerging economies suggests potentially significant welfare gains

IFRS for SMEs: A New Zealand perspective

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) in its concern to reduce the burden of compliance with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) has released its draft IFRS for small and Medium-sized Enterprises (IFSME). The draft proposes reporting standards for non-publicly accountable entities that produce general purpose financial reports. This paper presents the background to the introduction of IFSME, introduces the IASB proposal, outlines the New Zealand (NZ) financial reporting concessions (viz. The exempt company system and the differential reporting framework), and examines the implications of adoption for NZ. It is considered that few entities would be affected by the IFSME, the production and maintenance of a ‘small book’ would be costly, and report preparers need to be cognisance of both the IFRS and the IFSME. The users of financial information, identified by the IASB, rely on other forms of information in NZ to make investment and monitoring decisions. The IFSME appears redundant in the light of the existing frameworks for concessions. Further, it appears that second-class accountants and entities could emerge if the IFSME were adopted. The author concludes that the IFSME is not appropriate for NZ application and should be rejected

New Zealand entrepreneurs: leading for excellence

New Zealand (NZ) has been proclaimed as a leader in entrepreneurship by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) assessment. This paper links GEM findings to results from a NZ-based survey of micro-business operators and identifies factors that explain why NZ is a leader in the Entrepreneurship rating. NZ entrepreneurs are largely opportunity seeking: they want to be their own boss and are interested in the growth. They are relatively well-educated and are supported by well developed business infrastructures and support agencies. However, what directly contributes to the high propensity to set-up new businesses is not clear.entrepreneurship; entrepreneurs; New Zealand; NZ; small business; excellence; micro-business; support; leadership.

Small Family Businesses: Innovation, Risk and Value

This article reviews the literature and applies principal-to-principal (PP) conflict theory to small family based businesses. The lack of accurate measurement and communication of risk leading to issues with innovation, is the primary cause of PP agency costs. Careful analysis of the risk levels reflected in the cost of debt and opportunity cost of equity provides a theoretically robust and empirically estimable process for ascertaining the true PP agency cost. Awareness of the constraining governance structures and the suggested method, based on the cost of capital, to assess small business risk can assist SME owners and financiers to SMEs to promote business efficiency and innovation