The role of management accounting practice in local manufacturing enterprises

Abstract

Industrial restructuring and the trend among large enterprises towards downsizing, outsourcing, and converting ancillary functions as new ventures, is a basic pattern of industrial learning and development in countries with market economies. The process is continuous, but the pace seems to have quickened; in Britain, subcontracting by manufacturing enterprises increased by 25% between 1981 and 1989. To reap the significant advantages enjoyed by their smaller counterparts, recent years have also witnessed large organisations breaking down their operations into small, autonomous and entrepreneurial business units. At the same time, small and medium-sized enterprises are growing in proportion and importance in the economic and industrial profile of western countries and, without them, flexibility and entrepreneurship in the economy would be undermined. Indeed, "SMEs form the backbone of the E. U industry" (Reno Camilleri, 1999).