Budgeting systems as management tool for European small and medium sized businesses

Nowadays’ enterprises are subject to continual change; internal and external changes hitting the enterprise require a large amount of flexibility to be able to keep their market position in the long run. Past experience has shown that especially small and medium sized businesses had not prepared themselves well enough for the turbulent and discontinuous environmental changes. Looking at globalization and the present economical recession, the pressure on small and medium sized businesses rises continually.
In the Federal Republic of Germany, the entirety of medium sized businesses play a vital role with respect to macroeconomics. The few empirical examinations on the status quo concerning the application of business-management methods, in particular application of planning systems in small and medium sized businesses make it clear that systematic planning and application of business-management methods in those enterprises is insufficient. In particular enterprises with a turnover of up to 10 m. Euro have shown considerable deficits regarding the application of business-management methods used for running an enterprise.