Student No :9712664T MEd School of Education Faculty of Humanities / After the establishment of the first democratic government in South Africa, the Education Ministry committed itself to transforming the education system through developing new policies and legislation aimed at achieving equitable access to education and improving the quality of education. One of the school reform policies is the South African Schools Act (SASA), which is aimed at democratising and improving school education. It does so by devolving responsibilities and powers on schools, thereby promoting more democratic governance of schools by school governing bodies (SGBs), which are comprised of parents, educators, non-teaching staff and learners. The main thrust of this study was to investigate the factors that explain how different rural schools in Bolobedu district (Limpopo Province) interpret and implement the newly-granted SGB powers and responsibilities regarding school finances and budgeting. Four schools, two primary, one junior secondary and one senior secondary, were sampled. At some of them SGBs appeared to be doing well, while at others the SGBs appeared to be overwhelmed by the new task of managing school finances and budgeting. The research instruments used in carrying out this study were interview schedules, documentary data analysis and non-participant observation of SGB meetings. Interviews were conducted with educators, principals, parents and learners (members of SGBs and nonmembers). Triangulation of data is essential for the validity and reliability of a study. This study is regarded as valid and reliable, as there was strong correlation among the responses to most of the questions posed. The interviewees participated willingly in the study and showed complete understanding of the questions. The major deduction from this study is that not all SGBs in disadvantaged rural areas are unable to execute their duties and responsibilities regarding school finances and budgeting, despite being dominated by illiterate parents who have not had the administrative and financial experience to oversee school affairs. The findings indicated that some poorly resourced SGBs were able to execute their duties and responsibilities regarding school finances and budgeting, though there were some constraints. The following factors that assisted and undermined the capacity of schools to assume their financial powers effectively were identified: • School-Community relationship; • SGB capacity; • Internal social capital; and • Leadership strategies.

Denna studie bidrar med kunskap kring kapitalbudgetering i SMEs och de faktorer som styr denna. Tidigare studier har funnit att faktorer som exempelvis storlek, utbildningsbakgrund, utbildningsnivå och bransch haft en inverkan på kapitalbudgetering. Främst är det stora företag i förhållande till SMEs som undersökts i tidigare studier, vilket gör det intressant att undersöka SMEs. Studien har baserats på primärdata från 104 svenska SMEs och har undersökt relationen mellan kapitalbudgetering och faktorer som företagets karaktärsdrag, utövarens karaktärsdrag och om företagen möter kapitalrestriktioner. Multipel regression har använts för att undersöka om det föreligger samband mellan faktorerna och kapitalbudgeteringen i SMEs. Studien fann signifikanta samband mellan utövarens ålder, högskoleutbildning samt yrkeserfarenhet och användandet av osofistikerade kapitalbudgeteringsmetoder.

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Práce porovnává základní přístupy a možnosti v řízení portfolií aktiv institucionálními investory, přičemž se zaměřuje zejména na penzijní fondy a pojišťovny. V jednotlivých kapitolách se nejprve věnuje omezením, na něž portfolio manažeři naráží při umisťování prostředků uvedených finančních institucí. Dále přibližuje třídy aktiv, tradiční i alternativní, do nichž je možné investovat volné prostředky, s nimi spojená rizika a nástroje pro jejich měření. Podrobně rozebrány jsou základní přístupy pro správu portfolia: Benchmarking, ALM a Risk budgeting. V závěru jsou uvedeny nejpoužívanější investiční strategie pro řízení části portfolia s dodatečnými požadavky na riziko nebo výnos.

This thesis deals with the fiscal behavior of households within the Czech Republic. The main areas of interest are the appropriate management of personal or family finance and the importance of household budgeting. It shows that the awareness of ones income and expenses are the basis of a financial literacy, which is still at an insufficient level. Such households are thus regarded as a weaker market article, which have to be protected either by means of education, awareness raising or modifying legislation in their favor. Specific elements in the protection of clients are intertwined throughout the work. The thesis also deals with the relationship of Czech households to consumption, savings and debt. It records the specific period of changing attitudes to the way we deal with money and establishes that households that are no longer thrifty, consume more and loans become a common part of life for them. The thesis also concentrates on the most used financial products, specifying the reason for their popularity. Also, the consequences of poor household management are described and international comparisons are included as well.

Modern educational administration demands that all departments be conducted on a business-like basis. Because of the amount of money taken in and spent, the financial management of his department is one of the most important duties of the director of athletics. Lack of knowledge or ability in this area may well handicap the whole program.

<p>Date : June, 2008.</p><p>Level : Master Thesis EF0705, 10 points (15credits)</p><p>Authors : Amalokwu Obiajulum John (820821)</p><p>Lawrence Njilefack Ngoasong (770901)</p><p>Title : Budgetary and Management control Process in a Manufacturing</p><p>Organization.</p><p>Supervisor: Roland Almqvist.</p><p>Problem : What is the budgeting practice in the Nigerian Manufacturing companies?</p><p>Purpose : The aim of this study is to investigate the management control practice</p><p>(budget being the tool for management control) in Guinness Nigeria Plc and</p><p>to suggest what seems to us the most appropriate practice based on findings</p><p>from literatures and empirics</p><p>Method : The study was described based on a qualitative approach. Furthermore, we</p><p>described why we chose the company, sources of literature, techniques</p><p>employed in data collection (primary data), research purpose,</p><p>data analysis as well as critiques to the method use.</p><p>Conclusion : The Integration of strategic Management and Budgeting enhances</p><p>competitiveness which when attained is translated as high performance.</p><p>Keywords : Management Control, Budgeting, strategy, High performance and</p><p>Competitive advantage.</p>

<p>Weber and Linder (2005) have enlightened that the focus of the current debate on the budget’s to be or not be, has been on trying to find a general tool, which fits best in all situations. They argue that the budget may be more appropriate for organizations in certain circumstances, than for others. They claim that there is a gap in research concerning the situations in which the budget may be appropriate, or when Beyond budgeting is preferred. It is this gap we are trying to fill with our thesis.</p><p>The purpose of the thesis is to explain which situational factors that affect the organization's use of budgets for the functions the budget can fulfill. We examined various organizations to explain the situation dependent factors that affect the organization's use of budgets. Since the budget is a tool that can fulfill multiple functions, we have chosen to examine the use of budgets for the three functions - Planning & Coordination, Responsibility allocation, and Control & Evaluation. We chosed not to investigate the function for Motivation, since we be-lieve that motivating the employees is a function of the reward system.</p><p>To be able to generalize our conclusions, we constructed a model of factors that could affect the use of budgets. To test the model, we have made a survey, which was sent to about 700 organizations. Using the responses of the survey we tested the model with regression analysis.</p><p>The conclusions we have reached through our empirical study is that the organizations' over-all use of budgets is affected by the environmental turbulence, its competitive situation, the degree of formalization and the size of the organization. The organization's information sys-tem also affects the use of budgets positively, but only for the functions Planning & Coordi-nation and Responsibility allocation. We also came to the conclusion that the corporate cul-ture affects the use of budgets negatively, but only for the function Planning & Coordination.</p><p>With our results and conclusions, we believe that we have filled a part of the gap in research concerning the budget’s to be or not be. We have identified situational factors that affect the use of budgets for its functions and they show when budget tends to be used.</p>

Date : June, 2008. Level : Master Thesis EF0705, 10 points (15credits) Authors : Amalokwu Obiajulum John (820821) Lawrence Njilefack Ngoasong (770901) Title : Budgetary and Management control Process in a Manufacturing Organization. Supervisor: Roland Almqvist. Problem : What is the budgeting practice in the Nigerian Manufacturing companies? Purpose : The aim of this study is to investigate the management control practice (budget being the tool for management control) in Guinness Nigeria Plc and to suggest what seems to us the most appropriate practice based on findings from literatures and empirics Method : The study was described based on a qualitative approach. Furthermore, we described why we chose the company, sources of literature, techniques employed in data collection (primary data), research purpose, data analysis as well as critiques to the method use. Conclusion : The Integration of strategic Management and Budgeting enhances competitiveness which when attained is translated as high performance. Keywords : Management Control, Budgeting, strategy, High performance and Competitive advantage.

The importance of entrepreneurship has been widely acknowledged by many scholars, however, there is an argument that entrepreneurship tends to pose a unique dilemma with management accounting – a part of management control in organizations. The purpose of this paper is to find a solution for the apparent conflict between management accounting and entrepreneurship through a single case study of Litium – a new economy firm operating in information technology industry. The study of Litium reveals that a simple and solid management accounting is an effective way in order to keep management accounting in harmony with entrepreneurial spirit. This finding goes in line with the suggestion of loosely coupled management control in new economy firms by Lukka and Granlund (2003). The paper reviews various relevant literatures so as to build a collected framework about management accounting in new economy firms. The framework then provides a guideline for empirical findings and analysis part. We acknowledged that the studies of Lukka and Granlund (2003), Granlund and Taipaleenmaki (2005), Lovstal (2001) and Morris, Allen, Schindehutte, and Avila (2006) are very useful for studying management accounting in new economy firms where entrepreneurship is highly emphasized. In addition, life-cycle perspective is also valuable to understand thoroughly the practice of management accounting in new economy firms. In accordance with the topic and the purpose of our case study, we recognized that qualitative research method is most suitable. Moreover, the interview – one type of qualitative methods – was chosen as a main tool for colleting data in our study since it can provide the authors with important insights into a situation and use-ful shortcuts to the prior history of the situation