Academic literature on the topic 'New business enterprises – Canada – Finance'

Henry Mintzberg is both Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and professor of organization at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France. His research deals with issues of general management and organizations; his current focus is on the nature and styles of managerial work, as well as forms of organizing and on the strategy formation process. He also heads up a team of people from five universities around the world, a group working to establish what they hope will be “next generation management education”—specifically, a master's program aimed at the “development in context” of practicing managers. His own teaching activities focus on ad hoc seminars for experienced managers and work with doctoral students. Over the years, he has worked with a number of substantial family firms and contributed to a film about a patriarchal Canadian grocery family enterprise, Steinberg's. Mintzberg received his doctorate and master of science degrees from MIT's Sloan School of Management and his mechanical engineering degree from McGill. Mintzberg is the author of the Nature of Managerial Work (1973), The Structuring of Organizations (1983), The Strategy Process (a textbook with James Brian Quinn, now in its third edition), Mintzberg on Management (1989), The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning (1994), and the Canadian Condition: Reflections of a “Pure Cotton ” (1995). He has written about a hundred articles, including two Harvard Business Review McKinsey prize winners, “The Manager's Job: Folklore and Fact” and “Crafting Strategy.” FBR talked to Mintzberg about planning, collaboration, boards, governance and his new management program.

Financial information is one of the important information in decision making. However, many cases of fraud committed by management so that the information in the financial statements cannot be relied upon in decision making. Therefore, the auditor's job is to ensure that the company's financial statements are represented correctly (faithful representation) so that financial statement information becomes more quality and useful in making decisions. So this study aims to examine the effect of audit fee on audit quality. In addition, this study also examines important determinants of audit costs, namely company size, profitability, audit risk, complexity, and firm size. By using the purposive sampling method, samples of the financial and manufacturing industry in 2010-2017 used are 39 firms per year. This sample is used to examine the effect of audit fee on audit quality and the determinant of audit fee using simple linear regression analysis and multiple linear regression analysis. The result of this research shows that audit fees have a significant positive effect on audit quality. In addition, this study shows that firm size, complexity, and firm size are important determinants that determine audit fee. However, profitability and audit risk have not been proven to explain audit fees. Keywords: Audit Quality, Audit Fee, Firm Size, Profitability, Audit Risk, Complexity, Auditor Size Referencens: Al-Harshani, Meshari O. (2008), The pricing of audit services: Evidence from Kuwait. Managerial Auditing Journal, 23(7), 685–696. Al-Thuneibat, Ali. Abedalqader, Ream Tawfiq Ibrahim Al Issa, & Rana Ahmad Ata Baker, (2011), Do audit tenure and firm size contribute to audit quality? Empirical evidence from Jordan. Managerial Auditing Journal, 26(4), 317–334. Arens, Alvin A., Randal J. Elder,. Mark S. Beasley (2014), Auditing and Assurance Services: An Integrated Approach. United States: Pearson Education, Inc. Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (2018), Report to the Nations: 2018 Global Study on Occupational Fraud and Abuse, United States: ACFE. Bhandari, L. C. (1988), Debt/Equity Ratio and Expected Common Stock Returns : Empirical Evidence. The Journal of Finance, 43(2), 507–528. Bowerman, Bruce L., Richard T. O'Connell, Emily S. Murphree (2017), Business Statistics in Practice, Eighth Edition, New York: McGraw Hill Education. Brealey, Richard A., Myers, Stewart C. (2000), Principles of Corporate Finance, Boston: McGraw Hill Companies, Inc. Carey, P. J. (2008), The Benefits of Services Provided by External Accountants to Small and Medium Sized Enterprises. Carey, P., & Simnett, R. (2006), Audit partner tenure and audit quality. Accounting Review, 81(3), 653–676. Castro, Walther Bottaro de Lima, Ivam Ricardo Peleias, & Glauco Peres da Silva (2015), Determinants of Audit Fees: A Study in the Companies Listed on the BM&FBOVESPA, Brasil. Revista Contabilidade & Finanças, 26(69), 261–273. Chen, C. (2008), Audit Partner Tenure , Audit Firm Tenure , and Discretionary Accruals : Does Long Auditor Tenure Impair Earnings Quality ?, 25(2), 415–445. Cooper, D. R., & Schindler, P. S. (2014), Business Research Methods (Twelfth Edition). New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. DeAngelo, L. E. (1981), Auditor size and audit quality. Journal of Accounting and Economics, 3(3), 183–199. Dechow, Patricia. M., Richard. G. Sloan, & Amy P. Sweeney (1995), Detecting Earnings Management. The Accounting Review. DeFond, M., & Zhang, J. (2014), A review of archival auditing research. Journal of Accounting and Economics, 58(2–3), 275–326. Deis, Donald R., & Gary Giroux (1996), The effect of auditor changes on audit fees, audit hours, and audit quality. Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, 15(1), 55–76. Eilifsen, Aasmund, Jr William F Messier, Steven M Glover, Douglas F Prawitt (2014), Auditing & Assurance Services, Third Edition, London: McGraw-Hill. Ettredge, Michael., Elizabeth Emeigh Fuerherm, & Chan Li (2014), Fee pressure and audit quality. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 39(4), 247–263. Ferri, Michael G., & Wesley H. Jones (1979), Determinants of financial structure: a new methodological approach. The Journal of Finance, 34(3), 631–643. Francis, Jere. R. (2011), A Framework For Understanding And Researching Audit Quality. Auditing, 30(2), 125–152. Ghozali, H. Imam (2016), Aplikasi Analisis Multivariete dengan Program IBM SPSS 23, Edisi ke-8, Semarang: Badan Penerbit Universitas Diponegoro. Gitman, Lawrence J., Chad J. Zutter (2012), Principles Of Managerial Finance (Thirteenth). United States: Lawrence J. Gitman. Hoitash, Rani., Ariel Markelevich, & Charles A. Barragato (2007), Auditor fees and audit quality. Managerial Auditing Journal, 22(8), 761–786. Horngren, Charles T., L. Sundem, John A. Elliott (1999), Introduction to Financial Accounting, Seventh Edition, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall,Inc. Ikatan Akuntansi Indonesia (2017), Standar Akuntansi Keuangan (SAK), Jakarta: IAI International Accounting Standard Board (2018), The Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting 2018. London : IASB. Jan, Chyan Long (2018), An effective financial statements fraud detection model for the sustainable development of financial markets: Evidence from Taiwan. Sustainability (Switzerland), 10(2). Jensen, Michael C., & William H. Meckling (1976), Theory Of The Firm : Managerial Behavior , Agency Costs And Ownership Structure, 3, 305–360. Joshi, P. L., & Hasan AL-bastaki (2000), Determinants of Audit Fees : Evidence from the Companies Listed in Bahrain, 138(November 1999), 129–138. Jubb. (1996), Audit fee determinants: The plural nature of risk. Managerial Auditing Journal, 11(3), 25–40. Kieso, Donald E., Jerry J. Weygandt, & Paul D. Kimmel (2013), Financial Accounting IFRS Edition. United States: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Kieso, Donald E, Jerry J Weygandt, Terry D Warfield (2018), Intermediate Accounting: IFRS Edition Third Edition, United States: John Willey & Sons, Inc. Kikhia, Hassan Yahia (2014), Determinants of Audit Fees: Evidence from Jordan. Accounting and Finance Research, 4(1), 42–53. Knechel, Robert W., & Ann Vanstraelen (2007), The Relationship between Auditor Tenure and Audit Quality Implied by Going Concern Opinions. AUDITING: A Journal of Practice & Theory, 26(May), 113–131. Knechel, W. Robert, Gopal V. Krishnan, Mikhail Pevzner, Lori B Shefchik, & Uma K. Velury (2013), Audit quality: Insights from the academic literature. Auditing, 32(SUPPL.1), 385–421. Konrath, Larry F. (2002), Auditing A Risk Analysis Approach, Fifth Edition, South Western. Kusharyanti (2013), Analysis of the Factors Determining the Audit Fee. Journal of Economics, Business, and Accountancy | Ventura, 16(1), 147–160. Lennox, C. (1999), Are large auditors more accurate than small auditors? Accounting and Business Research, 29(3), 217–227. Lennox, C. S. (1999) Audit quality and auditor size: An evaluation of reputation and deep pockets hypotheses. Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, 26(7–8), 789–805. Liu, Siheng. (2017), An Empirical Study: Auditors’ Characteristics and Audit Fee. Open Journal of Accounting, 06(02), 52–70. Lobo, Gerald, & Yuping Zhao (2013), Relation between Audit Effort and Financial Report Misstatements: Evidence from Quarterly and Annual Restatements. Journal of International Accounting Research, 90(4), 1395–1435. Manry, David L, Theodore J. Mock, & Jerry L. Turner (2008), Does increased audit partner tenure reduce audit quality? Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance, 23(4), 553–572. Mohammed, Nishtiman Hashim, & Abdullah Saeed Barwari (2018), Determinants of Audit Fees : Evidence from UK Alternative Investment Market. Academic Journal of Nawroz University, 7(3), 34–47. Musah, A. (2017), Determinants of Audit fees in a Developing Economy: Evidence from Ghana. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 7(11). Newton, Nathan J., Dechun Wang, & Michael S. Wilkins (2013), Does a lack of choice lead to lower quality? evidence from auditor competition and client restatements. Auditing, 32(3), 31–67. Nikkinen, J., & Petri Sahlström (2004), Does Agency Theory Provide a General Framework for Audit Pricing ? International Journal of Auditing, 8, 253–262. Ohidoa, T., & Okun, O. O. (2018), Firms Attributes and Audit Fees in Nigeria Quoted Firms. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 8(3), 685–699. Pham, Ngoc Kim, Hung Nguyen Duong, Tin Pham Quang, & Nga Ho Thi Thuy (2017), Audit Firm Size, Audit Fee, Audit Reputation and Audit Quality: The Case of Listed Companies in Vietnam. Asian Journal of Finance & Accounting, 9(1), 429. Rahman, Dr Onaolapo Adekunle Abdul, Ajulo Olajide Benjamin, Onifade Hakeem Olayinka (2017), Effect of Audit Fees on Audit Quality: Evidence from Cement Manufacturing Companies in Nigeria. Effect of Audit Fees on Audit Quality: Evidence from Cement Manufacturing Companies in Nigeria., 5(1), 6–17. Rahmina, Listya Yuniastuti, & Sukrisno Agoes (2015), Influence of Auditor Independence, Audit Tenure, and Audit Fee on Audit Quality of Members of Capital Market Accountant Forum in Indonesia. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 164(August), 324–331. Republik Indonesia (2008), Undang-Undang Republik Indonesia Nomor 20 tahun 2008 Tentang Usaha Mikro, Kecil, Dan Menengah. Sandra, & Patrick. (1996), The Deteminants of Audit Fees in HongKong: An Empirical Study. Asian Review of Accounting, 4(2), 32–50. Scott, William R (2015), Financial Accounting Theory, Seventh Edition, United States: Pearson Canada Inc. Shibano, T. (1990), Assessing Audit Risk from Errors and Irregularities. Journal of Accounting Research, 28(1990), 110. Sivathaasan, N., R. Tharanika, M. Sinthuja, V. Hanitha (2013), Factors determining Profitability: A Study of Selected Manufacturing Companies listed on Colombo Stock Exchange in Sri Lanka. European Journal of Business and Management, 5(27), 99-107–107. Subramanyam, K. R. (2014), Financial Statement Analysis, Eleventh Edition, New York: McGraw-Hill Education. Sun, Jerry, & Guoping Liu (2011), Client-specific litigation risk and audit quality differentiation. Managerial Auditing Journal, 26(4), 300–316. Tritschler, Jonas (2013), Audit Quality: Association Between Published Reporting Errors and Audit Firm Characteristics. Vu, Dinh Ha Thu Vu (2012), Determinants of audit fees for Swedish listed non-financial firms in NASDAQ OMX Stockholm. Whittington, Ray & Kurt Pany (2004), Principles of Auditing and Other Assurance Services, New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Williams, David D. (1988), The Potential Determinants of Auditor Change. Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, 15(2), 243–261. Wooten, T. C. (2003), Research About Audit Quality. Wu, Shu-Hsing, Tsung-Che Wu, & Kun-Lin Yang (2017), Fair Value Information, Audit fees and Audit Committee in Taiwan. International Journal of Financial Research, 8(2), 124. Xu, Jiabing (2017), Analysis on the Relationship between Audit Fee Management and Audit Quality in China, 53(ICEM 2017), 530–533.

Supply chain finance is a new type of financial product designed by commercial banks to provide financial aid for the weak medium and small-sized enterprises in the supply chain. It can effectively eliminate the obstacles of information asymmetry between banks and enterprises, but also effectively solve the problem faced by the medium and small-sized enterprises in getting bank credit loan due to insufficient mortgage, as well help them to improve the core competitiveness of commercial banks, eventually bring new profit growth for commercial banks and the third-party logistics enterprises. This paper, introduces some different financial models of supply chain finance, for medium and small-sized enterprises which can be considered, adopted or used according to their own situation.

<p>Small businesses (those with up to 99 employees) are the most common business type in Canada – comprising 97.9 per cent of businesses, and contributing close to one-third of Canada’s gross domestic product (GDP). Yet a significant number of these businesses fail, with only about 50 per cent lasting at least five years, according to Industry Canada. Social enterprises – businesses that provide valuable products or services while delivering social and sometime environmental returns – struggle even more than small businesses to attract finance, grow, and sustain. What are the similarities and differences between these two groups’ needs, and how can Canada’s three levels of government and the broader business ecosystem better support small businesses and social enterprises to thrive? This paper takes a comprehensive look at key business needs, barriers to success, enabling factors, and policy incentives, drawing upon academic literature, studies and reports from the government, non-profit, and social enterprise sectors, as well as recommendations from business advocacy groups primarily from Canada and the United States. </p><p><strong>Keywords: </strong>Small business, social enterprise, business financing, business growth, business ecosystem, procurement policy</p>

The current situation in Russian economy advances serious demands to small and medium enterprises. The author of the article suggests plotting a finance plan at enterprises in accordance with the set goals and requirements of today’s economy in order to minimize uncertainty of the market environment and its adverse affects. The finance plan can help them balance their expenses and attain profit growth, which can contribute to winning new positions on market. Small and medium enterprises are characterized by good flexibility, which gives them an opportunity to adapt to the changing situation on market and stay competitive in any conditions. Small and medium entrepreneurship fosters a drop in unemployment by increasing the number of jobs, raising the volume of goods and services on market, which can have a positive impact on the social sphere. Enterprises of small and medium business are an integral part of healthy competition on market and it means an opposition to monopolies, free development and diversity in property forms. Small and medium business support investment activity at the expense of re-distribution of resources into the sphere of small and medium enterprises.

Purpose This study aims to investigate the extent to which the theory of reasoned action (TRA) can be used to explain tax compliance among small business enterprises (SBEs) in Uganda and extends the application and relevance of the theory to a new area of tax compliance. It contributes the TRA, as a predictor of tax compliance in a developing country context. Design/methodology/approach A cross-sectional survey targeting different categories of SBEs was carried out using interviewer-administered questionnaires. A sample of 384 SBEs was used in the study. Findings The TRA contributes critical insights on the tax compliance behaviour of small businesses in developing economies. It influences tax compliance behaviour. The study illustrates evidence about the negative attitudes SBEs have on intentions to comply with tax regulations and the extent to which these attitudes influence their compliance behaviour. Subjective norms positively influence tax compliance intentions in a positive manner. Overall, the appearance of these intentions shows a negative effect on tax compliance behaviour. These findings also imply that Uganda Revenue Authority needs to understand the social psychology of taxpayers and tailor these in their policies and efforts to increase compliance. Research limitations/implications The TRA has been used to explain behaviour in numerous situations in psychology. The study used this theory in a new geographical, economic and administrative environment; Uganda. This theory has proved relevant in explaining psychological, sociological and economic behaviour; specifically tax compliance. The TRA was revised to include a new construct of perceived behavioural control, which turned into the theory of planned behaviour. This could not be studied due to time and logistic constraints. Therefore, there is a need to investigate if this revised theory can explain tax compliance behaviour better. Practical implications The paper suggests that tax administration efforts and policies should consider the social-psychology aspects of the taxpayers to improve tax compliance. Originality/value This study adds a new arena of explaining tax compliance from a theory commonly used in psychology to a new setting in finance.

It is necessary to find new ideas of business transformation of traditional financial enterprises under the background of Internet finance. Based on DL (deep learning) algorithm, the BPNN (Back Propagation neural network) model and Vector Autoregression model are used to analyze the business conflict of commercial banks among traditional financial enterprises under Internet finance. The business integration point of the two is found through the impulse response analysis of the impact of the Internet financial business on the traditional financial industry. Then, the DL algorithm based on BPNN is used to obtain the optimal solution of business integration, to promote the transformation of traditional financial services under the background of Internet finance. The results show that there is a close correlation between Internet finance and traditional financial business. The initial conflicts between the two are serious, but as time passes, they have a trend of mutual integration.

Small-and medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in many countries nowadays face financial shortages and challenges in attracting new financial resources. In today’s new reality technologies and innovative business models become crucial for increasing access to financial services and enhancing long-term economic growth. Digital technologies have been actively developing even before the pandemic of COVID-19. However, during the lockdown and the economic crisis caused by the pandemic the development of digital platforms has accelerated. Digital commerce and payments have become much more significant in the first half of 2020. That fact stimulated many SMEs to improve their digital capabilities. The “new” reality motivates the enterprises to use big data analysis and artificial intelligence in decision making process. The modern technologic capabilities are used in two directions. The first direction is the digitalization of organizational aspects of SMEs activities, for instance, transferring business meetings and conferences into online forms. The second one, which is even more important, suggests financial digitalization. This means using digital technologies to attract financial resources for business needs. Financial digitalization requires some specific measures, including improving the existing mechanisms of traditional loan financing through the use of new technologies and big data analysis; stimulating closer interaction between financial institutions and SMEs; drafting appropriate legislation to regulate the digital financial technologies sphere.

This paper examines whether financial-sector policy changes introduced in Tanzania during the last decade have improved bank finance availability to small enterprises. Study findings reveal that, despite these changes, the level of bank finance to small enterprises is still insignificant. Results likewise indicate that, apart from bringing about limited competition in the provision of financial services, these changes have resulted in the concentration of most financial institutions in urban areas and in only a few regions/provinces. This also negatively affects bank finance availability to small enterprises. These findings have several policy implications for the growth of small enterprises in the country. Key among them is the need for a new approach to policy that will improve bank finance availability to small enterprises.

<p>China’s economic policy system has been greatly adjusted up till the present moment. The scale of small and medium-sized enterprises mortgage lending is limited, but the demand for funds is increasing, and the need for core enterprises to grow and develop is increasing, supply chain finance effectively solved the needs of the above enterprises. Supply chain finance promotes the development of trade and commerce business, reduces financing risk, become a new business of commercial banks. Compared to traditional banking business, it reduces certain credit risk and improves the utility of funds, but China’s supply chain financial system is not perfect enough, with a certain degree of system operation risk. Focus on the analysis of supply chain finance status quo, analyze China’s supply chain development status and prospects, assess and analyze the risk, and do a good job of risk prevention and control. As an important part of the supply chain, commercial banks are necessary to pay attention to various risk points to the supply chain of the financing subject. Avoiding and reducing the risk of supply chain finance business are the top priority issues required to be solved for commercial banks.</p>

The research problem addressed in this study was to provide a planning guideline for Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMME’s) to assist them to plan more effectively and be sustainable in their businesses. A guideline for planning is needed, as planning is one of the most difficult activities a business owner needs to undertake. Yet it is essential to do because, before taking action, you must know where you are going and how to get there. Well-developed plans can assist the business owner to interest banks and/or investors to invest in the business, guide the owner in operating the business, give direction to and motivate employees, and provide an environment to attract customers and prospective employees. To become an effective business owner, one must look ahead. Planning, which is the process of setting objectives and devising actions to achieve those objectives are imperative to be sustainable in business. The findings of the literature survey clearly highlights the reasons why a business owner needs to plan and provide a guideline how to plan. It was found in the empirical study that Standard Bank rate the SMME market as a very valuable part of their business. The SMME market has a benefit to various departments within the bank, not only the SMME business market. The empirical study also found that not every entrepreneur that holds a business plan is successful. Many reasons for this exist. One aspect that was identified, is that the wrong idea was implemented. The empirical study revealed that in all respondents agreed that planning forms an integral part of the entrepreneurs business. The empirical study found that a business plan will assist the entrepreneur to be sustainable in their business, only if a thorough feasibility study was conducted. The respondents agreed that the feasibility study, will either support or contradict the assumptions made in the business plan, this will assist the entrepreneur to decide to either continue or end the business activity. It was found that the entrepreneur, with especially a financial expert should be involved when a business planning is undertaken. Other experts in the various business arenas should also be requested to assist with the setting up of the business plan.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are very important to employment creation, poverty alleviation and the sustainable economic development of a nation. Encouraging SMEs, especially start-ups is crucial for sustainable economic growth. However, the failure rate of start-up SMEs in South Africa is one of the highest in the world. In reviewing the literature of the causes of the failure of start-up SMEs, access to finance emerged as a prime challenge. Start-up SMEs find it very difficult to obtain external finance from commercial banks and venture capitalists. The national and provincial governments in South Africa have realised that access to finance is a major constraint to the growth and survival of start-up SMEs and have put in place certain measures to improve access to finance by start-up SMEs. One of the primary measures put in place by government to improve access to finance by start-up SMEs is the provision of Business Development Service by some government agencies. This research investigates the role of Business Development Services Providers (BDSs) in improving access to finance for start-up SMEs. Questions arise as to why the failure rate of start-up SMEs is high in South Africa despite all these government measures aimed at assisting start-ups to access finance. Empirical research was conducted to investigate the role of BDS in improving access to finance by start-up SMEs. The instrument used for data collection was the self-administered questionnaire. The statistical analyses included descriptive statistics, T-test, ANOVA, correlation and regression analysis. The Cronbach‟s alpha was used as a measure of reliability. The results of the study revealed that: Access to finance is still a major problem hindering the survival of start-up SMEs. There is a lack of awareness of BDS providers and their services by the majority of start-up SMEs. There is a significant positive relationship between the use of BDS by start-up SMEs and success in accessing finance. Start-up SMEs that are aware of BDS do make use of the services. The results suggest that BDS are important to improving access to finance by start-up SMEs. However, there is a need to build awareness and encourage the use of BDS by start-up SMEs to improve their access to finance and ultimately increase their chances of survival.

It is widely believed that small and medium-sized enterprises ("SMEs"), acting as a source of innovation and job creation, play a key role in the economy of Canada.
The legal framework which regulates SMEs' activities is vast. This thesis focuses on the legal framework and most important aspects of three critical areas: financing, taxation and international trade.
After describing and interpreting the legal framework of these areas and the information obtained from public and private institutions which are considered key in these issues, this thesis presents conclusions in relation to the question of how and in what way, if any, the current legislative and regulatory framework relating to SMEs contributes to the growth and prosperity of SMEs and to the importance of such a framework to SMEs' success and growth.

In seeking to account for variation in the performance of new and small firms entrepreneurship theory has experienced a shift away from approaches which attribute success to personal characteristics in favour of approaches emphasizing the social context of resource acquisition and mobilization. This study develops and tests a new theoretical model concerning relations between vision, support and new venture performance based on Sooklal's (1991) grounded theory of visionary leadership. In doing so, it addresses theoretical and methodological weaknesses associated with past efforts. Four stages of data collection were required to execute the study. Phases One and Two were used to develop the instrumentation for measuring entrepreneurial vision. Phase Three was a small-scale pilot study. Phase Four, the main component of the study, was utilized to test the research hypotheses. This final phase entailed semi-structured interviews with a random sample of 50 Newfoundland firms incorporated in 1993. Employing Wold's method of Partial Least Squares analysis, five of the nine hypotheses concerning relations amongst seven theoretical constructs were statistically significant. In general, there was strong support for the contribution of both vision and support in the theoretical model. Higher performance were found to be positively influenced by both vision reach (i. e. the "ambitiousness" of the vision) and the strength of received support. Increased support strength was associated with greater vision reach and greater diversity of value-based (i. e. without expectation of reciprocal benefit) and convenience-based (i. e. relationships based on economic exchange) supporters. Contrary to expectations, visions that focused on either internal or external dimensions were associated with greater insider and outsider supporter diversity. The relative importance of predictor constructs in the model was substantially different for urban versus rural firms. Overall, the model was found to possess useful predictive power. The results of the study indicate that vision and supporter diversity play an important role in the strength of support received by start-up entrepreneurs and that both entrepreneurial vision and the strength of received support contribute to new venture performance. In developing the measurement model for the research, many of the indicators for the theoretical constructs were either adapted from other disciplines or newly developed in the absence of pre-existing measures of vision and to overcome weaknesses associated with past "network" studies of support. This measurement model was found to possess satisfactory validity and provides a substantial base upon which further advancements can be made. Practitioners stand to benefit from the predictive power of the model and the insights the model provides concerning performance-enhancing start-up activities beyond the business plan.

A great deal of taxpayers’ money has gone to a lot of SMME development initiatives. Despite this effort over the past 17 years, South Africa (SA) lags behind other developing countries, in promoting the growth and sustainability of SMMEs. The impact and achievements of government initiatives have fallen disappointingly short of aspiration (Business Development in South Africa. 2009. Occasional paper). Aims and Objectives: •To evaluate and reflect on the OR Tambo District Municipality SMME funding model and establish whether it has made the desired impact. •Determine if funds that have been channelled by the SA government to SMMEs for business expansion, start-ups, grants, and special industry development have yielded quantifiable results and •Assess the private funding institutions in assisting destitute entrepreneurs in the OR Tambo District municipality. Research methodology: The study was conducted using qualitative research and a questionnaire was used as a data collection tool. The researcher was able to get valuable information on stakeholders in the SMME sector. The stakeholders (SMMEs and funders), formed the core research sample. Results: findings suggest that the OR Tambo Municipality has a funding gap and the current funding model both from public and private funders is not effective in developing SMMEs in the municipality. The overwhelming majority of SMMEs agreed that there is a funding gap between funders and enterprises that seek funding in the ORTDM. “Financing gap” terminology, Underhill Corporate Solutions (UCS) (2011:52) defines it as, ‘a sizeable share of economically significant SMEs cannot obtain financing from banks, capital markets or other finance suppliers.’ About 90 percent of the interviewed SMMEs agreed that there is huge funding gap and 10 percent disputed this and said that there is no funding gap; rather, it’s a funding mismatch between the funders and SMMEs which needs to be tackled by all SMMEs stakeholders. The funding model needs to be revamped so it can also be accessible to start-ups, the unemployed, people with less business management experience and limited skills, and to all sectors of the economy. Various recommendations and suggestions for further research are made based on the research findings. Conclusion: The study has shown that the current SMME funding model is not effective and does not assist in developing SMMEs in ORTDM. The research findings depict the funding plight of SMMEs in South Africa; the SMME plight in ORTDM is more real than imaginary. 70 percent of SMMEs expressed less confidence in government SMMEs agencies in terms of assistance. The bigger portion of SMMEs felt that the funds channelled to government agencies were not providing significant assistance in developing SMMEs in ORTDM. Recommendations: The conclusive response from the sample, reflect structural challenges in the current funding model. About 70 percent of funding institution`s officials said “yes”, the low yield on SMME growth is a matter of funding. The funds which were meant to fund SMMEs for one reason or the other do not reach SMMEs which are looking for funding. Hence the funds channelled in the sector in the last 17 years have not yielded the desired results. 40 percent interviewed government officials conceded that there is serious political meddling in funding SMMEs in the whole province and ORTDM could not be an exception to this rule. 80 percent of interviewed SMMEs in ORTDM said funding was their main problem, and the other 20 percent indicated that their problem was not a matter of funding. The public and the private sector must revise the current funding model or devise another funding model that will: •bridge the existing current funding gap, •distribute the SMME allocated budget and achieve maximum efficiency in budget allocation.

Thesis (MDF)--Stellenbosch University, 2014.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The South African population involves huge numbers of young people. The majority of these young people are unemployed and unable to make a living as a result of the inability of the economy to absorb them into the labour market. Other young people attempt to make a living through entrepreneurship. However, the participation of young people in entrepreneurship is very low. Young people face many challenges associated with lack of funding and business development support services, technical skills and development. The problems facing the country substantially caused socio-economic challenges resulting in a shrinking economy. This translated into an inability of both the private sector and government to create and sustain jobs. The government of South Africa established the National Youth Development Agency (here called the Agency) with the mandate to reduce poverty by making sound investments. This facilitates opportunities for young people to acquire skills, promote creation of jobs or pursue meaningful self-employment opportunities through various enterprise development initiatives. The agency developed the Enterprise Development Finance Programme as an economic development approach. The agency provides access to financial and non-financial services to the previously disadvantaged youth in a sustainable manner that improves and promotes sustainable livelihoods for the low-income groups. The study evaluates the effectiveness of the EDFP. The public and private sector offers different programmes aiming at equipping aspiring and established entrepreneurs with skills, knowledge, and motivation to enable business development and growth in the country. However, the challenge is that many do not have entrepreneurial minds. Those who have entrepreneurship knowledge do not know about the programmes, or the programmes are not easily accessible particularly to people in the rural areas. In addition, these programmes are not co-ordinated and as result we are not in a position to tell immediately as to who is doing what and where. This also makes it difficult to identify gaps and to maximise the impact of the programmes. There is a need to audit all programmes aimed at improving the economic development of the country. The government of South Africa must instil a culture of entrepreneurship at all levels to promote and nurture entrepreneurship skills. Vigorous entrepreneurial activity and innovation is needed to alleviate high unemployment levels through a combination of improved quality education and skills development. Promotion and support of entrepreneurship should form an important component of policy options considered to increase economic growth for the long term. The Economic Development Finance programme provides SME and microfinance funding which is seen as an important strategy for economic growth. Education and skills development is an important tool that supports the culture of entrepreneurship, as it contributes to the success of businesses. The private and public institutions should intensify their involvements and consider both financial and non-financial support for youth enterprises and entrepreneurs equally. The support for entrepreneurship should be holistic and cover funding, technical training, training in business and financial management, and business linkages.

The following study is about business angels financing small business start-ups. It explores the aspect of starting up an entrepreneurial venture in which the entrepreneur seeks to secure start-up finance from lenders, raising the various issues that are known to characterise this engagement between the entrepreneur and the lender. Using the phenomenological paradigm, the study seeks to determine the awareness of small scale financing by entrepreneurs in South Africa, to determine the most commonly used source of start-up business funding in South Africa, to assess the extent to which business angel financing could be used to finance businesses in South Africa and to determine the factors impacting the use of business angel financing in South Africa. From these objectives, the study will also seek to determine the extent to which business angel networks could facilitate the financing of business start-ups. Small businesses invariably come up in different policy spheres as the main avenues to social and economic construction across national and regional lines. The importance of a successful business start up to a growing economy should not be underestimated. In line with this is the particular factor of gaining access to start up capital, which continues to emerge as a leading contributor to the success or failure of business start ups. Studies continue to verify that the most common challenge faced by most emerging entrepreneurs is start-up capital, either in the lack of this capital, the unfavourable conditions surrounding its availability, the lack of assets to serve as collateral for its use or the ambiguous flow of crucial information between lenders and providers of finance in the funding relationship (Abor and Biekpe, 2006: 69;Hernandez-Trillo, Pagan and Paxton, 2005: 435, ISPESE, 2005: 7, CDE, 2004: 5; Musengi 2003: 11). Roger Sorheim (2005: 179) refers to business angels as private individuals who offer risk capital to unlisted companies that are struggling to obtain start up capital to finance their business ideas. Business angels are further defined as high net-worth bearers of substantial private capital who predominantly invest in the early stage of high risk high potential return business ventures with a positive further growth potential. Business angel finance is typically a ‘once-off’ early stage form of small firm financing compared to the more frequent later stage venture capitalist funding. Studies show that business angels represent an underutilised wealth creation mechanism when it comes to small firm start-ups as most business angels contribute expertise in addition to finance to the start-ups they get involved in. This brings valuable business insight to the commercialisation of a good business idea. The business angel network exposes a range of potentially viable business prospects to willing investors by facilitating the flow of information about entrepreneurs and their businesses, thereby eliminating ambiguity, information asymmetry and transaction costs (Aernoudt and Erikson, 2002: 178; Van Osnabrugge and Robinson, 2000:374; Macht, 2006:1; Ehlrich, De Noble, Moore and Weaver, 1994:70; Sorheim, 2005:179). To achieve a holistic approach to a phenomenon which appears to be relatively new in South African business circles, the study will follow a qualitative approach in which two categories of populations will be used, one of small business operators and the other of business angels in South Africa. In the study, 20 small business operators and five business angels in Grahamstown will be approached using the convenience and snowballing sampling methods respectively. Face-to-face semi-structured interviews will be used as a data collection method and content analysis will be used as a data analysis tool (Collis and Hussey, 2003:156, Driver, Wood, Segal and Herrington, 2001:32, National Small Business Act ). There has been very limited research on business angels in the South African context, therefore the study would significantly contribute in entrepreneurship, government and small business development circles as it brings about attention to what the researcher predicts is an underutilised business start-up financing option.

AbstractThe Gaia-X project was initiated in 2019 by the German and French Ministers of Economy to ensure that companies would not lose control of their industrial data when it is hosted by non-EU cloud service providers.Since then, Gaia-X holds an international association presence in Belgium with more than 334 members, representing both users and providers across 20 countries and 16 national hubs and 5 candidate countries.The Association aims to increase the adoption of cloud services and accelerate data exchanges by European businesses through the facilitation of business data sovereignty with jointly approved (user and provider) policy rules on data portability and interoperability.Although for many enterprises, data sovereignty is seen as a prerequisite for using the cloud, a significant driver to boost the digital economy in business is incentivizing business data sharing. Two decades of cost optimization have constrained business value creation, driving many companies to neglect the opportunity to create shared value within a wider industry ecosystem.Now, thanks to the participation of large numbers of cloud users in the domains of Finance, Health, Energy, Automotive, Travel Aeronautics, Manufacturing, Agriculture, and Mobility, among others, Gaia-X is ideally positioned to help industries define appropriate data spaces and identify/develop compelling use cases, which can then be jointly deployed to a compliant-by-design platform architecture under the Gaia-X specifications, trust, and labeling frameworks.The creation of national Gaia-X hubs that act as independent think tanks, ambassadors, or influencers of the Association further facilitates the emergence of new data spaces and use/enabler cases at a country level, before these are subsequently extended to a European scope and beyond. Gaia-X partners share the view that data spaces will play a similar role in digital business as the web played 40 years ago to help the Internet take off.The Gaia-X Working Groups are at the core of the Gaia-X discussions and deliverables. There are three committees: the Technical, the Policies and Rules, and the Data Spaces and Business.The Technical Committee focus on key architectural elements and their evolution, such as and not limited to: Identity and Access Management: bridge the traditional X509 realm and new SSI realm, creating a decentralized network of identity federations Service Composition: how to assemble services in order to create new services with higher added value Self-Description: how to build digital trust at scale with measurable and comparable criteria The Policy and Rules Committee creates the deliverables required to develop the Gaia-X framework (compliance requirements, labels and qualification processes, credentials matrix, contractual agreements, etc.): The Labels and Qualification working group defines the E2E process for labels and qualification, from defining and evolving the levels of label, the process for defining new labels, and identifying and certifying existing CABS. The Credentials and Trust Anchors working group will develop and maintain a matrix of credentials and their verification methods to enable the implementation of compliance through automation, contractual clauses, certifications, or other methods. The Compliance working group collects compliance requirements from all sources to build a unique compliance requirements pool. The Data Spaces Business Committee helps the Association expanding and accelerating the creation of new Gaia-X service in the market: The Finance working group focuses on business modeling and supports the project office of the Association. The Technical working group analyzes the technical requirements from a business perspective. The Operational Requirements working group is the business requirements unit. The Hub working groups hold close contact with all Gaia-X Hubs and support the collection and creation of the Gaia-X use and business cases. These working groups maintain the international list of all use cases and data spaces and coordinate the Hubs.

Enterprise resource planning systems can be defined as customizable, standard application software which includes integrated business solutions for the core processes and administrative functions (Chan & Rosemann, 2001). From an operative perspective, ERP systems provide a common technological platform unique for the entire corporation allowing the replacement of mainframes and legacy systems. This common platform serves to process automation as well as to simplify current process either by an explicit reengineering process or by the implicit adoption of the system “best practices” (Markus & Tanis, 2000). Finally, the common centralized platform allows the access to data that previously were physically or logically dispersed. The automation of the processes and the access to data allows the reduction of operating times (thus reducing operating costs) while the latter serves to a better support of business decisions (see e.g., Umble, Haft & Umble, 2003 for a detailed review of ERP benefits). ERP is considered to provide businesses with new opportunities to acquire knowledge (Srivardhana & Pawlowski, 2007), being the sources of knowledge the aforementioned best practices from the ERP, and the ERP software company’s staff during the implementation phase. At present, ERP systems are either used or implemented in a large number of enterprises. According to Genoulaz and Millet (2006), up to 74% of manufacturing companies and up to 59% of service companies use an ERP system. In addition, more than 70% of Fortune 1000 companies have implemented core ERP applications (Bingi, Sharma, Godla, 1999; Yen, Chou & Chang, 2002). The objectives for implementing an ERP system can be classified as operational, strategic, dual (operational plus strategic), or without objective (Law & Ngai, 2007). The adoption of an ERP system with operational objectives is aimed at improvement operating efficiency together with the reduction of costs, while companies implementing ERP with a strategic objective would experience a change in business processes, improving sales and market expansion. A widespread critique to ERP systems is their high total cost of ownership (Al-Mashari, Al-Mudimigh & Zairi, 2003) and hidden costs in implementation (Kwon & Lee, 2001). Besides, ERP systems impose their own logic on an organization’s strategy and culture (Davenport, 1998), so ERP adopters must adapt their business processes and organization to these models and rules. Consequently, organizations may face difficulties through this adaptation process which is usually carried out without widespread employee involvement. This may cause sore employees, sterile results due to the lack of critical information usually provided by the employees; and also late delivery, with reduced functionality, and/or with higher costs that expected (Kraemmeraard, Moeller & Boer, 2003). Additionally, some analysts have speculated that widespread adoption of the same ERP package in the same industry might lead to loss of competitive advantage due to the elimination of process innovation-based competitive advantage (Davenport, 1998). This has been observed, for instance, in the semiconductor manufacturers sector (Markus & Tanis, 2000). The early stage of ERP was carried out through Materials Requirement Planning (MRP) systems (Umble, Haft & Umble, 2003). The next generation of these systems, MRP II (Manufacturing Resources Planning), crossed the boundaries of the production functionality and started supporting not only manufacturing, but also finance and marketing decisions (Ptak & Schragenheim, 2000). Current ERP systems appeared in the beginning of the 1990’s as evolved MRP II, incorporating aspects from CIM (Computer Integrated Manufacturing) as well as from EDP (Electronic Data Processing). Therefore, ERP systems become enterprise-wide, multilevel decision support systems. ERP systems continue evolving, incorporating Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), Supply Chain Management (SCM), Product Data Management (PDM), or Geographic Information Systems (GIS), among others (Kwon & Lee, 2001).

Today, nearly all possible business activities or information systems in enterprises such as sales, marketing, accounting, finance, customer relations, and manufacturing are carried out through traditional relational database management systems. However, technological, social, and competitive pressures in enterprises coming together with the rapid change in technology and then the problems arising from traditional databases force enterprises to adopt new database technologies. This chapter aims to highlight the main differences between traditional relational databases and NoSQL databases and to present an overview of the concepts, features, potential, problems, benefits, and limitations of NoSQL databases for enterprise information management systems, for especially enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, which have a significant role in digital transformation of enterprises.

The article dwells upon the problematic issues of present development of Ukrainian economy and social sphere through the lenses of changes caused by the pandemic. Practical approaches to state support for business entities in certain EU countries to overcome the socio-economic effects of the pandemic were summarised. The priorities of government capital investments aimed at medium-term national economic development and the instruments of fiscal support for investment and innovation activities of enterprises are determined in the article. The role of government education financing is clarified and a conclusion on the prior role of budgetary financing of preschool and primary education for the formation of future factors of economic growth is made. The necessity of balancing resources for human capital formation between the budget, business sector and households is substantiated. Specific measures of state support for families with children are proposed, which will make it possible to activate educational driver of economic growth in the pandemic circumstances. Based on the results of the study, proposals were formed on the regulatory and legal support of fiscal measures aimed at enhancing economic growth, which cover the spheres of education, science and innovation, public investment, and the formation of financial resources of the state and enterprises.

Green supply chain and green finance, like effective market means, have played an important role in environmental governance since the reform and opening up in China for 40 years, and have accumulated rich practical experience in many regions and fields. In the new stage of social development and environmental management system construction in the new era, the organic combination of green supply chain and green finance will be very important for speeding up the construction of ecological civilization and achieving the sustainable development of the Chinese nation. This chapter summarizes the current situation and existing problems of green supply chain and green finance, and analyses the reasons why green supply chain finance can be used as a means to break through the bottleneck of environmental management, and creatively puts forward a new model of green supply chain finance with multi-participation, which provides reference for the government, financial institutions, and enterprises to make environmental management decisions.

Brazilian insolvency law was substantially reformed at the beginning of this century. By means of Law 11,101/2005 (RIL) the legislator changed priorities in favour of preserving distressed enterprises by means of recovery proceedings. This chapter will focus on recovery measures and the priority rights of creditors, especially those of secured lenders. Furthermore, we will discuss the recently adopted provisions on DIP Finance. The RIL was inspired by Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code. In 2020 the RIL was revamped by means of Law 14,112/2020, which introduced a chapter on transnational insolvency and provisions on financing recovery efforts. The new provisions on transnational or cross-border insolvency were closely modelled on the respective UNCITRAL Model Law.

The basic functions such as production, marketing, and finance continue to be the same from an agricultural economy to an industrial economy. Business processes, procedures, methods, strategy, management thinking, and approach related to basic functions have been changed due to global market competition. Consequent to global competition, business activities have become more complex. Due to this complexity, the type and quantum of information required by the business enterprises are increasing. It is interesting to note that information and communication technology is providing many new concepts to handle and manage the complex information to remain competitive in the global market. The concepts such as big data and cloud computing along with other collaborative technology facilitate creating conceptual business models for facing realities in the global market. This chapter mainly explains with two case illustrations of the importance of the above concepts for developing business models for textile and retail sectors.

The aim of the study is to attempt to systematize the concept of economic value that takes into account elements of sustainable development. At the same time, it is the voice in the ongoing discussion on the purpose and methods of valuation of the company's value. The measure of strength of each enterprise is its value expressed in monetary units. Due to differences in the results of the valuation of enterprises made by groups of experts representing such disciplines as finance, taxes, or marketing, there was a need to identify sources and to analyze more precisely the resulting discrepancies. The values of the enterprise should include both measurable and hard to measure values, which largely differentiate economic units from each other. The need for a wider perspective on the data published by enterprises appeared along with new business models, changes in consumer trends, environmental regulations, or the impact of social media.

Technology alters the structure of the systems in the finance and service sectors. Nevertheless, technology has been chancing operating systems and as a source to the emergence of new business models. The boundaries of departments in enterprises are weakened and disappeared, these changes give rise to the emergence of showing less commitment in the behavior of employees. In modern business the survival of the organizations does not seem possible, which see success in reactive behavior of the strategy-structure-interaction classical triple. Critical success factor is based foresight and proactivity in all areas of operations including organizing. In this chapter, enterprise organizations' financial departments and resulting changes of structures of the financial sector entities, the effects of this structural changes in the operation system with the new business models is discussed, the tips on how financial system's agencies and departments can fulfill the requirements of proactive nature revealed is studied.

In this chapter, the authors pose a theory for the governance of enterprise coherence. The proposed theory consists of three key ingredients: an Enterprise Coherence-governance Assessment (ECA), an Enterprise Coherence Framework (ECF), and an Enterprise Coherence Governance (ECG) approach. The ECA provides an explicit indication of the degree at which an organisation governs its coherence, while also providing a base to achieve a shared understanding of the level of coherence, and actions needed to improve it. The ECF is a practice-based framework that enables enterprises to make the coherence between key aspects, such as business, finance, culture, IT, etc. explicit. The ECG approach offers the instruments to guard/improve the level of coherence in enterprises during transformations. An important trigger to develop this new theory was the observation that many transformation projects fail. These failures even included projects that used an explicit enterprise architecture to steer the transformation. The theory was developed as part of the GEA (General Enterprise Architecting) research programme, involving twenty client organizations. Based on a survey of the possible causes for the project failures, the requirements for the research programme are identified. In developing the theory on enterprise coherence, the following hypothesis is used as a starting point: the overall performance of an enterprise is positively influenced by a strong coherence among the key aspects of the enterprise, including business processes, organizational culture, product portfolio, human resources, information systems, IT support, etc. The research programme uses a combination of design science-based iterations and case study-based research to develop and iterate the theory for enterprise coherence governance. In this chapter, the authors also discuss one of the conducted (real world) case studies, showing the application of the enterprise coherence theory.

Nowadays global economies must face many challenges due to the current trends. To these we can include globalisation, digitalization and mainly pandemic. All these factors influence enterprises all over the world and accelerate in innovations. Moreover, enterprises of all size tend to implement Shared Service Centres into the business strategy. They have realized that this decision may provide numerous advantages to their business, such as increase in the competitiveness, orientation on the primary business activity and consequent overall effectiveness. Consequently, enterprises can contribute to the overall sustainable development since they are innovative. The main objective of this article is to make implications about how the mentioned paradigms increase innovative behaviour of companies and promote sustainable development. In our research we mainly used meta-analyses of the existing data from research of domestic and foreign authors, international institutions, and selected world widely significant SSCs on this topic. We focus on two impacted areas – finance and HR. The research gap and added value of this article is the new view on the business environment from wide scale of areas and the trend of globalisation accelerated with the spread of COVID – 19.

The events of September 11th focused renewed attention on protection of our nation’s critical infrastructure. Utilities across the nation have an increased awareness of risks and are recognizing the potential vulnerability of their physical assets, and also the assets embodied in their employees, their knowledge base, their information technology and their customers. Utilities must now grapple with the possibility that their infrastructure assets may be targets of direct physical threats — or serve as conduits for indirect physical threats. As the concern for protecting our nation’s infrastructure intensifies, each utility is being asked to reassess its ability to provide safe and reliable services to customers and communities as a whole. However, improvements to protection of utility assets must be performed with constraints of limited capital and operating budgets. Security threats from terrorist and related events are relatively new to the utility industry, so standard industry-wide protocols are just now being developed. Serious security practices have evolved in some discrete areas, such as high-risk government buildings, nuclear power plants, and airline terminals. Utility infrastructure physical assets are typically dispersed, so, standard approaches to security (developed for enterprises with highly centralized assets, such as nuclear weapons production facilities) are difficult to apply. Managers must then face a balancing act between demands for security and the resources needed to enact and finance those actions. This paper describes the Vulnerability Self Assessment (VSAT™) methodology and software that provides a structured, cost-effective approach for utilities to assess their vulnerabilities and to establish a risk-based methodology for making necessary changes. The VSAT™ methodology groups utility assets into the classes of People (utility staff), Physical Plant, Knowledge Base, Information Technology Platform, and Customers. The methodology and software are flexible, customizable, and user friendly. VSAT™ software is equally applicable to deliberately caused or natural disasters. In addition to a library of prototypical assets, included in the software application are threat and countermeasure libraries. As users proceed through self-assessments, VSAT™ automatically documents the analysis process during each step. VSAT™ helps users identify critical asset(s) and potential single points of failure (SPFs). The VSAT™ process culminates in a series of risk-reduction-cost reports that presents findings in clear and concise ways. This is important, because the goal is business continuity and, at the end of the day, VSAT™ provides solutions that enable utilities to mitigate risks of business interruptions at least cost.

The opportunities for near-term implementation of low and zero-emission fossil fuel power generation using Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is emerging in niche markets. This is primarily motivated by regulations following a growing awareness regarding the potential impact of climate-change, and partly the opportunities for use of carbon-dioxide (CO2) with enhanced oil recovery (EOR). However there remain significant technology, engineering, investment and political barriers that need to be overcome before CCS can be accepted as commercially mature for the power generation industry and the finance community. The risk with early projects is high, while collaboration and trust between government, industry and investors will also be needed to commercialize the technology. With an emerging sense of urgency regarding a global consensus for tackling climate-change, one also observes that technology pathways are integrated with political agendas and it becomes important to roadmap a commercial strategy for the respective technologies taking account of government requirements for compromise and burden sharing. To some extent this can also impact on comparative choices for the most cost-effective technologies that are supported through to future commercial deployment. The situation is complicated by the fact that technology choice—be it pre-combustion, post-combustion or oxy-combustion—remains an open question, where parties are probably influenced by their historical expertise, available hardware and near-term perception of future carbon challenge. The fact that energy, materials and engineering costs have been escalating rapidly while there is also a fundamental paradigm change occurring, somewhat undermines the use of historical data and past experience to predict business opportunities for the future. Within this context the paper considers on-going carbon market evolution in three regions, namely Texas, North Europe and Canada, seen from a technology and project developer perspective. The paper applies updated project engineering costs for capture from natural gas (NG) and coal using post- and oxy-combustion technology. Under all circumstances projects still exhibit poor economic return on invested capital and depend on government participation; they therefore remain unattractive to the investment community. But perhaps more important is the current perception of technology and market risk which also appears to undermine motivation to make significant commitments when evaluating projects within the old paradigm. However such a situation is not politically sustainable and a new paradigm must emerge. This will occur through regulation and significant changes in pricing in the energy and commodity market—including valuation of captured and avoided CO2. And this will also impact on the relative merits of various technology options. For the time being these discussion and results are only indicative of how a new paradigm and evolving technology may become “game-changing”, but the paper does attempt to provide some foresight into future opportunities.

Services in the transport sector in Latin America & the Caribbean are provided mainly by private enterprises of different sizes. However, as technical transport specialists, our knowledge and understanding of their management strategies and financial objectives remains limited. Most of the sectorial attention is rightly dedicated to the analysis of the effectiveness and efficiency of the products/services provided by companies, leaving out of the picture the focus on the “business” side of their structures and operations. Such lack of awareness can be linked to several reasons. But one of the motives that mostly hinder transport practitioners from further analyzing these aspects is the ability to speak the private companies “financial language”. Engineers, planners, and even economists are not always familiar with the instruments of financial analysis, management accounting or corporate finance; concepts that are at the core of this language. When it comes to financial analysis, sectors practitioners are mainly biased in thinking about PPPs issues and project finance. This is certainly not a fault per se! However, such a narrow focus can unquestionably represent an obstacle to the full comprehension of the phenomena and rationales that impact the sectors functioning