Intelligent Budget Management Systems For SMEs
Аннотация
For a long time, a common assumption among small and medium-sized enterprises was that the budget management problem would be solved when a firm's revenue growth rate reached stability. Advancing digital technologies and intelligent financial tools, and data-driven analytics at the organizational level are significant transformations in contemporary business society. This study aimed to describe and explore managers’ perceptions of their current level of budget control in SMEs and identify distinct clusters’ financial practices. Data were collected via surveys from 312 SMEs in Uzbekistan and 187 SMEs in Indonesia using an instrument covering two subdimensions: effectiveness in fostering transparency in budgeting and supporting flexibility in financial planning. A mixed-methods methodology was used to develop a framework on what constitutes intelligent budget management for SMEs among practitioners, including managers and their staff, as well as systems and processes. Three significantly differing clusters of enterprises were identified, and a significant association between the type of current budget control and their self-reported effectiveness in financial decision-making was found. There were also remarkable differences in managerial attitudes in supporting employees’ participation in budget processes. The resulting model allows any enterprise to be evaluated for the sophistication of its budget management, identifying how adaptive it is. The findings should incorporate regression and SEM into the evaluation and strengthen sentiment analysis of managerial perspectives.