ABSTRACT

The pace of the change in computer technology, both in hardware and software, is accelerating so rapidly that small business owners are in a position similar to that faced by their largest counterparts barely a few years ago. Improvements in hardware, such as increases in memory capacity, have enabled microcomputers to handle large, spread-sheet programs and fair-sized company forecasting/modelling packages and the like. The introduction of microcomputers and computer-based accounting systems will have profound effects on the organisational and managerial structures of the small firm. A significant change in budgetary systems will probably be evolutionary, and if it is revolutionary, it will necessitate shifts in attitudes and personalities of the employee population. The discussion has suggested that there have been few studies investigating the organisation frameworks of small businesses, and that those studies concerned with large organisations cannot always be extended to small ones. Similarly the capacity and abilities of microcomputers are being increased and improved at very rapid rate.