PROFESSOR RICHARD MCMAHON IS head of the School of Commerce at Flinders University, South Australia. This paper describes a study of financial management characteristics on business growth and performance among .small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) engaged in manufacturing. Nonlinear principal components analysis is used in empirically capturing key enterprise and financial management characteristics. Polytomous logistic regression modelling reveals the influence on business growth and performance of the enterprise and financial management characteristics considered. Enterprise characteristics seem to dominate in their impact upon SME achievement, with financial management characteristics, other than use of external financing being relatively unimportant. Development orientation and the existence of internal and external constraints upoIn growth appeail the most influential enterprise characteristics.
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