A research study submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Administration, School of Management

Research report (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2005

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are widely recognized in both developed and developing economies for their significant role in promoting economic growth, generating employment, and making contribution to poverty alleviation. In recent time, SMEs in Bangladesh have emerged as the cornerstone of the country's economic development process by providing the platform for job creation, income generation, and expansion of forward and backward industrial linkage. SMEs provide 87 per cent of the total industrial employment of Bangladesh. However, most of those SMEs face a number of interrelated difficulties including severe shortage of finance, power supply, transportation, infrastructure, training and skill development. This questionnaire based survey focused on usages rate and perceived usefulness of the financial and management accounting practices in SMEs of Bangladesh. In absence of separate accounting guideline for the SMEs in Bangladesh, accounting is not widely used as an information tool to help planning and decision making of the enterprises. Lack of skill, knowledge, awareness and professional people are the main barriers to enhance the accounting practices in SMEs of Bangladesh, where perceived usefulness for accounting practices is found elevated than current usage rate. Awareness development can result in good accounting practices in the SMEs of Bangladesh