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Studies show an increasing importance of intangible assets (hereinafter IA) and a positive relationship between IA and company performance. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the importance of IA for Croatian and Slovene hotel companies and to find out whether companies with a higher share of intangibles are also more profitable. The analysis is based on publicly available financial statements for the five-year period, from 2011 to 2015. The results show that the average share of IA presented in the balance sheets of the analysed hotel companies is low in both countries. Moreover, we could not find a statistically significant relationship between the share of IA and the selected financial performance indicators. The results of our study show that despite the emphasised importance of IA in literature, the publicly available financial data of the selected hotel companies provides very limited information on IA for external stakeholders.

The paper aims to investigate the characteristics of financial reporting and management accounting by Slovenian Small and Medium-sized Entities (SMEs), which represent 99.8% of all Slovene enterprises. The paper examines the most important legal bases for external financial reporting of SMEs, rules in national accounting standards and their close linkage with taxation. The paper highlights how Slovenia adopted the relevant European Union (EU) Directives and emphasizes the particularities of the Slovenian environment that demonstrate diversity at the international level. The paper raises issues concerning lenient requirements on accounting practitioners’ qualifications and a lack of supervision of financial statements. We then provide a literature review of relevant studies in the field of financial and management accounting. The financial accounting literature seems to be more developed than that of management accounting. Studies reviewed in this paper mainly focused on the link between financial accounting and taxation, indicating that the use of accounting discretion is motivated by the effort to minimize taxation.

Since the current International Accounting Standard 36 introduced substantial subjectivity while testing goodwill for impairment, this study aims to establish if management exploits the discretion and performs the impairment test of goodwill opportunistically. The presence of discretion, while applying impairment test, is tested on the sample of Italian publicly traded companies in the period of the current financial crisis. Despite the fact that the sample of companies consists of those with market to book ratio less than one, only 26% of the companies recorded a goodwill write-off. The logistic regression was used to test contracting and reporting incentives. The results of the analysis indicate that even in the case of IFRS users some incentives exist, while recognising the impairment losses of goodwill.

The purpose of the article is to explore the ethical perceptions of accountants in selected Slovene organisations towards ethicallysensitive scenarios. The article explores ethical perceptions among ‘internal accountants’ and those working in companies operating as providers of external accounting services. Since external accounting services companies are not specifically regulated by the profession, we hypothesise that accountants working in external accounting service companies are more lenient to ethically-sensitive scenarios. Moreover, we analyse if ethical perceptions differ between accountants having a professional certificate and those that do not. We believe those that have a certificate are harsher towards ethically-sensitive scenarios. For the purpose of our analysis a questionnaire was distributed to accounting professionals. Our analysis is made on a large sample of 451 accountants. Results of ordered probit regression support the first two hypotheses, despite the fact that not all of the vignettes resulted as statistically significant. Our study contributes to the literature in that the ethics of accountants from countries with non-regulated markets of accounting services have not yet been investigated in the literature.

The present study aims to analyze the use of performance measurement systems within Slovene large, medium-sized, and small companies. The study was performed on the basis of a questionnaire which was distributed to the management of Slovene firms in 2007, analyzing the use of performance measurement techniques in the post-transition period. Slovene companies mainly use traditional performance measurement techniques. Contemporary performance measurement systems were used only occasionally. Moreover, the study demonstrates that performance measurement techniques differ between companies of different size. Small companies have less developed performance measurement systems that are based almost solely on traditional measurement techniques, while large companies have more developed performance measurement systems and also use some more contemporary techniques. Future research should analyze the design of management accounting systems in economies that have completed the transition period to provide ev...

The main purpose of the presented research was to investigate whether Slovene hotels that have a business strategy and strategic management accounting are more successful in comparison with those that still do not have a long-term business strategy and strategic management accounting.Hotels that have a business strategy and strategic management accounting are expected to be more successful in comparison with those that still do not have a long-term business strategy. Questionnaires were distributed to the management of selected Slovene hotels. The Slovene budgeting practices were assessed in Slovene large hotels, which have more than 100 rooms. The analysis was performed at the beginning of the years 2004 and 2008, respectively. Budgeting practices in Slovene hotels were assessed by analyzing the extent to which managers used strategic management accounting and the extent to which business strategies were implemented. The analysis provides evidence that hotels with a long-term business strategy are more successful than those that that have a short-term strategy, or are even without one. Although an improvement in the field of continuous budgeting in the five-year period can be ascertained, only a minority of Slovene hotels uses standard cost as a basis for budgeting. This was the first study that ascertained discrepancies between Slovenian budgeting practice and foreign best practices, which is undoubtedly of great interest for decision-makers on the level of individual hotel.

According to the growing importance of intangible assets, the research aims to investigate the significance of intangibles for Croatian, Slovenian, Czech, German and US publicly traded companies. The analysis is focused on intangibles that meet the criteria for the recognition in financial accounts. The results of the analysis prove that in the period 2004-2008 intangibles constitute an important asset for traditional market economies, which does not result for post-transition and transition economies, despite the fact that many analyses underline their growing significance in today’s business environment. Independent t-test was used to test a difference between selected companies. A future research approach should analyze the proportion of intangibles that do not meet the criteria for their recognition and found out if transition economies actually possess a significantly lower proportion of intangibles.

Accounting Treatment of Goodwill in IFRS and US GAAP The article presents an overview of the new accounting treatment of goodwill regarding International Financial Reporting Standards and American Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. Goodwill acquired through a business combination is no longer amortized but tested for impairment. Despite the fact that the objective of the new International Financial Accounting Standard has been to move towards international convergence; significant differences between standards still exist. The article presents the main changes of the regulation in the last years and the key differences between the two accounting treatments. In spite of the new accounting approach there are still lots of discussions, which indicate that the field is still not properly regulated. Finally, the article offers possible directions for future research and reporting practice.

Information about the management accounting system (MAS) is required for high-quality decision-making in business. Thus, MAS has to be appropriately developed and organized. The paper aims to explore the role of MAS in the decision-making process and its changes from the perspective of the economy that shifted from transition towards market-oriented economy. The study was performed on the sample of medium-sized and large Slovenian companies. The methodology comprises an interpretation of responses to the questionnaire, which was distributed in 1995, 2001, 2006, and 2011. The analysis of the data shows changes in the role of MAS over time and indicates the characteristics of MAS during transition and post-transition periods. The role of MAS was assessed by analyzing the frequency of reporting, content, and scope of MAS information for top and middle management. The results show that in times of crisis Slovenian management did not use MAS information more frequently, as suggested by the theory. The results indicate that MAS was not that developed during the transition period in comparison to traditionally developed market economies, while during the post-transition period, especially in the period of crisis, improvements are notable. Based on the results, the authors provide some recommendations for further improvement of MAS in the analyzed companies. The study is designed to make a contribution to management accounting literature from the perspective of a transition economy. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ee.26.1.4873

Purpose The purpose of this chapter is to examine the reporting practices on intangible assets from the perspective of a post-transition economy. The chapter explores the significance of intangibles and the content of the disclosures provided by companies in annual reports. Methodology/approach The analysis is qualitative in nature. Annual reports of selected Slovene publicly traded companies are analysed. The research is based on the analysis of required disclosures by International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and an analysis of voluntary disclosures provided by companies for the 2007–2011 financial years. Findings The results indicate that intangibles are less significant in comparison with publicly traded companies from traditionally developed economies. The analysis of disclosures reveals that companies provide almost exclusively the disclosures required by IFRS, while voluntary disclosures are not provided. Furthermore, results indicate deficiencies in financial reporting practices related to required disclosures. Research limitations The analysis is conducted on a small sample of companies. This is a consequence of the fact that a limited number of companies is trading on Ljubljana Stock Exchange. In the primary and standard quotation of shares, only 25 companies are present. Practical implications Since a growing stream of research emphasises the importance of intangibles for companies’ performance, the findings indicate possibilities for improvement of financial reporting. Originality/value The research findings contribute to existing research in the field of accounting for intangibles from the perspective of a post-transition economy. More studies of this kind in transition and post-transition economies using IFRS have yet to be performed.

The paper aims to make a contribution to existing management accounting literature from the perspective of a transition economy by exploring the design of the management accounting system (MAS) in the decision making process within Slovene medium-size and large companies. The study was performed on the basis of a questionnaire which was distributed in 1995, 2001 and 2006, focusing on information received by top and middle management. The findings of our study confirmed the results of present day studies, which claim that MASs in transition countries are not fully integrated into the decision making process. The extent of MASs information provided to top and middle management in the transition process was poor and, moreover, we demonstrate that MASs in Slovenia do not meet the attributes of developed MASs which is derived from the literature. Our findings demonstrate that top management received a broader extent of MAS information on a more frequent basis than did middle management, which is inconsistent with the current literature and best practice. Key words: Management accounting system, performance measurement, development of management accounting system (MAS).