Brescia context in Italy: management control and business performance in small and medium enterprises

Brescia entrepreneurial context (located in Lombardy region, Italy) is characterized by the existence of small and medium-sized enterprises, in which the entrepreneur figure generally corresponds to the main stockholder figure. This work, after deepening the necessary theoretical references concerning the management control of the minor business dimensions, focuses on Brescia reality and has as final goal to picture the diffusion degree and the main characteristics of the control systems of the enterprises operating in this territorial context. Considerations made on the diffusion degree of the management control in the local context are based on research’s results on Brescia enterprises supported by AIB (Brescia Industrial Association), by ISFOR 2000 s.p.a (Institute of Business Administration of Brescia) and by Sei Consulting s.r.l. (a consulting company). It has been made a in-depth examination of the topics treated on the questionnaire, developing moreover some considerations on issues judged interesting to the enterprises, as: − the relationship between management control and enterprise performances; − the analysis of some relationships between management control and typical characteristics of medium and small enterprises; − the analysis of the principal failure causes of the management control; − the analysis of causes limiting the diffusion of the management control.