Acta Universitatis Danubius. Œconomica, Vol 14, No 4 (2018)

Abstract

Prior research supports the view that South African Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) add significant socio-economic value to the national economy. Notwithstanding the latter, these business entities’ sustainability are deemed to be among the worst in the world as an estimated 80% of them fail after being in existence for three years. Although the sustainability of South African SMMEs is believed to be adversely affected by an array of risks which realise (stemming from a harsh economic environment), it is imperative that South African SMMEs make use of sound internal control initiatives to mitigate such risks. Unfortunately, scholarly literature suggests that South African SMMEs make use of customised internal control initiatives which are often viewed as inadequate and/or ineffective which, in turn, do not mitigate risks; resulting in an adverse influence on the sustainability of these business entities. In order to shed light on the aforementioned phenomenon, for this study, a literature review was conducted to investigate the theoretical relationship which exist internal control initiatives, occupational fraud risk, and SMME sustainability in a South African context.