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The rate of business failures is widely quoted but is little understood. This study reviews the availability and usefulness of data on business failures and discusses the major determinants of fluctuations in the business failure rate. It shows that the age distribution of the population of firms is the largest determinant of failures and that the rate of failure has only a small countercyclical fluctuation. The study documents a substantial decline in the rate of failures between 1962 and 1979 and a smaller increase after 1980. The evidence presented suggests that the long decline is caused by the fall in failure rates in certain states and that part of the increase during the 1980s is due to changes in Dun & Bradstreet's data collection procedures.

The paper contrasts the characteristics of bankrupt proprietors with those of debtors using Part X of the Bankruptcy Act. The findings, which are based partly on a survey of official files on bankrupts and Part X debtors, reveal class‐related differences between the two groups, with bankrupts coming from relatively underprivileged backgrounds. This finding is moderated by factors such as ethnicity, partnership arrangements and time in business. The data are interpreted sociologically, with special reference to ethnomethodological concepts like deviance and stigma which emphasise the denouncement and symbolic expulsion of debtors; and structuralist explanations which associate differential use of the Bankruptcy Act with social inequality.

Community businesses are enterprises which are owned and controlled by local residents and which aim to create jobs for local and unemployed people. Although they received generous support from both local and central government during the 1980s, growing concern is being expressed about their performance and contribution. This paper deals with a failed community business which, for a short period, appeared to be a successful example of what could be achieved in a disadvantaged community. The study highlights problems which can emerge where inexperienced volunteers are responsible for overseeing an increasingly complex commercial organisation with a weak management structure. It underlines the need for support agencies to ensure that up to date financial records are kept, for business growth to be tied to organisational capacity, and for local people to have access to specialist training and external support.

AbstractIt is pointed out in this paper that Lomax's hyperbolic function is a special case of both Compound Gamma and Compound Weibull distributions, and both of these distributions provide better models for Lomax's business failure data than his hyperbolic and exponential functions. Since his exponential function fails to yield a valid distribution function, a necessary condition is established to remedy this drawback. In the light of this result, his exponential function is modified in several ways. It is further shown that a natural complement of Lomax's exponential function does not suffer from this drawback.

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the potential impact of stakeholders' behavior on business failure, through its influence on the generation and distribution of value added.


Design/methodology/approach
Using a sample of 2,277 Spanish SMEs – half of which were businesses that failed during the years 2006‐2009 – the authors conducted an empirical study on a number of variables representing the participation of stakeholders in the generation and distribution of value added. This was undertaken in order to discern differential behavior between the variables and prove their usefulness in predicting business failure. For this purpose, a mean difference analysis between failed and non‐failed businesses and a multivariate logistic regression model were applied.


Findings
The results obtained show that the stakeholders' behavior in relation to their participation in the generation and distribution of value added, affects the likelihood of business failure.


Originality/value
This paper provides empirical evidence of the influence of stakeholders' behavior on the likelihood of business failure, through their participation in the generation and distribution of value added. The results are useful for creating management strategies because they offer advice on the implementation of business management models based on the stakeholder approach, and on the appropriate involvement of all those who make up the conglomerate in the generation and distribution of value added. They also emphasize the value of recording information related to the Value‐Added Statement in order to explain a firm's level of dependence on its stakeholders and assess the firm's risk of insolvency.

The causes of failure of very small enterprises is a new field of research, especially in Morocco. Indeed, few studies have set out to study it, few studies have set themselves the objective of studying it. This article aims to explain the failure of newly created enterprises, focusing on small businesses. These constitute the absolute majority of the businesses that make up the Moroccan economic fabric. Similarly, studies have shown that the first five years, which corresponds to the start- up period, represent the duration beyond which the majority of the businesses created do not manage to survive. Our analysis has raised several conclusions that can help to better understand of this type of failure. The very small businesses disappear suddenly for several reasons, in particular the scarcity of its resources, which handicaps its survival and its durability, hence the need to describe each explanatory factor of failure which are divided into two groups: endogenous factors and exogenous factors.

Is it really useful to focus the interest of business historians on major companies that failed in recent years, like Parmalat in Italy or Enron in the United States? What can we learn from studying cases like that of the French company Schneider, a first mover in metallurgy, armaments, and nuclear energy, which for almost 150 years dominated the company town Le Creusot, where the Business History Conference held its fiftieth anniversary meeting in 2004, but which has now disappeared?

ABSTRACTWe examine the interactions between business failures and macroeconomic aggregates, and specifically the accounts of policy‐induced changes in the macroeconomy for the observed fluctuations of UK business failures in the period 1966–2003 using the vector error‐correction model (VECM). The results demonstrate that macroeconomic aggregates, i.e., interest rate, credit, profits, inflation and business births, exert differential impacts on business failures both in the short run and in the long run. The study reveals that structural changes in the financial and real sectors during the examined period have made an impact on the way in which the macroeconomy affects business failures. In particular, business failures are increasingly reacting to monetary policy changes in the post‐1980 period. Furthermore, the shocks to business failures can generate large fluctuations in macroeconomic aggregates, suggesting the importance of corporate balance sheets in financial stability and economic growth. The paper's findings carry policy implications that are related to the survival of firms in distress and finance‐driven business cycles.

The survival of a company finds its limit in the problems faced throughout its existenceand which are likely to lead her to failure. Indeed, the company can be affected duringits existence by several parameters that can compromise its durability, among which wemention: continuous or discontinuous decrease of activity, loss of business orders, debtrecovery problems, imbalanced financial structure or a small capitalization,governmental tax adjustment, shareholders changes, key man death, social movement,etc. This makes business failure a transversal, dynamic and complex concept includingmany sides and multiple definitions.The aim of this paper is to highlight the contribution of various studies dedicated tobusiness failure. An in-depth analysis of the literature as well as the factors explainingdistress, leads us to develop a research model of business failure based on a financialapproach.