Business failure; Failure Paths; SMEs; Faillite d'entreprise; Trajectoire de faillite; PME; Profil de faillite; Faillis; Prédiction de faillite
Abstract :
[en] Whereas it is obvious that the failure process can vary from one firm to another (Argenti,
1976; D'Aveni, 1989; Laitinen, 1991), to date, few researchers have worked on the detection of several
(explanatory or subsequent) failure patterns. In addition, none of the reviewed research really focuses
on small firms while their failure is important and particular (Haswell and Holmes, 1989).
Considering these observation and on the basis of an abductive and qualitative analysis (Thiétart,
2003), this paper identifies, among a sample of 208 small distressed firms, a taxonomy of five
explanatory business failure patterns, i.e. five homogenous groups of small firms on the basis of the
reasons for their failure.
As the detection of the fundamental explanatory failure factors is the basis of failure prevention
(Argenti, 1976), the identification of these patterns is of crucial importance for a better understanding
and for a better prevention of this phenomenon amongst small businesses.
Research center :
CEPE - Centre d'Études de la Performance des Entreprises - ULiège
Disciplines :
Accounting & auditing
Author, co-author :
Crutzen, Nathalie ; Université de Liège - ULiège > HEC-Ecole de gestion : UER > Diagnostic et contrôle de l'entreprise
Van Caillie, Didier ; Université de Liège - ULiège > HEC-Ecole de gestion : UER > Diagnostic et contrôle de l'entreprise - Centre d'Etude de la Performance des Entreprises (C.E.P.E.)
Language :
English
Title :
A Taxonomy of Distinctive Explanatory Business Failure Patterns amongst Small Firms : A Qualitative Approach
Alternative titles :
[fr] Une taxonomie de profils explicatifs de défaillance distincts parmi les PME : une approchje qualitative
