Skip to main content
Log in

Bankruptcy Prevention: New Effort to Reflect on Legal and Social Changes

  • Opinion
  • Published:
Science and Engineering Ethics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Every corporation has an economic and moral responsibility to its stockholders to perform well financially. However, the number of bankruptcies in Slovakia has been growing for several years without an apparent macroeconomic cause. To prevent a rapid denigration and to prevent the outflow of foreign capital, various efforts are being zealously implemented. Robust analysis using conventional bankruptcy prediction tools revealed that the existing models are adaptable to local conditions, particularly local legislation. Furthermore, it was confirmed that most of these outdated tools have sufficient capability to warn of impending financial problems several years in advance. A novel bankruptcy prediction tool that outperforms the conventional models was developed. However, it is increasingly challenging to predict bankruptcy risk as corporations have become more global and more complex and as they have developed sophisticated schemes to hide their actual situations under the guise of “optimization” for tax authorities. Nevertheless, scepticism remains because economic engineers have established bankruptcy as a strategy to limit the liability resulting from court-imposed penalties.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Altman, E. (1968). Financial ratios, discriminant analysis and the prediction of corporate bankruptcy. The Journal of Finance, 23(4), 589–609.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Araghi, M. K., & Makvandi, S. (2013). Comparing logit, probit and multiple discriminant analysis models in predicting bankruptcy of companies. Asian Journal of Finance and Accounting, 5(1), 48–59.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ardagh, D. (2001). The ethics of bankruptcy. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 79(4), 589–591.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bauer, J., & Agarwal, V. (2014). Are hazard models superior to traditional bankruptcy prediction approaches? A comprehensive test. Journal of Banking and Finance, 40, 432–442.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beaver, W. H. (1966). Financial ratios as predictors of failures. Empirical Research in Accounting Supplement to Journal of Accounting Research, 4, 71–111.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boettcher, J., Cavanagh, G., & Xu, M. (2014). Ethical issues that arise in bankruptcy. Business and Society Review, 119(4), 473–496.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cielen, A., Peeters, L., & Vanhoof, K. (2004). Bankruptcy prediction using a data envelopment analysis. European Journal of Operational Research. doi:10.1016/S0377-2217(03)00186-3.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dekker, H., Farnen, R. F., German, D. B., & Meyenberg, R. (Eds.). (2016). Democracy socialization and conflicting loyalties in east and west: Cross-national and comparative perspectives. Berlin: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • do Prado, J. W., de Castro Alcântara, V., de Melo Carvalho, F., Vieira, K. C., Machado, L. K. C., & Tonelli, D. F. (2016). Multivariate analysis of credit risk and bankruptcy research data: a bibliometric study involving different knowledge fields 1968. Scientometrics, 106(3), 1007–1029.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Estrin, S., Hanousek, J., Kočenda, E., & Svejnar, J. (2009). The effects of privatization and ownership in transition economies. Journal of Economic Literature, 47(3), 699–728.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fitzpatrick, P. (1932). A comparison of ratios of successful industrial enterprises with those Of failed firms. Certified Public Accountant, 1(1), 598–605.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grochová, L., & Otáhal, T. (2011). Corruption in the Czech and the Slovak Republics: Did the EU pressure improve legal enforcement? MENDELU Working Papers in Business and Economics 4/2011. doi:10.2139/ssrn.2246008.

  • Harper, S. J. (2015). Bankruptcy and bad behavior-The real moral hazard: Law schools exploiting market dysfunction. American Bankruptcy Institute Law Review, 23(1), 347–365.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hašková, S. (2016). Holistic assessment and ethical disputation on a new trend in solid biofuels. Science and Engineering Ethics, pp. 1–11.

  • Huang, Ch Ch., & Tseng, T. L. (2004). Rough set approach to case-based reasoning application. Expert Systems with Applications. doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2003.09.008.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirkos, E. (2015). Assessing methodologies for intelligent bankruptcy prediction. Artificial Intelligence Review. doi:10.1007/S10462-012-9367-6.

    Google Scholar 

  • Korol, T. (2013). Early warning models against bankruptcy risk for Central European and Latin American enterprises. Economic Modelling, 31, 22–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kotulic, R., Vozarova, I. K., Nagy, J., Huttmanova, E., & Vavrek, R. (2015). Performance of the Slovak economy in relation to labor productivity and employment. Procedia Economics and Finance, 23, 970–975.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koyuncugil, A. S., & Ozgulbas, N. (2012). Financial early warning system model and data mining application for risk detection. Expert Systems with Applications, 39(6), 6238–6253.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Machek, O. (2014). Long-term predictive ability of bankruptcy models in the Czech Republic: Evidence from 2007–2012. Central European Business Review, 3(2), 14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mardoyan, A., & Braun, P. (2015). Analysis of Czech subsidies for solid biofuels. International Journal of Green Energy, 12(4), 405–408.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maroušek, J. (2013). Study on agriculture decision-makers behavior on sustainable energy utilization. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 26(3), 679–689.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maroušek, J. (2014). Economically oriented process optimization in waste management. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 21(12), 7400–7402.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maroušek, J., Hašková, S., Zeman, R., & Vaníčková, R. (2015). Managerial preferences in relation to financial indicators regarding the mitigation of global change. Science and Engineering Ethics, 21(1), 203–207.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maroušek, J., Hašková, S., Zeman, R., Žák, J., Vaníčková, R., Maroušková, A., et al. (2016). Polemics on ethical aspects in the compost business. Science and Engineering Ethics, 22(2), 581–590.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Münich, D., Svejnar, J., & Terrell, K. (2005). Returns to human capital under the communist wage grid and during the transition to a market economy. Review of Economics and Statistics, 87(1), 100–123.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mures, J. Q., Garcia, A. G., & Vallejo, E. P. (2012). Cross-industry analysis of business failure: Differential factors. Pecvnia Monográfico. doi:10.18002/pec.v0i2012.1107.

    Google Scholar 

  • Odom, M. & Sharda, R., (1990) A neural network model for bankruptcy prediction. In Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Neural Networks, part II, pp. 163–168.

  • Ogane, Y. (2016). Banking relationship numbers and new business bankruptcies. Small Business Economics, 46(2), 169–185.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ohlson, J. A. (1980). Financial ratios and the probabilistic prediction of bankruptcy. Journal of Accounting Research. doi:10.2307/2490395.

    Google Scholar 

  • Regan, M. C. (2010). Eat what you kill: The fall of a Wall Street lawyer. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Salehi, M., Shiri, M. M., & Pasikhani, M. B. (2016). Predicting corporate financial distress using data mining techniques: An application in Tehran Stock Exchange. International Journal of Law and Management. doi:10.1108/IJLMA-06-2015-0028.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stankovicova, I., & Vojtkova, M. (2007). Viacrozmerne statisticke metody s aplikaciami (p. 261). Bratislava: Iura Edition.

    Google Scholar 

  • Svejnar, J. (2002). Transition economies: Performance and challenges. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 16(1), 3–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tinoco, M. H., & Wilson, N. (2013). Financial distress and bankruptcy prediction among listed companies using accounting, market and macroeconomic variables. International Review of Financial Analysis, 30, 394–419.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, J. F. (2014). The Archaeology of professional ethics in bankruptcy (Part II). AIRA Journal.

  • Xu, Z., Kusner, M. J., Weinberger, K. Q., Chen, M., & Chapelle, O. (2014). Classifier cascades and trees for minimizing feature evaluation cost. Journal of Machine Learning Research, 15(1), 2113–2144.

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency under Grant number APVV-14-0841: Comprehensive Prediction Model of the Financial Health of Slovak Companies.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tomas Kliestik.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Kliestik, T., Misankova, M., Valaskova, K. et al. Bankruptcy Prevention: New Effort to Reflect on Legal and Social Changes. Sci Eng Ethics 24, 791–803 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-017-9912-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-017-9912-4

Keywords

Navigation