The Predictability of Small Enterprise Failures: Evidence and Issues

Abstract

Gregory E. P. Shailer is a lecturer in accounting and finance at The Flinders University of South Australia. Small enterprise failures have stimulated much research. However, emphasis has tended to be on analysis of failure rates, speculation on causes, and policy matters. There have been few attempts at anticipating failures. Failure prediction models have received much attention in large corporation research, but this cannot be directly applied to the small enterprise sector. This paper discusses several attempts at redressing this deficiency (which provide some evidence of the feasibility of failure models for small enterprises),. and the limitations of such research.

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