No

L’étude du commerce alimentaire dans les provinces de Bretagne et de Normandie (Généralité de Caen) au XVIIIe siècle montre que ces territoires à la fois maritimes et ruraux sont maillés par des lieux d’échange aux infrastructures, aux dynamiques et à l’attractivité très différentes. Si les grandes cités portuaires connectées au reste du monde sont les noeuds économiques de cet ensemble géographique, des pôles urbains secondaires se distinguent par les circuits de distribution ou de redistribution actifs qu’ils animent. Les campagnes ne sont pas oubliées. Elles découvrent progressivement les denrées exotiques rapportées d’Asie et des Antilles. Les marchands locaux au mieux d’envergure régionale sont au coeur de ces trafics. Leurs pratiques sont le plus souvent routinières et reposent sur des contrats oraux, des relations de proximité, professionnelles et interpersonnelles et des paiements en monnaie métallique. Pour autant, recourir à l’écrit pour s’informer, négocier ou garantir le paiement d’un achat n’est pas rare, notamment chez les urbains. Les registres de comptes et les correspondances commerciales soutiennent parfois la gestion quotidienne de leur boutique. Cette société marchande n’en est pas moins contrastée et fragile. Les acteurs du commerce présentent des profils et des volumes d’affaires très différents mais tous partagent les avantages comme les risques du crédit. Aucune profession n’échappe à la faillite. Souvent réglée à l’amiable, cette étape de leur vie professionnelle peut être le point de départ de difficultés durables et d’une disgrâce irréversible. / The study of food retailing in the provinces of Brittany and Normandy in the eigtheenth century shows that these territories both maritime and rural, are organized by exchange place where infrastructure, dynamics and attractiveness are very different. While large port cities connected to the world are the economic centers of this geographical area, secondary urban centers are characterized by distribution channels they stimulate. Rural areas are not fergotten. They gradually discover exotic foods imported from Asia and the Caribbean. Local merchants are at the heart of this trade. Their practices are usually routine and are based on oral contracts, neighbourhood relationships, professional and interpersonal relationships and payments in coins. However, writing to inquire, negociate, or guarantee the payment of a purchase is not unusual, especially in city. The accounts books and business correspondence sometimes support the daily management of their shop . This merchants are not less contrasted and fragile. They are very different and have very different business volumes but all of them share the benefits as credit risks. No profession is immune from bankruptcy. Often settled out of court, this stage of their professional life can be the starting point for sustainable difficulties and irreversible disgrace

<p>The principle purpose of this thesis has been to study and analyse the conception of men and women in business bankruptcy during the 20th century. The analysis is built on a theoretical gender perspective and, combining this view and business and bankruptcy research, the thesis has focused on five themes: business networks, bank contacts, business competence, business characteristics and finally bankruptcy causes. These themes have been in focus when analysing bankruptcies in Uppsala 1920-1939, 1988, 1992 and 1996. A questionnair- and interview study with receivers active in Sweden 2001 has also been carried out. From the bankruptcy cases that have been studied, no specific gender differences have really been discovered. There were some variations between men and women, but it is very hard to claim that these are related to the sex of the debtor more than to the branch or to the individuals. Changes from the inter-war period to the latter part of the 20th century are in these respects also small. The image that the receivers gave through the questionnaire and interview study indicates on the other hand that there existed a conception that men and women seemed different as business owners. It is obvious that there were many receivers who thought that women were different from men in a situation of business bankruptcy, even though several of them stated that they did not beleive in any gender differences.</p>

The principle purpose of this thesis has been to study and analyse the conception of men and women in business bankruptcy during the 20th century. The analysis is built on a theoretical gender perspective and, combining this view and business and bankruptcy research, the thesis has focused on five themes: business networks, bank contacts, business competence, business characteristics and finally bankruptcy causes. These themes have been in focus when analysing bankruptcies in Uppsala 1920-1939, 1988, 1992 and 1996. A questionnair- and interview study with receivers active in Sweden 2001 has also been carried out. From the bankruptcy cases that have been studied, no specific gender differences have really been discovered. There were some variations between men and women, but it is very hard to claim that these are related to the sex of the debtor more than to the branch or to the individuals. Changes from the inter-war period to the latter part of the 20th century are in these respects also small. The image that the receivers gave through the questionnaire and interview study indicates on the other hand that there existed a conception that men and women seemed different as business owners. It is obvious that there were many receivers who thought that women were different from men in a situation of business bankruptcy, even though several of them stated that they did not beleive in any gender differences.

<p>The end of the twentieth centry, and the beginning of the twenty-first, was a revolving period with many mergers, acquisitions and bankruptcies among Swedish IT-companies. Such events are likely to affect more than just the companies directly involved, i.e. the bankrupt and consolidating parties, and this thesis considers the contextual embeddedness of mergers, acquisitions and bankruptcies by studying them in a business network setting.</p><p>The primary aim of this thesis is to further the understanding of business network change and its underlying dynamics. A business network is a conceptual description of the interrelatedness of companies, which makes them problematic to describe and understand. This thesis suggests a force-based approach to business network change, which focuses on the forces underlying the change rather than the actual alterations of the business network. The suggested approach emphasizes the change and enables an exploration and description of business network change based on its underlying forces, linked to form a change sequence. The events that occur and the forces they give rise to can be used to describe the character of such business network change sequences.</p><p>To enable a study of a change sequence within the Swedish IT-related business network, this thesis will use a technique designed to gather information about events and parts of the business network structure by systematizing data from news items describing mergers, acquisitions and bankruptcies involving Swedish IT-companies during the years 1994-2003. This data structuration technique enables a longitudinal and retrospective study of a business network change sequence. The analysis indicates a high possibility of inter-linkages between mergers, acquisitions and bankruptcies involving Swedish IT-companies, and describes a business network change sequence with high intensity and wide extension, which is the type of business network change with the highest potential impact, here referred to as ‘turbulence in business networks’.</p>

<p>In the beginning of the 21^th century several successful companies filed for bankruptcy. These bankruptcies have been known as large accounting scandals and the largest scandals did Enron and Worldcom stand for. These bankruptcies arose without any warning signal from the auditors about the companies’ financial problems and their inability to continue as a going concern. The bankruptcies damaged the reputation of auditors and broad criticism has developed at the auditors’ inability to discover companies’ financial problems and their unwillingness to reveal a going concern opinion in the audit report. The going concern assumption developed during the 17^th century and it has become one of the most fundamental and important accounting principles when making an annual report. The accounting principle implies that the companies will continue as a going concern in the foreseeable future. The investing publics have questioned whether auditors take enough responsibility for evaluating companies going concern uncertainties for a long time. Their defective confidence is reflected in the expectation gap, which means there are a difference between what the investing publics believes auditors are responsible for and what the auditors believe their responsibilities are. Several researchers have showed that even if auditors find out about companies’ financial problems, the auditors might not choose to issue a going concern opinion in the audit report due to predicted costs the opinion might have to both the companies and the auditors. Therefore, the primary purpose of this study is to investigate Swedish companies that have gone bankrupt in the period between 2006-01-01 and 2006-12-31, to see if the auditors have disclose a going concern opinion in the audit report in the companies latest annual report. The study also intend to investigate if there are geographical differences in Sweden, differences between audit firm size, differences between auditor’s competence, and differences between client size according to number of going concern opinions. We have made a quantitative study by collecting data from the companies’ annual reports. 354 companies which filed for bankruptcy during 2006 were selected by a systematic choice. In fact, our study found that only 19.8 % of all companies had received a going concern opinion in their latest annual report before they failed for bankruptcy. We made a chi-square test for all variables. These statistical tests did not show any significant correlation between the numbers of going concern opinions and the independent variables. A normal distribution shows that it is only in the geographical division there are a significant difference from the total average value. The average value for “Norrland” differs significantly from the average value for all the companies that had a going concern opinion in the audit report. But there are percentage differences between all variables that indicates that auditors with a higher competence issue more going concern opinions than auditors with a lower competence, smaller audit firms issue more going concern opinions than “the big four”, and client companies with a low turnover get more going concern opinions than companies with a medium and high turnover.</p><p> </p> / <p>I början på 2000-talet gick flera framgångsrika företag i konkurs vilket gav upphov till stora redovisningsskandaler. De två största skandalerna stod Enron och Worldcom för. Dessa konkurser uppkom utan att företagens revisorer hade lämnat någon varningssignal om företagens fortlevnadsproblem till intressenterna. Konkurserna skadade revisorernas rykte och det har vuxit fram en stark kritik mot revisorernas oförmåga att upptäcka företags finansiella problem samt deras ovilja att lämna ett going concern utlåtande i revisionsberättelsen. Fortlevnadsprincipen växte fram under 1600-talet och har därefter utvecklats till att bli en av de mest grundläggande och viktiga redovisningsprinciperna vid upprättandet av årsredovisningen. Redovisningsprincipen innebär att företagen ska förutsättas fortsätta sin verksamhet under en överskådlig framtid. Intressenterna har under en lång tid ifrågasatt om revisorerna verkligen tar ett tillräckligt stort ansvar i utvärderingen av företagens fortlevnadsförmåga. Samhällets bristande förtroende återspeglas i det förväntningsgap som finns som innebär att det är en skillnad mellan vad intressenterna tror att revisorerna är ansvariga för och vad revisorerna tror att deras ansvar är. Tidigare studier har visat att även om revisorerna upptäcker att klientföretag har finansiella problem kan de välja att inte utfärda ett going concern utlåtande i revisionsberättelsen på grund av förutspående kostnader som utlåtandet kan ha både för klientföretagen och för revisorerna. Vårt huvudsakliga syfte med studien är därför att undersöka svenska aktiebolag som har gått i konkurs mellan perioden 2006-01-01 och 2006-12-31 för att se om revisorerna har lämnat ett going concern utlåtande i revisionsberättelsen i aktiebolagens senaste årsredovisning. Studien ämnar också undersöka om det finns geografiska skillnader i Sverige, skillnader med anledning av revisionsbyråernas storlek, skillnader mellan godkända och auktoriserade revisorer samt skillnader till följd av klientföretagens storlek och i vilken utsträckning going concern utlåtanden lämnas i revisionsberättelsen. Vi har genomfört en kvantitativ studie genom att ha granskat konkursdrabbade aktiebolags senaste årsredovisningar och revisionsberättelser. Studien grundar sig på en dokumentstudie då 354 konkursdrabbade företag valdes ut genom ett systematiskt urval från Internetsidan konkurs.se. Därefter hämtades de utvalda aktiebolagens årsredovisningar från databasen Affärsdata. Studiens resultat visar att endast 19,8 % av de undersökta aktiebolagen hade fått ett going concern utlåtande i den senaste årsredovisningen innan de gick i konkurs. Vi upprättade chi-två test för samtliga variabler som uppvisade att det inte finns något signifikant samband mellan andelen going concern utlåtanden och de oberoende variablerna. Vi beräknade även en normalfördelning som uppvisade att det endast är i den geografiska indelningen som det finns en signifikant avvikelse från det totala medelvärdet. Det gäller för Norrlands medelvärde som signifikant avviker från medelvärdet för samtliga konkursdrabbade aktiebolag som hade fått ett going concern utlåtande.  Det finns dock procentuella skillnader mellan samtliga variabler som uppvisar att auktoriserade revisorer lämnar fler going concern utlåtanden än godkända revisorer, att små revisionsbyråer lämnar fler going concern utlåtanden än ”the big four” samt att aktiebolag med en liten omsättning erhåller fler going concern utlåtanden än aktiebolag med en medelstor och stor omsättning.</p><p><strong> </strong></p>

The end of the twentieth centry, and the beginning of the twenty-first, was a revolving period with many mergers, acquisitions and bankruptcies among Swedish IT-companies. Such events are likely to affect more than just the companies directly involved, i.e. the bankrupt and consolidating parties, and this thesis considers the contextual embeddedness of mergers, acquisitions and bankruptcies by studying them in a business network setting. The primary aim of this thesis is to further the understanding of business network change and its underlying dynamics. A business network is a conceptual description of the interrelatedness of companies, which makes them problematic to describe and understand. This thesis suggests a force-based approach to business network change, which focuses on the forces underlying the change rather than the actual alterations of the business network. The suggested approach emphasizes the change and enables an exploration and description of business network change based on its underlying forces, linked to form a change sequence. The events that occur and the forces they give rise to can be used to describe the character of such business network change sequences. To enable a study of a change sequence within the Swedish IT-related business network, this thesis will use a technique designed to gather information about events and parts of the business network structure by systematizing data from news items describing mergers, acquisitions and bankruptcies involving Swedish IT-companies during the years 1994-2003. This data structuration technique enables a longitudinal and retrospective study of a business network change sequence. The analysis indicates a high possibility of inter-linkages between mergers, acquisitions and bankruptcies involving Swedish IT-companies, and describes a business network change sequence with high intensity and wide extension, which is the type of business network change with the highest potential impact, here referred to as ‘turbulence in business networks’.

In the beginning of the 21th century several successful companies filed for bankruptcy. These bankruptcies have been known as large accounting scandals and the largest scandals did Enron and Worldcom stand for. These bankruptcies arose without any warning signal from the auditors about the companies’ financial problems and their inability to continue as a going concern. The bankruptcies damaged the reputation of auditors and broad criticism has developed at the auditors’ inability to discover companies’ financial problems and their unwillingness to reveal a going concern opinion in the audit report. The going concern assumption developed during the 17th century and it has become one of the most fundamental and important accounting principles when making an annual report. The accounting principle implies that the companies will continue as a going concern in the foreseeable future. The investing publics have questioned whether auditors take enough responsibility for evaluating companies going concern uncertainties for a long time. Their defective confidence is reflected in the expectation gap, which means there are a difference between what the investing publics believes auditors are responsible for and what the auditors believe their responsibilities are. Several researchers have showed that even if auditors find out about companies’ financial problems, the auditors might not choose to issue a going concern opinion in the audit report due to predicted costs the opinion might have to both the companies and the auditors. Therefore, the primary purpose of this study is to investigate Swedish companies that have gone bankrupt in the period between 2006-01-01 and 2006-12-31, to see if the auditors have disclose a going concern opinion in the audit report in the companies latest annual report. The study also intend to investigate if there are geographical differences in Sweden, differences between audit firm size, differences between auditor’s competence, and differences between client size according to number of going concern opinions. We have made a quantitative study by collecting data from the companies’ annual reports. 354 companies which filed for bankruptcy during 2006 were selected by a systematic choice. In fact, our study found that only 19.8 % of all companies had received a going concern opinion in their latest annual report before they failed for bankruptcy. We made a chi-square test for all variables. These statistical tests did not show any significant correlation between the numbers of going concern opinions and the independent variables. A normal distribution shows that it is only in the geographical division there are a significant difference from the total average value. The average value for “Norrland” differs significantly from the average value for all the companies that had a going concern opinion in the audit report. But there are percentage differences between all variables that indicates that auditors with a higher competence issue more going concern opinions than auditors with a lower competence, smaller audit firms issue more going concern opinions than “the big four”, and client companies with a low turnover get more going concern opinions than companies with a medium and high turnover. / I början på 2000-talet gick flera framgångsrika företag i konkurs vilket gav upphov till stora redovisningsskandaler. De två största skandalerna stod Enron och Worldcom för. Dessa konkurser uppkom utan att företagens revisorer hade lämnat någon varningssignal om företagens fortlevnadsproblem till intressenterna. Konkurserna skadade revisorernas rykte och det har vuxit fram en stark kritik mot revisorernas oförmåga att upptäcka företags finansiella problem samt deras ovilja att lämna ett going concern utlåtande i revisionsberättelsen. Fortlevnadsprincipen växte fram under 1600-talet och har därefter utvecklats till att bli en av de mest grundläggande och viktiga redovisningsprinciperna vid upprättandet av årsredovisningen. Redovisningsprincipen innebär att företagen ska förutsättas fortsätta sin verksamhet under en överskådlig framtid. Intressenterna har under en lång tid ifrågasatt om revisorerna verkligen tar ett tillräckligt stort ansvar i utvärderingen av företagens fortlevnadsförmåga. Samhällets bristande förtroende återspeglas i det förväntningsgap som finns som innebär att det är en skillnad mellan vad intressenterna tror att revisorerna är ansvariga för och vad revisorerna tror att deras ansvar är. Tidigare studier har visat att även om revisorerna upptäcker att klientföretag har finansiella problem kan de välja att inte utfärda ett going concern utlåtande i revisionsberättelsen på grund av förutspående kostnader som utlåtandet kan ha både för klientföretagen och för revisorerna. Vårt huvudsakliga syfte med studien är därför att undersöka svenska aktiebolag som har gått i konkurs mellan perioden 2006-01-01 och 2006-12-31 för att se om revisorerna har lämnat ett going concern utlåtande i revisionsberättelsen i aktiebolagens senaste årsredovisning. Studien ämnar också undersöka om det finns geografiska skillnader i Sverige, skillnader med anledning av revisionsbyråernas storlek, skillnader mellan godkända och auktoriserade revisorer samt skillnader till följd av klientföretagens storlek och i vilken utsträckning going concern utlåtanden lämnas i revisionsberättelsen. Vi har genomfört en kvantitativ studie genom att ha granskat konkursdrabbade aktiebolags senaste årsredovisningar och revisionsberättelser. Studien grundar sig på en dokumentstudie då 354 konkursdrabbade företag valdes ut genom ett systematiskt urval från Internetsidan konkurs.se. Därefter hämtades de utvalda aktiebolagens årsredovisningar från databasen Affärsdata. Studiens resultat visar att endast 19,8 % av de undersökta aktiebolagen hade fått ett going concern utlåtande i den senaste årsredovisningen innan de gick i konkurs. Vi upprättade chi-två test för samtliga variabler som uppvisade att det inte finns något signifikant samband mellan andelen going concern utlåtanden och de oberoende variablerna. Vi beräknade även en normalfördelning som uppvisade att det endast är i den geografiska indelningen som det finns en signifikant avvikelse från det totala medelvärdet. Det gäller för Norrlands medelvärde som signifikant avviker från medelvärdet för samtliga konkursdrabbade aktiebolag som hade fått ett going concern utlåtande.  Det finns dock procentuella skillnader mellan samtliga variabler som uppvisar att auktoriserade revisorer lämnar fler going concern utlåtanden än godkända revisorer, att små revisionsbyråer lämnar fler going concern utlåtanden än ”the big four” samt att aktiebolag med en liten omsättning erhåller fler going concern utlåtanden än aktiebolag med en medelstor och stor omsättning.

Prior research on the ability of financial ratios to predict bankruptcies has shown a significant difference between the companies that went into bankruptcy and those that survived. This paper investigates whether there is a difference in the prediction ability of financial ratios during the last financial crisis compared to relatively normal macroeconomic environments in which most previous studies have been conducted. We use univariate analysis to compare companies that went into bankruptcy during 2010 and 2011 with companies that remained active. Our dataset consists of 51 failed companies that are matched with 102 companies that remained active. All companies were Swedish limited companies with more than 50 employees and the comparison is made with 26 financial ratios. Our result indicates that financial ratios were better tools to predict bankruptcy during the crisis than during more stable macroeconomic conditions. In total 24 of the analyzed financial ratios differed significantly between the two populations and many of them showed significance earlier prior to the bankruptcy than in comparable studies.

Esta pesquisa trata da necessidade de desenvolver um plano de turnaround para empresas que se encontram em situação de crise. Discute a necessidade de uma abordagem estratégica, as ferramentas de gestão mais apropriadas, métodos de recuperação financeira e ainda discute as mudanças organizacionais necessárias. Indica uma metodologia e recomendações relevantes para esse plano. Analisa ainda os principais tópicos da nova Lei de Falências e discute adaptações necessárias a um plano de recuperação judicial. Também faz uma abordagem de métodos de prevenção da crise. O estudo de casos de turnaround proporciona uma visão de como diversas empresas se reestruturaram e, ao final, propõe um modelo de plano de turnaround e planejamento estratégico para empresas em crise. / This research approaches the need for developing a Turnaround Plan to companies that are in a crisis situation. The need for a strategic approach, is discussed as well as, the management tools deemed appropriate. Methods for financial recovery and, the necessary organizational changes are also considered. It indicates both a methodology and the relevant recommendations for that Plan. The main topics of the New Bankruptcies Law are also analyzed as well as the necessary adaptations to a Recovery Judicial Plan. Methods of crisis prevention are also discussed. The study of turnaround cases provide a vision of how companies succeded in restructuring and, finally, proposes a strategic turnaround plan for companies in crisis.