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The purpose of the study is to systematically review the literature of indirect cost of financial distress to understand its scope, measurements, impact size and determinants to synthesis with future research agenda.

Five-step process of systematic literature review (SLR) as applied by Opoku et al. (2015) is used. SLR extracted 47 studies of indirect cost after applying specified search criteria. Data regarding measurement, impact size and determinants are presented and summarised in specified tables.

SLR showed that the study of indirect cost in developing countries is a literature gap. It is also found that opportunity loss, operating profit loss, market loss and risk premium are most studied indirect costs using legal definition or ex ante proxy of financial distress. However, future studies are recommended to use both non-linear leverage and ex ante proxy of financial distress. Future studies are also suggested to use the moderation technique while studying the determinants of indirect cost.

Literature selection is based on specific search criteria that can miss some of the other related literature.

The indirect cost of financial distress is more costly and difficult to measure due to its complex concealed effects. A detailed literature of indirect cost is needed to understand the construct that eventually will help to define the future research agenda. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no SLR of indirect cost is provided yet. Therefore, the outcome of this research will be valuable for both academicians and practitioners.

This study aims to analyse 508 financially distressed firm-year observations for the period 2010–2018 of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) listed firms to examine the magnitude of indirect financial distress costs (IFDC) and to investigate which firm-specific variable is relatively important in explaining these indirect costs. This will not only enrich empirical literature but also helpful in cross-country comparison.

Optimal model selection along with panel data analysis technique is used to select the most optimal model to observe the findings. Financial distress is measure through Altman’s Z-score and firm-specific variables cover leverage, level of intangible assets, investment policy, tangible assets, firm’s size, level of liquid assets and Tobin’s Q of sample firms.

The findings of this study show that the average size of IFDC for the sample observations is 6.70%. In addition to this, finding further suggest that leverage, the level of intangible assets and changes in investment policy have positive while the size of the firm and Tobin’s Q have a significant negative impact on IFDC. Further, this paper argues that the level of tangible assets and liquid assets are statistically unimportant in observing the IFDC for PSX financially distressed firm-year observations.

The findings of this study provide more insight to corporate managers and investors about the association between firm-specific financial characteristics and IFDC concerning Pakistani firms. Furthermore, this study contributes to the existing literature by adding new evidence from developing countries such as Pakistan which are helpful for regulatory bodies and policymakers in the formulation of long-term strategies to manage the financial distress costs.

The study extends the body of existing literature on IFDC regarding Pakistan. The results suggest that policymakers may pay special attention to the quality of a firm’s capital structure strategies while predicting corporate financial distress costs.

This paper aims to propose a theoretical model designed to predict the likelihood of financial distress of an enterprise and to quantify the damages whenever the financial crisis became full-blown.

Coherently with the objectives of the paper, the analysis considers the last seven exercises (period: 1999/2006) of a sample of 25.000 small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) (volume of sales: < 20 mlns; number of employees: < 250) organized in the form of Ltd. The empirical investigation has been affected through the use of BvD database: Aida and Mint Italy.

The analysis shows that the ex post costs of financial distress decrease in relation to the company’s increased ability to use intangible assets and in relation to the local roots of the banks (local banks rather than international banking groups).

The instruments used for this study need to be subjected to more statistical tests to establish a more robust validity and reliability. Replication of this study using larger samples and a broader geographic base (extended at European level) is suggested.

The timely monitoring of investigated variables allows you to mitigate the costs of exit from the market.

Following the global financial crisis, this paper sheds new light on the financial distress cost of Italian SMEs.

This study aims to explore the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on the likelihood of financial distress for a sample of 139 Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) listed firms throughout 2008–2019.

The dynamic generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator is used to examine the impact of CSR on financial distress. The investment in CSR is measured through a multidimensional financial approach which comprises the sum of the contribution made by the company in the form of charitable donation, employees’ welfare and research and development, while the Altman Z-score is used as an indicator of financial distress. The higher the Z-score, the lower will be the probability of financial distress.

The authors find a significant positive impact of CSR on financial distress in GMM model. This finding is consistent with the shareholder view and over-investment hypothesis of CSR as management makes an investment in CSR to get personal benefits, which resultantly leads the firm toward financial distress state. Further, this positive relationship remains present for firms having strong involvement in foreign business through exports.

Like other studies, the present study is not free from limitations. First, financial firms are skipped from the sample, although literature witnesses a lot of studies highlight the financial firms’ commitment to achieving CSR goals. Second, financial distress occurs in different stages, and this study fails to establish a linkage between CSR engagement at different stages of financial distress. In the future, researchers can make valuable addition by covering these missing links in present studies.

Findings suggest several practical implications. For policymakers, they should encourage firms to adopt more socially responsible behavior as it not only prevents them from distress but also comes with better investment behavior, minimize bankruptcies and make economies more strong and stable. Second, results suggest corporate managers emphasize socially responsible behavior as its benefits are beyond the “societal benefits” as it lessens financial distress through lower cost of debt, lesser financial constraints and reduced cost of information asymmetry, and it minimizes the cost of capital. Lastly, investors make risk premium assessments related to future earnings by determining the likelihood of financial distress in the future.

The study extends the body of existing literature on CSR and the likelihood of financial distress in Pakistan, which is according to the best knowledge of the authors, not yet studied before. The results suggest that policymakers may pay special attention to the quality of CSR while predicting corporate financial distress.

The present study aims to explore the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on the likelihood of financial distress for a sample of 139 Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) listed firms throughout 2008–2019.

Panel logistic regression (PLR) and the dynamic generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator are used to examine the impact of CSR on financial distress. The investment in CSR measures through a multidimensional financial approach which comprises the sum of the contribution made by the company in the form of charitable donation, employees’ welfare and research and development, whereas the Altman Z-score and ZM-Score are used as an indicator of financial distress. The higher the Z-score lower will be the probability of financial distress, whereas the higher ZM score shows a greater probability of financial distress risk.

The authors find a significant negative impact of CSR on financial distress in both PLR and GMM models. This finding is consistent with the stakeholder view of CSR, as an investment in CSR not only aligns the interest between shareholders and stakeholders but also mitigates the risk of financial distress as well.

Like other studies, the present study is not free from limitations. First, financial firms skipped from the sample, although literature witnesses a lot of studies highlight the financial firms' commitment to achieving CSR goals. Second, financial distress occurs in different stages, the authors fail to establish linkage CSR engagements at different stages of CSR. In the future, researchers can make a valuable addition by covering these missing links in present studies.

The findings of this study provide more insight to corporate managers and investors about the association between the quality of investment in CSR and the degree of financial distress, concerning Pakistani firms. Furthermore, this study contributes to the existing literature by adding new evidence from developing countries such as Pakistan which are helpful for regulatory bodies and policymakers in the formulation of long-term CSR strategies to manage financial distress.

The study extends the body of existing literature on CSR and the likelihood of financial distress in Pakistan. The results suggest that policymakers may pay special attention to the quality of CSR while predicting corporate financial distress.

This paper aims to investigate, in China stock market, whether the reputation loss of a firm caused by financial restatements will lead to significant economic consequences such as financial distress and how a firm should respond to such a crisis.

This paper uses Chinese A-share listed firms from 2004 to 2013 as research samples to test research hypotheses using regression analyses.

This paper finds a significant relationship between restatements and financial distress, and such a relationship will be affected by both the type and the magnitude of restatements. More importantly, we find joint effects of restatements and state ownership on financial distress, which provides a unique contribution to the extant literature in restatement, financial distress and crisis management using Chinese stock markets data. It shows that ownership structure, affecting the firm reputation and crisis responses strategies, plays a significant role in consequences of restatements, and it is more important for state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to undertake an appropriate crisis response strategy to reduce the negative impact of restatements.

The results suggest that the damage to a firm’s reputation caused by restatements is affected by restatement type and state ownership. To reduce the negative consequences and avoid financial distress, firms should consider both the restatement type and their firm characteristics when deciding different actions to respond to restatements. In particular, SOEs should act in a more timely manner and take reputation-rebuilding actions such as taking the responsibility and making apologies and taking prompt remedial actions after restatements to regain the public trust and avoid more serious economic consequences. The Chinese government should strengthen their supervisions of SOEs and put more effort to help SOEs reduce administrative procedures, and to improve the efficiency of the implementation of recovery plans after restatements to reinstate firm credibility.

First, this paper is among the first to link financial restatement, including the type and magnitude of restatements, with financial distress, and the authors find a significant relationship between restatement type and financial distress in China stock markets. Second, this paper is the first to examine whether there is a joint effect of state ownership and restatements on financial distress. Third, this study examines how the magnitude and pervasiveness of restatements influence financial distress and find that both result in an increase of financial distress. Finally, this paper is among the first to connect crisis management and accounting literature to explain how a reputation loss caused by financial restatement may damage a firm’s value and subsequent performance, and based on which to suggest crisis-responses strategies.

Insufficient internal financing capacities and challenges to accessing external finance are crucial to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) investment and growth. This study aims to investigate how SME leverage of bank financing is related to the investment decision.

Using Heckman’s two-step econometric modelling to correct for sample selection bias, this study investigates the effect of entrepreneur characteristics, firm characteristics and performance on firms’ capital structure choices conditional on new investment decisions.

The main results reveal that larger firms with growth aspirations tend to make new investments. In the second stage equation, empirical results demonstrate that among SMEs who made a new investment, those SMEs with highly educated owner/managers, on average, use more external financing (i.e. banks loan) rather than internal funds – also, the smaller the company, the less bank leverage. Compared to the limited liability legal form, SMEs registered as individual businesses have less bank financial leverage. These results confirm that internal capacities for funding new investments are limited, and hence small firms must rely on external finance.

This study provides a unique empirical investigation and evidence based on a sample of SMEs in Kosovo. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first attempt to empirically analyse investment behaviour in relation to capital structure for SMEs in Kosovo and one of the few, in general, to consider the sample selection bias issues underpinning the other studies in this field. The analysis corrects for sample selection bias, using growth aspiration as an instrumental variable.

On May 17, 2012, the social networking company Facebook Inc. fixes its initial public offering (IPO) price at $38.00 a share. Over the next couple of months, contrary to expectations raised by previous IPOs, the stock price crashes more than 50 per cent. Immediately, the question arises whether the issuer’s or the stock market’s pricing of the share are in line with the firm’s fundamentals. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to determine the company value in close proximity to the date of IPO.

As Facebook is an archetypal internet growth company, it is evaluated using the Schwartz/Moon model. This approach features significant advantages over traditional valuation models and more adequately captures the characteristics of growth companies.

As of September 30, 2012, the fundamental share value determined was $26.53, which exceeded the market price per share of $22.66 by 22.48 per cent, but was far less than the IPO stock price. The subsequent sensitivity analysis reveals the robustness of the result to key input parameters.

The results raise doubts about the IPO price of Facebook. Furthermore, this paper is of value from a more conceptual perspective in that an extended version of the Schwartz/Moon model is provided. Beyond extensions previously discussed in the subject-based literature, the authors include stochastic interest rates (as an additional source of uncertainty) and investigate their valuation effects.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether financial distress explains the relationship between financial literacy and quality of life (QoL) among consumers who have faced life-threatening cancer. To extend this line of research, the moderating role of social supports in the relationship between financial distress and QoL is examined.

A cross-sectional survey was utilized to collect quantitative data through a self-administered questionnaire. A total of 223 consumers diagnosed with cancer in Iran participated in the study by means of a convenience sampling technique. Using a forward–backward method the questionnaire was translated from English into Persian.

The findings highlight the importance of financial literacy in managing direct and indirect costs of chronic diseases that in turn can improve consumers' QoL. Moreover, while perceived social support improves QoL of consumers diagnosed with cancer, it strengthens the negative association between financial distress and QoL. Consequently, solely receiving of emotional support from acquaintances with no financial support might be bothersome.

The findings highlight the need for interventions that target financial literacy and perceived financial distress for consumers with chronic diseases. These consumers can benefit from interventions that offer support based on accurate assessments of their needs and priorities.

The present study is the first of its kind to highlight the importance of financial literacy in improving the QoL of consumers with chronic diseases.

Intellectual capital (IC) and social capital (SC), as forms of intangible value in organizations, are crucial assets in today's volatile business environment. Efforts to retain and develop these intangibles are becoming more deliberate and disciplined. However, organizations fail to recognize the relationship between organizational distress and the loss and/or reduction of intangible value. The loss of intangible value may potentially impact an organization with equal or greater damage than the loss of more tangible value. IC and SC generate many outcomes beneficial to the individual and the organization. These benefits are reduced when stress of employees becomes excessive and damaging. The relationship between the health of an organization and the degree of impact of distress serves as a lingering threat to organizational financial resources. Managers must build upon the growing knowledge from research and practice to help organizations account for the costs of organizational distress, translate the importance of intangible value into tangible terms, and garner support for developing IC and SC to obtain business objectives. Deliberate and disciplined effort to build collaborative capital can facilitate the growth of IC and SC which minimize the damage of organizational distress.