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Bankruptcy Risk, Its Financial Determinants and Reporting Delays: Do Managers Have Anything to Hide?

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  • Oliver Lukason

    (Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Tartu, Tartu 50409, Estonia)

  • María-del-Mar Camacho-Miñano

    (Accounting and Finance Department, Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid 28223, Spain)

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate whether firms’ reporting delays are interconnected with bankruptcy risk and its financial determinants. This study was based on 698,189 firm-year observations from Estonia. Annual report submission delay, either in a binary or ordinal form, was used as the dependent variable, while bankruptcy risk based on an international model or the financial ratios determining it were the independent variables. The findings indicated that firms with lower values of liquidity and annual and accumulated profitability were more likely to delay the submission of an annual report over the legal deadline. In turn, firm leverage was not interconnected with reporting delays. In addition, firms with a higher risk of bankruptcy were more likely to delay the submission of their annual reports. Firms with different ages, sizes and industries varied in respect to the obtained results. Different stakeholders should be aware that when reporting delays occur, these can be conditioned by higher bankruptcy risk or poor performance, and thus, for instance, crediting such firms should be treated with caution. State institutions controlling timely submission should take strict(er) measures in cases of firms delaying for a lengthy period.

Suggested Citation

  • Oliver Lukason & María-del-Mar Camacho-Miñano, 2019. "Bankruptcy Risk, Its Financial Determinants and Reporting Delays: Do Managers Have Anything to Hide?," Risks, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-15, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jrisks:v:7:y:2019:i:3:p:77-:d:246370
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    Cited by:

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    5. Mahdi Salehi & Grzegorz Zimon & Hossein Tarighi & Javad Gholamzadeh, 2022. "The Effect of Mandatory Audit Firm Rotation on Earnings Management and Audit Fees: Evidence from Iran," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-20, February.
    6. Thomas Selleslagh & Stefanie Ceustermans & Lara Stas, 2021. "Not All Late Filers Are the Same: Distinguishing between Differences in Filing Behaviour," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-21, September.
    7. Susana Escaloni & Mercedes Mareque, 2021. "Audit Report Lag. Differential Analysis between Spanish SMEs and Non-SMEs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-21, November.
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    14. Tanzina Haque, 2023. "“Impact of Bankruptcy Risk on Reporting Aelay: An Empirical Evidence from Engineering Industry in Bangladesh.â€," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 7(8), pages 1538-1552, August.
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