IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wsi/jdexxx/v21y2016i01ns1084946716500059.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Can Neural Networks Predict Business Failure? Evidence From Small High Tech Firms In The Uk

Author

Listed:
  • DENSIL A. WILLIAMS

    (Mona School of Business and Management, University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica, West Indies)

Abstract

This paper, using a flexible and more robust analytical tool, neural networks models, analyzes the most important factors in determining business failure among small, high-technology firms. Using the resource-based view and organizational ecology as the theoretical lenses through which to view the problem, the paper modeled a number of variables that stood as proxies for resources. The results suggest profit, in the form of retained earnings, is the most significant factor that determines failure among these firms. Other factors of importance are governance structure, location and firm size. Importantly, the issue of governance structure as a resource has received very little attention in existing works on business failure, and as such, this paper makes a contribution to the literature by adding governance as an important resource.

Suggested Citation

  • Densil A. Williams, 2016. "Can Neural Networks Predict Business Failure? Evidence From Small High Tech Firms In The Uk," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 21(01), pages 1-17, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:wsi:jdexxx:v:21:y:2016:i:01:n:s1084946716500059
    DOI: 10.1142/S1084946716500059
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S1084946716500059
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1142/S1084946716500059?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Watson, John, 2007. "Modeling the relationship between networking and firm performance," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 22(6), pages 852-874, November.
    2. Jonathan L Calof, 1994. "The Relationship Between Firm Size and Export Behavior Revisited," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 25(2), pages 367-387, June.
    3. Zhang, Guoqiang & Y. Hu, Michael & Eddy Patuwo, B. & C. Indro, Daniel, 1999. "Artificial neural networks in bankruptcy prediction: General framework and cross-validation analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 116(1), pages 16-32, July.
    4. McCann, Brian T. & Folta, Timothy B., 2011. "Performance differentials within geographic clusters," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 104-123, January.
    5. Stewart Thornhill & Raphael Amit, 2003. "Learning About Failure: Bankruptcy, Firm Age, and the Resource-Based View," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 14(5), pages 497-509, October.
    6. Colombo, Massimo G. & Grilli, Luca, 2010. "On growth drivers of high-tech start-ups: Exploring the role of founders' human capital and venture capital," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 25(6), pages 610-626, November.
    7. Almus, Matthias & Nerlinger, Eric A, 1999. "Growth of New Technology-Based Firms: Which Factors Matter?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 141-154, September.
    8. Sarfraz Mian & Alain Fayolle & Wadid Lamine, 2012. "Building sustainable regional platforms for incubating science and technology businesses : Evidence from US and French science and technology parks," Post-Print hal-02313066, HAL.
    9. Brian Mccann & Timothy Folta, 2011. "Performance differentials within geographic clusters," Post-Print hal-02312592, HAL.
    10. José Calvo, 2006. "Testing Gibrat’s Law for Small, Young and Innovating Firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 26(2), pages 117-123, March.
    11. Folta, Timothy B. & Cooper, Arnold C. & Baik, Yoon-suk, 2006. "Geographic cluster size and firm performance," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 217-242, March.
    12. Densil A. Williams, 2014. "RESOURCES AND FAILURE OF SMEs: ANOTHER LOOK," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 19(01), pages 1-15.
    13. Martin, Bruce C. & McNally, Jeffrey J. & Kay, Michael J., 2013. "Examining the formation of human capital in entrepreneurship: A meta-analysis of entrepreneurship education outcomes," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 211-224.
    14. Andrea Bonaccorsi, 1992. "On the Relationship Between Firm Size and Export Intensity," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 23(4), pages 605-635, December.
    15. S. Milan & A. Fayolle & W. Lamine, 2012. "Building sustainable regional platforms for incubating science and technology businesses : evidence from US and French science and technology parks," Post-Print halshs-00784601, HAL.
    16. Wu, Lei-Yu, 2010. "Applicability of the resource-based and dynamic-capability views under environmental volatility," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 27-31, January.
    17. Amnon Frenkel, 2001. "Why High-technology Firms Choose to Locate in or near Metropolitan Areas," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 38(7), pages 1083-1101, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lee, Jooh & Kwon, He-Boong, 2017. "Progressive performance modeling for the strategic determinants of market value in the high-tech oriented SMEs," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 183(PA), pages 91-102.
    2. Sabahi, Sima & Parast, Mahour Mellat, 2020. "The impact of entrepreneurship orientation on project performance: A machine learning approach," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 226(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hans Löfsten & Anders Isaksson & Heikki Rannikko, 2023. "Entrepreneurial networks, geographical proximity, and their relationship to firm growth: a study of 241 small high-tech firms," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 48(6), pages 2280-2306, December.
    2. Isabel Diez-Vial & Marta Fernández-Olmos, 2017. "The effect of science and technology parks on a firm’s performance: a dynamic approach over time," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 27(3), pages 413-434, July.
    3. Siddharth Vedula & Markus Fitza, 2019. "Regional Recipes: A Configurational Analysis of the Regional Entrepreneurial Ecosystem for U.S. Venture Capital-Backed Startups," Strategy Science, INFORMS, vol. 4(1), pages 4-24, March.
    4. Nils Grashof, 2020. "Sinking or swimming in the cluster labour pool? A firm-specific analysis of the effect of specialized labour," Jena Economics Research Papers 2020-006, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    5. Sam Tavassoli & Viroj Jienwatcharamongkhol & Pia Arenius, 2023. "Colocation of Entrepreneurs and New Firm Survival: Role of New Firm Founder’s Experiential Relatedness to Local Entrepreneurs," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 47(4), pages 1421-1459, July.
    6. Dirk Czarnitzki & Julie Delanote, 2015. "R&D policies for young SMEs: input and output effects," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 45(3), pages 465-485, October.
    7. Markus Grillitsch & Magnus Nilsson, 2019. "Knowledge externalities and firm heterogeneity: Effects on high and low growth firms," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 98(1), pages 93-114, February.
    8. Nuscheler, Daniela & Engelen, Andreas & Zahra, Shaker A., 2019. "The role of top management teams in transforming technology-based new ventures' product introductions into growth," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 122-140.
    9. Pindado, Emilio & Sánchez, Mercedes & García Martínez, Marian, 2023. "Entrepreneurial innovativeness: When too little or too much agglomeration hurts," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(1).
    10. Grashof, Nils, 2020. "Putting the watering can away Towards a targeted (problem-oriented) cluster policy framework," Papers in Innovation Studies 2020/4, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    11. Bilitis Schoonjans & Philippe Cauwenberge & Heidi Bauwhede, 2013. "Formal business networking and SME growth," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 41(1), pages 169-181, June.
    12. Dominique Dufour & Eric Nasica & Dominique Torre, 2016. "Clusters et efficacité du capital-risque: une analyse des stratégies différenciées des fonds indépendants et des fonds industriels," GREDEG Working Papers 2016-33, Groupe de REcherche en Droit, Economie, Gestion (GREDEG CNRS), Université Côte d'Azur, France.
    13. Pe'er, Aviad & Keil, Thomas, 2013. "Are all startups affected similarly by clusters? Agglomeration, competition, firm heterogeneity, and survival," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 354-372.
    14. Marco Vivarelli, 2013. "Is entrepreneurship necessarily good? Microeconomic evidence from developed and developing countries," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 22(6), pages 1453-1495, December.
    15. Lee, Chang-Yang, 2018. "Geographical clustering and firm growth: Differential growth performance among clustered firms," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(6), pages 1173-1184.
    16. Kalle Pajunen & Joonas Järvinen, 2018. "To survive or succeed? An analysis of biotechnology firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 51(3), pages 757-771, October.
    17. José Antonio Mola Ávila & Miguel Atienza Úbeda, 2023. "Internal Management and Agglomeration in the Performance of Colombian Manufacturing Companies," Documentos Departamento de Economía 20745, Universidad del Norte.
    18. Sven-Olov Daunfeldt & Niklas Elert & Dan Johansson, 2016. "Are high-growth firms overrepresented in high-tech industries?," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 25(1), pages 1-21.
    19. J Knoben & AT Arikan & F van Oort & O Raspe, 2016. "Agglomeration and firm performance: One firm’s medicine is another firm’s poison," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 48(1), pages 132-153, January.
    20. Dirk Crass & Christian Rammer & Birgit Aschhoff, 2019. "Geographical clustering and the effectiveness of public innovation programs," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 44(6), pages 1784-1815, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wsi:jdexxx:v:21:y:2016:i:01:n:s1084946716500059. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Tai Tone Lim (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.worldscinet.com/jde/jde.shtml .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.