Business Failure Prediction: A Tri-dimensional Approach

Abstract

Investigations of corporate failure prediction research usually implement binary classification into one of the distinguished groups – Distress or non-Distress companies. This study looks at a tri-dimensional approach which cluster firms into three (3) distinct dimensions namely - non-distress, semi-distressed and distressed. The study used secondary data from 2011 to 2015 obtained from the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) spanning across six industries, namely, Banking & Finance, Distribution, Food & Beverage, Insurance, Manufacturing and Mining & Oil. The study initially adopted the Altman (1968) Z score bankruptcy model to classify companies into non-distress, semi-distressed and distressed. Further analysis was conducted using the Hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis to cluster companies into non-distress, semi-distressed and distressed. A comparison was then made between the Hierarchical agglomerative clustering against the Altman (1968) Z score bankruptcy classification to obtain higher classification. The outcome of the analysis revealed that the Hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis and the Altman (1968) Z score bankruptcy model can both be used to classify companies into nondistress, semi-distressed and distressed based on the tri-dimensional approach instead of the binary classification (distressed and non-distressed). The study recommends that future research can explore other clustering methods for bankruptcy prediction to achieve higher and better classification.