IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/sumafo/v28y2020i3d10.1007_s00550-020-00503-3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What happened to financially sustainable firms in the Corona crisis?

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas Günther

    (Technische Universität Dresden)

  • Werner Gleißner

    (FutureValue Group AG)

  • Christian Walkshäusl

    (University of Regensburg)

Abstract

Purpose: Financial sustainability is underrepresented in both research on and the practice of sustainability management and reporting. In this article, we examine empirically how financially sustainable firms performed in the Corona crisis. Methods: We measure financial sustainability by four conditions: (1) firm growth, (2) the company’s ability to survive, (3) an acceptable overall level of earnings risk exposure, and (4) an attractive earnings risk profile. We apply this measurement to investment portfolios of a broad sample of firms from 15 European countries of the MSCI Europe using typical investment portfolio characteristics. Results: We find that financially sustainable firms outperform both the broad market and firms with low financial sustainability for the time span July 2019 to March 2020. Conclusion: An investment strategy that invests in financially sustainable firms seems to be better capable of overcoming economic breakdowns such as the Corona crisis. We find that the returns increase with each of the four conditions that are included in the investment strategy. This underlines that considering financial sustainability is interesting for financial management, corporate governance and management control.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas Günther & Werner Gleißner & Christian Walkshäusl, 2020. "What happened to financially sustainable firms in the Corona crisis?," NachhaltigkeitsManagementForum | Sustainability Management Forum, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 83-90, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:sumafo:v:28:y:2020:i:3:d:10.1007_s00550-020-00503-3
    DOI: 10.1007/s00550-020-00503-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00550-020-00503-3
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s00550-020-00503-3?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. World Commission on Environment and Development,, 1987. "Our Common Future," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780192820808.
    2. John Y. Campbell & Jens Hilscher & Jan Szilagyi, 2008. "In Search of Distress Risk," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(6), pages 2899-2939, December.
    3. Blum, Ulrich & Gleißner, Werner & Leibbrand, Frank, 2005. "Stochastische Unternehmensmodelle als Kern innovativer Ratingsysteme," IWH Discussion Papers 6/2005, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
    4. Martin F. Grace & J. Tyler Leverty & Richard D. Phillips & Prakash Shimpi, 2015. "The Value of Investing in Enterprise Risk Management," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 82(2), pages 289-316, June.
    5. Ohlson, Ja, 1980. "Financial Ratios And The Probabilistic Prediction Of Bankruptcy," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(1), pages 109-131.
    6. Lester G. Telser, 1955. "Safety First and Hedging," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 23(1), pages 1-16.
    7. Volker Stein & Arnd Wiedemann, 2016. "Risk governance: conceptualization, tasks, and research agenda," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 86(8), pages 813-836, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Werner Gleißner & Thomas Günther & Christian Walkshäusl, 2022. "Financial sustainability: measurement and empirical evidence," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 92(3), pages 467-516, April.
    2. Li, Chunyu & Lou, Chenxin & Luo, Dan & Xing, Kai, 2021. "Chinese corporate distress prediction using LASSO: The role of earnings management," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    3. Eero Pätäri & Timo Leivo, 2017. "A Closer Look At Value Premium: Literature Review And Synthesis," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(1), pages 79-168, February.
    4. Maria H. Kim & Graham Partington, 2015. "Dynamic forecasts of financial distress of Australian firms," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 40(1), pages 135-160, February.
    5. Koresh Galil & Neta Gilat, 2019. "Predicting Default More Accurately: To Proxy or Not to Proxy for Default?," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 19(4), pages 731-758, December.
    6. Ahsan Habib & Mabel D' Costa & Hedy Jiaying Huang & Md. Borhan Uddin Bhuiyan & Li Sun, 2020. "Determinants and consequences of financial distress: review of the empirical literature," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(S1), pages 1023-1075, April.
    7. Serrano-Cinca, Carlos & Gutiérrez-Nieto, Begoña & Bernate-Valbuena, Martha, 2019. "The use of accounting anomalies indicators to predict business failure," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 353-375.
    8. Ruey-Ching Hwang & Huimin Chung & Jiun-Yi Ku, 2013. "Predicting Recurrent Financial Distresses with Autocorrelation Structure: An Empirical Analysis from an Emerging Market," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 43(3), pages 321-341, June.
    9. Hamid Waqas & Rohani Md-Rus, 2018. "Predicting financial distress: Applicability of O-score model for Pakistani firms," Business and Economic Horizons (BEH), Prague Development Center, vol. 14(2), pages 389-401, April.
    10. Giesecke, Kay & Longstaff, Francis A. & Schaefer, Stephen & Strebulaev, Ilya, 2011. "Corporate bond default risk: A 150-year perspective," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(2), pages 233-250.
    11. Ye, Qing & Wu, Yuliang & Liu, Jia, 2019. "Institutional preferences, demand shocks and the distress anomaly," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 72-91.
    12. Ferreira Filipe, Sara & Grammatikos, Theoharry & Michala, Dimitra, 2016. "Pricing default risk: The good, the bad, and the anomaly," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 190-213.
    13. Geertsema, Paul & Lu, Helen, 2020. "The correlation structure of anomaly strategies," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    14. Asis, Gonzalo & Chari, Anusha & Haas, Adam, 2021. "In search of distress risk in emerging markets," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    15. Chung, San-Lin & Hung, Chi-Hsiou & Yeh, Chung-Ying, 2012. "When does investor sentiment predict stock returns?," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 217-240.
    16. Balios, Dimitris & Thomadakis, Stavros & Tsipouri, Lena, 2016. "Credit rating model development: An ordered analysis based on accounting data," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 122-136.
    17. Lyandres, Evgeny & Zhdanov, Alexei, 2013. "Investment opportunities and bankruptcy prediction," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 439-476.
    18. Zhu, Zhaobo & Duan, Xinrui & Sun, Licheng & Tu, Jun, 2019. "Momentum and reversal: The role of short selling," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 95-110.
    19. Alexander Hölzl & Sebastian Lobe, 2016. "Predicting above-median and below-median growth rates," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 105-133, January.
    20. Tao, Qizhi & Chen, Carl & Lu, Rui & Zhang, Ting, 2017. "Underfunding or distress? An analysis of corporate pension underfunding and the cross-section of expected stock returns," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 116-133.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Sustainability; Financial sustainability; Risk management; Risk governance; Earnings risk; Rating;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting
    • M48 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Government Policy and Regulation

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:spr:sumafo:v:28:y:2020:i:3:d:10.1007_s00550-020-00503-3. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.