IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/fininn/v11y2025i1d10.1186_s40854-024-00748-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Exploring small-scale optimization coupling learning approaches for enterprises’ financial health forecasts

Author

Listed:
  • Lin Zhu

    (Shandong University)

  • Zhihua Zhang

    (Shandong University)

  • M. James C. Crabbe

    (University of Oxford)

Abstract

The financial health of leading enterprises has a significant impact on the sustainable development of the global economy. Most data-driven financial health forecasts are based on the direct use of small-scale machine learning. In this study, we proposed the idea of optimization coupling learning to improve these machine learning models in financial health forecasting. It not only revealed lagging, immediate, continuous impacts of various indicators in different fiscal year, but also had the same low computational cost and complexity as known small-scale machine learning models. We used our optimization coupling learning to investigate 3424 leading enterprises in China and revealed inner triggering mechanisms and differences of enterprises' financial health status from individual behavior to macro level.

Suggested Citation

  • Lin Zhu & Zhihua Zhang & M. James C. Crabbe, 2025. "Exploring small-scale optimization coupling learning approaches for enterprises’ financial health forecasts," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 11(1), pages 1-18, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:fininn:v:11:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1186_s40854-024-00748-7
    DOI: 10.1186/s40854-024-00748-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1186/s40854-024-00748-7
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1186/s40854-024-00748-7?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hernandez Tinoco, Mario & Holmes, Phil & Wilson, Nick, 2018. "Polytomous response financial distress models: The role of accounting, market and macroeconomic variables," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 276-289.
    2. Hui Hu & Milind Sathye, 2015. "Predicting Financial Distress in the Hong Kong Growth Enterprises Market from the Perspective of Financial Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-15, January.
    3. Gestel, Tony Van & Baesens, Bart & Suykens, Johan A.K. & Van den Poel, Dirk & Baestaens, Dirk-Emma & Willekens, Marleen, 2006. "Bayesian kernel based classification for financial distress detection," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 172(3), pages 979-1003, August.
    4. Yi Jiang & Stewart Jones, 2018. "Corporate distress prediction in China: a machine learning approach," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 58(4), pages 1063-1109, December.
    5. Geng, Ruibin & Bose, Indranil & Chen, Xi, 2015. "Prediction of financial distress: An empirical study of listed Chinese companies using data mining," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 241(1), pages 236-247.
    6. Hu, Xiaolu & Shi, Jing & Wang, Lafang & Yu, Jing, 2020. "Foreign ownership in Chinese credit ratings industry: Information revelation or certification?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    7. Altman, Edward I. & Haldeman, Robert G. & Narayanan, P., 1977. "ZETATM analysis A new model to identify bankruptcy risk of corporations," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 29-54, June.
    8. Platt, Harlan D. & Platt, Marjorie B., 1991. "A note on the use of industry-relative ratios in bankruptcy prediction," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 15(6), pages 1183-1194, December.
    9. Sun, Xiaojun & Lei, Yalin, 2021. "Research on financial early warning of mining listed companies based on BP neural network model," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    10. Zhang, Hao & Gao, Jingyi & Kang, Le & Zhang, Yi & Wang, Licheng & Wang, Kai, 2023. "State of health estimation of lithium-ion batteries based on modified flower pollination algorithm-temporal convolutional network," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 283(C).
    11. Kao, Jennifer L. & Wu, Donghui & Yang, Zhifeng, 2009. "Regulations, earnings management, and post-IPO performance: The Chinese evidence," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 63-76, January.
    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. Dawen Yan & Guotai Chi & Kin Keung Lai, 2020. "Financial Distress Prediction and Feature Selection in Multiple Periods by Lassoing Unconstrained Distributed Lag Non-linear Models," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 8(8), pages 1-27, August.
    2. Yue Qiu & Jiabei He & Zhensong Chen & Yinhong Yao & Yi Qu, 2024. "A novel semisupervised learning method with textual information for financial distress prediction," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(7), pages 2478-2494, November.
    3. Mohammad Shamsu Uddin & Guotai Chi & Mazin A. M. Al Janabi & Tabassum Habib & Kunpeng Yuan, 2022. "Modeling credit risk with a multi‐stage hybrid model: An alternative statistical approach," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(7), pages 1386-1415, November.
    4. Deng, Shangkun & Luo, Qunfang & Zhu, Yingke & Ning, Hong & Shimada, Tatsuro, 2024. "Financial risk forewarning with an interpretable ensemble learning approach: An empirical analysis based on Chinese listed companies," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    5. 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).
    6. Philippe Jardin, 2025. "Designing Ensemble-Based Models Using Neural Networks and Temporal Financial Profiles to Forecast Firms’ Financial Failure," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 65(1), pages 149-209, January.
    7. Catherine Refait, 2004. "La prévision de la faillite fondée sur l’analyse financière de l’entreprise : un état des lieux," Économie et Prévision, Programme National Persée, vol. 162(1), pages 129-147.
    8. Guanping Zhou, 2019. "Financial distress prevention in China: Does gender of board of directors matter?," Journal of Applied Finance & Banking, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 9(6), pages 1-8.
    9. Ding, Shusheng & Cui, Tianxiang & Bellotti, Anthony Graham & Abedin, Mohammad Zoynul & Lucey, Brian, 2023. "The role of feature importance in predicting corporate financial distress in pre and post COVID periods: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    10. Zhichao Luo & Pingyu Hsu & Ni Xu, 2020. "SME Default Prediction Framework with the Effective Use of External Public Credit Data," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-18, September.
    11. Philippe du Jardin, 2025. "A Quantification Approach of Changes in Firms' Financial Situation Using Neural Networks for Predicting Bankruptcy," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(2), pages 781-802, March.
    12. Ying Zhou & Xia Lin & Guotai Chi & Peng Jin & Mengtong Li, 2024. "EWT‐SMOTE to improve default prediction performance in imbalanced data: Analysis of Chinese data," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(3), pages 615-643, April.
    13. Foreman, R. Dean, 2003. "A logistic analysis of bankruptcy within the US local telecommunications industry," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 135-166.
    14. Bastien Lextrait, 2021. "Scaling up SME's credit scoring scope with LightGBM," EconomiX Working Papers 2021-25, University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX.
    15. Altman, Edward I. & Saunders, Anthony, 1997. "Credit risk measurement: Developments over the last 20 years," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 21(11-12), pages 1721-1742, December.
    16. Fayçal Mraihi & Inane Kanzari, 2019. "Predicting financial distress of companies: Comparison between multivariate discriminant analysis and multilayer perceptron for Tunisian case," Working Papers 1328, Economic Research Forum, revised 21 Aug 2019.
    17. Eriksson, Kent & Jonsson, Sara & Lindbergh, Jessica & Lindstrand, Angelika, 2014. "Modeling firm specific internationalization risk: An application to banks’ risk assessment in lending to firms that do international business," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(6), pages 1074-1085.
    18. Balcaen, Sofie & Ooghe, Hubert, 2006. "35 years of studies on business failure: an overview of the classic statistical methodologies and their related problems," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 63-93.
    19. Zhou, Fanyin & Fu, Lijun & Li, Zhiyong & Xu, Jiawei, 2022. "The recurrence of financial distress: A survival analysis," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 1100-1115.
    20. Adriana Csikosova & Maria Janoskova & Katarina Culkova, 2020. "Application of Discriminant Analysis for Avoiding the Risk of Quarry Operation Failure," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-14, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Financial health forecasts; Optimization coupling learning; Triggering mechanisms; Small-scale models;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G17 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Financial Forecasting and Simulation
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill

    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:fininn:v:11:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1186_s40854-024-00748-7. 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.