Business failure prediction. A contribution to the synthesis of a theory, through comparative analysis of different prediction techniques

This paper offers a comparative analysis of the effectiveness of eight popular forecasting methods: univariate, linear, discriminate and logit regression; recursive partitioning, rough sets, artificial neural networks, and DEA. Our goals are: clarify the complexity-effectiveness balance of each methodology; identify a reduced set of independent variables that are significant predictors whatever the methodology is; and discuss and relate these findings to the financial theory, to help consolidate the foundations of a theory of financial failure. Our results indicate that, whatever the methodology is, reliable predictions can be made using four variables; these ratios convey information about profitability, financial structure, rotation, and operating cash flows