A CRISIS AND A THREAT VERSUS THE FINANCIAL SECURITY ASPECTS OF A GOING CONCERN

Jarosław Kaczmarek

Faculty of Management, Cracow University of Economics, Cracow, Poland

The paper focuses on the phenomenon of a business failure and the assessment of the degree of the financial security of Polish companies, mainly industrial entities, during the period of the economic transformation (1990-2013), with special attention paid to the last economic crisis (2007-2013). With regard to the theoretical and cognitive aspects of the presented issues, attention is paid to corporate crises, the types of crises and their causes as well as the identification and quantification of the symptoms of deteriorating financial conditions. In its empirical dimension, the paper aims to measure the degree of the financial security of Polish industrial companies as well as the trends and dynamics of changes and the corresponding interdependencies. Additionally, the author presents the characteristics of industrial mezzo-structures from the perspective of their stability and the frequency of the movement of objects (changes to ranging positions). Finally, the paper confirms that the degree of financial security can be seen as a symptom of changes to macroeconomic business cycles.

Keywords: corporate crisis, risk management, financial security, early warning systems

JEL Classification: G 33

Economic Horizons, 2014, Vol. 16, No. 3, pp. 191-205; Published online 22 December 2014; doi:10.5937/ekonhor1403195K