پیشگیری از ورشکستگی: تلاش جدید برای بازتاب در تغییرات قانونی و اجتماعی Bankruptcy Prevention: New Effort to Reflect on Legal and Social Changes

Introduction In bankruptcy, usually many individuals are affected. Boettcher et al. (2014) claim that bankruptcy often violates human rights and the principle of justice—two criteria that are often used to examine whether actions are ethical. Estrin et al. (2009) believe bankruptcy is a normal, cyclic event with cathartic occurrences that will redress the existing policies and practices. In comparison, Kirkos (2015) views bankruptcy as an economic externality and bankruptcy prevention efforts as one of the most important activities for economic engineers. For a healthy corporation, the bankruptcy of a competitor presents an opportunity to purchase that competitor at a fraction of its value, reorganize it, sell it, and generate a profit. A different approach is presented by Boettcher et al. (2014) who advocate that bankruptcy is designed to provide the debtor another chance after a financial failure and that bankruptcy is an option that is both more ethical and more efficient than liquidation. Harper (2015) emphasizes the link between poor moral behaviour and bankruptcies; however, this link may not be deemed to be causal (Williams 2014). Credit is generally required to begin a new enterprise and is essential for the economic growth of a society (Boettcher et al. 2014). However, not all businesses succeed financially, so providing credit demands that the credit provider takes a risk. Everywhere there are investment opportunities, there are companies willing to assume financial liabilities and the associated inherent risks to maintain and develop their businesses (Mardoyan and Braun 2015). Analogies between countries, corporations and individuals can be traced through both free market and command economies (Hasˇkova´ 2016). Boettcher et al. (2014) reminds us that throughout most of history, failure to pay a debt was considered a moral failure, and a creditor could place a delinquent debtor in prison or enslave a creditor’s child. (Mutilation or death of the defaulting debtor can also be traced through history). However, it appears that the complete abolition of such harshly punitive approaches may lead to a different type of moral issue (Marousˇek 2013). Subsequently, bankruptcy has become the most popular competitive strategy to limit liability from court-imposed penalties (Boettcher et al. 2014). False individual bankruptcies, strategic bankruptcies or bankruptcy frauds are also common (Regan 2010). Bankruptcy may be considered a financial success when it enables the corporation to use its corporate assets more efficiently (Boettcher et al. 2014). However, such a bankruptcy is not always ethical because the criteria for judging the financial and ethical success of a bankruptcy are different. Financial criteria anticipate the most efficient use of physical assets and capital. However, ethical criteria consider the natural and personal holistic impact (Marousˇek et al. 2016). Only management who which emphasizes the importance of future developments and which makes appropriate and timely decisions can be considered ethical. Considering both the moral and the financial dimensions, the consensus is that it is better to prevent bankruptcies. As stated by Korol (2013), the best international companies must constantly monitor their financial situation and those of the companies with which they cooperate.