A survey of strategies used to cope with financial distress: A case study of quoted companies in the Nairobi stock exchange (1995-1999)

Abstract

Financial distress is usually experienced by quoted companies when there is a mismatch between the assets and the financial obligations of the business. This makes it necessary for companies to use response actions to cope with financial distress. Of importance to this study is the fact that quoted companies used different response actions to minimize financial distress. This is because of different characteristics such as the size, sector and the leverage of the company. The study design used a cross sectional sampling. A total of 80 respondents were randomly selected followed by stratification. The data were gathered using questionnaires, interviews and observations. The data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Descriptive and multiple regressions were used. Based on the results of the survey, it was found that response actions taken by quoted companies to cope with financial distress were successful in respect of the characteristics of the company.