To Örebro University

This paper is about sensemaking. By using sensemaking we have derived bankruptcy factors from business leaders’ own statements about their bankruptcies. The focus in this paper is to ensure how business leaders create meaning about the bankruptcies, which is also our research question.

To make the study feasible, we used a method that corresponds well to the purpose of our work. The collection of data started with collecting a number of newspaper articles with direct quotes from business leaders. These quotes were, through a model that structures and categorizes empirical datum, aggregated into bankruptcy factors. The factors were then explained with regards to the business leaders’ statements.

The factors are also compared with previous studies of bankruptcy factors. Those studies use different approaches then ours, in deriving and explaining their bankruptcies. With regards to that, we found it interesting to analyze similarities and differences in results.

The study has shown five bankruptcy factors. These are customer losses, financing, external circumstances, profitability and planning. They are described by a number of underlying causes. The factors we found have shown both similarities and differences with regards to the previous studies.