CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND CORPORATE DISTRESS; A SURVIVAL ANALYSIS OF LISTED FIRMS IN SRI LANKA

Abstract

This study investigates the association of different corporate governance characteristics and accounting variables with the survival likelihood of distressed firms listed on the Colombo stock exchange between 2019 and 2021 by selecting 100 firms as a sample via the purposive random sampling technique, where 50 firms are financially distressed. The Altman Z-score method was used to identify financially and non-financial distressed firms. Cox Proportional hazard regression was employed to test the determinants of the survival likelihood of distressed firms, and the results show no relationship between corporate characteristics and the survival likelihood of financially distressed firms. At the same time, accounting variables such as ROA, Firm size, and Leverage are significant determinants of the survival likelihood of distressed firms in Sri Lanka.