Purpose: The main objective of this article is to go in-depth into the relationship between going concern audit opinion and certain characteristics of the company and auditor, including financial decline.Design/methodology/approach: A Logit analysis was carried out in order to enable us to discover the probability of receiving a going concern audit opinion. Findings:Characteristics of the company and characteristics of the auditor are discussed, and the analysis indicates that it is not financial decline, but rather registering losses and being audited by a small-scale auditor, that increase the likelihood of a company receiving a going concern audit opinion. Practical implications:The results obtained are interesting for the profession and users because they provide evidence of the reasons that converge in the cases where a going concern audit opinion is included in the auditing reports of companies characterised by being immersed in a financial crisis. Originality/value:This article considers the circumstances of both the company and the auditing process, which influence the fact that the auditing report includes a going concern audit opinion. In addition, the article includes the financial decline, and let us to analyze if the decline of the company's financial position between t-1 and t causes the auditor to include a going concern audit opinion.

Purpose Research has demonstrated that family businesses limit the goal of maximizing profits in exchange for maintaining control of the company and passing control to future generations. However, these decisions are not always shared by the stakeholders who are outside the family context, making tensions arise within the company that may affect profitability and the share prices of the family business. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the internal tensions in family businesses in the value-added (VA) distribution, and whether these tensions harm their performance as a result of the restrictions under which these companies operate. Design/methodology/approach A factor analysis has been used to measure the tension that results from VA distribution of a sample of 105 Spanish listed firms for the 2005-2012 period. A regression analysis has been used to study the impact of this tension on their share prices. Findings Results show that being a family business has a positive effect on the business tension factor and that returns and share prices are inversely related to tension factors. Thus, the authors conclude that the decision to maintain control over the family business threatens profitability and share prices. Social implications An analysis of distribution of VA in family businesses sheds light on whether or not the management in its decisions preserves its socioemotional wealth (SEW) generating tensions among its economic agents, affecting its profitability and continuity. This knowledge is important for company stakeholders and future investors. Originality/value This is the first study in which the value-added statement is used to analyse how the management style of firms, and especially family businesses, are seeking to preserve their SEW and internal tensions generated by them.

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The aim of this paper is to analyse whether the family control exerts a significant influence on profitability in agri-food companies that have been vertically integrated. This assumption is based on the idea that family-owned firms better overcome the internal conflict that arises in a company by reducing transaction costs. We have analysed the determinants of the profitability and its annual increase, considering the kind of company and its sector. Our results show that family firms tend to perform better, both from an economic and a financial perspective, than their counterparts, obtaining higher levels of efficiency with lower levels of debt. These factors lead to a higher profitability of family firms mainly attributable to the reductions of costs and financial expenses. Even though efficiency and size tend to grow if the family business is also vertically integrated, its levels of financial risk and commercial credit also increase and its sales margin decreases, which cause a trend to decrease in its profitability. These trends are independent of the year and the subsector.

Harmonised aggregate financial statements are published by the European Commission in the BACH database. This information is organised by country, size of firm, and year. Financial ratios obtained from this database are analysed using multivariate statistical techniques in order to explore country and size effects. The data relates to three size groups, eleven countries, fourteen years, and fifteen financial ratios. It is found that financial ratios reflect the size of the firm, but that the way in which this is reflected varies between the different countries. It is also found that there are no significant size related differences in financial profitability, but that such differences appear when countries are compared. Important regularities are found over time. Some time effects are also found in the way countries react to the business cycle.