The Relationship between Written Business Plans and the Failure of Small Businesses in the U.S.
研究了商业计划对美国小企业失败的影响，发现非失败企业比失败企业在失败前做了更多规划，但整体上小企业很少进行正式规划。
The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of planning on U.S. small business failures. A “failure” was defined as a bankruptcy with losses to creditors; firms with fewer than 500 employees were considered “small.” Recently failed firms were selected randomly and matched with non-failed firms on the basis of age, size, industry, and location. The sampling frame was businesses listed in the Dun & Bradstreet credit reporting database. A paired-sample t-test was used to investigate differences between the failed firms and matched non-failed firms. The main conclusion was that very little formal planning goes on in U.S. small businesses; however, non-failed firms do more planning than similar failed firms did prior to failure.