Navigating the COVID-19 Crisis - Entrepreneurial Finance in the EU27: State Interventions, Zombie Firms, and Sectoral Performance

Kivonat, rövid leírás

Between 2017 and 2023, I worked in the Corporate Lending and Underwriting Department of K&H Bank, where I dealt with financial statement analysis and loan proposals on a daily basis. A central part of my job was to conduct credit risk assessment and analyze the financial situation of companies in relation to loan applications. This gave me deep experience in assessing the financial stability and performance of companies in different industries and economic situations. In this situation, the COVID-19 crisis significantly changed commercial banks’ credit policies and guidelines, which lead financial institutions to reevaluate their credit risk appetite and conduct a screening of affected sectors (MNB, 2020a; MNB, 2020b). During my work, I gained insight into multiple industries and concluded that the crisis impacted different sectors in varying ways. This practical experience directly inspired my research a few years later. Furthermore, while reviewing the existing literature, I noticed a lack of empirical studies examining the impact of COVID-19 on the financial performance of companies across sectors. Given my strong quantitative orientation, I aimed to address this issue through corporates’ financial data analysis. During my doctoral studies, I had access to the ORBIS financial database, which offers extensive corporate information. This database gave me the opportunity to evaluate the main financial indicators, including revenue, profitability, debt levels and interest payment obligations. By analyzing these data, my aim is to gain a deeper understanding of how the crisis financially affected businesses. My dissertation follows a paper-based dissertation format, meaning it consists of multiple studies that are introduced in the chapters and synthesized. My doctoral research examines the financial impact of the COVID-19 crisis on businesses.