BACKGROUND: The low success rate of business rescue has prompted debate relating to the effectiveness and continued suitability of business rescue as a mechanism to rehabilitate financially distressed companies. Although this legislation was implemented in May 2011, statistics indicate that the success rate for business rescues is only approximately 12%. A feature of the business rescue environment in South Africa is the lack of knowledge, necessitating more research in the field. AIM: This study focused on changes required to ensure the survival and increased success of the business rescue legislation. SETTING: This research was undertaken in South Africa between 2015 and 2017. METHODS: A mixed-methods research approach was utilised for the study. The approach entailed interviews with 7 of the top 10 business rescue practitioners to diagnose reasons for business rescue failure and establish factors that would contribute to successful business rescues. A survey was conducted with the membership of the Turnaround Management Association of Southern Africa RESULTS: The survey was mailed to 130 members and the response rate was 54%. This study found that the causes of business rescue failures are mainly attributable to the skills deficit of the business rescue practitioner or the practitioner's abuse of legislation. There is also a negative impact of appointing a liquidator as a business rescue practitioner. Other factors contributing to the failure of business rescues are management's delay in filing for business rescue, either due to the resistance of filing or their lack of awareness of their distressed status. This study also provided the ranking order for business rescue success factors with the accreditation of a business rescue practitioner being ranked as first. CONCLUSION: The study chiefly focused on diagnosing and understanding the reasons for business rescue failure. The original contribution of this study to knowledge is the ranking of an accreditation framework for practitioners as the most important factor that would contribute to a successful business rescue. This study not only explains the low success rate of business rescue but ways to improve and succeed in rescuing ailing businesses.

Resumo: Os estudos de gênero sobre o século XIX cubano têm privilegiado as mulheres escritoras. Para a aproximação a esses discursos, existem várias teorias nos campos literários e feministas. Porém, a incidência da classe, da raça, do sexo nas relações de gênero1 e na formação das subjetividades2 femininas entre setores populares é um tema menos estudado e, sobretudo, a permanência das matrizes africanas na nova situação. Neste trabalho, busco relacionar esses conceitos com o foco nas negras e nas pardas escravas, sem abandonar a interpretação social mais abrangente. As fontes escritas sobre o assunto são fragmentadas, além das distorções sofridas pela interpretação de um terceiro: procurador de justiça, síndico de escravos, escrevente e até historiadores e editores que participaram na organização das mesmas. O estudo aborda os processos de transformação das relações de gênero e das subjetividades femininas, criando formas diferentes dentro do gênero, pela autonomia de negras e mulatas em relação às normativas masculinas brancas dominantes. Tenta-se dar uma orientação mais fluida aos conceitos com o intuito de aprofundar as transformações operadas, tanto na relação entre os sexos como entre os gêneros, assim como nos paradoxos que derivaram das mudanças sociais no século XIX cubano. Interessa conhecer o processo pelo qual as mulheres negras e pardas, ainda na marginalidade social à qual foram lançadas, já livres ou na escravidão, foram capazes de reconstruir relações sociais com um grande peso do acervo cultural africano, embora este fosse rejeitado pelas instituições dominantes: a Igreja, a família branca e o Estado.

Abstract: Studies of gender in the XIX century have privileged women writers. To approach these discourses there are several theories in the literary and feminist fields. However, this incidence of class, race, sex in gender relations and in the formation of feminine subjectivities is a theme which has been less studied. In this article I aim to relate these concepts with a focus on Black and Brown-skinned slaves, without abandoning the wider social interpretation. The written sources on this issue are fragmentary, in addition to distortions suffered by the interpretation of a third person: public prosecutor, liquidator of slaves, scribe and even historians and editors who participated in the organization of these written sources. The study presented deals with the processes of transformation of gender relations and feminine subjectivities with the unusual increase in the number of slaves in the nineteenth century Cuban.