I would like the publication information for a short article I read in
1995. A complete answer will provide me with enough information to
locate the article (magazine name, article title, year, issue number,
etc). The author(s) of the article presented the idea that practically
any business failure can be ultimately traced to greed, or to
stupidity, or to both. The authors described this as “the G & S
Factor” (“G & S” for greed and stupidity). I do not have the author's
name(s), magazine name, or specific publication year. What I do recall
is that the article was fairly short (a page or two), and was
published in some financial magazine (not in an academic journal) in
the United States. It may or may not have been published during the
year in which I read it, but I believe it was a fairly recent
publication when I read it in 1995. “G & S Factor” may or may not have
been part of the title.

Having done a few jobs in my life from Bank Officer to truckdriving to
professional fisherman and charterboat owner, I found the main cause
of business failure was not doing the bookwork properly. Whatever that
bookwork was, simple or complicated. I have seen the best of tradesmen
"go under" because they did not allow for taxation and depreciation. A
secondary cause is under-capitalization, not having enough funds when
commencing the business. There is no safety net if things get tight.
The third is Government regulations. I had the experience when
chartering of not being allowed to remain on a main, open to the
public, jetty [ or dock] but had to remain in my secure boat pen
[berth] and drum up business through newspaper adverts. I wanted to be
on the open jetty for the passing public, like a shiny apple on the
shelf..its impulse buying. A larger rival company had the same
restrictions, but were financial enough to have a dockside booking
office. Even though at times I found them tied up to the open dock for
quite a bit longer then the allowed half hour. Allowed only for
picking up and dropping off paying passengers. This is the stupidity
bit. If you can overcome these three, go for it. Good Luck, you`ll
need it.

This may not be the answer, but I'll post it to see if it's close to
what you're looking for. It does touch upon greed and stupidity as
possible causes for business failure, and it is a lengthy article.

"Why Businesses Fail" by Ames Long, PhD
http://www.analog-rf.com/busfail.shtml