From research to practice: Incorporating consumer bankruptcy into community development initiatives

ABSTRACT

This manuscript presents a case study illustrating how simple, visual analytics tools can be used to longitudinally assess consumer bankruptcy filings in a single community. In doing so, it provides a template for leaders in other communities to follow in conducting their own assessments. The case study focuses on the Logan neighborhood in Spokane, WA, a blue collar neighborhood which is home to Gonzaga University. This allows for simple comparisons to assess evolutionary changes in bankruptcy filings, within the Logan neighborhood over time, as well as comparisons to other Spokane neighborhoods that have less diversity and higher mean incomes.

KEYWORDS:

• Consumer bankruptcy
• visual data analytics
• community development

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Eastern District of Washington State Federal Bankruptcy Court for waiving PACER fees associated with data collection. The authors report no other funding sources. The authors also thank participants at the 2021 MBAA International/Academy of Business Economics Conference for valuable feedback on this manuscript. Lastly, the authors thank the Editor and two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments that improved the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).