Hyun "Grace" Chatfield, Seyhmus Baloglu (both Hospitality), Robert E. Chatfield, and Percy Poon (both Finance) recently published their article "Preferred Stock Issuance in the Restaurant Industry and Financial Distress" in the Journal of Foodservice Business Research.  

The purpose of this study is to offer insights into why restaurant firms issue preferred stock despite the disadvantage of using preferred stock as compared to debt. The paper empirically examines the proposition that restaurant firms issuing preferred stock are more financially distressed than non-issuing firms. Specifically, they analyze five financial ratios that are related to financial distress. Data from 56 restaurant firms issuing preferred stock between 1980 and 2016 were compared to a control group of non-issuing restaurant firms. Results from the multivariate analysis of variance lend robust support to the financial distress explanation as well as other explanations.