Bear Risk

I was reading my accounting notes when I came across the phrase, bear risk. I thought bear risk was a type of risk in relation to the bear market. However, the answer in my mind does not explain what bear risk is. Hence, I went to check the dictionaries (software and hard copy) and the search engines. I found no information about bear risk. Then I reread the sentence “shareholders contribute capital and bear risk”. Wow, I was fooled!