Jansen Katrien, Michiels Anneleen, Voordeckers Wim, Steijvers Tensie
RCEF - Research Center for Entrepreneurship and Family Firms, Hasselt University, Agoralaan Building D, B-3590 Diepenbeek, Belgium.
Department of Accounting and Finance, University of Antwerp, Prinsstraat 13, 2000, Antwerpen, Belgium.
Small Bus Econ (Dordr). 2022 Dec 1:1-21. doi: 10.1007/s11187-022-00711-9.
Family firms are one of the most ubiquitous forms of business organizations worldwide. Their survival and growth are thus not only crucial for the firms themselves but also for the overall economy. One of the factors that influence their survival and development are their financing decisions. These decisions are generally described through the pecking order theory. However, not much is known about the applicability of this theory in private family firms. Given the shortcomings (both theoretically and empirically) of the current literature, we analyze 1087 incremental financing decisions from 277 family firms to develop and test a specific family firm pecking order. We integrate the elements of the socioemotional wealth perspective to theoretically explain the preferred order and introduce family capital into the pecking order model. Our findings indicate that family firms first prefer internal financing, next debt financing, followed by family capital, and last external capital. We also find that SEW considerations play a role in this financing decision. Especially the retention of control over the firm and the aim to pass the firm to the next generation appear to play an important role in determining this order. These dimensions ensure that family firms try to avoid extra capital. However, when it is needed, they will opt for family capital over external capital. This paper thus provides more insight into the reasoning behind financing decisions in private family firms.
How do family firms finance their investments? When looking for ways to finance their investments, firms have several options. According to traditional finance theories, they generally follow a so-called pecking order: they prefer to first use their internal funds, before turning to external financing. For family firms, the most ubiquitous form of business organization worldwide, two important aspects have been ignored in this research until now. First, socioemotional aspects influence decision-making in family firms and thus probably also financing decisions. Next, the business family itself can act as an external source of finance, which is not yet accounted for in the current pecking order model. In this research, we take these issues into account in order to develop-theoretically and empirically-a family firm pecking order. We investigate over a thousand financing decisions of 277 privately held family firms. Our results show that they prefer internal financing, followed by bank debt, family capital, and external capital. Especially the retention of control over the firm and the aim to pass the firm to the next generation appear to play an important role in determining this order. Our research thus indicates that future research should pay attention to the peculiarities of family firms when investigating their financing decision.
家族企业是全球最普遍的商业组织形式之一。因此，它们的生存和发展不仅对企业自身至关重要，对整体经济也至关重要。影响其生存和发展的因素之一是融资决策。这些决策通常通过啄食顺序理论来描述。然而，对于该理论在私营家族企业中的适用性，人们了解得并不多。鉴于当前文献在理论和实证方面的不足，我们分析了277家家族企业的1087项增量融资决策，以构建和检验一个特定的家族企业啄食顺序。我们整合了社会情感财富视角的要素，从理论上解释了偏好顺序，并将家族资本引入啄食顺序模型。我们的研究结果表明，家族企业首先偏好内部融资，其次是债务融资，然后是家族资本，最后是外部资本。我们还发现，社会情感财富考量在这一融资决策中发挥了作用。特别是对企业控制权的保留以及将企业传承给下一代的目标，在决定这一顺序方面似乎发挥了重要作用。这些维度确保家族企业尽量避免额外资本。然而，当需要时，它们会选择家族资本而非外部资本。因此，本文对私营家族企业融资决策背后的推理提供了更多见解。
家族企业如何为其投资融资？在寻找投资融资方式时，企业有多种选择。根据传统金融理论，它们通常遵循所谓的啄食顺序：在转向外部融资之前，它们更倾向于首先使用内部资金。对于全球最普遍的商业组织形式——家族企业而言，到目前为止，这一研究中一直忽略了两个重要方面。首先，社会情感方面会影响家族企业的决策，因此可能也会影响融资决策。其次，企业家族本身可以作为一种外部融资来源，而当前的啄食顺序模型尚未考虑到这一点。在本研究中，我们考虑了这些问题，以便从理论和实证上构建一个家族企业啄食顺序。我们调查了277家私营家族企业的一千多项融资决策。我们的结果表明，它们偏好内部融资，其次是银行债务、家族资本和外部资本。特别是对企业控制权的保留以及将企业传承给下一代的目标，在决定这一顺序方面似乎发挥了重要作用。我们的研究因此表明，未来研究在调查家族企业融资决策时应关注其特殊性。
