Do dissimilarities in the family involvement in family firms lead to different levels of indebtedness? Evidence from Spain

Purpose – This paper examines how differences in the family involvement in a family business can influence its level of indebtedness. Assuming the influence of family is not the same for all family firms, we consider each company as a combination of the family involvement in three dimensions of the...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Comino-Jurado, María, Sánchez-Andújar, Sonia, Parrado-Martínez, Purificación
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2021
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Jaén
Repositorio:RUJA. Repositorio Institucional de la Producción Científica de la Universidad de Jaén
OAI Identifier:oai:dnet:ruja________::d6a535d448bc4beb3b1892f556013560
Acceso en línea:https://doi.org/10.1108/MD-05-2020-0582
https://hdl.handle.net/10953/7793
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Family firms
Family involvement
Heterogeneity
Indebtedness
Partial least squares
Socio-emotional wealth
658.14/.17
334.722.24(460)
Descripción
Sumario:Purpose – This paper examines how differences in the family involvement in a family business can influence its level of indebtedness. Assuming the influence of family is not the same for all family firms, we consider each company as a combination of the family involvement in three dimensions of the business: ownership, management and governance structure. Design/methodology/approach – Using the partial least squares technique allows us to address the heterogeneity of family firms through an integral concept of family involvement in business that jointly considers the level of family participation in the ownership, management and governance structure of each firm. Findings – Our results demonstrate that the level of family involvement in a family firm, considering the heterogeneity existing within the family business group, directly influences its level of indebtedness. In addition, we find that family involvement in ownership and governance structure individually considered are positively related to the level of indebtedness of the family business. Originality/value – Our findings prove that some indebtedness patterns, which previous literature has described as common to all Spanish family businesses, may actually be valid only for specific family firms with a particular level of family involvement. In addition, the way of measuring family business heterogeneity through our integral concept of family involvement can be replicated by other authors because of the manageability of the items, thus contributing to an increased understanding of the effects of family involvement in firms’ development.