No abstract

This paper studies the determinants of capital structure of 2,329 Portuguese small firms, decomposing total liabilities in long and short-term debt. The results of 2007-2011 panel data suggest that information asymmetry and agency problems seem to be important for small firms in accessing long-term debt. Greater size and a higher level of collateral are quite important in accessing long-term debt. Liquidity is positively associated with long-term debt, although it is negatively related to short-term debt. Higher profitability is related to lower levels of debt. When internal finance is insufficient, these firms seem to be strongly dependent on short-term debt, due to the difficulties in accessing long-term. The main conclusion of the current study is that the predicitons of POT and TOT are followed by small firms in their capital structure, which is in accordance with the results of previous studies focusing on SMEs.Keywords: capital structure; panel data models; small firms. ResumoNeste trabalho, analisamos os determinantes do endividamento das pequenas empresas portuguesas, utilizando os modelos de dados em painel e decompondo a dívida em médio/longo prazo e curto prazo. Os resultados obtidos sugerem que a informação assimétrica e os problemas de agência influenciam o acesso à dívida de longo prazo por parte destas empresas, assim como a dimensão e o nível de colateral. A liquidez está positivamente associada com a dívida de longo prazo e negativamente com a de curto prazo. Maior rendibilidade está relacionada com menor endividamento. Quando os fundos internos são insuficientes, as empresas parecem estar fortemente dependentes da dívida de curto prazo, dadas as dificuldades no acesso à de longo prazo. A principal conclusão deste trabalho é a de que os pressupostos da pecking-order theory e da trade-off theory se aplicam à estrutura de capital das pequenas portuguesas, o que está de acordo com os resultados obtidos em estudos anteriores sobre PME.Palavras-chave: estrutura de capital; dados em painel; pequenas empresas.

ResumoEste trabalho investiga os determinantes da estrutura de capital de 1.488 PME portuguesas pertencentes à indústria transformadora. Os resultados da análise de dados em painel de 2004-2011 sugerem que as teorias do trade-off e da pecking-order não são mutuamente exclusivas na explicação das decisões de estrutura de capital.Os resultados obtidos mostram que as PME de maior dimensão parecem utilizar mais dívida e as que dispõem de menos ativos colaterizáveis necessitam de contrair mais dívida de curto prazo. As empresas mais rendíveis tendem a utilizar menos dívida de longo prazo. Por sua vez, as PME têm dificuldade em financiar o seu crescimento com dívida de médio e longo prazo. Ao contrário do previsto, observou-se uma relação positiva entre a especificidade dos ativos, entendida como a estrutura tecnológica da produção, e o endividamento. As PME mais antigas tendem a apresentar estruturas de capital menos endividadas. A crise financeira parece ter tido impacto na forma de financiamento das PME.Palavras-chave: Estrutura de capital, pequenas e médias empresas, indústria transformadora, dados em painel. AbstractThis paper studies the determinants of capital structure of 1.488 small and medium size Portuguese firms belonging to the manufacturing sector. The analysis results of a 2004-2011 panel data suggest that trade-off and pecking order theories are not mutually exclusive in explaining capital structure decisions.The results obtained suggest that greater size firms employ more debt regardless of its maturity and those with less level of collateral use more short-term debt. More profitable firms tend to use less long-term debt. In turn, small and medium firms have difficulties in financing growth with long-term debt. Unlike what was expected, we observed a positive association between asset specificity, seen as technological structure of production, and debt. Older firms tend to have less leveraged capital structures. The financial crisis seems to have had impact on financing of small and medium Portuguese firms.

This paper addresses capital structure determinants for Portuguese hotel firms between 2006 and 2014. Secondary data from 356 hotel units was analysed using the partial least squares (PLS) statistical technique, a variance-based structural equation modelling (SEM). The results show that the explanatory variables proposed as capital structure determinants have an impact on the financing and debt decisions made by the firms in the sample. Of these, tangibility has the greater explanatory power. Overall, the results support the notion that trade-off theory and pecking-order theory are important in explaining the capital structure of the Portuguese hotel industry, particularly as regards the agency conflicts triggered by growth opportunities and the preference firms have for internal funding. The results also point to the importance of collateral in accessing credit and the lesser impact of asymmetric information pertaining to tangible asset value and firm size. The results suggest small firms find it difficult to contract loans, which can somewhat limit their growth and performance.Keywords: Capital structure, hospitality, structural equation modelling, debt, management. ResumoEste trabalho investiga os determinantes da estrutura de capital de empresas hoteleiras em Portugal no período de 2006-2014. Os dados secundários referentes a 356 unidades hoteleiras foram analisados com recurso à técnica estatística de mínimos quadrados parciais e respetivo modelo de equações estruturais, baseado na variância. Os resultados obtidos evidenciam que as variáveis explicativas propostas como determinantes da estrutura de capital têm impacto nas decisões sobre o endividamento das empresas da amostra, sendo a tangibilidade a que tem maior poder explicativo. No geral, os resultados apresentados sustentam que as teorias do trade-off e da pecking-order não são mutuamente exclusivas e são importantes na explicação da estrutura de capital das empresas hoteleiras portuguesas, nomeadamente quanto aos conflitos de agência suscitados pelas oportunidades de crescimento e à preferência das empresas pelo financiamento por fundos internos. Os resultados apontam também para a relevância no acesso ao crédito da característica de colateralidade e menor severidade da informação assimétrica associada ao valor dos ativos tangíveis e à dimensão da empresa. Neste contexto, os resultados sugerem a existência de dificuldades das pequenas empresas na contração de empréstimos e, eventualmente, o condicionamento do seu crescimento e desempenho.Palavras-chave: Estrutura de capital, indústria hoteleira, modelo de equações estruturais, dívida empresarial, gestão.

PurposeThis paper seeks to analyze the family firm's capital structure decisions, focusing on the speed of adjustment (SOA) as well as on the effect of distance from the target capital structure on the SOA towards target short-term and long-term debt ratios in unlisted small and medium-sized family firms.Design/methodology/approachMethodologically, we use dynamic panel data estimators to estimate the effects of distance on the speeds of adjustment towards those targets. Data for the period 2006–2014 were collected for two research sub-samples: one sub-sample with 398 family firms; the other sub-sample contains 217 non-family firms.FindingsThe results show that the deviation from the target debt ratios impacts negatively on the speeds of adjustment towards target short-term and long-term debt ratios in unlisted family firms. These results suggest that family firms, deviating from target debt ratios, face deviation costs, i.e. insolvency costs, inferior to the adjustment costs, i.e. transaction costs. Therefore, family firms stay away from the target debt ratios for a long time than do non-family firms.Research limitations/implicationsThe research sample comprises a low number of family firms, therefore for future research we suggest increasing the size of the sample of family firms to get a deeper understanding of family firms' SOA towards capital structure. Additionally, we suggest the analysis of other potential determinants of the speed of adjustment towards target capital structure.Practical implicationsThe results obtained suggest that the distance from the target short-term and long-term debt ratios can be avoided if these firms do not depend almost exclusively on internal finance to adjust towards target capital structure. Moreover, for policymakers, we suggest the creation/promotion of alternative external finance sources, allowing reduced transaction costs that contribute to a faster adjustment of small family firms towards target capital structure.Originality/valueThe most previous research focusing on capital structure decisions have focused on listed family firms. To fill this gap, this study examines the speed of adjustment towards target debt ratios in the context of unlisted family firms. Moreover, transaction costs are a function of debt maturity, therefore this study examines separately the speeds of adjustment towards target short-term and long-term debt ratios. This paper shows that the adjustment costs (i.e. transaction costs) could hold back family firms from rebalancing its capital structure.