Same same, but different: capital structures in single family offices compared with private equity firms

Antonia Schickinger (), Alexandra Bertschi-Michel (), Max P. Leitterstorf () and Nadine Kammerlander ()
Additional contact information
Antonia Schickinger: WHU–Otto Beisheim School of Management
Alexandra Bertschi-Michel: University of Bern
Max P. Leitterstorf: Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg
Nadine Kammerlander: WHU–Otto Beisheim School of Management

Small Business Economics, 2022, vol. 58, issue 3, No 9, 1407-1425

Abstract: Abstract Despite the increasing interest in single family offices (SFOs) as an investment owned by an entrepreneurial family, research on SFOs is still in its infancy. In particular, little is known about the capital structures of SFOs or the roots of SFO heterogeneity regarding financial decisions. By drawing on a hand-collected sample of 104 SFOs and private equity (PE) firms, we compare the financing choices of these two investor types in the context of direct entrepreneurial investments (DEIs). Our data thereby provide empirical evidence that SFOs are less likely to raise debt than PE firms, suggesting that SFOs follow pecking-order theory. Regarding the heterogeneity of the financial decisions of SFOs, our data indicate that the relationship between SFOs and debt financing is reinforced by the idiosyncrasies of entrepreneurial families, such as higher levels of owner management and a higher firm age. Surprisingly, our data do not support a moderating effect for the emphasis placed on socioemotional wealth (SEW).

Keywords: Entrepreneurial family; Single family office; Private equity; Capital structure; C12; C83; G11; G23; G32; L26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11187-021-00448-x Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:sbusec:v:58:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s11187-021-00448-x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... 29/journal/11187/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s11187-021-00448-x

Access Statistics for this article

Small Business Economics is currently edited by Zoltan J. Acs and David B. Audretsch

More articles in Small Business Economics from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().