Family Ownership Dispersion And Debt Level: The Moderating Role Of Intergenerational Stage

While family ownership dispersion is seen as inf luencing f irm performance, the impact of such dispersion on debt level is st ill largely unexplored. This study helps to explain why int rafamily equity dispersion shapes the capital st ructure in family f irms. The point of this paper is to invest igate the f inancing behaviour of family f irms along the dispersion of family ownership. Drawing on the socio-emot ional wealth (SEW) literature, we argue that debt levels are cont ingent on the degree of ownership dispersion among family members. Based on a sample of 2.451 observations, in a t a ten-year t ime f rame, our results reveal the existence of an inverted Ushape relat ionship between debt level and int ra-family ownership dispersion. Moreover, we f ind that these f indings are moderated by the generat ional involvement : the relat ionship is inverted in later generat ions. Our results are robust against dif ferent model specif ications.