IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/
MyIDEAS: Log in (now much improved!) to save this article

Are small family firms financially sophisticated?

Author Info

  • Di Giuli, Alberta
  • Caselli, Stefano
  • Gatti, Stefano
Registered author(s):

    Abstract

    We study the drivers of financial sophistication in small family firms. Sophistication is defined as the use of non-basic financial products such as options, swaps, debt restructuring, and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) advisory services. Our analysis is based on a unique dataset with detailed information on 187 Italian family firms. We find that the main drivers of financial sophistication are: (1) the generation that currently owns the firm; (2) the presence of a non-family CFO; and (3) the existence of a non-family shareholder. We analyze the impact of these factors on the following four classes of non-basic financial products: corporate finance, cash management, corporate lending and risk management. Our results can be used to determine the characteristics of financially sophisticated family firms and whether their corporate governance and ownership structure increase the use of non-basic financial products.

    Download Info

    If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378426611001269
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.

    Article provided by Elsevier in its journal Journal of Banking & Finance.

    Volume (Year): 35 (2011)
    Issue (Month): 11 (November)
    Pages: 2931-2944

    as
    in new window

    Handle: RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:35:y:2011:i:11:p:2931-2944
    Contact details of provider: Web page: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbf

    Keywords: Family firms Small firms Financial products;

    References listed on IDEAS
    Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:

    as in new window
    1. Degryse, Hans & Van Cayseele, Patrick, 2000. "Relationship Lending within a Bank-Based System: Evidence from European Small Business Data," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 90-109, January.
    2. Burkart, Mike & Panunzi, Fausto & Shleifer, Andrei, 2002. "Family Firms," CEPR Discussion Papers 3234, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
      • Mike Burkart & Fausto Panunzi & Andrei Shleifer, 2003. "Family Firms," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(5), pages 2167-2202, October.
    3. Randall Morck & David Stangeland & Bernard Yeung, 2000. "Inherited Wealth, Corporate Control, and Economic Growth The Canadian Disease?," NBER Chapters, in: Concentrated Corporate Ownership, pages 319-372 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Villalonga, Belen & Amit, Raphael, 2006. "How do family ownership, control and management affect firm value?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(2), pages 385-417, May.
    5. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-De-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer, 1999. "Corporate Ownership Around the World," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(2), pages 471-517, 04.
    6. Allen N. Berger & Gregory F. Udell, 1998. "The economics of small business finance: the roles of private equity and debt markets in the financial growth cycle," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 1998-15, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    7. David Thesmar & D. Sraer, 2007. "Performance and Behavior of Family Firms: Evidence From the French Stock Market," Post-Print halshs-00170635, HAL.
    8. Gregory E. Elliehausen & John D. Wolken, 1990. "Banking markets and the use of financial services by small and medium- sized businesses," Federal Reserve Bulletin, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.), issue Oct, pages 801-817.
    9. Faccio, Mara & Lang, Larry H. P., 2002. "The ultimate ownership of Western European corporations," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(3), pages 365-395, September.
    10. Smith, Brian F. & Amoako-Adu, Ben, 1999. "Management succession and financial performance of family controlled firms," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 5(4), pages 341-368, December.
    11. Rogoff, Edward G. & Heck, Ramona Kay Zachary, 2003. "Evolving research in entrepreneurship and family business: recognizing family as the oxygen that feeds the fire of entrepreneurship," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 18(5), pages 559-566, September.
    12. Francesco Caselli & Nicola Gennaioli, 2006. "Dynastic management," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 3558, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    13. Alberto Franco Pozzolo, 2004. "The role of guarantees in bank lending," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 528, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    14. Boot, Arnoud W. A., 2000. "Relationship Banking: What Do We Know?," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 7-25, January.
    15. Berger, Allen N & Udell, Gregory F, 1995. "Relationship Lending and Lines of Credit in Small Firm Finance," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 68(3), pages 351-81, July.
    16. Jyrki Niskanen & Mervi Niskanen, 2006. "The Determinants of Corporate Trade Credit Policies in a Bank-dominated Financial Environment: the Case of Finnish Small Firms," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 12(1), pages 81-102.
    17. Boot, Arnoud W A & Thakor, Anjan, 1997. "Can Relationship Banking Survive Competition?," CEPR Discussion Papers 1592, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    18. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Publishing House "SINERGIA PRESS", vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    19. Sraer, David & Thesmar, David, 2004. "Performance and Behaviour of Family Firms: Evidence from the French Stock Market," CEPR Discussion Papers 4520, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    20. Claessens, Stijn & Djankov, Simeon & Lang, Larry H. P., 2000. "The separation of ownership and control in East Asian Corporations," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1-2), pages 81-112.
    21. Bennedsen, Morten & Nielsen, Kasper Meisner, 2010. "Incentive and entrenchment effects in European ownership," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(9), pages 2212-2229, September.
    22. Binks, Martin R & Ennew, Christine T, 1997. "The Relationship between U.K. Banks and Their Small Business Customers," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 9(2), pages 167-78, April.
    23. Stefano Caselli & Alberta Di Giuli, 2010. "Does the CFO matter in family firms? Evidence from Italy," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(5), pages 381-411.
    24. Boubakri, Narjess & Ghouma, Hatem, 2010. "Control/ownership structure, creditor rights protection, and the cost of debt financing: International evidence," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(10), pages 2481-2499, October.
    25. Francisco Pérez-González, 2006. "Inherited Control and Firm Performance," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(5), pages 1559-1588, December.
    26. Morten Bennedsen & Kasper Meisner Nielsen & Francisco Perez-Gonzalez & Daniel Wolfenzon, 2007. "Inside the Family Firm: The Role of Families in Succession Decisions and Performance," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 122(2), pages 647-691.
    27. Basu, Nilanjan & Dimitrova, Lora & Paeglis, Imants, 2009. "Family control and dilution in mergers," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 829-841, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.

    as in new window


    Cited by:

    1. Jaroslav BELAS & Yuriy BILAN & Aleksandr Kljucnikov & Zuzana Vincurova & Jiri Machacek, 2015. "Actual Problems Of Business Risk In Sme Segment. Case Study From Slovakia," International Journal of Entrepreneurial Knowledge, VSP Ostrava, a. s., vol. 3(1), pages 46-56, June.
    2. Jozef Habanik & Petr Novak & Jaroslav Belas & Eva Cipovova, 2014. "Actual Trends in Business Risks for Small and Medium Enterprises. Case Studies from the Czech Republic and Slovakia," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 4, pages 159-181.
    3. Jaroslav Belás & Yuriy Bilan & Valér Demjan & Juraj Sipko, 2015. "Entrepreneurship in SME Segment: Case Study from the Czech Republic and Slovakia," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 17(38), pages 308, February.
    4. Kamil Dobeš & Zuzana Virglerová, 2015. "An Analysis of SME's Attitudes to the Business Environment in the Czech Republic," Proceedings of International Academic Conferences 2805178, International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences.
    5. Whitaker, Stephan, 2014. "Financial Innovations and Issuer Sophistication in Municipal Securities Markets," Working Paper 1404, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.

    This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

    Access and download statistics

    When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:35:y:2011:i:11:p:2931-2944. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Shamier, Wendy)

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

    If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    This information is provided to you by IDEAS at the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis using RePEc data.