The purpose of this dissertation is the examination of the existence of associations between the financial and organizational structure of Italian SMEs. We collected organizational data for 2015 through a survey that generated 257 respondents and we retrieved financial statements through Bureau van Dijk AIDA database. We then analysed data employing two Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) models and checked for robustness with truncated regressions on more specific associations and a Heckman correction for a suspected sample selection bias. We demonstrate that, effectively, the presence of different financial investors in the capital structure is associated to increasing sizes of managerial teams, of degrees of delegation of decision authority and of levels of specialization of managers. Moreover, the effect increases in the pecking order of capital structure. Additionally, increasing persistence of debt positively influences decentralization and specialization, while it does not in mixed capital structures. Our work shows that the suspected associations hold true at a high significance level and results are found to be robust at different checks. We only hypothesize an explanation of the results but we lack the means to prove causal relationships. We leave this task to a new analysis, suggesting the collection of panel data for different years, to enable a time series analysis. Operationally, we believe that entrepreneurs and managers of SMEs, managers of financial institutions and policymakers may benefit from the research, respectively to find cues of managerial practices, to improve knowledge of expected behaviours of investees and to design more effective small business policies. Up to our knowledge, we believe of having found an important “gap” in the growing literature of SMEs that may benefit both practice and future scientific research.

Associations between the financial and the organizational structure of Italian SMEs

GHEZZI, MASSIMILIANO;DURELLI, DAVIDE
2015/2016

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation is the examination of the existence of associations between the financial and organizational structure of Italian SMEs. We collected organizational data for 2015 through a survey that generated 257 respondents and we retrieved financial statements through Bureau van Dijk AIDA database. We then analysed data employing two Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) models and checked for robustness with truncated regressions on more specific associations and a Heckman correction for a suspected sample selection bias. We demonstrate that, effectively, the presence of different financial investors in the capital structure is associated to increasing sizes of managerial teams, of degrees of delegation of decision authority and of levels of specialization of managers. Moreover, the effect increases in the pecking order of capital structure. Additionally, increasing persistence of debt positively influences decentralization and specialization, while it does not in mixed capital structures. Our work shows that the suspected associations hold true at a high significance level and results are found to be robust at different checks. We only hypothesize an explanation of the results but we lack the means to prove causal relationships. We leave this task to a new analysis, suggesting the collection of panel data for different years, to enable a time series analysis. Operationally, we believe that entrepreneurs and managers of SMEs, managers of financial institutions and policymakers may benefit from the research, respectively to find cues of managerial practices, to improve knowledge of expected behaviours of investees and to design more effective small business policies. Up to our knowledge, we believe of having found an important “gap” in the growing literature of SMEs that may benefit both practice and future scientific research.
ING - Scuola di Ingegneria Industriale e dell'Informazione
21-dic-2016
2015/2016
Tesi di laurea Magistrale
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10589/131101