Ampenberger, Markus; Schmid, Thomas; Achleitner, Ann-Kristin - 2009
) family firms are considered to be the backbone of the economy. We find that family firms have significantly lower leverage … ratios than non-family firms, independent of the definition of leverage applied. Among the three dimensions of a family firm …, management board involvement by the founding family has a consistently negative influence on leverage across all our models. In …