Influence of capital structure on the economic performance of Brazilian family and non-family businesses

Purpose – This research aims to verify the influence of the capital structure on the economic performance of the Brazilian family and non-family businesses. Design/methodology/approach – The research is characterized as descriptive, documentary, and quantitative, being the accounting data under analysis extracted from the Economatica ® database. The sample is composed of 117 publicly traded companies listed in B3, being 68 family and 49 non-family with an analysis period from 2011 to 2015. To reach the objective, statistical techniques were used, with emphasis on multiple linear regression models. Findings – The results point out that the Short-term Debt Ratio (SDR) and Long-term Debt Ratio (LDR) negatively influence the performance of family businesses, while SDR and LDR have a negative and positive relationship, respectively, with the performance of the non-family business.  Originality/value – In short, such results demonstrate that family businesses must follow the pecking-order theory prerogatives to maximize their performance, while managers of non-family organizations need to observe the assumptions of both theories – trade-off and pecking-order – according to the type of indebtedness (short or long term).