Corporate Governance and Capital Structure Interactions in New Technology Based Firms The Effects of Ownership Structure and Board of Directors on Firm s Leverage
The paper aims to explore the effect of some corporate governance features on the capital structure of NTBFs in term of firm's leverage. It was hypothesized that different ownership and board of directors structures can negatively affect the debt financing choices of this type of firm. Based on a sample of 303 Italian firms' observations over the period 2004 2013, the results suggest that NTBFs with a concentrated ownership denote a reduction of firm's leverage. In addition, also manager shareholders prefer to reduce the level of firms' debt. Nevertheless, the board size seems to have no effects on the capital structure of NTBF's, as well as the presence of independent directors in the board does. The paper offers some contributions on literature and extends the understanding of corporate governance effects on capital structure in NTBFs.