• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.518-526
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• 2017

This study analyzed the impact of family firms and their characteristics on how they use debts to analyze the decision-making process of Korean family firms. For analysis, we classified the characteristics of family firms into three categories, through the influence of the relationship between the lack of funds and net debt issuance, which was confirmed as the 'packing order theory' of family firms. There was a total of 4,503 enterprises in the Korean Exchange (KRX). The period of analysis was 10 years, between 2004 and 2014. To summarize, Shyam-Sunder and Myers (1999) validated the packing order theory by presenting a model of family businesses that showed greater applicable to higher packing order theory than a model of non-family businesses. Moreover, the results also confirmed the application of the packing order theory by the family stronger corporate governance and ownership structure. The ownership and governance characteristics of the ruling family has also shown the applicability of higher packing order theory.