한국기업의 자본구조 결정요인에 대한 연구: 동료기업의 영향력 검증

This study empirically analyzes whether companies are influenced by their peers in determining capital structure and financial policy, using the sample of KSE-listed non-financial companies. In the existing trade-off theory and pecking order theory, the decision of the capital structure is explained by the firm specific characteristics. However, the peer effect literature has emerged in which corporate decision making including financial policy can be affected by the position of companies within the industry. I find that the influence of peer firms in determining financial policy is statistically significant. In further analyses, I divide the sample by the membership of the business groups to reflect the specificity of Korean firms. Peer effect is prominent only among the sample firms that do not belong to any business group. Therefore, the results show that the influence of peer firm is significant as a determinant of capital structure for KSE-listed firms in Korea. Within large business groups, however, the peer effect disappears suggesting that the group effect is stronger than the peer effect in determining financial policies in Korea.