RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article T1 One more piece of the family firm debt puzzle: the influence of socioemotional wealth dimensions A1 Blanco Mazagatos, Virginia A1 Romero Merino, María Elena A1 Santamaría Mariscal, Marcos A1 Delgado García, Juan Bautista K1 Socioemotional wealth importance (SEWi) K1 Debt K1 Family goals K1 Family continuity K1 Family prominence K1 Family enrichment K1 Economía K1 Economics K1 Familias K1 Families AB The literature on debt financing in family firms is still inconclusive. Initial studies have usually focused on the influence of family involvement on firm’s debt levels by using the explanations of traditional economic theories. More recent studies have begun to focus on the role of family goals in family firm debt levels, particularly drawing on socioemotional wealth (SEW), which has helped in the development of financial theories of family business. Nevertheless, existing arguments have usually not considered SEW as a multidimensional construct that covers diverse family goals. In addition, literature has usually drawn on arguments considering SEW as a stock, but have not considered the importance given to SEW (SEWi), which specifically acknowledges SEW as a goal. Our paper responds to recent calls to extend theoretical arguments on the effect of diverse dimensions of SEWi on family firm behavior and to focus on the role of SEWi on the family firms’ debt. Specifically, we test how the CEOs’ assessment of the importance that their family attaches to the continuity, prominence, and enrichment dimensions of SEWi influences the level of debt. To do so, we use a sample of 126 Spanish unlisted family businesses. Our results show that the continuity dimension of SEWi leads family businesses to increase their debt level being a key determinant of this financing decision. PB Springer Nature SN 0921-898X YR 2024 FD 2024-01-25 LK http://hdl.handle.net/10259/9219 UL http://hdl.handle.net/10259/9219 LA eng NO Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. This work received fnancial support from Spanish Ministerio of Ciencia e Innovación (Grants PID2020-120288 GB-100). DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Burgos RD 21-jun-2024