IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pep/journl/v8y2003i1p31-55.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Risk, Return and Degree of Owner Involvement in Privately Held Firms

Author

Listed:
  • Edward Vos

    (University of Waikato)

  • Bronwyn M. Smith

Abstract

Financial theory states that the variability of an asset’s return should be explained by the relative riskiness of that asset (Sharpe, 1964). This concept has been built around, and applied to, publicly-listed companies for which market information (which forms the basis of the risk and return measures) is easily visible and obtainable. Unfortunately, the fact that such information is rarely (if ever) available for small businesses, severely limits the usefulness of such a theory for privately-held enterprises. Therefore by using data from 100 small businesses and three measures of risk, this study provides empirical evidence that for small businesses, there is no significant relationship between financial returns and risk, but there is a relationship between the level of control exerted by the owners of a firm and the financial returns of that firm. This paper also provides evidence that owners with little or no control of a firm, take action to prevent agency costs. This action is in the form of disbursements to shareholders, rather than using debt as a means of reducing agency costs.

Suggested Citation

  • Edward Vos & Bronwyn M. Smith, 2003. "Risk, Return and Degree of Owner Involvement in Privately Held Firms," Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance, Pepperdine University, Graziadio School of Business and Management, vol. 8(1), pages 31-55, Spring.
    • Handle: RePEc:pep:journl:v:8:y:2003:i:1:p:31-55
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://jefsite.org/RePEc/pep/journl/jef-2003-08-1-c-vos.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fama, Eugene F & French, Kenneth R, 1992. "The Cross-Section of Expected Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(2), pages 427-465, June.
    2. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    3. Edward A. Vos, 1992. "Differences in Risk Measurement for Small Unlisted Businesses," Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance, Pepperdine University, Graziadio School of Business and Management, vol. 1(3), pages 255-267, Spring.
    4. James S. Ang & Rebel A. Cole & James Wuh Lin, 2000. "Agency Costs and Ownership Structure," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(1), pages 81-106, February.
    5. Collins, Robert A. & Barry, Peter J., 1988. "Beta-adjusted hurdle rates for proprietary firms," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 139-145, May.
    6. Ball, R & Brown, P, 1969. "Portfolio Theory And Accounting," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(2), pages 300-323.
    7. Kothari, S P & Shanken, Jay & Sloan, Richard G, 1995. "Another Look at the Cross-Section of Expected Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 50(1), pages 185-224, March.
    8. James S. Ang, 1992. "On the Theory of Finance for Privately Held Firms," Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance, Pepperdine University, Graziadio School of Business and Management, vol. 1(3), pages 185-203, Spring.
    9. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 1993. "Common risk factors in the returns on stocks and bonds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 3-56, February.
    10. William F. Sharpe, 1964. "Capital Asset Prices: A Theory Of Market Equilibrium Under Conditions Of Risk," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 19(3), pages 425-442, September.
    11. Fama, Eugene F & MacBeth, James D, 1973. "Risk, Return, and Equilibrium: Empirical Tests," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(3), pages 607-636, May-June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Vos, Ed & Yeh, Andy Jia-Yuh & Carter, Sara & Tagg, Stephen, 2007. "The happy story of small business financing," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(9), pages 2648-2672, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ray Ball & Gil Sadka & Ayung Tseng, 2022. "Using accounting earnings and aggregate economic indicators to estimate firm-level systematic risk," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 27(2), pages 607-646, June.
    2. Suranjita Mukherjee & Carol Padgett, 2006. "Return Differences Between Family and Non-Family Firms: Absolute and Index Differences," ICMA Centre Discussion Papers in Finance icma-dp2006-11, Henley Business School, University of Reading.
    3. Eero Pätäri & Timo Leivo, 2017. "A Closer Look At Value Premium: Literature Review And Synthesis," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(1), pages 79-168, February.
    4. Wang, Yuenan & Di Iorio, Amalia, 2007. "The cross section of expected stock returns in the Chinese A-share market," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 335-349, March.
    5. Gabriel Hawawini & Donald B. Keim, "undated". "The Cross Section of Common Stock Returns: A Review of the Evidence and Some New Findings," Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research Working Papers 08-99, Wharton School Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research.
    6. Jacoby, Gady & Fowler, David J. & Gottesman, Aron A., 2000. "The capital asset pricing model and the liquidity effect: A theoretical approach," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 3(1), pages 69-81, February.
    7. Martin Wallmeier, 2000. "Determinanten erwarteter Renditen am deutschen Aktienmarkt — Eine empirische Untersuchung anhand ausgewählter Kennzahlen," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 52(1), pages 27-57, February.
    8. Teresa Chu & In-Mu Haw & Bryan Lee & Woody Wu, 2014. "Cost of equity capital, control divergence, and institutions: the international evidence," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 43(3), pages 483-527, October.
    9. Ferson, Wayne E. & Harvey, Campbell R., 1997. "Fundamental determinants of national equity market returns: A perspective on conditional asset pricing," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 21(11-12), pages 1625-1665, December.
    10. S. Ozornov, 2015. "Validity Of Fama And French Model On Rts Index," Review of Business and Economics Studies // Review of Business and Economics Studies, Финансовый Университет // Financial University, vol. 3(4), pages 22-43.
    11. Sheu, Her-Jiun & Wu, Soushan & Ku, Kuang-Ping, 1998. "Cross-sectional relationships between stock returns and market beta, trading volume, and sales-to-price in Taiwan," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 1-18.
    12. John Y. Campbell, 2000. "Asset Pricing at the Millennium," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(4), pages 1515-1567, August.
    13. Jank, Stephan, 2015. "Specialized human capital, unemployment risk, and the value premium," VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 113214, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    14. Ebrahim, M. Shahid & Girma, Sourafel & Shah, M. Eskandar & Williams, Jonathan, 2014. "Rationalizing the value premium in emerging markets," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 51-70.
    15. Fernando Rubio, 2005. "Eficiencia De Mercado, Administracion De Carteras De Fondos Y Behavioural Finance," Finance 0503028, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 23 Jul 2005.
    16. Grauer, Robert R. & Janmaat, Johannus A., 2004. "The unintended consequences of grouping in tests of asset pricing models," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(12), pages 2889-2914, December.
    17. Harshit Mishra & Parama Barai, 2024. "Entropy Augmented Asset Pricing Model: Study on Indian Stock Market," Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, Springer;Japanese Association of Financial Economics and Engineering, vol. 31(1), pages 81-99, March.
    18. M. Eskandar Shah & Sourafel Girm & R. Hudson, 2012. "Rationalizing the Value Premium under Economic Fundamentals in an Emerging Market," Working Papers 12010, Bangor Business School, Prifysgol Bangor University (Cymru / Wales).
    19. Low, Cheekiat & Nayak, Subhankar, 2009. "The non-relevance of the elusive holy grail of asset pricing tests: The "true" market portfolio does not alter CAPM validity conclusions," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 49(4), pages 1460-1475, November.
    20. Davis, James L., 1996. "The cross-section of stock returns and survivorship bias: Evidence from delisted stocks," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 365-375.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Risk; Return; Owner Involvement; Private Firms;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • M13 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - New Firms; Startups

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pep:journl:v:8:y:2003:i:1:p:31-55. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Craig Everett (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bapepus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.