Konjunkturcyklers påverkan på företags kapitalstruktur : En studie om stora bolag under 2006–2011

Sammanfattning: This study aims to investigate how Sweidish large companies' capital structure is affected by business cycles and which factors affect the capital structure. The impact of the capital structure on companies is described through the two central theories trade-off theory and the pecking order theory. The hypotheses were designed based on the theories and previous studies and tested through multiple regression analysis. The study is based on a quantitative approach because the empirical data is based on numbers. The empirical data is taken from Retriever Business based on the study's sample, which was companies with a turnover of over SEK 500 million, more than 250 employees, active before 2006 and all financial companies were excluded. Based on this selection, 1201 companies emerged from which a cluster sample was made. The sample amounted to 383 companies during the period 2006–2011. This study examines four intervals which are before the financial crisis (2006–2007), during the financial crisis (2008–2009), and after the financial crisis (2010–2011) as well as the total period (2006–2011). In the analysis, a dependent variable (leverage) and three independent variables (size, profitability, and tangibility), and a dummy variable (financial crisis) were used. To carry out the study, a univariate analysis, a bivariate analysis, and a regression analysis were used, the results of which showed that the tangibility and the financial crisis had a positive correlation with the leverage of large companies at a 99 percent significance level. Size and profitability had a negative impact on leverage, however, only profitability demonstrated a statistically significant relationship at the 98 percent level. Based on the result, this study can reject H0b, H0c, and H0d and keep H0a. Based on the results, it’s possible to conclude that the pecking order theory and the trade-off theory explain how large companies finance their operation and how the financial crisis impacted their capital structure. Where the capital structure can be explained based on how profitable a company is and what the asset structure looks like. Where profitable companies have a lower level of leverage, while a company with a high asset structure has a higher level of leverage. The results of this study are in line with previous research. Which is that the financial crisis had an impact on the capital structure where the debt ratio increased during the period of the financial crisis (2008–2009) and then returned to lower levels after the financial crisis (2010–2011).