Despite the increasing interest in single family offices (SFOs) as an investment owned by an entrepreneurial family, research on SFOs is still in its infancy. In particular, little is known about the capital structures of SFOs or the roots of SFO heterogeneity regarding financial decisions. By drawing on a hand-collected sample of 104 SFOs and private equity (PE) firms, we compare the financing choices of these two investor types in the context of direct entrepreneurial investments (DEIs). Our data thereby provide empirical evidence that SFOs are less likely to raise debt than PE firms, suggesting that SFOs follow pecking-order theory. Regarding the heterogeneity of the financial decisions of SFOs, our data indicate that the relationship between SFOs and debt financing is reinforced by the idiosyncrasies of entrepreneurial families, such as higher levels of owner management and a higher firm age. Surprisingly, our data do not support a moderating effect for the emphasis placed on socioemotional wealth (SEW).

尽管越来越多的人将单身家庭办公室（SFO）作为企业家家庭拥有的投资，但对SFO的研究仍处于起步阶段。特别是，对于SFO的资本结构或SFO关于财务决策的异质性根源知之甚少。通过手工收集104家SFO和私募股权（PE）公司的样本，我们在直接企业家投资（DEI）的背景下比较了这两种投资者类型的融资选择。因此，我们的数据提供的经验证据表明，与私人公司相比，SFO不太可能举债，这表明SFO遵循啄食顺序理论。关于SFO财务决策的异质性，我们的数据表明，SFO与债务融资之间的关系因企业家家庭的特质而得到加强，例如更高级别的所有者管理和更高的公司年龄。出乎意料的是，我们的数据并不支持对社会情感财富（SEW）的重视。