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Small and medium-sized enterprises play important roles in modern business society but face difficulties in debt financing. The literature suggests that family involvement and external auditing can help small firms mitigate agency problems that impede access to loans. Our research examines how family involvement influences the effects of the cost of debt on different external auditing choices and how sending credible signals helps resolve the agency conflict between lenders and borrowers in small business financing. We find that when external auditing is used, family involvement does not significantly reduce the cost of debt for small firms. However, when external auditing is not used, family involvement has a significantly positive influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to understand if a change in accounting standards offers new avenues for helping entrepreneurial firms, especially those family-controlled ones, to obtain debt financing from foreign banks. We find that amid the global wave of adopting International Accounting Standards ( IAS), family-controlled firms tend not to voluntarily switch from local generally accepted accounting principles to IAS. After self-selection issues are taken into account, furthermore, entrepreneurial firms adopting IAS experience less difficulty accessing loans from international banks. However, IAS adoption differentially influences private firms, family owned versus nonfamily controlled, in terms of their access to debt capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]