Does gender influence the companies' financial strategies choices? An analysis of the food & beverage Italian industries

Purpose: The agri-food sector is one of the most important in Europe. Although crises occurred, this industry has always had an anti-cyclical trend because of the increasing food and beverage demand. Albeit the global pandemic due to Covid-19, indeed, Food & Beverage (F&B) sub-sector has shown stability and resilience. The work analyses the financial structure of 1924 Italian SMEs belonging to the F&B, to understand if (and eventually how and why) the owner’s gender can affect the preferences about financing sources, and how these choices had influenced the reaction to the worldwide crises. Research design: An empirical analysis is performed on a sample of F&B Italian Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) from 2013-2019. The data are collected by AIDA, a database containing the balance sheet data of all the Italian firms. Firstly, the firms extracted were classified according to gender ownership, then their financial structure is explored through an index analysis. Findings: The results demonstrate that both women’s and men’s businesses tend to move away from the traditional form of bank financing, seeking alternative sources. Secondly, the quantitative gender gap due to a higher presence of male-led SMEs, is not supported by a financial gap in terms of stability, profitability and financial dependence. Practical and social implication: Findings could be useful to agents belonging to the agri-food industry to support the decisionmaking about the financial structure, especially in a period of uncertainty or crisis. In addition, it could be an opportunity for both SMEs to explore new typologies of financing sources and for investors to be aware of different approaches to financial decisions existing between male and female companies’ management. Originality of the study: Although other research has already investigated the relationship between the financial structure and the owner’s gender, this type of study has not interested yet the agri-food companies.