A review of the applicability of the main theories of financial structure to Spanish worker cooperatives

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ABSTRACT The dominant financial theories have been developed, mainly, under the schemes of large capitalist corporations, overlooking the special configuration of personalist corporations or societies such as worker cooperatives. As a consequence, the possibility of extrapolating to cooperative enterprises the findings of research focusing on understanding the financial dynamics of commercial companies is limited. For this reason, it is necessary to carry out specific studies that delve into their singularities, given that these may affect the applicability of the most relevant theories in the field of financial structure decisions, such as the ‘trade-off’ or ‘pecking order’ theories. Thus, this study concludes, based on a deductive analysis, that the behaviour of Spanish worker cooperative corporations requires certain relevant nuances to be understood with respect to the assumptions of these theories and that any financial research on worker cooperatives should consider these carefully.