ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL INDICATORS AND DETERMINANTS OF THE CAPITAL STRUCTURE OF SERVICE SECTOR ENTERPRISES: A PANEL DATA ANALYSIS

Research on the capital structure has meaningful and relevant participation in Finance. Several empirical and theoretical approaches seek to explain the determinants and the choices of capital structures in firms. In this sense, the present study analyzed the determinants of capital structure for the companies of the Brazilian service sector with the theoretical argument of the Pecking Order (POT). Discussed the hierarchy of sources of financing in companies. Methodologically, the research considered publicly traded companies in the service sector from 2007 to 2013. With the Data Panel application are considered to model the composition of the debt variable (dependent), size, tangibility, market to book, profitability, liquidity (financial clearance), operating cycle and asset turnover (independent). The results showed a partial acceptance of the hypothesis. It was observed that only tangibility not presented as an explanatory metric for the capital structure. The variables financial slack and profitability were significant and corroborated with the POT presuppositions. In contrast, despite having significance to the capital structure, the variables, market to book, indicating preferences for the issuance of shares and size, operating cycle and asset turnover, with directions to the debts, contradicted the POT.