An Integrated Decision Support Model For Firms' Capital Structure (Case Study: Chemical Companies In Tehran Stock Exchange)

Financing decisions of the firms are one of important tasks for management and according to its nature, it is considered as a Multi-Criteria Decision problem. In this research, a comprehensive review on capital structure theories and its determinants has been made, then the effect of this determinants on the financial leverage of the firms is investigated in three levels: firm specific, industry and economy. In this regard, stepwise regression and pooled mean group model are used. This models specified both short-term and long-term effects of detected factors on capital structure. In this models, as the number of independent variables increase, the co-linearity in the model increases. So, the reliability of model declines and the model can't be a good pattern for financing decisions. In the next step, the identified factors were employed as decision criteria in a hybrid MCDM model that combining DEMATEL and ANP. The ANP weights of the model were used in a Goal programing model and a satisfactory solution for the case study was obtained. By using this model, decision makers can systemically structure a multi-criteria network framework and derive priority weights of those criteria, and then deal with the quantitative financial constraints for a satisfactory solution.