The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of family control, family management and family ownership concentration on the investment-cash flow sensitivity of small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). By analysing a sample of Italian small businesses for the period 2004-2013, I find that family owned firms have significantly larger investment-cash flow dependence with respect to their non-family counterparts. However, the adverse effect of family ownership on the sensitivity of

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... t spending to internal funds availability is mainly due to the presence of family CEOs and highly concentrated family ownership. Further robustness tests confirm the validity of the investmentcash flow sensitivity as proxy for the existence of financing constraints.