Does reputation of sponsors matter in IPO? Evidence from Hong Kong

Contrary to other markets where underwriters perform a combined role of underwriting and sponsoring in an Initial Public Offering (IPO), IPO issuers in Hong Kong must appoint at least one sponsor in addition to the underwriters. The splitting of the single role of underwriters into two separate ones offers an ideal setting to disentangle the effects of the two roles and to examine which of the two roles—sponsor or underwriter—is more important in explaining IPO underpricing and initial volatility in the Hong Kong equity market. Interestingly, our findings provide supportive evidence that the sponsor reputation does matter in an IPO and it is even more significant than the underwriter reputation in explaining the IPO underpricing phenomenon. Given the recent high-tech fervor, our research goes deeper to examine specifically the role of sponsors on high-tech firms, with results indicating that the reliance on sponsors is higher for traditional issuers than for technology firms. We further discover that sponsors and underwriters are playing substitution roles rather than complementary roles. In order to examine the regulatory policy impact, our research also compares the role of IPO sponsors before and after the launch of the new sponsor regulatory regime in 2013. The empirical findings lend support to our argument that after the launch of the new regulations, public awareness of sponsors is raised, respect towards more reputable sponsor increases, and thus, the role of sponsors becomes more important than before.     

承销商声誉与IPO抑价的实证分析——基于我国股票发行监管制度改革

通过以我国沪深两市793个A股为样本,建立回归模型,检验承销商声誉与IPO抑价的关系发现,随着股票发行监管制度变迁,承销商逐渐开始注重声誉建设和维护;另外,由于我国股票发行定价制度的非完全市场化,整体上承销商声誉与IPO抑价成正相关关系。这一结论说明了我国股票发行监管制度改革是有效的,强化了承销商的责任和风险防范,有利于加快承销商间的优胜劣汰,有利于承销商声誉机制的形成,促进了我国证券市场承销商对声誉的建设与维护。     

The relationship between venture capital backing and the top management team quality of firms going public and implications for initial public offerings

We make use of hand-collected data on a large sample of entrepreneurial firms going public to analyze the association between venture capital (VC) backing and the top management team (TMT) quality of firms at the time of their initial public offerings (IPOs), and the effect of both VC-backing and TMT quality on the growth in their post-IPO operating performance and IPO firm valuations. We first show that VC-backing is associated with higher TMT quality. We then show that both higher TMT quality and VC-backing lead to higher growth in post-IPO operating performance and higher IPO valuations. We find that the above two variables affect the growth in post-IPO operating performance through an “ability channel,” whereby the TMTs of such firms choose projects with higher equilibrium scale and implement them more ably. Further, TMT quality and VC-backing affect IPO firm valuations not only through the above ability channel, but also through a “certification channel,” whereby higher TMT quality and VC-backing credibly certify intrinsic firm value to the IPO market, thus reducing the extent of asymmetric information facing such firms in the IPO market and yielding these firms higher IPO valuations. Finally, we show that TMT quality and VC-backing act as complements in their effect on IPO firms' growth in post-IPO operating performance.     

组织间模仿能够解释IPO企业的承销商选择行为吗？——基于新制度理论和组织学习理论的分析

不同于以往IPO承销商选择的研究视角,文章基于新制度理论和组织学习理论,研究了组织间模仿对IPO承销商选择行为的影响。以2006-2012年我国中小板IPO事件为研究对象,发现模仿是解释IPO承销商选择的重要因素,并且在IPO企业的承销商选择中同时存在着不同类型的模仿行为。在面临合法性压力时,IPO企业的模仿属于基于频率的模仿,而非模仿领先者;同时,企业的模仿行为也受理性因素的驱动,企业会有选择性的模仿那些已经取得较好成果的行为,并且成果的显著性程度也会对企业的模仿行为产生影响。     

How much prestige is enough? Assessing the value of multiple types of high-status affiliates for young firms

Young, unproven firms can signal their worthiness, or potential, through affiliations with various types of prestigious parties. Drawing from signaling theory, we present a formal consideration of the implications of multiple numbers and types of prestigious affiliates for IPO valuations. We argue that different types of prestigious affiliates – prestigious executives, directors, venture capital firms, and underwriters – convey different signals of IPO worth, depending on the extent to which they provide certification or substantive benefits. Based on a sample of 257 software IPOs, we find considerable support for our expectations. The benefits of prestigious executives and directors accumulate in a linear, more is better fashion; in contrast, the payoffs from VC and underwriter prestige accumulate in a curvilinear fashion. We discuss the theoretical implications of these findings and propose an agenda for future research.     

客户重要性与审计质量：基于投资者保护视角

本文探讨投资者保护条款的完善与执行、客户重要性与审计质量之间的关系,利用我国证券市场2003~2005年的数据研究发现：（1）客户重要性对审计质量并没有产生负面影响,事务所审计质量普遍有所提高;（2）随着法律责任的加重,法律保护条款的完善与盈余管理空间显著负相关,然而法律执行越严的省区,上市公司的盈余管理却越强烈,这表明中国证券市场出现了法律条款的完善与执行逆向起作用的＂背驰效应＂;（3）审计师对盈余管理方向的关注与国外文献的发现不一致,审计师能够关注重要客户操纵盈余减少的行为,但却无法控制重要客户操纵盈余增加的行为;（4）相对于规模较小的事务所而言,投资者保护条款的完善对规模较大的事务所提高审计质量具有更明显的促进作用。     

Alliance portfolios and shareholder value in post-IPO firms: The moderating roles of portfolio structure and firm-level uncertainty

Using longitudinal data for initial public offering (IPO) firms, we examine the role played by structural differences between different types of alliance portfolios in the relationship between IPO firm alliance portfolios and shareholder returns. We show that because of the different signals they send to the capital market, different types of alliance portfolios affect IPO firm performance differently. Namely, financial markets seem to reward firms whose alliance portfolio is diversified across different types of alliances (a portfolio high in functional diversity), but not those who align their alliance partners into multiple functional points in the value chain (a portfolio high in vertical scope). We also examine the signaling role of alliance portfolios under different IPO firm uncertainty conditions. We note that uncertainty about the IPO firm is not limited to pre-IPO quality uncertainty. Investors also face transition uncertainty, post-IPO uncertainty about the ability of the firm to adapt to the new managerial challenges it faces and succeed post-IPO. We find that these two types of uncertainties moderate alliance portfolio effects in different ways. The beneficial effects of alliance portfolios in mitigating liabilities of newness is of greater importance for firms associated with higher quality uncertainty and for those associated with lower transition uncertainty.     

Disclosure of Downside Risk and Investors' Use of Qualitative Information: Evidence from the IPO Prospectus's Risk Factor Section

I use the context of a company's initial public offering (IPO) of equity securities as a capital‐market setting to empirically study the economic consequences of risk factor disclosures. Using data from Australian IPOs, I examine the relation of textual risk disclosures in the prospectus to initial underpricing. I find that the quantity of disclosures in the risk factor section itself has no significant impact on initial underpricing. However, an increase in the informativeness of risk factor disclosures is associated with lower IPO underpricing. My results suggest that IPOs that provide informative risk factor disclosures have less ex ante uncertainty, in the sense that the disclosures help investors estimate the dispersion of secondary market value. The effect of informative risk factor disclosures on IPO underpricing is more pronounced for IPOs with less prestigious lead underwriters and is mainly driven by younger firms, smaller firms, and firms with poorer operating performance prior to their IPOs. Collectively, my findings suggest that informative disclosures of downside risk are useful for investors to evaluate IPOs.     

Analysts' Strategic Distortion during IPO Waves

We study analysts' strategic distortion during different stages of initial public offering (IPO) waves. We find analysts affiliated with leading underwriters time the market and “speak in two tongues” in recommendations and forecasts when they balance between conflicting interests of corporate finance clients and brokerage clients. They are more optimistic than nonaffiliated analysts in recommendations, but not in earnings forecasts in the early stages of IPO waves. More positive recommendations help them win a larger share of the booming IPO business. This distortion is absent in the late stages of IPO waves. We also find that the market discounts strong‐buy recommendations from affiliated analysts in the early stages of IPO waves.     

The path-to-profitability of Internet IPO firms

Extant empirical evidence indicates that the proportion of firms going public prior to achieving profitability has been increasing over time. This phenomenon is largely driven by an increase in the proportion of technology firms going public. Since there is considerable uncertainty regarding the long-term economic viability of these firms at the time of going public, identifying factors that influence their ability to attain key post-IPO milestones such as achieving profitability represents an important area of research. We employ a theoretical framework built around agency and signaling considerations to identify factors that influence the probability and timing of post-IPO profitability of Internet IPO firms. We estimate Cox Proportional Hazards models to test whether factors identified by our theoretical framework significantly impact the probability of post-IPO profitability as a function of time. We find that the probability of post-IPO profitability increases with pre-IPO investor demand and change in ownership at the IPO of the top officers and directors. On the other hand, the probability of post-IPO profitability decreases with the venture capital participation, proportion of outsiders on the board, and pre-market valuation uncertainty.     

Board member age,stock seasoning and the evolution of capital structure in Chinese firms

This study examines the evolution of capital structure for Chinese stock issuers over an eleven-year period, stretching three years pre- to eight years post-listing. The paper scrutinizes the role of a key demographic in this seasoning process: The age of board officers. The present study’s key postulate is that board age proxies for a firm’s growth options. While issuer indebtedness exhibits little to no connection with other board properties, a strong inverse association exists with officer age. Moreover, entities with older boards experience notably smaller contractions in leverage on listing, as well as more subdued upswings post-IPO. Results are congruent with older board firms possessing fewer growth options and raising less capital at IPO. Additionally, study findings suggest that the Global Financial Crisis delayed Chinese firms’ re-leveraging adjustments post-IPO. Finally, changes to leverage at IPO, and in the years thereafter, appear similar for both hot- and cold-market issuers.     

职业声誉、信息质量与信息吸收效率

中国的审计市场正处于发展阶段,存在大量声誉差异较大的审计事务所,这为研究声誉机制如何为企业带来价值提供了特殊的制度环境。从证券分析师视角出发,以"四大"作为高职业声誉事务所的代表,研究结果发现:聘用"四大"审计的企业,分析师预测精确度较高,预测分歧度较低。这表明聘用高职业声誉的事务所能够提供更高质量的信息,降低了投资者对企业内部价值相关信息的分歧,提高了市场对信息的吸收效率。上述结果为研究声誉在证券市场中的作用机制提供了新的证据。     

Effects of differential information on the after-market valuation of initial public offerings

This paper examines the after-market for initial public offerings (IPOs), particularly the security valuation effects of structural differences in available information. There is a diversity of information among issuing firms at the time of their offering and particularly under certain market conditions. Because this diversity decreases with time and after-market trading, the IPO market provides an ideal setting for testing errors due to differential information levels in early after-market valuation of IPO firms. We find evidence that during “hot” market conditions and for firms characterized by low levels of available information, the market values of issuing firms are more likely to be overestimated in the immediate after-market. We also find positive overestimation of market values to be more likely for larger IPOs and for those marketed by the less prestigious underwriters.     

Signaling in science-based IPOs: The combined effect of affiliation with prestigious universities,underwriters, and venture capitalists

This paper studies the combined effect of affiliation with prestigious universities, underwriters, and venture capitalists on the valuation of biotech ventures at IPO and their post-IPO performance. We argue that affiliation to a prestigious university provides the affiliated firm with a quality signal in the scientific domain. The pure quality signaling effect of the affiliation is isolated from the substantive benefits it provides by performing a difference-in-difference approach based on the scientific reputation of scientists in firms' upper echelons. The signal is stronger the weaker is the scientific reputation of scientists of the focal IPO-firm and is additive to those provided by prestigious venture capitalists and underwriters. Results for a sample of 254 European biotech ventures that went through an IPO between 1990 and 2009 confirm our predictions.     

Buy,Lie, or Die: An Investigation of Chinese ST Firms’ Voluntary Interim Audit Motive and Auditor Independence

In the Chinese stock market, special treatment (ST) firms are the firms listed as facing imminent danger of delisting, unless they return to profitability after reporting two consecutive annual losses. Some ST firms voluntarily pay substantial fees to their external auditors to conduct interim audits, which are not required by regulations. In this study, we investigate and find that ST firms that pay for voluntary interim audits report greater discretionary accrued earnings, higher non-operating earnings, and higher returns on assets in ensuing annual reports. As a result, these firms are more likely to return to profitability and reduce their delisting risk. Our results, which contribute to the current debate on auditor independence, appear to be consistent with the possibility that ST firms “buy” external auditors’ cooperation to manipulate earnings when faced with the threat of delisting.     

The role of internationalization on the IPO performance of service firms: Examination of initial returns,long-run returns,and survivability

This study examines the effect of internationalization on the initial and long-run IPO performance of service firms. The study discusses that pre-IPO internationalization of service firms contributes to the explanation of long-discussed IPO underpricing phenomenon, and underperformance of IPOs in the long-run. Sample of the study includes 1822 IPO issues conducted by US service firms between 1980 and 2009. Findings of the study suggest that international service firms leave less money on table in their IPOs compared to domestic service firms by providing significantly lower first day returns to their investors on their first day of public trading. Moreover, our findings provide evidence that 3-year cumulative abnormal returns and 3-year buy-and-hold returns of international service firms are significantly higher than domestic service firms, and international service firms outperform domestic service firms in both operating return on assets and operating cash flows in the post-IPO period. Lastly, the study documents that survival rate of service firms subsequent to an IPO issue increases with pre-IPO internationalization.     

Organizational Virtue and Stakeholder Interdependence: An Empirical Examination of Financial Intermediaries and IPO Firms

Organizational virtue orientation (OVO), an organizational-level construct, refers to the integrated set of beliefs and values that support ethical character traits and virtuous behaviors. To advance the study of organizational virtue, we examine OVO in firms making their initial public offerings (IPOs), with respect to key external stakeholders that serve as financial intermediaries (i.e., venture capital firms and underwriting banks). Drawing on stakeholder and resource dependence theories, we argue that mutual interdependencies occur between financial intermediaries and IPO firms such that venture capital firms’ ownership levels and underwriter reputation are positively associated with the selection of more virtuous IPO firms. We also argue for the moderating relationship of IPO firm age on these main relationships; since IPO firms have more history and information availability, less importance will be placed on OVO in the selection process. In support of our hypotheses, the results of this study suggest the organizational virtue of IPO firms influences the selection decisions of financial intermediaries by reflecting positively on these key stakeholders to improve legitimacy and reputation.     

我国上市公司盈余管理对策研究

由于会计信息的复杂性、信息不对称的不可克服性和舞弊危害的严重性,盈余管理成为困扰证券市场投资者、监管者、审计人员,损害证券市场健康发展的一个大问题,盈余管理是各国学者研究的焦点之一,研究的角度很多。针对在研究中发现的一些问题,对改善我国上市公司盈余管理的现状提出一些建议。     

Auditor Experiences,Accounting Firm Size,and Client Ownership

This study investigates whether accounting firms match the experience level of individual auditors with the risk level of clients in order to control audit risk. We find that accounting firms tend to assign more experienced auditors to non-state-owned clients that typically have higher tendency to engage in earnings management. Such an assignment pattern is more pronounced for non-Big 4 accounting firms. Further analysis suggests that auditors＇ experience helps reduce clients＇ earnings management level, proxied by abnormal accruals, and thus improves the audit quality. This study enriches the literature on the allocation of human resources and the risk control mechanism in the audit services industry, which has been seldom explored in prior studies.     

Does underwriter reputation matter in the municipal bond market?

We examine the role of underwriter reputation in the tax-exempt municipal bond market. Using a large sample of 10,239 tax-exempt municipal bonds, we show that generally, reputation matters. Municipal bond issues lead managed by larger and more prestigious underwriters have significantly lower borrowing costs, lower yields, and lower underwriting gross spreads. Our results are consistent with the view that reputation facilitates underwriter activities that leads to reducing information asymmetries between borrowers and issuers in the municipal bond market. Our results are also consistent with larger and more reputable underwriters providing a certificatory role for issues underwritten by them.