European Managerial Perceptions of the Net Benefits of Foreign Stock Listings

This study surveys the European managers on the costs, benefits, and net benefits of foreign listing. Increase in prestige and visibility, and growth in shareholders are perceived as the major benefits, and the costs of public relations and legal fees are cited as the major costs by the managers. While a majority of managers (60%) perceive that benefits outweigh the costs of foreign listing, about 30% also view the net benefits to be negative. Perceived net benefits are positively related to the increase in the total trading volume after foreign listing, the financial disclosure levels of the firm, and the dual listing on both the US and European foreign exchanges. Without the influence of these factors, the perceived net benefits are negative.