IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/sbusec/v57y2021i2d10.1007_s11187-020-00335-x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Initial coin offerings, asymmetric information, and loyal CEOs

Author

Listed:
  • Paul P. Momtaz

    (UCLA)

Abstract

A defining feature of initial coin offerings (ICOs) is that entrepreneurs bear the full marginal investment cost but profit only partially from the marginal investment payoff. This design may exacerbate agency conflicts inherent in corporate finance. As a consequence, signals of entrepreneurial quality such as CEO loyalty, which is an established concept in social psychology and can easily be linked to potential agency conflicts in corporate settings, might be a first-order determinant of economic outcomes in the ICO market. Consistent with this, I find that loyal CEOs have to offer lower financial incentives to attract investors and are still able to raise more proceeds, conduct ICOs more thoroughly, and are less likely to fail. The findings are consistent with the hypothesis that asymmetric information between entrepreneurs and investors entail agency costs that are decreasing in CEO loyalty.

Suggested Citation

  • Paul P. Momtaz, 2021. "Initial coin offerings, asymmetric information, and loyal CEOs," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(2), pages 975-997, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:sbusec:v:57:y:2021:i:2:d:10.1007_s11187-020-00335-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s11187-020-00335-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11187-020-00335-x
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11187-020-00335-x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tinghua Duan, 2019. "Initial Coin Offerings and Entrepreneurial Finance: The Role of Founders’ Characteristics," Post-Print hal-02512437, HAL.
    2. Wallmeroth, Johannes & Wirtz, Peter & Groh, Alexander Peter, 2018. "Venture Capital, Angel Financing, and Crowdfunding of Entrepreneurial Ventures: A Literature Review," Foundations and Trends(R) in Entrepreneurship, now publishers, vol. 14(1), pages 1-129, February.
    3. Adhami, Saman & Giudici, Giancarlo & Martinazzi, Stefano, 2018. "Why do businesses go crypto? An empirical analysis of initial coin offerings," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 64-75.
    4. Paul P Momtaz, 2020. "Initial Coin Offerings," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(5), pages 1-30, May.
    5. George A. Akerlof & Rachel E. Kranton, 2000. "Economics and Identity," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(3), pages 715-753.
    6. Fisch, Christian & Momtaz, Paul P., 2020. "Institutional investors and post-ICO performance: an empirical analysis of investor returns in initial coin offerings (ICOs)," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    7. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    8. Sabrina T. Howell & Marina Niessner & David Yermack, 2018. "Initial Coin Offerings: Financing Growth with Cryptocurrency Token Sales," NBER Working Papers 24774, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Fisch, Christian, 2019. "Initial coin offerings (ICOs) to finance new ventures," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 1-22.
    10. Johannes Wallmeroth & Alexander Groh & Peter Wirtz, 2018. "Venture Capital, Angel Financing, and Crowdfunding of Entrepreneurial Ventures : A Literature Review," Post-Print hal-02312128, HAL.
    11. Gerrit K.C. Ahlers & Douglas Cumming & Christina Günther & Denis Schweizer, 2015. "Signaling in Equity Crowdfunding," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 39(4), pages 955-980, July.
    12. Cumming, Douglas & Groh, Alexander Peter, 2018. "Entrepreneurial finance: Unifying themes and future directions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 538-555.
    13. George A. Akerlof & Rachel E. Kranton, 2005. "Identity and the Economics of Organizations," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 19(1), pages 9-32, Winter.
    14. Thomas Hellmann & Manju Puri, 2002. "Venture Capital and the Professionalization of Start‐Up Firms: Empirical Evidence," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(1), pages 169-197, February.
    15. Winifred Huang & Michele Meoli & Silvio Vismara, 2020. "The geography of initial coin offerings," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 55(1), pages 77-102, June.
    16. Akerlof, George A, 1983. "Loyalty Filters," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(1), pages 54-63, March.
    17. Silvio Vismara, 2016. "Equity retention and social network theory in equity crowdfunding," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 46(4), pages 579-590, April.
    18. Silvio Vismara, 2018. "Information Cascades among Investors in Equity Crowdfunding," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 42(3), pages 467-497, May.
    19. Christian Catalini & Joshua S. Gans, 2018. "Initial Coin Offerings and the Value of Crypto Tokens," NBER Working Papers 24418, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Fry, Joseph N & Shaw, David C & Haehling von Lanzenauer, C & Dipchand, Cecil R, 1973. "Customer Loyalty to Banks: A Longitudinal Study," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 46(4), pages 517-525, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kolbe, Maura & Mansouri, Sasan & Momtaz, Paul P., 2022. "Why do video pitches matter in crowdfunding?," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    2. Alessandro Bitetto & Paola Cerchiello, 2024. "Initial Coin Offerings: can ESG mitigate Underpricing?," DEM Working Papers Series 221, University of Pavia, Department of Economics and Management.
    3. Muneer M. Alshater & Mayank Joshipura & Rim El Khoury & Nohade Nasrallah, 2023. "Initial Coin Offerings: a Hybrid Empirical Review," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 61(3), pages 891-908, October.
    4. Julian Bafera & Simon Kleinert, 2023. "Signaling Theory in Entrepreneurship Research: A Systematic Review and Research Agenda," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 47(6), pages 2419-2464, November.
    5. Xia, Feilian & Thewissen, James & Shrestha, Prabal & Yan, Shuo, 2024. "The power of a name: Exploring the relationship between ICO name fluency and investor decision making," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    6. Conlon, Thomas & Corbet, Shaen & Hou, Yang (Greg), 2024. "Contagion effects of permissionless, worthless cryptocurrency tokens: Evidence from the collapse of FTX," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    7. Feilian Xia & James Thewissen & Winifred Huang & Shuo Yan, 2024. "Founder-CEO Extraversion and Sustainability Orientation in Initial Coin Offerings," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 48(4), pages 941-980, July.
    8. Sun, Yan & Yang, Sung-Byung, 2024. "Are ICOs the best? A comparison of different fundraising models in blockchain-based fundraising," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Joern H. Block & Alexander Groh & Lars Hornuf & Tom Vanacker & Silvio Vismara, 2021. "The entrepreneurial finance markets of the future: a comparison of crowdfunding and initial coin offerings," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(2), pages 865-882, August.
    2. Joern H. Block & Alexander Groh & Lars Hornuf & Tom Vanacker & Silvio Vismara, 0. "The entrepreneurial finance markets of the future: a comparison of crowdfunding and initial coin offerings," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-18.
    3. Momtaz, Paul P., 2021. "Entrepreneurial Finance and Moral Hazard: Evidence from Token Offerings," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(5).
    4. Kolbe, Maura & Mansouri, Sasan & Momtaz, Paul P., 2022. "Why do video pitches matter in crowdfunding?," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    5. Christian Hackober & Carolin Bock, 2021. "Which investors’ characteristics are beneficial for initial coin offerings? Evidence from blockchain technology-based firms," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 91(8), pages 1085-1124, October.
    6. Anton Miglo, 2022. "Choice between IEO and ICO: Speed vs. Liquidity vs. Risk," FinTech, MDPI, vol. 1(3), pages 1-18, September.
    7. Paul P Momtaz, 2020. "Initial Coin Offerings," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(5), pages 1-30, May.
    8. José Campino & Ana Brochado & Álvaro Rosa, 2022. "Initial coin offerings (ICOs): Why do they succeed?," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 8(1), pages 1-35, December.
    9. Dmitri Boreiko & Dimche Risteski, 2021. "Serial and large investors in initial coin offerings," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(2), pages 1053-1071, August.
    10. Bollaert, Helen & Lopez-de-Silanes, Florencio & Schwienbacher, Armin, 2021. "Fintech and access to finance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    11. Mansouri, Sasan & Momtaz, Paul P., 2022. "Financing sustainable entrepreneurship: ESG measurement, valuation, and performance," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 37(6).
    12. Chitsazan, Hasti & Bagheri, Afsaneh & Tajeddin, Mahdi, 2022. "Initial coin offerings (ICOs) success: Conceptualization, theories and systematic analysis of empirical studies," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    13. Luisa Faust & Maura Kolbe & Sasan Mansouri & Paul P. Momtaz, 2022. "The Crowdfunding of Altruism," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-29, March.
    14. Paola Cerchiello & Anca Mirela Toma & Marco Caluzzi, 2021. "ICOs White Papers: identity card or lark mirror?," DEM Working Papers Series 197, University of Pavia, Department of Economics and Management.
    15. Anton Miglo, 2021. "STO vs. ICO: A Theory of Token Issues under Moral Hazard and Demand Uncertainty," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-35, May.
    16. Anton Miglo, 2022. "Theories of Crowdfunding and Token Issues: A Review," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-28, May.
    17. Winifred Huang & Michele Meoli & Silvio Vismara, 2020. "The geography of initial coin offerings," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 55(1), pages 77-102, June.
    18. Sun, Yan & Yang, Sung-Byung, 2024. "Are ICOs the best? A comparison of different fundraising models in blockchain-based fundraising," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    19. Magnus Schückes & Tobias Gutmann, 2021. "Why do startups pursue initial coin offerings (ICOs)? The role of economic drivers and social identity on funding choice," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(2), pages 1027-1052, August.
    20. Coakley, Jerry & Lazos, Aristogenis & Liñares-Zegarra, José M., 2022. "Seasoned equity crowdfunded offerings," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:sbusec:v:57:y:2021:i:2:d:10.1007_s11187-020-00335-x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.