IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/rfinst/v23y2010i5p1855-1908.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Going-Public Decision and the Product Market

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas J. Chemmanur
  • Shan He
  • Debarshi K. Nandy

Abstract

At what point in a firm's life should it go public? How do a firm's ex ante product market characteristics relate to its going-public decision? Further, what are the implications of a firm going public on its post-IPO operating and product market performance? In this article, we answer the above questions by conducting the first large sample study of the going-public decisions of U.S. firms in the literature. We use the Longitudinal Research Database (LRD) of the U.S. Census Bureau, which covers the entire universe of private and public U.S. manufacturing firms. Our findings can be summarized as follows. First, a private firm's product market characteristics (total factor productivity [TFP], size, sales growth, market share, industry competitiveness, capital intensity, and cash flow riskiness) significantly affect its likelihood of going public after controlling for its access to private financing (venture capital or bank loans). Second, private firms facing less information asymmetry and those with projects that are cheaper for outsiders to evaluate are more likely to go public. Third, as more firms in an industry go public, the concentration of that industry increases in subsequent years. The above results are robust to controlling for the interactions between various product market and firm-specific variables. Fourth, IPOs of firms occur at the peak of their productivity cycle: the dynamics of TFP and sales growth exhibit an inverted U-shaped pattern, both in our univariate analysis and in our multivariate analysis using firms that remained private throughout as a benchmark. Finally, sales, capital expenditures, and other performance variables exhibit a consistently increasing pattern over the years before and after the IPO. The last two findings are consistent with the view that the widely documented post-IPO operating underperformance of firms is due to the real investment effects of going public rather than being due to earnings management immediately prior to the IPO. The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Society for Financial Studies. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org., Oxford University Press.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas J. Chemmanur & Shan He & Debarshi K. Nandy, 2010. "The Going-Public Decision and the Product Market," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(5), pages 1855-1908.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:rfinst:v:23:y:2010:i:5:p:1855-1908
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/rfs/hhp098
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

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

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mikkelson, Wayne H. & Partch, M. Megan & Shah, Kshitij, 1997. "Ownership and operating performance of companies that go public," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 281-307, June.
    2. Jay R. Ritter & Ivo Welch, 2002. "A Review of IPO Activity, Pricing, and Allocations," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(4), pages 1795-1828, August.
    3. Maksimovic, Vojislav & Pichler, Pegaret, 2001. "Technological Innovation and Initial Public Offerings," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 14(2), pages 459-494.
    4. Jain, Bharat A & Kini, Omesh, 1994. "The Post-Issue Operating Performance of IPO Firms," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 49(5), pages 1699-1726, December.
    5. Marco Pagano & Ailsa Röell, 1998. "The Choice of Stock Ownership Structure: Agency Costs, Monitoring, and the Decision to Go Public," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 113(1), pages 187-225.
    6. Allen, Franklin & Faulhaber, Gerald R., 1989. "Signalling by underpricing in the IPO market," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 303-323, August.
    7. Chemmanur, Thomas J, 1993. "The Pricing of Initial Public Offerings: A Dynamic Model with Information Production," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 48(1), pages 285-304, March.
    8. Eric J. Bartelsman & Wayne Gray, 1996. "The NBER Manufacturing Productivity Database," NBER Technical Working Papers 0205, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Campbell, Tim S., 1979. "Optimal Investment Financing Decisions and the Value of Confidentiality," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(5), pages 913-924, December.
    10. Robert H. McGuckin & Sang V. Nguyen, 1995. "On Productivity and Plant Ownership Change: New Evidence from the Longitudinal Research Database," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 26(2), pages 257-276, Summer.
    11. Gian Luca Clementi, "undated". "Ipos and The Growth of Firms," GSIA Working Papers 2002-E8, Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper School of Business.
    12. Antoinette Schoar, 2002. "Effects of Corporate Diversification on Productivity," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(6), pages 2379-2403, December.
    13. repec:bla:jfinan:v:53:y:1998:i:1:p:27-64 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Krishnaswami, Sudha & Subramaniam, Venkat, 1999. "Information asymmetry, valuation, and the corporate spin-off decision," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 73-112, July.
    15. Kiefer, Nicholas M, 1988. "Economic Duration Data and Hazard Functions," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 26(2), pages 646-679, June.
    16. Ljungqvist, Alexander & Boehmer, Ekkehart, 2004. "On the decision to go public: Evidence from privately-held firms," Discussion Paper Series 1: Economic Studies 2004,16, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    17. Arnoud W. A. Boot & Radhakrishnan Gopalan & Anjan V. Thakor, 2006. "The Entrepreneur's Choice between Private and Public Ownership," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(2), pages 803-836, April.
    18. 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.
    19. Campbell, Tim S., 1979. "Abstract: Optimal Investment Financing Decisions and the Value of Confidentiality," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(4), pages 669-669, November.
    20. Mitchell A. Petersen, 2009. "Estimating Standard Errors in Finance Panel Data Sets: Comparing Approaches," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(1), pages 435-480, January.
    21. Christie, Andrew A., 1987. "On cross-sectional analysis in accounting research," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 231-258, December.
    22. Tim Loughran & Jay Ritter, 2004. "Why Has IPO Underpricing Changed Over Time?," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 33(3), Fall.
    23. repec:bla:jfinan:v:53:y:1998:i:6:p:1935-1974 is not listed on IDEAS
    24. Luigi Zingales, 1995. "Insider Ownership and the Decision to Go Public," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 62(3), pages 425-448.
    25. Sudipto Bhattacharya & Jay R. Ritter, 1983. "Innovation and Communication: Signalling with Partial Disclosure," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 50(2), pages 331-346.
    26. repec:bla:jfinan:v:44:y:1989:i:2:p:421-49 is not listed on IDEAS
    27. Chemmanur, Thomas J & Fulghieri, Paolo, 1999. "A Theory of the Going-Public Decision," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 12(2), pages 249-279.
    28. Shumway, Tyler, 2001. "Forecasting Bankruptcy More Accurately: A Simple Hazard Model," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 74(1), pages 101-124, January.
    29. Lerner, Joshua, 1994. "Venture capitalists and the decision to go public," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 293-316, June.
    30. Yosha Oved, 1995. "Information Disclosure Costs and the Choice of Financing Source," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 4(1), pages 3-20, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Mayur, Manas & Kumar, Manoj, 2006. "An Empirical Investigation of Going Public Decision of Indian Companies," MPRA Paper 1801, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Xie, Xiaoying, 2010. "Are publicly held firms less efficient? Evidence from the US property-liability insurance industry," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(7), pages 1549-1563, July.
    3. Dario Salerno, 2021. "The Impact of Initial Public Offerings on Firms’ Performance: Disentangling Treatment from Self-Selection Effects," Journal of Applied Finance & Banking, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 11(4), pages 1-1.
    4. Lee, Chien-Chiang & Ning, Shaolin & Hsieh, Meng-Fen & Lee, Chi-Chuan, 2020. "The going-public decision and rent-seeking activities: Evidence from Chinese private companies," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 44(1).
    5. Helwege, Jean & Packer, Frank, 2009. "Private matters," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 362-383, July.
    6. Gian Luca Clementi, "undated". "Ipos and The Growth of Firms," GSIA Working Papers 2002-E8, Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper School of Business.
    7. Jay R. Ritter & Ivo Welch, 2002. "A Review of IPO Activity, Pricing, and Allocations," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(4), pages 1795-1828, August.
    8. Jean Helwege & J. Nellie Liang, 2003. "Initial public offerings in hot and cold markets," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2003-04, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    9. Chemmanur, Thomas J. & He, Jie, 2011. "IPO waves, product market competition, and the going public decision: Theory and evidence," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(2), pages 382-412, August.
    10. Belén Gill de Albornoz & Peter F. Pope, 2004. "The Determinants Of The Going Public Decision: Evidence From The U.K," Working Papers. Serie AD 2004-22, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie).
    11. Chemmanur, Thomas & Yan, An, 2009. "Product market advertising and new equity issues," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 40-65, April.
    12. Annette B. Poulsen & Mike Stegemoller, 2008. "Moving from Private to Public Ownership: Selling Out to Public Firms versus Initial Public Offerings," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 37(1), pages 81-101, March.
    13. &Lubos Pástor & Lucian A. Taylor & Pietro Veronesi, 2009. "Entrepreneurial Learning, the IPO Decision, and the Post-IPO Drop in Firm Profitability," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(8), pages 3005-3046, August.
    14. Azevedo, Alcino & Colak, Gonul & El Kalak, Izidin & Tunaru, Radu, 2024. "The timing of voluntary delisting," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    15. Franck Bancel & Usha R. Mittoo, 2013. "Survey evidence: what do we know about European and US firms’ motivations for going public?," Chapters, in: Mario Levis & Silvio Vismara (ed.), Handbook of Research on IPOs, chapter 3, pages 57-75, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    16. Meles, Antonio & Salerno, Dario & Sampagnaro, Gabriele & Fu, Mengchuan, 2021. "The going-public decision and firm risk," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    17. Jirapun Chorruk & Andrew Worthington, 2010. "Firm-specific determinants and outcomes of initial public offerings in Thailand, 2001â 2007," Discussion Papers in Finance finance:201002, Griffith University, Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics.
    18. Maghyereh, Aktham I. & Awartani, Basel, 2018. "The factors influencing the decision to list on Abu Dhabi securities exchange," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 19(C), pages 89-103.
    19. Bill Francis & Iftekhar Hasan & Dona Siregar, 2009. "The choice of IPO versus M&A: evidence from banking industry," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(24), pages 1987-2007.
    20. Richard J. Rosen & Scott B. Smart & Chad J. Zutter, 2005. "Why do firms go public? evidence from the banking industry," Working Paper Series WP-05-17, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:oup:rfinst:v:23:y:2010:i:5:p:1855-1908. 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: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/sfsssea.html .

    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.