Why do some early stage ventures perform remarkably well while others fail? Is there a fairly accurate way to predict which emerging growth business will become a high performing success story and which a low performing disaster? Is there a way for investors to increase the likelihood of...

Unlike most other small firms, there is an excellent record of the initial equity capitalization details of banking organizations when they are formed, as well as subsequent changes, because of the chartering application and reporting requirements of the banking regulatory authorities. By...

This paper presents evidence on the failed initial public offerings that used best efforts contracts. Out of 732 best efforts IPOs attempted in 1980-84, 186 IPOs (about one fourth) failed to meet minimum sales requirement and were subsequently withdrawn. Offerings with greater uncertainty about...

Previous studies of large versus small company performance, though frequent, have not produced a clear answer as to whether large companies outperform small companies or vice versa. This article highlights retentions - the fact that different companies have different dividend policies —as a...

The stock market return and the risk of 33 quoted European venture capital companies during the period 1977-1991 are studied. The return is negative on average with eight of the 33 companies having a return that is higher than the market return. However, the systematic risk (measured by the beta...

The incentive stock options (ISOs) are similar to the regular stock call options. However, when one considers various taxing laws regarding the ISO stocks, the ISOs have unique features differentiated from the regular stock call options. In general, no income from ISOs is realized, for tax...

This study examines the relationship between venture capitalist actions and the eventual disposition of a venture through an IPO, which is the most profitable exit strategy. The actions included in this study were ( 1) altering the amount of their investment; ( 2) securing a concentrated...

A signaling argument has recently been developed whereby IPO underpricing is a signal of future firm value. Only higher quality firms can be expected to recover the cost of this signal through subsequent offerings of seasoned equities. This study uses three proxies for firm quality and finds...

This study compares the profitability, operational efficiency, and firm value over the 1985-1990 period of 100 firms that had IPOs in 1985 compared to a matched sample of similar firms which had their IPO before 1980. We find that the 1985 IPO firms were more profitable, operationally more...

This study explores the role of issuance expenses in explaining the fall in stock value for OTC stock offerings that raise cash for debt reduction purposes. It estimates that over half of the sample's -2.79% two-day fall in stock value can be accounted for by issuance expenses when using a lower...