We examine whether and how investors' reliance on financial information is affected by the rate of sales growth of a start-up venture. We find that investors discern between firms by the extent to which their products are adopted by the market. For firms that failed to increase their sales since...

We develop a firm valuation model with repeated expansion and contraction options to show operating profitability is a proxy for time-varying systematic risk. Relative to riskier assets, the proportionate value of contraction options increase as profitability falls, lowering the firm beta....