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IPO conditional conservatism, underpricing and post-issue stock market survival

Sujin Kim (Department of Accounting, Adelaide Business School, Adelaide, Australia)
Pamela Fae Kent (School of Accountancy, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia)
Grant Richardson (Department of Accounting and Corporate Governance, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia)
Alfred Yawson (Department of Finance and Banking, Adelaide Business School, Adelaide, Australia)

Journal of Accounting Literature

ISSN: 0737-4607

Article publication date: 21 June 2024

109

Abstract

Purpose

We examine the association between conditional conservatism in initial public offering (IPO) underpricing and post-issue stock market survival in the U.S.

Design/methodology/approach

We adopt an archival approach by collecting data for 1,761 U.S. IPO issuers for the period 1990–2017. Regression analyses are conducted to evaluate the association between conditional conservatism in initial public offerings with underpricing and post-issue stock market survival. We identify firms that went public in the period 1990–2012. These firms are then followed for five years after the IPO to assess their stock market survival.

Findings

We find that pre-issue conditional conservatism is significantly associated with less IPO underpricing. We also detect that IPO firms with higher levels of conditional conservative reporting are more likely to survive in the post-IPO stock market in the three-, four-, and five-year periods after the IPO. Our main findings are robust after controlling for other factors in our models, such as IPO cycles, venture capitalists, research and development investment, and pre-IPO accounting performance.

Originality/value

We extend research by demonstrating that conditional conservative reporting practices help firms reduce their indirect costs of raising their initial public capital. Additionally, our research introduces new evidence on the association between pre-IPO conditional conservatism and after-issue stock market survival. Our findings empirically support the International Accounting Standards Board’s (IASB) decision to reintroduce the concept of prudence into the conceptual framework, by showing how conservative reporting can reduce information asymmetry in IPO firms.

Keywords

Citation

Kim, S., Kent, P.F., Richardson, G. and Yawson, A. (2024), "IPO conditional conservatism, underpricing and post-issue stock market survival", Journal of Accounting Literature, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/JAL-01-2024-0012

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2024, Emerald Publishing Limited

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