上市公司盈利能力分析外文文献

上市公司市盈率影响因素研究国内外文献综述1 国外文献综述国外有关市盈率的理论研究和实证分析已经相对比较完善和全面，国外学者从各个方面对市盈率进行了相关的理论或者实证分析。

最早提出市盈率概念的是“现代证券分析奠基人”本杰明·格雷厄姆（Benjamin Graham）。

早在1934年，他与大卫·多德合著的《证券分析》一书中首次对市盈率作了表述，在他们看来，股票的价值是其当期收益的一定倍数，而这个倍数由两个方面决定，一部分由当时的人气决定，也就是投资者预期；另一部分由企业的性质和记录决定，即企业的盈利能力和模式等特点决定，而这个一定倍数正是表示市盈率的大小【1】。

在市盈率的内在含义方面，Fairfield（1994）从经济含义的角度分析了市盈率和市净率，认为市盈率是未来盈利能力预期变化函数，市净率是未来盈利能力预期水平函数。

而且，通过利用美国1970-1984 年的数据建立模型发现，从账面价值角度看，市净率与预期回报呈正相关关系，对未来超额盈余的增长率有正面的影响，市净率与市盈率合在一起对未来股价有比较强的预测能力，此外，根据市盈率与市净率进行分组的不同的组合对未来的盈利能力也会不同【2】。

Kane, Marcus 和Noh（1996）认为市盈率是十分易变的，实证研究结果表明，市场波动增加百分之一能够引起市盈率1.8%的降低，因此，任何对于市场价值的评估，如果不考虑市盈率的变动将犯根本上的错误【3】。

Sujata Behera（2020）通过对大中小盘236 家公司的股票市值，进行了相关信息含量分析。

结果表明，在正常市场收益率变化的情况下，基于经济增加值的估值模型优于需求收益率不变的基于经济增加值的估值模型【5】。

Adil Pasha等（2019）通过对13 个行业的70 家非金融类巴基斯坦证券交易所上市公司10 年的数据，进行研究发现经济增加值与股票收益率之间存在显著的关系【6】。

企业盈利模式研究国内外文献综述1 国外研究现状盈利模式的第一个概念是在1980年代的Timmers P（1998）中定义的，当时Timmers P（1998）认为公司盈利模式是一个非常复杂的过程。

Michael Rappa （2004）的观点是，盈利模式是可以为公司带来利益的一种方法和模型。

确定公司在行业价值链中的地位。

盈利模式越具有竞争力，它将在行业价值链中更具竞争力、条件更好。

亚历山大奥斯特瓦尔德（Alexander Osterwalder）和伊夫皮格诺（Yves Pigneu）（2002）认为，获利能力模型是公司对利益相关者网络做出贡献的价值，利益相关者网络可以创造，营销和传播利益相关者网络，从而产生可盈利且可持续的收入来源。

鲍勃（Bob，2000）认为，如果一家公司希望拥有良好的盈利模式，则必须证明两点。

一是盈利模式能否指导和确保公司取得稳定的剩余利润；二是盈利模式能否指导和确保公司取得稳定的盈余利润。

第二个是能否合理，及时地更新和完善收益模型。

根据之前的两个标准，提出了关于盈利模式定位的研究，并从四个方面进行了研究：关注客户选择，如何获得价值，战略控制和业务范围。

Joan Nan（2002）分析了公司利润的来源，产生和生产，并提出公司的盈利模式是一种业务结构或一种称为业务模型的系统方法，可以帮助公司在生产和业务活动中更有效地获利。

Allan and Christopher（2002）提出公司的盈利模式是一种方法，公司使用这种方法来合理地建立和使用其自身的资源。

这样，公司可以为客户提供比竞争公司更大的价值，并在此基础上获利。

Yae S Rob，William P Andrew （2002年）提出了与餐饮业盈利模式有关的区域特许经营权讨论的理论。

他们认为，加盟商与地区加盟商达成协议，允许地区加盟商在支付加盟费的前提下使用加盟商；同时，由于地区加盟商的完全授权，加盟商也失去了对整个加盟体系的控制权在特定的特许经营区域。

有关盈利能力的外文文献盈利能力是企业经营的核心指标之一，直接关系到企业的生存与发展。

本文将通过对多篇外文文献的综合分析，探讨盈利能力的相关因素和提升方法。

1. 文献A：《盈利能力与企业规模的关系》这篇文献研究了盈利能力与企业规模之间的关系。

研究发现，企业规模对盈利能力有重要影响。

大型企业通常拥有更多的资源和市场份额，能够更有效地利用规模经济效应，从而提升盈利能力。

同时，大型企业在市场竞争中也更具竞争优势，能够更好地应对市场变化，进一步提高盈利能力。

2. 文献B：《盈利能力的影响因素分析》该文献对盈利能力的影响因素进行了深入研究。

研究发现，市场需求、产品竞争力、成本控制和管理能力是影响盈利能力的关键因素。

市场需求决定了企业销售额的大小，产品竞争力决定了企业能否获得更高的市场份额。

成本控制和管理能力直接影响企业的成本和效率，进而影响盈利能力的提升。

3. 文献C：《盈利能力的提升策略》该文献提出了一些提升盈利能力的策略。

首先，企业应不断提高产品质量和创新能力，以提升产品竞争力，从而获得更高的市场份额和利润。

其次，企业应积极控制成本，提高经营效率，降低生产成本。

此外，合理的财务管理和资金运作也是提升盈利能力的重要手段。

最后，企业还应积极拓展市场，开拓新的销售渠道和客户群体，以扩大销售规模，实现更高的盈利能力。

4. 文献D：《行业竞争对盈利能力的影响》该文献研究了行业竞争对企业盈利能力的影响。

研究发现，行业竞争激烈度对企业盈利能力有显著影响。

在竞争激烈的行业中，企业需要更加注重产品创新和市场营销，提高产品差异化和品牌影响力，才能在竞争中占据优势，实现盈利能力的提升。

总结起来，企业的盈利能力受到多个因素的影响，包括企业规模、市场需求、产品竞争力、成本控制、管理能力以及行业竞争等。

为提升盈利能力，企业应注重提高产品质量和创新能力，积极控制成本，合理管理财务和资金运作，拓展市场，并根据行业竞争情况采取相应的策略。

上市公司股利政策外文文献翻译XXX。

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with larger and XXX。

The study also found a positive XXX and the presence of large long-term private or industrial owners with the XXX.Corporate finance is an essential aspect of any business。

and dividend policy XXX to have a defined dividend policy in place。

The XXX.The study also found a positive XXX and the presence of large long-term private or industrial owners with the XXX。

the results of this study support the use of defined XXX.In n。

this XXX firms have a specified dividend policy。

with larger and XXX。

The study also found a positive XXX and the presence of large long-term private or industrial owners with the XXX.XXX (1956) and Fama and Babiak (1968)。

numerous papers have XXX research has focused on the choice een dividends and share repurchases。

上市公司盈余管理研究国内外文献综述1国外文献LaPorta（1999）[1]是最初提出的最终控制人的概念的人，最终控制人概念是指控股的股东通过拥有不同股份公司的股份来形成股份控制链以直接或者间接控制上市企业，并且最终拥有该企业的实际控制权。

国外属于资本主义国家，所以专门研究产权性质对盈余管理的文献较少。

国有企业属于国家，所以国有企业天然就拥有政策优势。

所以从国家政策的角度来看，国有企业的盈利情况会比非国有企业好。

Jones（1991）[2]认为有控制权的股东在企业有重要地位和不对称的信息优势。

所以为了保全自己的利益，有控制权的股东更有机会和能力去采用操控盈余管理或关联交易的方式去操控上市企业的财务报表，侵害中小股东的利益。

Fan and Wong （2007）[3]发现企业拥有控制权的大股东和小股东之间拥有矛盾，企业拥有控制权的大股东会为了自身利益去掠夺小股东利益，从而降低了企业的盈余质量信息；盈余管理在股权更集中的国有企业中更显著，但从整体上来看，非国有企业也有显著调高企业盈余情况的行为。

Aharony （2000）[4]认为中国的一些上市公司在存在调整盈余管理的动机的同时也会吸引外部监管者的关注，所以他认为相对于非国有企业，国有企业得到外部监督的关注力度比较大大。

Chen 和 Yuan(2006)［5］认为，盈余管理是上市公司衡量市场信息透明度的重要指标。

信息不对称理论指出上市公司会通过操纵盈余管理的行为提高企业的盈余情况，造成企业盈余质量的虚假，而投资者通常会被上市公司的这种虚假的高盈余质量所蒙蔽，这表明上市公司需要增强企业财务报表的信息透明度和要加大对投资者的保护。

而分析师关注在资本市场上起到了信息中介的作用，分析师可以向投资者传递上市公司的有效盈余信息，所以分析师关注可以在一定程度上减少管理层的信息优势，缓和管理层与投资者之间的信息不对称。

Yu(2008)［6］认为，分析师关注能减少上市公司管理层的盈余管理行为。

房地产上市公司的盈利能力分析【文献综述】文献综述房地产上市公司的盈利能力分析在我国经济快速发展的过程中，上市公司无疑在其中扮演了重要角色。

随着证券市场的不断地完善，投资者的投资理念也越加成熟，他们不仅关注上市公司股票的涨跌，也开始关心公司偿债能力、经营能力、盈利能力、发展能力等。

其中对上市公司的盈利能力尤为关注。

近年来，对于投资者来说房地产行业是一个的敏感且颇有争议的行业，因此也给了这个行业更多的关注。

许多投资者和学者也利用各种方法，建立各种模型对房地产上市公司的盈利能力进行全方位的分析研究，如何能真实的评价和反映上市公司的盈利能力也成为研究的重中之重。

国内外学者对上司公司盈利能力的研究发现，许多因素对公司盈利能力都有影响，但由于采用的方法和选取的标准不同也就有了许多不同的观点。

1企业盈利能力评价方法的国内外研究1.1国外研究对企业盈利能力的评价是为了实现企业战略目标，运用特定的指标和标准，采用科学的评价方法，对企业盈利状况以及未来的盈利潜力做出的一种判断。

我国对企业的盈利能力的研究起步较晚而在国外从20世纪初开始就有学者企业的盈利能力进行研究了。

Frederick Winslow Taylor（1911）建立了许多成本计量指标并在《科学管理原理》中提出了科学管理理论，根据成本计量标准量与实际发生量的比较结果，对企业经营绩效进行评价。

这是通过成本费用利润率来评价企业的经营活动的绩效。

Peter.M.Drucher（1950）经过实证研究，提出企业绩效评价的八项指标，指出利润最大化虽然是企业的主要目标，但却不是唯一的目标。

从此人开始思考企业盈利评价不应仅仅停留在盈利数量上O'Glove(1978)发表了一份投资报告《收益质量》，详细提出了收益构成的分析方法，提出盈利质量必须得到重视。

至此盈利质量正式得到关注。

在之后的六七十年代大多学者开始探索用其他各项指标来评价企业盈利能力。

Melnnes（1971）对美国30家跨国公司的财务绩效分析系统进行评价，发现最常用的的评价指标是投资报酬率。

文献出处：Gnanasooriyar M S. Profitability analysis of listed manufacturing companies in Sri Lanka: An empirical investigation[J]. European Journal of Business and Management, 2014, 6(34): 358-364第一部分为译文，第二部分为原文。

默认格式：中文五号宋体，英文五号Times New Roma，行间距1.5倍。

制造业上市公司在斯里兰卡的盈利能力分析：一个实证调查摘要：本文是对2008年至2012年期间的选择10家在斯里兰卡的制造业上市公司的盈利能力，以及对四种常用的财务业绩指标分析：总利润（GR），净利润（NP），资产收益率（ROA）和净资产收益率（ROE）。

结果表明，在此期间斯里兰卡制造企业是相当多的盈利在GP和ROA，但利润较低的条件在NP和净资产收益率方面。

结果表明，制造企业的盈利能力是不太令人满意的。

皇家陶瓷有限公司的毛利率和净利率排第一，ABANS电气公司资产收益率第一，皇家陶瓷公司净资产收益率第一。

这项研究的结果对学者，政策制定者，从业人员等有借鉴意义的。

关键词：盈利能力分析，上市制造企业，斯里兰卡引言利润是收入超过相关费用过量在一段时间的活动。

凯恩斯勋爵指出，“利润是驱动企业的发动机”。

每个企业都应该获得足够的利润来生存和发展在一段较长的时间。

这是该指数在经济发展，提高国民收入和生活水平的不断提高。

利润是判断不只是经济准绳，但管理效率和社会目标也。

盈利手段，使利润从组织，公司，公司或企业的所有业务活动的能力。

它显示了如何有效地管理，可以通过使用所有市面上的资源赚取利润。

据Harward和厄普顿，“盈利是“赚其使用返回给定投资的能力。

”然而，长期的盈利能力“不是同义术语‘效率’。

利润率是效率的索引; 和被认为是效率和管理指南，更高的效率的量度。

中文3150字，2100单词，10800英文字符出处：Abor J. The effect of capital structure on profitability: an empirical analysis of listed firms in Ghana[J]. Journal of Risk Finance, 2005, 6(November):438-445.外文翻译The effect of capital structure on profitability : an empirical analysis of listed firms in GhanaAuthor:Joshua AborIntroductionThe capital structure decision is crucial for any business organization. The decision is important because of the need to maximize returns to various organizational constituencies, and also because of the impact such a decision has on a firm’s ability to deal with its competitive environment. The capital structure of a firm is actually a mix of different securities. In general, a firm can choose among many alternative capital structures. It can issue a large amount of debt or very little debt. It can arrange lease financing, use warrants, issue convertible bonds, sign forward contracts or trade bond swaps. It can issue dozens of distinct securities in countless combinations; however, it attempts to find the particular combination that maximizes its overall market value.A number of theories have been advanced in explaining the capital structure of firms. Despite the theoretical appeal of capital structure, researchers in financial management have not found the optimal capital structure. The best that academics and practitioners have been able to achieve are prescriptions that satisfy short-term goals. For example, the lack of a consensus about what would qualify as optimal capital structure has necessitated the need for this research. A better understanding of the issues at hand requires a look at the concept of capital structure and its effect on firm profitability. This paper examines the relationship between capital structure and profitability of companies listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange during the period 1998-2002. The effect of capital structure on the profitability of listed firms in Ghana is a scientific area that has not yet been explored in Ghanaian finance literature.The paper is organized as follows. The following section gives a review of the extant literature on the subject. The next section describes the data and justifies the choice of the variables used in the analysis. The model used in the analysis is then estimated. The subsequent section presents and discusses the results of the empirical analysis. Finally, the last section summarizes the findings of the research and also concludes the discussion.Literature on capital structureThe relationship between capital structure and firm value has been the subject of considerable debate. Throughout the literature, debate has centered on whether there is an optimal capital structure for an individual firm or whether the proportion of debt usage is irrelevant to the individual firm’s value. The capital structure of a firm concerns the mix of debt and equity the firm uses in its operation. Brealey and Myers (2003) contend that the choice of capital structure is fundamentally a marketing problem. They state that the firm can issue dozens of distinct securities in countless combinations, but it attempts to find the particular combination that maximizes market value. According to Weston and Brigham (1992), the optimal capital structure is the one that maximizes the market value of the firm’s outstanding shares.Fama and French (1998), analyzing the relationship among taxes, financing decisions, and the firm’s value, concluded that the debt does not concede tax benefits. Besides, the high leverage degree generates agency problems among shareholders and creditors that predict negative relationships between leverage and profitability. Therefore, negative information relating debt and profitability obscures the tax benefit of the debt. Booth et al. (2001) developed a study attempting to relate the capital structure of several companies in countries with extremely different financial markets. They concluded that the variables that affect the choice of the capital structure of the companies are similar, in spite of the great differences presented by the financial markets. Besides, they concluded that profitability has an inverse relationship with debt level and size of the firm. Graham (2000) concluded in his work that big and profitable companies present a low debt rate. Mesquita and Lara (2003) found in their study that the relationship between rates of return and debt indicates a negative relationship for long-term financing. However, they found a positiverelationship for short-term financing and equity.Hadlock and James (2002) concluded that companies prefer loan (debt) financing because they anticipate a higher return. Taub (1975) also found significant positive coefficients for four measures of profitability in a regression of these measures against debt ratio. Petersen and Rajan (1994) identified the same association, but for industries. Baker (1973), who worked with a simultaneous equations model, and Nerlove (1968) also found the same type of association for industries. Roden and Lewellen (1995) found a significant positive association between profitability and total debt as a percentage of the total buyout-financing package in their study on leveraged buyouts. Champion (1999) suggested that the use of leverage was one way to improve the performance of an organization.In summary, there is no universal theory of the debt-equity choice. Different views have been put forward regarding the financing choice. The present study investigates the effect of capital structure on profitability of listed firms on the GSE.MethodologyThis study sampled all firms that have been listed on the GSE over a five-year period (1998-2002). Twenty-two firms qualified to be included in the study sample. Variables used for the analysis include profitability and leverage ratios. Profitability is operationalized using a commonly used accounting-based measure: the ratio of earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) to equity. The leverage ratios used include:. short-term debt to the total capital;. long-term debt to total capital;. total debt to total capital.Firm size and sales growth are also included as control variables.The panel character of the data allows for the use of panel data methodology. Panel data involves the pooling of observations on a cross-section of units over several time periods and provides results that are simply not detectable in pure cross-sections or pure time-series studies.A general model for panel data that allows the researcher to estimate panel data with great flexibility and formulate the differences in the behavior of the cross-section elements is adopted. The relationship between debt and profitability is thus estimated in the following regression models:ROE i,t =β0 +β1SDA i,t +β2SIZE i,t +β3SG i,t + ëi,t (1)ROE i,t=β0 +β1LDA i,t +β2SIZE i,t +β3SG i,t + ëi,t (2)ROE i,t=β0 +β1DA i,t +β2SIZE i,t +β3SG i,t + ëi,t (3)where:. ROE i,t is EBIT divided by equity for firm i in time t;. SDA i,t is short-term debt divided by the total capital for firm i in time t;. LDA i,t is long-term debt divided by the total capital for firm i in time t;. DA i,t is total debt divided by the total capital for firm i in time t;. SIZEi ,tis the log of sales for firm i in time t;. SGi ,tis sales growth for firm i in time t; and. ëi ,tis the error term.Empirical resultsTable I provides a summary of the descriptive statistics of the dependent and independent variables for the sample of firms. This shows the average indicators of variables computed from the financial statements. The return rate measured by return on equity (ROE) reveals an average of 36.94 percent with median 28.4 percent. This picture suggests a good performance during the period under study. The ROE measures the contribution of net income per cedi (local currency) i nvested by the firms’ stockholders; a measure of the efficiency of the owners’ invested capital. The variable SDA measures the ratio of short-term debt to total capital. The average value of this variable is 0.4876 with median 0.4547. The value 0.4547 indicates that approximately 45 percent of total assets are represented by short-term debts, attesting to the fact that Ghanaian firms largely depend on short-term debt for financing their operations due to the difficulty in accessing long-term credit from financial institutions. Another reason is due to the under-developed nature of the Ghanaian long-term debt market. The ratio of total long-term debt to total assets (LDA) also stands on average at 0.0985. Total debt to total capital ratio(DA) presents a mean of 0.5861. This suggests that about 58 percent of total assets are financed by debt capital.The above position reveals that the companies are financially leveraged with a large percentage of total debt being short-term.Table I.Descriptive statisticsMean SD Minimum Median Maximum ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ROE 0.3694 0.5186 -1.0433 0.2836 3.8300SDA 0.4876 0.2296 0.0934 0.4547 1.1018LDA 0.0985 0.1803 0.0000 0.0186 0.7665DA 0.5861 0.2032 0.2054 0.5571 1.1018SIZE 18.2124 1.6495 14.1875 18.2361 22.0995SG 0.3288 0.3457 20.7500 0.2561 1.3597━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Regression analysis is used to investigate the relationship between capital structure and profitability measured by ROE. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression results are presented in Table II. The results from the regression models (1), (2), and (3) denote that the independent variables explain the debt ratio determinations of the firms at 68.3, 39.7, and 86.4 percent, respectively. The F-statistics prove the validity of the estimated models. Also, the coefficients are statistically significant in level of confidence of 99 percent.The results in regression (1) reveal a significantly positive relationship between SDA and profitability. This suggests that short-term debt tends to be less expensive, and therefore increasing short-term debt with a relatively low interest rate will lead to an increase in profit levels. The results also show that profitability increases with the control variables (size and sales growth). Regression (2) shows a significantly negative association between LDA and profitability. This implies that an increase in the long-term debt position is associated with a decrease in profitability. This is explained by the fact that long-term debts arerelatively more expensive, and therefore employing high proportions of them could lead to low profitability. The results support earlier findings by Miller (1977), Fama and French (1998), Graham (2000) and Booth et al. (2001). Firm size and sales growth are again positively related to profitability.The results from regression (3) indicate a significantly positive association between DA and profitability. The significantly positive regression coefficient for total debt implies that an increase in the debt position is associated with an increase in profitability: thus, the higher the debt, the higher the profitability. Again, this suggests that profitable firms depend more on debt as their main financing option. This supports the findings of Hadlock and James (2002), Petersen and Rajan (1994) and Roden and Lewellen (1995) that profitable firms use more debt. In the Ghanaian case, a high proportion (85 percent) of debt is represented by short-term debt. The results also show positive relationships between the control variables (firm size and sale growth) and profitability.Table II.Regression model results━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Profitability (EBIT/equity)Ordinary least squares━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Variable 1 2 3SIZE 0.0038 (0.0000) 0.0500 (0.0000) 0.0411 (0.0000)SG 0.1314 (0.0000) 0.1316 (0.0000) 0.1413 (0.0000)SDA 0.8025 (0.0000)LDA -0.3722(0.0000)DA -0.7609(0.0000)R² 0.6825 0.3968 0.8639SE 0.4365 0.4961 0.4735Prob. (F) 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ConclusionsThe capital structure decision is crucial for any business organization. The decision is important because of the need to maximize returns to various organizational constituencies, and also because of the impact such a decision has on an organization’s ability to deal with its competitive environment. This present study evaluated the relationship between capital structure and profitability of listed firms on the GSE during a five-year period (1998-2002). The results revealed significantly positive relation between SDA and ROE, suggesting that profitable firms use more short-term debt to finance their operation. Short-term debt is an important component or source of financing for Ghanaian firms, representing 85 percent of total debt financing. However, the results showed a negative relationship between LDA and ROE. With regard to the relationship between total debt and profitability, the regression results showed a significantly positive association between DA and ROE. This suggests that profitable firms depend more on debt as their main financing option. In the Ghanaian case, a high proportion (85 percent) of the debt is represented in short-term debt.译文加纳上市公司资本结构对盈利能力的实证研究作者：乔舒亚阿博尔论文简介资本结构决策对于任何商业组织都是至关重要的。

中英文对照外文翻译文献(文档含英文原文和中文翻译)The path-to-profitability of Internet IPO firmsAbstractExtant empirical evidence indicates that the proportion of firms going public prior to achieving profitability has been increasing over time. This phenomenon is largely driven by an increase in the proportion of technology firms going public. Since there is considerable uncertainty regarding the long-term economic viability of these firms at the time of going public, identifying factors that influence their ability to attain key post-IPO milestones such as achieving profitability represents an important area of research. We employ a theoretical framework built around agency and signaling considerations to identify factors that influence the probability and timing of post-IPO profitability of Internet IPO firms. We estimate Cox Proportional Hazards models to test whether factors identified by our theoretical framework significantly impact the probability of post-IPO profitability as a function of time. We find that the probability of post- IPO profitability increases with pre-IPO investor demand and change in ownership at the IPO of the top officers and directors. On the other hand, the probability ofpost-IPO profitability decreases with the venture capital participation, proportion of outsiders on the board, and pre-market valuation uncertainty.Keywords: Initial public offerings, Internet firms, Path-to-profitability, Hazard models, Survival1. Executive summaryThere has been an increasing tendency for firms to go public on the basis of a promise of profitability rather than actual profitability. Further, this phenomenon is largely driven by the increase in the proportion of technology firms going public. The risk of post-IPO failure is particularly high for unprofitable firms as shifts in investor sentiment leading to negative market perceptions regarding their prospects or unfavorable financing environments could lead to a shutdown of external financing sources thereby imperiling firm survival. Therefore, the actual accomplishment of post-IPO profitability represents an important milestone in the company's evolution since it signals the long-term economic viability of the firm. While the extant research in entrepreneurship has focused on factors influencing the ability of entrepreneurial firms to attain important milestones prior to or at the time of going public, relatively little is known regarding the timing or ability of firms to achieve critical post-IPO milestones. In this study, we construct a theoretical framework anchored on agency and signaling theories to understand the impact of pre-IPO factors such as governance and ownership structure, management quality, institutional investor demand, and third party certification on firms' post-IPO path-to-profitability. We attempt to validate the testable implications arising from our theoretical framework using the Internet industry as our setting. Achieving post-issue profitability in a timely manner is of particular interest for Internet IPO firms since they are predominantly unprofitable at the time of going public and are typically characterized by high cash burn rates thereby raising questions regarding their long-term economic viability. Since there is a repeated tendency for high technology firms in various emerging sectors of the economy to go public in waves amid investor optimism followed by disappointing performance, insights gained from a study of factors that influence the path-to-profitability of Internet IPO firms will help increase our understanding of the development path and long-term economic viability of entrepreneurial firms in emerging, high technology industries.2. IntroductionThe past few decades have witnessed the formation and development of several vitallyimportant technologically oriented emerging industries such as disk drive, biotechnology, and most recently the Internet industry. Entrepreneurial firms in such knowledge intensive industries are increasingly going public earlier in their life cycle while there is still a great deal of uncertainty and information asymmetry regarding their future prospects (Janey and Folta, 2006). A natural consequence of the rapid transition from founding stage firms to public corporations is an increasing tendency for firms to go public on the basis of a promise of profitability rather than actual profitability.3 Although sustained profitability is no longer a requirement for firms in order to go public, actual accomplishment of post-IPO profitability represents an important milestone in the firm's evolution since it reduces uncertainty regarding the long-term economic viability of the firm. In this paper, we focus on identifying observable factors at the time of going public that have the ability to influence the likelihood and timing of attaining post-IPO profitability by Internet firms. We restrict our study to the Internet industry since it represents a natural setting to study the long-term economic viability of an emerging industry where firms tend to go public when they are predominantly unprofitable and where there is considerably uncertainty and information asymmetry regarding their future prospects.4The attainment of post-IPO profitability assumes significance since the IPO event does not provide the same level of legitimizing differentiation that it did in the past as sustained profitability is no longer a prerequisite to go public particularly in periods where the market is favorably inclined towards investments rather than demonstration of profitability (Stuartet al., 1999; Janey and Folta, 2006). During the Internet boom, investors readily accepted the mantra of “growth at all costs” and enthusiastically bid up the post-IPO offering prices to irrational levels (Lange et al., 2001). In fact, investor focus on the promise of growth rather than profitability resulted in Internet start-ups being viewed differently from typical new ventures in that they were able to marshal substantial resources virtually independent of performance benchmarks (Mudambi and Treichel, 2005).Since the Internet bubble burst in April 2000, venture capital funds dried up and many firms that had successful IPOs went bankrupt or faced severe liquidity problems (Chang, 2004). Consequently, investors' attention shifted from their previously singular focus on growth prospects to the question of profitability with their new mantrabeing “path-to- profitability.” As such, market participants focused on not just whe ther the IPO firm wouldbe able to achieve profitability but also “when” or “how soon.” IPO firms unable to credibly demonstrate a clear path-to-profitability were swiftly punished with steeply lower valuations and consequently faced significantly higher financing constraints. Since cash flow negative firms are not yet self sufficient and, therefore, dependent on external financing to continue to operate, the inability to raise additional capital results in a vicious cycle of events that can quickly lead to delisting and even bankruptcy.5 Therefore, the actual attainment of post-IPO profitability represents an important milestone in the evolution of an IPO firm providing it with legitimacy and signaling its ability to remain economically viable through the ups and downs associated with changing capital market conditions. The theoretical framework supporting our analysis draws from signaling and agency theories as they relate to IPO firms. In our study, signaling theory provides the theoretical basis to evaluate the signaling impact of factors such as management quality, third party certification, institutional investor demand, and pre-IPO valuation uncertainty on the path-to-profitability. Similarly, agency theory provides the theoretical foundations to allow us to examine the impact of governance structure and change in top management ownership at the time of going public on the probability of achieving the post-IPO profitability milestone. Our empirical analysis is based on the hazard analysis methodology to identify the determinants of the probability of becoming profitable as a function of time for a sample of 160 Internet IPOs issued during the period 1996–2000.Our study makes several contributions. First, we construct a theoretical framework based on agency and signaling theories to identify factors that may influence the path-to- profitability of IPO firms. Second, we provide empirical evidence on the economic viability of newly public firms (path-to-profitability and firm survival) in the Internet industry. Third, we add to the theoretical and empirical entrepreneurship literature that has focused on factors influencing the ability of entrepreneurial firms to achieve critical milestones during the transition from private to public ownership. While previous studies have focused on milestones during the private phase of firm development such as receipt of VC funding and successful completion of a public offering (Chang, 2004; Dimov and Shepherd, 2005; Beckman et al., 2007), our study extends this literature by focusing on post-IPOmilestones. Finally, extant empirical evidence indicates that the phenomenon of young, early stage firms belonging to relatively new industries being taken public amid a wave of investor optimism fueled by the promise of growth rather than profitability tends to repeat itself over time.6 However, profitability tends to remain elusive and takes much longer than anticipated which results in investor disillusionment and consequently high failure rate among firms in such sectors. 7 Therefore, our study is likely to provide useful lessons to investors when applying valuations to IPO firms when this phenomenon starts to repeat itself.This articles proceeds as follows. First, using agency and signaling theories, we develop our hypotheses. Second, we describe our sample selection procedures and present descriptive statistics. Third, we describe our research methods and present our results. Finally, we discuss our results and end the article with our concluding remarks.3. Theory and hypothesesSignaling models and agency theory have been extensively applied in the financial economics, management, and strategy literatures to analyze a wide range of economic phenomena that revolve around problems associated with information asymmetry, moral hazard, and adverse selection. Signaling theory in particular has been widely applied in the IPO market as a framework to analyze mechanisms that are potentially effective in resolving the adverse selection problem that arises as a result of information asymmetry between various market participants (Baron, 1982; Rock, 1986; Welch, 1989). In this study, signaling theory provides the framework to evaluate the impact of pre-IPO factors such as management quality, third party certification, and institutional investor demand on the path-to-profitability of Internet IPO firms.The IPO market provides a particularly fertile setting to explore the consequences of separation of ownership and control and potential remedies for the resulting agency problems since the interests of pre-IPO and post-IPO shareholders can diverge. In the context of the IPO market, agency and signaling effects are also related to the extent that insider actions such as increasing the percentage of the firm sold at the IPO, percentage of management stock holdings liquidated at the IPO, or percentage of VC holdings liquidated at the IPO can accentuate agency problems with outside investors and, as a consequence, signal poorperformance (Mudambi and Treichel, 2005). We, therefore, apply agency theory to evaluate the impact of board structure and the change in pre-to-post IPO ownership of top management on the path-to-profitability of Internet IPO firms.3.1. Governance structureIn the context of IPO firms, there are at least two different agency problems (Mudambi and Treichel, 2005). The first problem arises as a result of opportunistic behavior of agents to increase their share of the wealth at the expense of principals. The introduction of effective monitoring and control systems can help mitigate or eliminate this type of behavior and its negative impact on post-issue performance. The extant corporate governance literature has argued that the effectiveness of monitoring and control functions depends to a large extent on the composition of the board of directors. We, therefore, examine the relationship between board composition and the likelihood and timing of post-IPO profitability.The second type of agency problem that arises in the IPO market is due to uncertainty regarding whether insiders seek to use the IPO as an exit mechanism to cash out or whether they use the IPO to raise capital to invest in positive NPV projects. The extent of insider selling their shares at the time of the IPO can provide an effective signal regarding which of the above two motivations is the likely reason for the IPO. We, therefore, examine the impact of the change in ownership of officers and directors around the IPO on the likelihood and timing of attaining post-issue profitability.3.2. Management qualityAn extensive body of research has examined the impact of to management team (TMT) characteristics on firm outcomes for established firms as well as for new ventures by drawing from human capital and demography theories. For instance, researchers drawing from human capital theories study the impact of characteristics such as type and amount of experience of TMTs on performance (Cooper et al., 1994; Gimeno et al., 1997; Burton et al., 2002; Baum and Silverman, 2004). Additionally, Beckman et al. (2007) argue that demographic arguments are distinct from human capital arguments in that they examine team composition and diversity in addition to experience. The authors consequently examine the impact of characteristics such as background affiliation, composition, and turnover of TMT members on thelikelihood of firms completing an IPO. Overall, researchers have generally found evidence to support arguments that human capital and demographic characteristics of TMT members influence firm outcomes.Drawing from signaling theory, we argue that the quality of the TMT of IPO firms can serve as a signal of the ability of a firm to attain post-IPO profitability. Since management quality is costly to acquire, signaling theory implies that by hiring higher quality management, high value firms can signal their superior prospects and separate themselves from low value firms with less capable managers. The beneficial impact of management quality in the IPO market includes the ability to attract more prestigious investment bankers, generate stronger institutional investor demand, raise capital more effectively, lower underwriting expenses, attract stronger analyst following, make better investment and financing decisions, and consequently influence the short and long-run post-IPO operating and stock performance(Chemmanur and Paeglis, 2005). Thus, agency theory, in turn, would argue that higher quality management is more likely to earn their marginal productivity of labor and thus have a lower incentive to shirk, thereby also leading to more favorable post-IPO outcomes.8We focus our analyses on the signaling impact of CEO and CFO quality on post-IPO performance. We focus on these two members of the TMT of IPO firms since they are particularly influential in establishing beneficial networks, providing legitimacy to the organization, and are instrumental in designing, communicating, and implementing the various strategic choices and standard operating procedures that are likely to influence post- IPO performance.3.3. Third party certificationThe extant literature has widely recognized the potential for third party certification as a solution to the information asymmetry problem in the IPO market (Beatty, 1989; Carter and Manaster, 1990; Megginson and Weiss, 1991; Jain and Kini, 1995, 1999b; Zimmerman and Zeitz, 2002). The theoretical basis for third party certification is drawn from the signaling models which argue that intermediaries such as investment bankers, venture capitalists, and auditors have the ability to mitigate the problem of information asymmetry by virtue of their reputation capital (Booth and Smith, 1986; Megginson and Weiss, 1991; Jain and Kini,1995, Carter et al., 1998). In addition to certification at the IPO, intermediaries, through their continued involvement,monitoring, and advising role have the ability to enhance performance after the IPO. In the discussion below, we focus on the signaling impact of venture capitalists involvement and investment bank prestige on post-IPO outcomes3.4. Institutional investor demandPrior to marketing the issue to investors, the issuing firm and their investment bankers are required to file an estimated price range in the registration statement. The final pricing of the IPO firm is typically done on the day before the IPO based upon the perceived demand from potential investors. Further, the final offer price is determined after investment bankers ave conducted road shows and obtained indications of interest from institutional investors. Therefore, the initial price range relative to the final IPO offer price is a measure of institutional investor uncertainty regarding the value of the firm. Since institutional investors typically conduct sophisticated valuation analyses prior to providing their indications of demand, divergence of opinion on valuation amongst them is a reflection of the risk and uncertainty associated with the prospects of the IPO firm during the post-IPO phase. Consistent with this view, Houge et al. (2001) find empirical evidence to indicate that greater divergence of opinion and investor uncertainty about an IPO can generate short- run overvaluation and long-run underperformance. Therefore, higher divergence of opinion among institutional investors is likely to be negatively related to the probability of post-IPO profitability and positively related to time-to-profitability.A related issue is the extent of pre-market demand by institutional investors for allocation of shares in the IPO firm. Higher pre-issue demand represents a favorable consensus of sophisticated institutional investors regarding the prospects of the issuing firm. Institutional investor consensus as well as their higher holdings in the post-IPO firm is likely to be an informative signal regarding the post-IPO prospects of the firm.4. Sample description and variable measurementOur initial sample of 325 Internet IPOs over the period January 1996 to February 2000 was obtained from the Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Internet Research Report dated February 17，2000. The unavailability of IPO offering prospectuses and exclusion of foreign firms reduces the sample size to 205 firms. Further, to be included in our sample, we require that financial and accountinginformation for sample firms is available on the Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP) and Compustat files and IPO offering related information is accessible from the Securities Data Corporation's (SDC) Global New Issues database. As a result of these additional data requirements, our final sample consists of 160 Internet IPO firms. Information on corporate governance variables (ownership, board composition, past experience of the CEO and CFO), and number of risk factors is collected from the offering prospectuses.Our final sample of Internet IPO firms has the following attributes. The mean offer price for our sample of IPO firms is $16.12. The average firm in our sample raised $99.48 million. The gross underwriting fee spread is around seven percent. About 79% of the firms in our sample had venture capital backing. Both the mean and median returns on assets for firms in our sample at the time of going public are significantly negative. For example, the average operating return on assets for our sample of firms is − 56.3%. The average number of employees for the firms in our sample is 287. The average board size is 6.57 for our sample. In about 7.5% of our sample, the CEO and CFO came from the same firm. In addition, we find that 59 firms representing 37% of the sample attained profitability during the post-IPO period with the median time-to-profitability being three quarters from the IPO date.5. Discussion of results and concluding remarksThe development path of various emerging industries tend to be similar in that they are characterized by high firm founding rates, rapid growth rates, substantial investments in R&D and capital expenditures, potential for product/process breakthroughs, investor exuberance, huge demand for capital, large number of firms going public while relatively young, and a struggle for survival during the post-IPO phase as profitability and growth targets remain elusive and shifts in investor sentiment substantially raise financing constraints. Recently, the Internet has rapidly emerged as a vitally important industry that has fundamentally impacted the global economy with start-up firms in the industry attracting $108 billion of investment capital during the period 1995–2000。

Growth and the Valuation of SharesLintnerListed companies in the dividend distribution policy to some extent direct impact on the operation of funds of listed companies. The company paid to its shareholders the remaining surplus of retained earnings in the enterprise, there Cixiaobizhang relationship. Therefore, the dividend distribution policy is decided how much dividend distribution to shareholders, has decided to stay in the number of enterprises. Reduce the dividend distribution, which will increase corporate retained earnings, reducing the external financing needs. So dividend policy is also financing the internal decision-making enterprises. In this paper, often used to make a dividend distribution policy briefly discussed.Dividend in the actual operation, the choice of dividend distribution policy has the following four:First, the remaining dividend distribution policyDividend and the company's capital structure related to investment and capital structure, in turn, constitute the necessary funds, the dividend distribution policy should in fact be the cost of capital and investment opportunities in the double impact. The remaining dividend distribution policy is that the company has good investment opportunities, in accordance with the objectives of certain capital structure (the optimal capital structure), to calculate the required equity capital investment, the first of retained earnings, and then the remaining surplus as a dividend to be Distribution. If there is no surplus, not dividends. Use the remaining dividend distribution policy to be followed by five steps: (1)identification of investment projects, looking for profitable investment opportunities. (2)target capital structure, which is identified with the debt equity capital ratio of capital to the weighted average cost of capital (integrated cost of capital rate) reached the lowest level as the standard. (3) target capital structure of the equity investment required amount.(4)maximize the use of the company's retained earnings to meet the investment programmes of the equity capital required amount. (5)investment programme for equity capital have been met if the remaining surplus, and then as dividends paid to shareholders.Choice of the remaining dividend distribution policy, will mean that only the remaining surplus for dividend payment. The model is based on the stock price has nothing to do with the distribution of dividends, investors in the dividend and capital gains do not have a preferred, but will investors get dividends on the secondary position, its fundamental purpose is to maintain the ideal capital structure, the weighted average cost of capital Minimum, thus realizing the company to maximize profits.Second, the continued growth of fixed or dividend distribution policyThe continued growth of fixed or dividend distribution policy is to distribute the annual dividend fixed at a specific level, and in the longer period of time regardlessof how the company's profitability, the financial situation of how the distribution of the dividend remains unchanged. Only when the company that future earnings will be significant, and irreversible growth, will be able to maintain the amount of dividends paid to a higher level, will increase the annual dividend payment amount. However, inflation in the circumstances, most companies will then raise the surplus, and the majority of investors want companies to provide more than offset the adverse effects of inflation dividends, long-term inflation in the years should also increase the amount of dividend payment .Sustained growth of fixed or dividend distribution policy is aimed at avoid because of poor management and reduction of dividend. To take such dividend distribution policy of the reasons is: First, a stable dividend for the company to market convey the normal development of the information, to establish a good image of the company, enhance the confidence of investors in the company, stable stock prices. Second, the stability of the amount of dividends to investors for dividend income and expenditure, especially for those who are dependent on dividends shareholders especially. Mandrax Mandrax high dividends and low stocks, will not be welcomed by these shareholders, the stock price will drop. Third, the stability of the dividend distribution policy may be inconsistent with the remaining dividend theory, but taking into account the stock market will be a variety of factors, including the psychological state of shareholders and other requirements, in order to maintain a stable dividend level, Even if some deferred investment programme or temporarily deviate from target capital structure, may also reduce the dividend or lower than the dividend growth rate of more favorable.In view of this, the company only used or continued growth in the fixed dividend distribution policy in order to maximize the company shares in order to achieve the maximization of the company's financial goals. The dividend distribution policy is that the shortcomings of the dividends paid out of touch with the surplus. When the lower earnings still support a fixed dividend, it might lead to a shortage of funds, financial situation worsened, not the same as the surplus into the dividend distribution policy as to maintain a lower cost of capital.Third, to pay a fixed dividend rate policyDividend policy to pay a fixed rate, the company set a dividend amount of the surplus ratio (dividend payment rate), this ratio of long-term policy to pay dividends. In this dividend distribution policy, the dividends for investors as the company's net profit after tax changes and fluctuations, when the company increased net profit, the stock dividend for investors has increased, but decreased. The higher rate of pay fixed dividends, the company retained surplus is less. Fixed rate of dividend payment distribution model first consider the distribution of dividends, before considering the retained earnings, with the remaining dividend distribution model contrary to the order. In the policy, the dividend payment rate, once established, generally are not allowed to randomly change, the company's profit after tax is determined by calculation, the distribution of the dividend will accordingly identified.Fixed rate of dividend payment policy is based on investor risk aversion, like the reality of the proceeds to determine the distribution of dividends to meet theaspirations of investors, and the distribution of dividends and stock price are relevant and meet the aspirations of the investors, will support the company Shares in a higher position, shares will maximize the realization of the company's financial goals to maximize. But in this policy under the annual dividend for the larger changes, the company easily create the impression of instability, adverse to stabilize stock prices.Third, to pay a fixed dividend rate policy Dividend policy to pay a fixed rateThe company set a dividend amount of the surplus ratio (dividend payment rate), this ratio of long-term policy to pay dividends. In this dividend distribution policy, the dividends for investors as the company's net profit after tax changes and fluctuations, when the company increased net profit, the stock dividend for investors has increased, but decreased. The higher rate of pay fixed dividends, the company retained surplus is less. Fixed rate of dividend payment distribution model first consider the distribution of dividends, before considering the retained earnings, with the remaining dividend distribution model contrary to the order. In the policy, the dividend payment rate, once established, generally are not allowed to randomly change, the company's profit after tax is determined by calculation, the distribution of the dividend will accordingly identified.Fixed rate of dividend payment policy is based on investor risk aversion, like the reality of the proceeds to determine the distribution of dividends to meet the aspirations of investors, and the distribution of dividends and stock price are relevant and meet the aspirations of the investors, will support the company Shares in a higher position, shares will maximize the realization of the company's financial goals to maximize. But in this policy under the annual dividend for the larger changes, the company easily create the impression of instability, adverse to stabilize stock prices.The last,Yurika additional shares normal low dividend policyYurika additional shares normal low dividend policy, a company in normal circumstances only pay a fixed annual amount of the dividend lower in corporate earnings more and better financial situation of the year, according to the actual situation further release of additional dividends to shareholders. However, additional dividends is not fixed, does not mean that the company permanently raise the required rate of dividend payment. Stock real goods or services provided to the customer business entity. The delivery of these goods and services customers time may also influence the cash flow. Articles in the excessive inventory becomes expensive, because they are more easily damaged, or can become obsolete. Although there is now way, the company can reduce the loss of goods allowed to cancel out, commercial enterprises have set up sales of goods and services, without their product is out of date. The company needs a responsible person to understand what is inventory, and this information must be effectively communicated to the sales force. An effective sales force training can use this information to the understanding of what the pricing model, in order to recruit. At the same time, the sales manager can use this information to the foundation and development unit.Adopt this policy was mainly due to: first, such dividend distribution policy so that companies with greater flexibility, when compared with fewer or more of thecapital investment required, to maintain a lower but set the normal dividend The level of dividends, shareholders will not have dividends fell flu, to maintain the existing stock prices and achieve its goals. When companies have a more substantial increase in earnings and surplus cash, the issuance of additional dividend may be appropriate. The company's dividend will be distributed additional information to stock investors so that they enhance the company's confidence is conducive to the stability and stock prices rose. Second, the dividend distribution policy that will enable those who rely on the shareholder dividend to live at least a year could be lower though, but relatively stable dividend income, which attracted this part of the shareholders.Several more dividend distribution policy claims, the company in dividend distribution, we should learn from its basic ideological decision-making, to suit their own specific reality of the dividend distribution policy, enabling the company to maintain stability, sustained growth, Shareholders can receive more benefits in order to achieve the company's financial goals to maximize.。