IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/rqfnac/v57y2021i3d10.1007_s11156-021-00964-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Measuring misleading information in IPO prospectuses

Author

Listed:
  • Wenbo Ma

    (Southern University of Science and Technology)

  • Xinjie Wang

    (Southern University of Science and Technology)

  • Yuan Wang

    (Southern University of Science and Technology)

  • Ge Wu

    (University of Richmond)

Abstract

Newly public firms may provide misleading information about their business plans in their initial public offering (IPO) prospectuses. Using textual analysis, we develop a simple measure of such misleading information based on the difference between the emphasis placed on business lines in the main textual description and the corresponding information from the accounting tables. We examine our measure of misleading information using a sample of 1878 IPOs in China from 2010 to 2019. We find that the degree of misleading information is greater when firms find it more difficult to get regulatory approval for an IPO. Furthermore, the amount of misleading information is greater for firms with higher leverage and more segmented businesses. We also find some evidence that the stock returns of firms which present a greater amount of misleading information are lower.

Suggested Citation

  • Wenbo Ma & Xinjie Wang & Yuan Wang & Ge Wu, 2021. "Measuring misleading information in IPO prospectuses," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 57(3), pages 819-843, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:rqfnac:v:57:y:2021:i:3:d:10.1007_s11156-021-00964-7
    DOI: 10.1007/s11156-021-00964-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11156-021-00964-7
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11156-021-00964-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

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

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hanley, Kathleen Weiss & Hoberg, Gerard, 2012. "Litigation risk, strategic disclosure and the underpricing of initial public offerings," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(2), pages 235-254.
    2. Bonsall, Samuel B. & Leone, Andrew J. & Miller, Brian P. & Rennekamp, Kristina, 2017. "A plain English measure of financial reporting readability," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 329-357.
    3. Tim Loughran & Bill Mcdonald, 2014. "Measuring Readability in Financial Disclosures," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 69(4), pages 1643-1671, August.
    4. Michelle Lowry & Micah S. Officer & G. William Schwert, 2010. "The Variability of IPO Initial Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(2), pages 425-465, April.
    5. Tim Loughran & Jay R. Ritter, 2002. "Why Don't Issuers Get Upset About Leaving Money on the Table in IPOs?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 15(2), pages 413-444, March.
    6. Zachary McGurk & Adam Nowak & Joshua C. Hall, 2020. "Stock returns and investor sentiment: textual analysis and social media," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 44(3), pages 458-485, July.
    7. Mitchell A. Petersen & Raghuram G. Rajan, 2002. "Does Distance Still Matter? The Information Revolution in Small Business Lending," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(6), pages 2533-2570, December.
    8. Jeremy C. Stein, 2002. "Information Production and Capital Allocation: Decentralized versus Hierarchical Firms," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(5), pages 1891-1921, October.
    9. S. P. Kothari & Susan Shu & Peter D. Wysocki, 2009. "Do Managers Withhold Bad News?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(1), pages 241-276, March.
    10. Nicky J. Ferguson & Dennis Philip & Herbert Y. T. Lam & Jie Michael Guo, 2015. "Media Content and Stock Returns: The Predictive Power of Press," Multinational Finance Journal, Multinational Finance Journal, vol. 19(1), pages 1-31, March.
    11. Loughran, Tim & McDonald, Bill, 2013. "IPO first-day returns, offer price revisions, volatility, and form S-1 language," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(2), pages 307-326.
    12. Tom Arnold & Raymond P.H. Fishe & David North, 2010. "The Effects of Ambiguous Information on Initial and Subsequent IPO Returns," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 39(4), pages 1497-1519, December.
    13. Bradley, Daniel J. & Gonas, John S. & Highfield, Michael J. & Roskelley, Kenneth D., 2009. "An examination of IPO secondary market returns," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 316-330, June.
    14. Thomas J. Chemmanur & Gang Hu & Jiekun Huang, 2010. "The Role of Institutional Investors in Initial Public Offerings," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(12), pages 4496-4540, December.
    15. Jiang, Fuwei & Lee, Joshua & Martin, Xiumin & Zhou, Guofu, 2019. "Manager sentiment and stock returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(1), pages 126-149.
    16. Paul C. Tetlock, 2007. "Giving Content to Investor Sentiment: The Role of Media in the Stock Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(3), pages 1139-1168, June.
    17. Werner Antweiler & Murray Z. Frank, 2004. "Is All That Talk Just Noise? The Information Content of Internet Stock Message Boards," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 59(3), pages 1259-1294, June.
    18. Yan, Yumeng & Xiong, Xiong & Meng, J. Ginger & Zou, Gaofeng, 2019. "Uncertainty and IPO initial returns: Evidence from the Tone Analysis of China’s IPO Prospectuses," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    19. Tim Loughran & Bill Mcdonald, 2011. "When Is a Liability Not a Liability? Textual Analysis, Dictionaries, and 10‐Ks," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(1), pages 35-65, February.
    20. Stephen P. Ferris & (Grace) Qing Hao & (Stella) Min-Yu Liao, 2013. "The Effect of Issuer Conservatism on IPO Pricing and Performance," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 17(3), pages 993-1027.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wei Zhang & Xiong Xiong & Guanying Wang & Jing Li, 2022. "The accounting and trading information channels of excess control rights on IPO long-term return in China," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 59(4), pages 1609-1646, November.

    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. Guo, Haifeng & Wang, Ying & Wang, Bo & Ge, Yuanjing, 2022. "Does prospectus AE affect IPO underpricing? A content analysis of the Chinese stock market," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 1-12.
    2. Ahmed, Yousry & Elshandidy, Tamer, 2016. "The effect of bidder conservatism on M&A decisions: Text-based evidence from US 10-K filings," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 176-190.
    3. Benson, David F. & Brau, James C. & Cicon, James & Ferris, Stephen P., 2015. "Strategically camouflaged corporate governance in IPOs: Entrepreneurial masking and impression management," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 839-864.
    4. Buehlmaier, Matthias M. M. & Zechner, Josef, 2016. "Financial media, price discovery, and merger arbitrage," CFS Working Paper Series 551, Center for Financial Studies (CFS).
    5. Tim Loughran & Bill Mcdonald, 2016. "Textual Analysis in Accounting and Finance: A Survey," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(4), pages 1187-1230, September.
    6. Senave, Elseline & Jans, Mieke J. & Srivastava, Rajendra P., 2023. "The application of text mining in accounting," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    7. Eryka Probierz & Adam Galuszka & Katarzyna Klimczak & Karol Jedrasiak & Tomasz Wisniewski & Tomasz Dzida, 2021. "Financial Sentiment on Twitter's Community and it's Connection to Polish Stock Market Movements in Context of Behavior Modelling," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(4B), pages 56-65.
    8. Hanley, Kathleen Weiss & Hoberg, Gerard, 2012. "Litigation risk, strategic disclosure and the underpricing of initial public offerings," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(2), pages 235-254.
    9. Maciej Wujec, 2021. "Analysis of the Financial Information Contained in the Texts of Current Reports: A Deep Learning Approach," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-17, December.
    10. Ingrid E. Fisher & Margaret R. Garnsey & Mark E. Hughes, 2016. "Natural Language Processing in Accounting, Auditing and Finance: A Synthesis of the Literature with a Roadmap for Future Research," Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(3), pages 157-214, July.
    11. Bian, Shibo & Jia, Dekui & Li, Ruihai & Sun, Wujun & Yan, Zhipeng & Zheng, Yingfei, 2021. "Can management tone predict IPO performance? – Evidence from mandatory online roadshows in China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    12. Zongwu Cai & Pixiong Chen, 2022. "New Online Investor Sentiment and Asset Returns," WORKING PAPERS SERIES IN THEORETICAL AND APPLIED ECONOMICS 202216, University of Kansas, Department of Economics, revised Nov 2022.
    13. Katsafados, Apostolos G. & Androutsopoulos, Ion & Chalkidis, Ilias & Fergadiotis, Manos & Leledakis, George N. & Pyrgiotakis, Emmanouil G., 2020. "Textual Information and IPO Underpricing: A Machine Learning Approach," MPRA Paper 103813, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Chouliaras, Andreas, 2015. "Institutional Investors, Annual Reports, Textual Analysis and Stock Returns: Evidence from SEC EDGAR 10-K and 13-F Forms," MPRA Paper 65875, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Salim Chahine & Gonul Colak & Iftekhar Hasan & Mohamad Mazboudi, 2020. "Investor relations and IPO performance," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 474-512, June.
    16. Rui Ding, 2016. "Disclosure of Downside Risk and Investors' Use of Qualitative Information: Evidence from the IPO Prospectus's Risk Factor Section," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 16(1), pages 73-126, March.
    17. Yan Luo & Linying Zhou, 2020. "Textual tone in corporate financial disclosures: a survey of the literature," International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 17(2), pages 101-110, September.
    18. Waqas Mehmood & Rasidah Mohd-Rashid & Yasir Abdullah & Ataul Karim Patwary & Attia Aman-Ullah, 2023. "Inclusive mapping of initial public offerings: a bibliometric and literature review study," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 655-700, February.
    19. An, Suwei, 2023. "Essays on incentive contracts, M&As, and firm risk," Other publications TiSEM dd97d2f5-1c9d-47c5-ba62-f, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    20. Shuangyan Li & Guangrui Wang & Yongli Luo, 2022. "Tone of language, financial disclosure, and earnings management: a textual analysis of form 20-F," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 8(1), pages 1-24, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    IPO prospectus; Misleading information; China;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G10 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading

    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:kap:rqfnac:v:57:y:2021:i:3:d:10.1007_s11156-021-00964-7. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://springer.com .

    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.