We make use of hand-collected data on a large sample of entrepreneurial firms going public to analyze the association between venture capital (VC) backing and the top management team (TMT) quality of firms at the time of their initial public offerings (IPOs), and the effect of both VC-backing and TMT quality on the growth in their post-IPO operating performance and IPO firm valuations. We first show that VC-backing is associated with higher TMT quality. We then show that both higher TMT quality and VC-backing lead to higher growth in post-IPO operating performance and higher IPO valuations. We find that the above two variables affect the growth in post-IPO operating performance through an “ability channel,” whereby the TMTs of such firms choose projects with higher equilibrium scale and implement them more ably. Further, TMT quality and VC-backing affect IPO firm valuations not only through the above ability channel, but also through a “certification channel,” whereby higher TMT quality and VC-backing credibly certify intrinsic firm value to the IPO market, thus reducing the extent of asymmetric information facing such firms in the IPO market and yielding these firms higher IPO valuations. Finally, we show that TMT quality and VC-backing act as complements in their effect on IPO firms' growth in post-IPO operating performance.

我们利用手工收集的大量上市创业公司样本数据来分析风险投资 (VC) 支持与公司在首次公开募股 (IPO) 时的高层管理团队 (TMT) 质量之间的关联，以及风险投资支持和 TMT 质量对其 IPO 后经营业绩和 IPO 公司估值增长的影响。我们首先表明 VC 支持与更高的 TMT 质量相关。然后我们表明，更高的 TMT 质量和风险投资支持导致 IPO 后经营业绩的更高增长和更高的 IPO 估值。我们发现，上述两个变量通过“能力通道”影响上市后经营业绩的增长，即此类公司的TMT选择均衡规模更高的项目并更能干地实施。更远，TMT质量和VC支持不仅通过上述能力渠道影响IPO公司估值，还通过“认证渠道”，更高的TMT质量和VC支持可信地证明了公司对IPO市场的内在价值，从而降低了对IPO市场的影响程度。这些公司在 IPO 市场上面临的信息不对称，并导致这些公司获得更高的 IPO 估值。最后，我们表明 TMT 质量和风险投资支持对 IPO 公司在 IPO 后经营业绩增长的影响起到了补充作用。从而减少这些公司在 IPO 市场上面临的信息不对称程度，并使这些公司获得更高的 IPO 估值。最后，我们表明 TMT 质量和风险投资支持对 IPO 公司在 IPO 后经营业绩增长的影响起到了补充作用。从而减少这些公司在 IPO 市场上面临的信息不对称程度，并使这些公司获得更高的 IPO 估值。最后，我们表明 TMT 质量和风险投资支持对 IPO 公司在 IPO 后经营业绩增长的影响起到了补充作用。