The determinants of IPO-related shareholder litigation: The role of CEO equity incentives and corporate governance

We examine how compensation and corporate governance mechanisms affect the occurrence of securities fraud and related shareholder litigation for initial public offering (IPO) firms. While prior research has focused on seasoned firms, we examine how CEO incentives and corporate governance in IPOs affect the incidence of IPO-related shareholder litigation. We find that the likelihood of securities fraud allegations increases with pre-IPO CEO equity incentives, suggesting a "dark side" to executive equity incentives. The risk of being sued is higher for firms whose boards are dominated by insiders, whose CEOs are older, have shorter tenure, or who founded the firm. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.