Marketing Aspects of Going Public: Empirical Evidence on the Czech and Polish Capital Markets

We surveyed chief financial officers (CFOs) in the Czech and Polish enterprises to compare practice in the CEE region to findings in previous empirical studies and theoretical approaches in the area of initial public offering (IPO) motivation. Based on an extensive review of IPO-oriented academic literature two groups of IPO motivation have been distinguished: The first group consists of financial motives, the second group consists of non-financial (marketing) motives. The intent of this study required to collect primary data via interviews and questionnaires. The survey results can be summarised as follows. Regarding the motivation, financial factors predominate. First of all, raising external capital as a motive for going public received the strongest support from the respondents both in the Czech Republic and Poland. Surprisingly, more than 50% in both countries believe that the IPO will have a positive impact on its image and publicity. The CFOs point out that enhancing firm reputation and publicity helps enterprises to increase their bargaining position against all groups of stakeholders with a positive effect on the company goodwill. The CFOs share the opinion that public companies are viewed as the best in their business branch and view the listing as an important milestone in the life cycle of company.