Media Experience of Corporate Managers, Media Coverage and First-Day IPO Performance

Abstract

This paper takes Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share IPOs from 2009 to 2016 as samples, focusing on the possible impact of executive media experience on corporate media coverage during the IPO period and its market effect. The research finds that senior managers’ media experience has a significant positive impact on media attention and reporting tendency during the IPO period, that is, it helps to improve the media coverage level of the company. At the same time, the higher the positions of senior managers with media experience in media organizations or departments, the better the media coverage will be for them. This further shows that the higher the positions of senior managers, the more obvious their professional skills and social network advantages or the stronger their abilities to deal with media relations, the more conducive to the improvement of the corporate media information environment. Finally, the positive impact of senior managers’ media experience on media coverage can achieve a better market effect, that is, it helps to promote the increase of underpricing rate and turnover rate on the first day of IPO, thereby maximizing the company value or shareholder wealth.The possible contributions of this paper are mainly reflected in the following aspects: （1）This paper focuses on the role of corporate management in the formation of media bias, thus further revealing the way or mechanism of corporate media disclosure management, providing incremental information for corporate media disclosure management research. （2） This paper finds that media coverage plays an intermediary role in the influence of executive media experience on IPO underpricing rate, which not only further reveals the internal mechanism of corporate governance on information disclosure, but also enriches the research on the impact of corporate governance factors on IPO underpricing rate. At the same time, it also provides Chinese empirical evidence for Gurun’s （2016） study on the impact of executive media experience on corporate media information environment. （3） This study focuses on the possible impact of executive media experience on the corporate media disclosure behavior, enriching the research on the relationship between executive experience and corporate behavior decision-making. （4） In addition, the conclusions of this study have good implications for market regulation, information disclosure management of listed companies and investor decision-making.