FBM Distinguished Lecture | T2-306, 14:00-15:00, Sept 23rd (Wed), Prof. Chen Chen

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Using consumer reviews from Trustpilot.com, we examine whether going public affects consumer satisfaction. Exploiting completed, cancelled, and rumored IPO attempts and focusing on consumers who post reviews both before and after these events, we find that successful IPOs are associated with a significant and persistent decline in consumer satisfaction. The evidence points to short-term market pressure and business expansion as plausible mechanisms. Textual analyses show more negative sentiment and more complaints about service and product quality after IPOs, without a corresponding increase in firms' responses. The results identify a previously underexplored consumer-welfare cost of going public.

Chen Chen is a professor in the Department of Accounting, Monash University, Australia. His research interests are in the areas of financial reporting, auditing and corporate finance. He previously worked at the University of Auckland Business School after he obtained his PhD from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research has been published in numerous academic journals including Journal of Accounting Research, Management Science, Review of Accounting Studies, The Accounting Review, Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory, Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance, Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of Business, Finance & Accounting, Journal of Corporate Finance and Accounting and Finance. Professor Chen's research has also been profiled in publications such as ABC Money, Forbes, Harvard Business Review, London School of Economics Business Review, Columbia Law School's Blog on Corporations and the Capital Markets, Strategy+, among many others.