We investigate the financing and performance of international entrepreneurship in an environment that was characterized by severe information problems and very weak investor protection. Despite these problems, new ventures could raise large amounts of equity and debt on the Belgian capital market between 1890 and 1914. Many of these firms were international new ventures (INVs) with their main operations abroad, often far away from Belgium. We find that INVs raised much more capital but were less likely to pay a dividend than domestic new ventures (DNVs). They were less likely to issue a bond and had a higher cost of debt when operating further away from Belgium. Performance after listing was generally bad for new ventures throughout the period, but it was much worse for INVs than for DNVs. Our findings confirm contemporary arguments that unprotected, financially illiterate investors were expropriated by INV founders.

中文翻译：

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没有投资者保护的国际创业：第一次世界大战前比利时首次公开募股的证据

我们在信息问题严重、投资者保护非常薄弱的​​环境中调查国际创业的融资和绩效。尽管存在这些问题，1890 年至 1914 年间，新企业仍可以在比利时资本市场上筹集大量股权和债务。其中许多公司是国际新企业 (INV)，其主要业务在国外，通常远离比利时。我们发现，与国内新企业 (DNV) 相比，INV 筹集了更多资金，但支付股息的可能性较小。当他们在远离比利时的地方运营时，他们发行债券的可能性较小，并且债务成本较高。在此期间，新企业上市后的表现普遍较差，但 INV 的表现比 DNV 差得多。我们的研究结果证实了当代的观点，即不受保护、不懂金融的投资者被 INV 创始人剥夺了。