Hot market (Abenomics) impact on the time to IPO

This study examines how the performance of startups during the time period up to their initial public offering (IPO) is affected by the macro environment, a topic that has not been given much consideration to date. Taking the end of 2012 (the beginning of Abenomics), when Japan’s economic environment shifted to a hot market, as the transition point, we analyzed companies that did IPOs in terms of such variables as the target market, the attributes of the companies in the sample (type of entrepreneurship), and the date of their actual establishment. We found that for those companies operating in an economically favorable environment, the average time period from startup to IPO was relatively long. This could be because an economically favorable environment and improved business conditions spurred startups that had been implementing a wait-and-see attitude. We have some reservations about using “time to IPO” naively as a performance indicator, and caution should be exercised when using it.