The Effects of Online Search on IPO Stock Prices

Online search has recently become a popular business research field not only because the search volume is used to predict demand, but also consumer search history is effective to predict product prices and investment returns. This study analyzes the relationship between the Internet search volume of IPO stocks and their post-IPO stock returns in Korean Exchange. We find that the lower the amount of Internet search for stocks before IPO, the higher the stock returns after IPO both in short and long-term. Similar results are shown for excess returns over benchmark stocks. This finding suggests that IPO stocks with low investors' attention based on the Internet search volume may be undervalued.