Past IPO literature suggests ownership retention
(Leland and Pyle, 1977) is a signal of firm quality.
We extend this notion postulating ownership retention
is a complementary signal to intellectual capital
disclosure. Verrecchia (1983) suggests firms
faced with high proprietary costs are likely to limit
voluntary disclosure. Based on this contention, it is
our conjecture the intellectual capital disclosure–
ownership retention association will be suppressed
by the extent of proprietary costs faced by an IPO.
Previous researchers suggest corporate governance
structure can reduce a firm’s cost of capital (e.g.
Certo et al., 2001). Consequently, our final conjecture
is that stronger corporate governance structures
mitigate negative influences of higher proprietary
costs on the association between intellectual capital
disclosure levels and ownership retention.