We hypothesize that VC-backing garners greater “investor attention” (Merton (1987)) for IPOs, allowing IPO underwriters to perform two information-related roles more efficiently during the book-building and road-show process: information dissemination, where the lead underwriter disseminates...

We study how patenting enhances customer capital and creates financial value. We find that firms with more and higher quality patents develop more customer capital as measured by better customer perceptions of product innovativeness and quality. To establish causality, we exploit the exogenous...