Sang-Youn Lee’s Three Minute Thesis
Three essays on foreign firms, capital raising and their survivability in the US
In trying to understand the patterns and the degree to which new foreign firms raise capital and survive in the U.S stock market, he focuses on social networks, isomorphism, and managerial actions. His first dissertation paper investigates whether foreign IPO firms which exhibit stronger isomorphism to the characteristics of U.S. domestic IPO firms attain higher valuation from market investors. When analyzing 200 Chinese firms, he found that IPO process isomorphism (e.g. use of venture capitalist, prestige underwriter, and big 5 audit firms) has significant effects on foreign firms’ IPO performance. He further examines how alliance partnerships affect the survivability of foreign firms in the U.S stock market. He shows that the number of alliances with U.S firms that a foreign IPO firm makes in the post-IPO stage is positively related to firm’s survivability. His third dissertation essay examines the effects of top management team dynamics on foreign IPOs survivability. He reported that foreign IPO firms that continuously improve their TMT in the post-IPO stage in terms of TMT’s international or industry specific experience will likely survive longer.
His research provides importance guidance for foreign firms that decide to list their stock in the U.S. Associate dean John Cullen is the faculty collaborator and coauthor.
About Sang-Youn
Sang-Youn Lee “Youn” is a Ph.D. student in the Carson College of Business at Washington State University, and his research focus includes foreign IPO performance and nation-level social institutions on entrepreneurship. Before joining the doctoral program at WSU, he worked at Korea Telecom since 2002 and was the CEO advisor and in charge of corporate venture capitalists. His research was published in Long Range Planning, a leading international journal for the field of strategic management.
He completed his dissertation on three essays on foreign firms’ capital raising and their survivability in the US. He enjoys teaching and has taught business strategy and policy and principles of organization and management with excellent student evaluations. In spring 2015, the Carson College selected him to teach international management because of his international work expertise in Korea, China, Malaysia, Russia, and in the United States. His academic goal is to be an engaged scholar sharing intellectual knowledge. He will join the State University of New York New Paltz School of Business in August 2015.