Why do some Chinese technology firms avoid ChiNext and go public in the US?

Some Chinese technology firms prefer to go public on US exchanges despite the launch of ChiNext as a NASDAQ-style board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in late 2009. Conventional hypotheses based on sales internationalization and issuing costs fail to explain this preference. Instead, our findings suggest the existence of a separating equilibrium in which small but profitable firms choose ChiNext and large firms backed by foreign venture capital prefer US exchanges as their IPO location. Our findings have broader implications for entrepreneurial finance in China. Policy suggestions are offered for increasing the number of foreign VC-backed IPOs on ChiNext. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.