Current State of Academic Research Regarding Profitability Characteristics of the U.S. SPAC: a systematic literature review using the meta-narrative method
Shatalov, Aleksei (2021)
Shatalov, Aleksei
2021
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2021052611482
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2021052611482
Tiivistelmä
A Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) is a shell corporation listed on a stock exchange with the intention of acquiring a private company and bringing it public without going through the traditional initial public offering (IPO) process. The SPAC vehicle has been long abandoned until its recent reemergence, followed by a sudden escalation in popularity. Consequently, the spike in SPAC-related activities and extensive media coverage produced an abundance of unstructured and unreliable data. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to evaluate the current state of academic research in order to ensure availability of the up-to-date and reliable data. In particular, using the meta-narrative method, this paper conducts a systematic literature review of the scholarly papers discussing various profitability aspects of the current U.S. SPAC. The study identifies 7 recent studies covering stakeholder characteristics and incentives, pre- and post-merger returns, capital and cost structure, and market sentiment effects. Abstraction and interpretation of the reviewed sources reveal a handful of open debates, conflicting ideas, and gaps. In the end, this study determines that the available research provides valuable contributions to the field, but it is not sufficient to keep up with the SPAC development. Therefore, this paper proposes an agenda for further research and tries to encourage scholars to consider the U.S. SPAC vehicle as the potential area of their scientific work.