For example, businesses frequently attempted to establish steady dividend streams in order to boost investors’ confidence about the future profitability of the firm and encourage holdings of their securities. Finally, the marketing of securities to the household sector became more aggressive in the 1920s, led by investment trusts - which offered investors a means of diversifying individual portfolios - and retail brokerage firms.
Given the relative prosperity of the post-World War II period, nonfinancial corporations were able to generate significant increases in internal funds. Even so, the growth of investment spending over this period noticeably outpaced the rise in retained earnings, and thus these corporations turned to the capital markets to fill the widening gap.