It provides businesses with money for growth in exchange for shares of ownership.You sell a part of you company for cash at the stock exchange. Because now someone else owns a part of your company they (the shareholder) need to get a return for that which is normally a part of the yearly profit which is called dividend when we talk about shares. The benefit for the company is that they get cash by selling a part of the company and can invest that money in the company to make more profit. As such, a company only sells shares if they think they can grow with the money they recieve in exchange for the shares.
