Publications

April 2012
Supplement

Hayman Capital Management

By: Robin Greenwood, Julie Messina and Jared Dourdeville

January 2003 (Revised June 2003)
Case

Adams Capital Management: March 2002

By: G. Felda Hardymon, Josh Lerner and Ann Leamon

In March 2002, the five partners of Adams Capital Management (ACM), a venture capital firm investing in information technology telecommunications with $700 million under management, gathered to discuss whether they should change their strategy in view of the prolonged... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Venture Capital; Investment Portfolio; Business or Company Management; Partners and Partnerships; Business Strategy; Financial Services Industry

August 2000 (Revised July 2002)
Background Note

Fundamental Enterprise Valuation: Capital Expenditures (CAPEX)

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin

A technical note that defines capital expenditures (CAPEX). View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Business Ventures; Capital; Spending

July 2019
Teaching Note

Arlan Hamilton and Backstage Capital

By: Laura Huang

Teaching Note for HBS No. 419-029. Frustrated by an inability to convince existing venture capital firms to invest in companies led by women, people of color, and LGBT founders, Arlan Hamilton started her own firm, Backstage Capital, in 2015. Hamilton understood the... View Details

Keywords: Black Leadership; LGBTQ; People Of Color; Entrepreneurship; Mission and Purpose; Venture Capital; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Identity; Personal Characteristics; Prejudice and Bias; Social Issues; Diversity; Gender; Race

June 2010
Teaching Note

Root Capital (TN)

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Katharine Lee

Teaching Note for [510035]. View Details

Keywords: Financing and Loans; Goals and Objectives; Capital; Strategy; Latin America

Fall 2017
Article

Strengthening and Streamlining Bank Capital Regulation

By: Robin Greenwood, Samuel Gregory Hanson, Jeremy C. Stein and Adi Sunderam

We propose three core principles that should inform the design of bank capital regulation. First, wherever possible, multiple constraints on the minimum level of equity capital should be consolidated into a single constraint. This helps to avoid a distortionary... View Details

Keywords: Banks and Banking; Capital; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Banking Industry

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2017
Chapter

Venture Capital Data: Opportunities and Challenges

By: Steven N. Kaplan and Josh Lerner

This paper describes the available data and research on venture capital investments and performance. We comment on the challenges inherent in those data and research as well as possible opportunities to do better. View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Analytics and Data Science; Research

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March 2003 (Revised January 2004)
Case

CDC Capital Partners: December 2002

By: G. Felda Hardymon, Josh Lerner and Ann Leamon

Paul Fletcher, CEO of CDC Capital Partners, a private equity group investing in the world's poorest countries, is wrestling with questions raised by the imminent reorganization of the firm. Previously an arm of the United Kingdom's international aid agency, CDC is... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Investment Portfolio; Privatization; Venture Capital; Business and Government Relations; Emerging Markets; Infrastructure; Financial Services Industry; Banking Industry; United Kingdom

September 2021 (Revised February 2023)
Case

Harambe: Mobilizing Capital in Africa

By: Anywhere (Siko) Sikochi, Dilyana Karadzhova Botha and Francesco Tronci

Harambe was a non-profit organization whose mission was to build an ecosystem to identify promising young African entrepreneurs and provide them access to training, markets, capital, and support networks. From 2007 to 2021, Harambe had grown to a network of 367... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Nonprofit Organizations; Business Model; Strategy; Organizational Structure; Business Startups; Capital; Venture Capital; Social and Collaborative Networks; Networks; Developing Countries and Economies; Emerging Markets; Africa; South Africa

March 1980 (Revised October 1980)
Background Note

Financial Leverage, the Capital Asset Pricing Model and the Cost of Equity Capital

Demonstrates how the capital asset pricing model can be used to estimate the impact of financial leverage on the cost of equity capital. The levering and unlevering of betas are illustrated. Also presents a methodology for decomposing the cost of equity into its three... View Details

Keywords: Cost of Capital; Asset Pricing; Investment

2016
Working Paper

Venture Capital Data: Opportunities and Challenges

By: Steven N. Kaplan and Josh Lerner

This paper describes the available data and research on venture capital investments and performance. We comment on the challenges inherent in those data and research as well as possible opportunities to do better. View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Analytics and Data Science; Investment

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November 1999
Case

Long-Term Capital Management, L.P. (C)

By: Andre F. Perold

Long-Term Capital Management, L.P. (LTCM) was in the business of engaging in trading strategies to exploit market pricing discrepancies. Because the firm employed strategies designed to make money over long horizons--from six months to two years or more--it adopted a... View Details

Keywords: Fluctuation; Capital; Financial Liquidity; Financing and Loans; Investment Funds; Investment Portfolio; Corporate Governance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Management; Risk Management; Markets; Motivation and Incentives; Financial Services Industry

20 Aug 2008
Op-Ed

The Time is Right for Creative Capitalism

capitalism is "an approach where governments, businesses, and nonprofits work together to stretch the reach of market forces so that more people can make a profit, or gain recognition, doing work that eases the world's... View Details

Keywords: by Nancy Koehn

October 1997 (Revised June 2000)
Exercise

Capital Budgeting: Discounted Cash Flow Analysis

By: Thomas R. Piper

This exercise comprises seven problems that collectively allow students to work through each type of cash flow that is encountered in capital budgeting. The instructor can also address such issues as product cannibalization and real options. View Details

Keywords: Capital Budgeting; Cash Flow

spring 1987
Article

The Capital Factor: Competing for Capital in a Global Environment

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin

Keywords: Capital; Global Range

Research Summary

Venture Capital Organizations and Entrepreneurial Finance

By: Paul A. Gompers

Paul A. Gompers is examining corporate control and governance issues in venture capital organizations and entrepreneurial firms in an effort to understand how their relationships with their investors affect the venture capitalists' investment decisions. Using... View Details

February 2006
Case

Adams Capital Management: Fund IV

By: G. Felda Hardymon, Josh Lerner and Ann Leamon

The partners of Adams Capital Management must decide whether to start their fourth fund in early 2006 or to hold off until they have realized more exits from the earlier funds and have proved the viability of a recent change in strategy. View Details

Keywords: Investment Funds; Business Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions; Financial Services Industry