Publications

October 2001
Case

Healthcare Brands Corporation

By: David F. Hawkins

A U.K. and a U.S. firm are entering into a merger agreement. Management must decide whether the merged companies should be domiciled in the United Kingdom and account for the merger as a pooling of interests or the United States and account for the merger as a... View Details

Keywords: International Accounting; Mergers and Acquisitions; Contracts; Health Industry; United Kingdom; United States

Article

MIT Roundtable on Corporate Risk Management

By: Robert C. Merton

Against the backdrop of financial crisis, a distinguished group of academics and practitioners discusses the contribution of financial management and innovation to corporate growth and value, along with the pitfalls and unintended consequences of such innovation.... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Market Participation; Finance; Innovation and Invention; Growth and Development Strategy; Value; Distribution; Capital Structure; Risk Management; Business Ventures; Business Model; Strategy

23 Sep 2016
Working Paper Summaries

How Do Venture Capitalists Make Decisions?

Keywords: by Paul A. Gompers, William Gornall, Steven N. Kaplan, and Ilya A. Strebulaev; Financial Services

30 May 2018
News

The corporate sustainability Twitterati 2018

28 Feb 2020
News

The Capital That Ate Wellness Is Going to Eat Your Mushrooms

October 1992 (Revised November 1997)
Case

ImmuLogic Pharmaceutical Corporation (A): March 1991

By: Josh Lerner

ImmuLogic Pharmaceutical Corp., a development-stage biotechnology company, is considering making an initial offering of common stock. The diverse perspectives of the entrepreneur, venture capitalist, investment banker, and institutional investor are explored. Problems... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Banks and Banking; Initial Public Offering; Going Public; Perspective; Valuation; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

August 2000 (Revised July 2002)
Background Note

Fundamental Enterprise Valuation: Return on Invested Capital (ROIC)

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin

A technical note that defines return on invested capital (ROIC). View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Business Ventures; Capital

Web

Finalists | New Venture Competition

a career accelerator for women in the workplace. Through the partnership with top corporations, we are putting the power of choice back in the hands of women of color, fixing the broken rung by increasing the # of WOC managers in View Details

2025
Working Paper

Investor Influence on Media Coverage: Evidence from Venture Capital-Backed Startups

By: Brian K. Baik and Albert Shin

We examine whether and how investors influence media coverage of their private portfolio companies. Using a stacked difference-in-differences design, we find that media coverage of startups increases significantly following venture capital (VC) investment. The effect... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Entrepreneurship; Media; Reputation; Information

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June 2021
Case

Building the Governance to Take Capital SAFI to the Next Level

By: V.G. Narayanan, Asis Martinez Jerez and Mariana Cal

Asset management firm Capital SAFI wanted to attract new strategic investors and expand to other countries. Having the right corporate governance in place was critical to achieve this goal. View Details

Keywords: Board Of Directors; Transparency; Sustainable Finance; South America; Latin America; Corporate Governance; Governance Controls; Governing and Advisory Boards; Business Organization; Corporate Strategy; Transformation; Investment Funds; Financial Services Industry; Bolivia; South America; Latin America

January 2017 (Revised December 2017)
Case

Carmichael Roberts: To Create a Private Equity Firm?

By: Steven Rogers and Kenneth J. Cooper

Carmichael Roberts, a rare African-American venture capitalist, considered leaving his general partnership in a private equity firm near Boston and setting up his own in 2015. He weighed whether the timing was right, with the economy still not fully recovered from the... View Details

February 2020 (Revised March 2020)
Case

Prime Coalition: Catalytic Capital for Climate Innovation

By: Ramana Nanda, Benjamin N. Roth and Olivia Hull

With long development timelines and high risk, new energy technologies were often left to languish in the “valley of death,” unable to raise enough funds to bring a product to market. In 2014, Sarah Kearney founded the nonprofit Prime Coalition to solve this problem.... View Details

Keywords: Energy Conservation; Renewable Energy; Social Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Investment; Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation; Mission and Purpose; Science-Based Business; Nonprofit Organizations; Social Enterprise; Energy Industry; Technology Industry; Green Technology Industry; United States

August 2000
Article

Corporate Reorganizations and Non-Cash Auctions

By: Matthew Rhodes-Kropf and S. Viswanathan

This paper extends the theory of non-cash auctions by considering the revenue and efficiency of using different securities. Research on bankruptcy and privatization suggests using non-cash auctions to increase cash-constrained bidder participation. We examine this... View Details

Keywords: Auctions; Revenue; Debt Securities; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Privatization; Capital Structure; Bids and Bidding; Motivation and Incentives; Performance Efficiency; Contracts

31 Oct 2017
Working Paper Summaries

Mutual Funds as Venture Capitalists? Evidence from Unicorns

Keywords: by Sergey Chernenko, Josh Lerner, and Yao Zeng; Financial Services; Banking

1999
Chapter

'Public Venture Capital': Rationales and Evaluation

By: Josh Lerner

Keywords: Venture Capital; Public Sector; Sovereign Finance

January 2004
Article

Corporate Venturing: The Origins of Unilever's Pregnancy Test

By: Geoffrey Jones and Alison Kraft

The relative ability of different sizes of firm and organisational designs to develop and sustain dynamic capabilities in innovation and create new businesses remains a matter of contention. While Chandler among many others has emphasised the pre-eminent role of large... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Organizational Design; Technological Innovation; Business Startups; Venture Capital; Brands and Branding; Multinational Firms and Management; Product Development; Product Launch; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Great Britain

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June 2014 (Revised November 2014)
Case

Investing in Online Marketplaces

By: Andrei Hagiu and Hermes Alvarez

Simon Rothman had recently been promoted from executive-in-residence to Partner at esteemed venture capital firm Greylock Partners and placed in charge of managing a $100 million early-stage fund commitment dedicated to online marketplaces. In Greylock's view, 2014 was... View Details

Keywords: Business Models; Competitive Advantage; Entrepreneurship; Internet; Investments; Networks; Technology; Venture Capital

04 Feb 2020
News

Why Backstage Capital Invests in “Underestimated” Entrepreneurs

October 2015
Case

Integrating Avocent Corporation into Emerson Network Power

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury and Vincent M. Servello

This case reviews Emerson Electric’s proposed acquisition of Avocent Corporation in 2009. The focus of this case is how a technology company such as Avocent, with a dramatically different business model compared to its acquirer, should be integrated into a large,... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Integration; Human Capital; Acquisition; Technology Industry