Publications

January 2007 (Revised June 2007)
Background Note

Technology Transfer at U.S. Universities

By: Richard G. Hamermesh, Josh Lerner and David Kiron

Technology transfer from U.S. universities to industry has increased dramatically in the last 25 years. Reviews the history of technology transfer with particular emphasis on the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980. It then examines how universities responded to Bayh-Dole, the... View Details

Keywords: Higher Education; Information Technology; Laws and Statutes; Education Industry; Technology Industry; United States

February 2006 (Revised August 2006)
Case

Christo and Jeanne-Claude: The Art of the Entrepreneur

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

Christo and Jeanne-Claude, the artists who created The Gates in New York City in 2005, are trying to decide how best to finance their next project. Over the River, a project to drape sections of the Arkansas River with translucent fabric is a very different enterprise... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Arts; Fine Arts Industry; Arkansas

August 2004
Teaching Note

Gold Hill Venture Lending (TN)

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

Teaching Note to (9-804-083). View Details

Keywords: Financial Services Industry

August 2004
Teaching Note

Grove Street Advisors (TN)

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

Teaching Note to (9-804-050). View Details

February 2003 (Revised March 2011)
Background Note

Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Valuation and Distribution in Private Equity

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

Introduces the issues attendant to valuing privately held portfolios and distributing thinly traded stock. Although they have existed since the beginning of the formal venture capital industry, they have received increasing amounts of attention as the money invested in... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Private Equity; Stocks; Investment Portfolio; Valuation; Financial Services Industry

August 2001
Teaching Note

Venture Capital Case Vignettes TN

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

Teaching Note for (9-801-408). View Details

Keywords: Financial Services Industry

August 2001
Teaching Note

Columbia Capital Corporation: Summer 1998 TN

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

Teaching Note for (9-899-255). View Details

Keywords: Financial Services Industry

August 2001
Teaching Note

CMGI: Organizational and Market Innovation TN

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

Teaching Note for (9-200-064). View Details

Keywords: Web Services Industry

August 2001
Teaching Note

University Technology Ventures: October 2000 TN

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

Teaching Note for (9-201-043). View Details

Keywords: Financial Services Industry

April 2019
Article

Private Equity and Financial Fragility during the Crisis

By: Shai Bernstein, Josh Lerner and Filippo Mezzanotti

Do private equity firms contribute to financial fragility during economic crises? We find that during the 2008 financial crisis, PE-backed companies increased investments relative to their peers, while also experiencing greater equity and debt inflows. The effects are... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Financial Crisis; Performance; Financial Condition

Web

“It’s like a pie-eating contest” | Social Enterprise | Harvard Business School

“It’s like a pie-eating contest” One night during his RC year at HBS, Josh Latson (MBA 2015) shadowed an emergency room physician through his rounds in a busy urban hospital. Josh was there as a member of... View Details

January 1997 (Revised November 1997)
Case

Fojtasek Companies and Heritage Partners, The: March 1995

By: Samuel L. Hayes III and Josh Lerner

The Fojtasek Companies, a family business, faces several financing choices to address generational succession issues. Several buyouts have expressed interest in acquiring the firm outright; an investment bank has proposed a leveraged recapitalization; and a private... View Details

Keywords: Family Ownership; Financing and Loans; Private Equity; Mergers and Acquisitions; Investment Banking; Partners and Partnerships; Management Succession; Capital Structure; Financial Strategy

2022
Working Paper

Racial Diversity in Private Capital Fundraising

By: Johan Cassel, Josh Lerner and Emmanuel Yimfor

Black- and Hispanic-owned funds control a very modest share of assets in the private capital industry. We find that the sensitivity of follow-on fundraising to fund performance is greater for minority-owned groups, particularly for underperforming groups. We... View Details

Keywords: Buyouts; Capital Formation; Minorities; Venture Capital; Minority-owned Businesses; Race; Diversity; Investment Funds; Financial Services Industry

Read Now

Article

Private Equity and Portfolio Companies: Lessons from the Global Financial Crisis

By: Shai Bernstein, Josh Lerner and Filippo Mezzanotti

2021
Working Paper

Two Case Studies on the Financing of Forest Conservation

By: Andrew Baxter, Connor Cash, Josh Lerner and Ratnika Prasad

A variety of factors is leading to fresh approaches to the ownership and management of forestland, with an emphasis on the combination of conservation goals and private investments. But the barriers to successfully achieving attractive financial returns and desirable... View Details

Keywords: Financing; Forestry; Environmental Management; Natural Resources; Financing and Loans

SSRN

Read Now

July 2017
Article

Intellectual Property Rights Protection, Ownership, and Innovation: Evidence from China

By: Lily Fang, Josh Lerner and Chaopeng Wu

Using a difference-in-difference approach, we study how intellectual property right (IPR) protection affects innovation in China in the years around the privatizations of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Innovation increases after SOE privatizations, and this increase... View Details

Keywords: Patents; Privatization; State Ownership; Trademarks; Copyright; Innovation and Invention; China

2013
Working Paper

Combining Banking with Private Equity Investing

By: Lily Fang, Victoria Ivashina and Josh Lerner

Bank-affiliated private equity groups account for 30% of all private equity investments. Their market share is highest during peaks of the private equity market, when the parent banks arrange more debt financing for in-house transactions yet have the lowest exposure to... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry

February 2013
Article

Digitization, Innovation, and Copyright: What Is the Agenda?

By: Shane Greenstein, Josh Lerner and Scott Stern

This essay discusses the need for research on the consequences of digitization, as well as the impact of alternative policies governing the creation and use of digital information. This agenda focuses on the development of research to investigate the economics of... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Research; Copyright; Information Management; Innovation and Invention

March 2008 (Revised May 2008)
Case

The Blackstone Group's IPO

By: Felda Hardymon, Josh Lerner and Ann Leamon

Steven Schwarzman, Chairman of the Blackstone Group, has just learned that an investment group associated with the government of China wants to buy the majority of Blackstone's leveraged IPO. As he considers how to respond to this offer, Schwarzman reviews the firm's... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Financial Liquidity; Initial Public Offering; Investment; Ownership Stake; Business and Stakeholder Relations