Publications

18 Dec 2012
First Look

First Look: December 18

puts the increasingly complex job of Chief Executive in a very real context. It serves as a practical guide by allowing you to walk alongside Jim as he takes on his new role and all its attendant challenges.... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

24 Jul 2000
Research & Ideas

Something Ventured, Something Gained: A European View of Venture Capital

Venture capital is a tale of two continents, HBS professor Josh Lerner (coauthor of the book The Venture Capital Cycle) explained in his opening remarks at a Global Alumni Conference panel titled... View Details

Keywords: by James E. Aisner; Financial Services

2021
Working Paper

Studying the U.S.-Based Portfolio Companies of U.S. Impact Investors

By: M. Diane Burton, Gurveen Chadha, Shawn A. Cole, Abhishek Dev, Christina Jarymowycz, Leslie Jeng, Laura Kelley, Josh Lerner, Jaime R. Diaz Palacios, Yue (Cynthia) Xu and T. Robert Zochowski

Recent years have seen a dramatic increase in the reliance on market-based solutions to social and environmental problems around the world (Barman 2016; Horvath and Powell 2020). The growth of impact investing is a vivid example of this trend and, although there have... View Details

Keywords: Impact Investing; Impact Portfolio Companies; Investment; Social Issues; Environmental Sustainability; Investment Portfolio; Business Ventures; Analytics and Data Science; Performance; United States

23 Oct 2012
First Look

First Look: October 23

Equity Investing Authors:Lily H. Fang, Victoria Ivashina, and Josh Lerner Abstract Bank-affiliated private equity (PE) groups account for 30% of all PE investments. These... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

16 Sep 2008
First Look

First Look: September 16, 2008

platform and its evolution. We describe three ways of representing platform architectures: network graphs, design structure matrices, and layer maps. We conclude by addressing... View Details

15 Jun 2010
First Look

First Look: June 15

Authors:Lily Fang, Victoria Ivashina, and Josh Lerner Abstract We explore the phenomenon and economics of private equity investments View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

2016
Working Paper

Pay Now or Pay Later? The Economics within the Private Equity Partnership

By: Victoria Ivashina and Josh Lerner

The economics of partnerships have been of enduring interest to economists, but many issues regarding intergenerational conflicts and their impact on the continuity of these organizations remain unclear. We examine 717 private equity partnerships and show that (a) the... View Details

Keywords: Partnerships; Leveraged Buyout; Venture Capital; Private Equity; Partners and Partnerships; Leveraged Buyouts

SSRN

July 2023
Article

Takahashi-Alexander Revisited: Modeling Private Equity Portfolio Outcomes Using Historical Simulations

By: Dawson Beutler, Alex Billias, Sam Holt, Josh Lerner and TzuHwan Seet

In 2001, Dean Takahashi and Seth Alexander of the Yale University Investments Office developed a deterministic model for estimating future cash flows and valuations for the Yale endowment’s private equity portfolio. Their model, which is simple and intuitive, is still... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Investment Portfolio; Analytics and Data Science

January 1995
Background Note

A Note on Distribution of Venture Investments

By: Josh Lerner

Venture capitalists typically exit investments by distributing shares to investors. These transfers pose challenges for these investors. Predictions and evidence about the behavior of stock prices of firms around the time of these distributions are presented. View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Venture Capital; Stocks; Investment; Price

August 2022
Case

In-Q-Tel: Innovation On A Mission

By: Joshua Lev Krieger and Josh Lerner

In 2022, the leaders of In-Q-Tel (IQT) considered what was next for the unique mission-driven organization. Since 1999, IQT had one mission: to be the most sophisticated source of strategic technical knowledge and capabilities to the U.S. government and its allies. IQT... View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; National Security; Technological Innovation; Research; Geopolitical Units; Risk Management; Recruitment; Growth and Development Strategy; Venture Capital; Knowledge Management; Information Industry; Banking Industry

July 2022
Case

Yinglan Tan: Scaling a Venture Capital Firm in Southeast Asia

By: Josh Lerner and Richard Zhu

Yinglan Tan considered the future of his young Singapore-based venture capital firm. On the one hand, the intuition that was behind the initial creation of Insignia in 2017 had been proven correct. The venture capital market in Southeast Asia had grown rapidly, driven... View Details

Keywords: E-commerce; Scalability; Globalized Markets and Industries; Venture Capital; International Finance; Growth and Development; Expansion

2018
Working Paper

Some Facts of High-Tech Patenting

By: Michael Webb, Nick Short, Nicholas Bloom and Josh Lerner

Patenting in software, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence has grown rapidly in recent years. Such patents are acquired primarily by large U.S. technology firms such as IBM, Microsoft, Google, and HP, as well as by Japanese multinationals such as Sony, Canon,... View Details

Keywords: Patents; Applications and Software; Technological Innovation; United States

SSRN

March 2012
Article

Reviving Entrepreneurship

By: Josh Lerner and William Sahlman

New enterprises don't exist in a vacuum: They rise or fall depending on myriad contextual factors, all of them interrelated, and all of them affected by government policy. U.S. lawmakers must carefully consider the effects of interventions in at least 12 areas, ranging... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Government and Politics; Policy; Economy; Public Administration Industry; United States

Register to Read

December 1992 (Revised September 1996)
Case

ImmuLogic Pharmaceutical Corporation (Abridged)

By: Josh Lerner

ImmuLogic Pharmaceutical Corp., a development-stage biotechnology company, is considering making an initial offering of common stock. The rationales for and problems of high-technology start-ups are explored. The challenges posed by "windows" for public offerings are... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Initial Public Offering; Entrepreneurship; Going Public; Business Startups; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

May 2001
Article

The Open Source Movement: Key Research Questions

By: Josh Lerner and Jean Tirole

The paper analyzes the incentives of individual programmers and of commercial companies to participate in open source projects. While these incentives are in our opinion well accounted for by the economic paradigm, much empirical and theoretical work is still needed to... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Open Source Distribution

June 2007
Article

What Is the Impact of Software Patent Shifts? Evidence from Lotus v. Borland

By: Josh Lerner and Feng Zhu

Economists have debated the extent to which strengthening patent protection spurs or detracts from technological innovation. This paper examines the reduction of software copyright protection in the Lotus v. Borland decision. If patent and copyright protections are... View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Patents; Information Technology; Information Technology Industry

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

12 Apr 2011
First Look

First Look: April 12

sustainability reports. We conclude with thoughts about mandatory sustainability and integrated reporting. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/11-100.pdf With a Little Help from My (Random) Friends: Success View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

February 2006 (Revised January 2007)
Case

ABRY Partners, LLC: WideOpenWest

By: Josh Lerner and Smart Darren

ABRY, a Boston-based private equity group, is considering whether to terminate its investment in WideOpenWest or to try to salvage the transaction by acquiring a division of telecommunications unit Ameritech. View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Investment Portfolio; Problems and Challenges; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Boston