Publications

Research Summary

Investment Decisions and Decision Problems in Professional Investment Management

Jay O. Light is evaluating strategic business decisions in the money management industry as well as problems that arise in the management of very large pools of tax exempt money, particularly pension funds and endowments. From this research he is developing teaching... View Details

June 2011 (Revised September 2011)
Case

Exchange-Traded Funds at Vanguard (A)

By: Robert C. Pozen and Steven Vickers

Vanguard Group management, led by CEO John Brennan, was considering whether to launch exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in early 2000. ETFs, first created in the early 1990s, combined aspects of traditional mutual funds and closed-end funds. The US ETF industry had reached... View Details

Keywords: Investment Funds; Managerial Roles; Growth and Development Strategy; Experience and Expertise; Market Entry and Exit; Network Effects; Profit; Business and Shareholder Relations; Product Launch; Asset Management; Distribution Channels; Ownership; Financial Services Industry; United States

October 2020 (Revised December 2020)
Case

Investing at Pivotal Ventures

By: Emil N. Siriwardane, Emily R. McComb and Eren Kuzucu

Launched in 2015 by Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Pivotal Ventures is an investment and incubation company. The company aims to support and promote transformational ideas, people and organizations, and advance social progress for women... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Management; Mission and Purpose; Venture Capital

September 2016 (Revised April 2018)
Case

Western Technology Investment

By: Ramana Nanda, William A. Sahlman and Nicole Keller

Based in Portola Valley, California, Western Technology Investment (WTI) specialized in a hybrid form of debt and equity financing for early-stage companies. Like traditional venture capital and private equity firms, WTI raised funds from institutional investors and... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Finance; Equity; Finance; Venture Capital; Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; California

May 2021
Article

Mutual Funds as Venture Capitalists? Evidence from Unicorns

By: Josh Lerner, Sergey Chernenko and Yao Zeng

The past decade saw the rise of both “founder-friendly” venture financings and non-traditional investors, frequently with liquidity constraints. Using detailed contract data, we study open-end mutual funds investing in private venture-backed firms. We posit an... View Details

Keywords: Investment Funds; Investment; Business Startups; Venture Capital; Private Equity; Governance

20 Aug 2007
Working Paper Summaries

Hedge Fund Investor Activism and Takeovers

Keywords: by Robin Greenwood & Michael Schor; Banking

March 1995 (Revised April 1995)
Case

Claflin-Ukraine Fund 1995

By: Howard H. Stevenson and Thomas M. Claflin II

Keywords: Investment Funds; Venture Capital; Ukraine

June 2014
Article

Frictions in Shadow Banking: Evidence from the Lending Behavior of Money Market Funds

By: Sergey Chernenko and Adi Sunderam

We document the consequences of money market fund risk taking during the European sovereign debt crisis. Using a novel data set of security-level holdings of prime money market funds, we show that funds with large exposures to risky Eurozone banks suffered significant... View Details

Keywords: Money Market Mutual Funds; European Sovereign Debt Crisis; Runs; Contagion; Risk Taking; Investment Funds; Financial Crisis; Europe

Read Now

2007
Other Unpublished Work

Hedge Fund Investor Activism and Takeovers

By: Robin Greenwood and Michael Schor

We examine long-horizon stock returns around hedge fund activism in a comprehensive sample of 13D filings by portfolio investors between 1993 and 2006. Abnormal returns surrounding investor activism are high for the subset of targets that are acquired ex-post, but not... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Private Equity; Investment Return; Investment Activism; Investment Portfolio; Corporate Governance

SSRN

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

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

February 2000
Article

Money Chasing Deals?: The Impact of Fund Inflows on the Valuation of Private Equity Investments

By: Paul Gompers and Josh Lerner

Keywords: Money; Valuation; Finance; Investment

April 2011 (Revised May 2011)
Supplement

AQR's Momentum Funds (B)

By: Daniel Baird Bergstresser, Lauren H. Cohen, Randolph B. Cohen and Christopher J. Malloy

This is a (B) case for AQR's Momentum Funds. It follows the first year of performance of the funds after launching, and gives students a critical inflection point for analyzing the nascent stages of a new product launch and the potential path dependence of the product... View Details

Keywords: Change; Decision Choices and Conditions; Investment Funds; Product Launch; Product; Performance; Perspective; Strategy

Fast Answer

Exchange traded funds

Where can I find information on exchange traded funds or ETFs? News and Journals ABI/ProQuest or Business Source Complete To find academic and news articles comparing exchange traded funds to index mutual... View Details

October 2001 (Revised February 2002)
Case

Acme Investment Trust: January 2001

By: Josh Lerner

The managers of a large corporate pension fund must decide whether to invest in a private equity fund that is offering a guaranteed rate of return of 20% on part of its portfolio. The background behind and implications of the guarantee are explored. View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Private Equity; Motivation and Incentives; Asset Management; Investment Funds; Financial Strategy; Financial Services Industry

September 2013
Case

Homestrings, Inc.: Diaspora-Based Financing and the Crowd Funding of Development

By: William R. Kerr and Alexis Brownell

Homestrings is an online investment platform for overseas diasporas to link financially with their home countries. The founder believes crowd-funding can become a pillar for development, but U.S. regulatory hurdles and resources constraints are substantial. The company... View Details

Keywords: Diasporas; Investments; Regulations; Africa; Crowd-funding; Development Finance; Entrepreneurship; Business Growth and Maturation; Financial Services Industry; Africa; United States

15 Apr 2022
News

Funding His Purpose

investments to both nonprofit and for-profit social impact companies. It also offers philanthropic fund management, and it partnered with a for-profit consulting firm that focuses on responsible View Details

22 Feb 2017
News

Funding Solar’s Future

Photos courtesy Double Time Capital Photos courtesy Double Time Capital A recent Fortune article profiles Double Time Capital, an investment firm focused on utility-scale solar farms in North Carolina founded by Rye Barcott (MBA 2009) and... View Details

Keywords: Electric Power Generation, Transmission, Distribution; Utilities

September 2017 (Revised July 2021)
Case

Asset Allocation at the Cook County Pension Fund

By: Emil Siriwardane, Juliane Begenau and Yuval Gonczarowski

Nickol Hackett, chief investment officer of the Cook County Pension Fund, is responsible for investing the fund’s $9 billion worth of assets on behalf of the employees of Cook County, Illinois. Like many other defined-benefit pensions at the time, the Cook County... View Details

Keywords: Asset Management; Investment Funds; Financial Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions