Using data on the backgrounds of board members of S&P companies, we show that venture capitalists (VCs) play an important role in mature public firms long after their initial public offering (IPO). Almost one-third of mature public companies have at least one VC director on their board. VC...

Hedge fund activists target firms engaging in empire building and improve their future acquisition and divestiture strategy. Following intervention, activist targets make fewer acquisitions but obtain substantially higher returns by avoiding large and diversifying deals and refraining from...

We study the relation between the educational background of chief executive officers (CEOs) and firm performance for firms traded on Borsa Istanbul (BIST) between 2009-2015. We focus on manufacturing firms and analyze two different measures of performance, namely operating performance and...

We study the innovation activity of firms going public and find that post-IPO innovation activity is highly associated with pre-IPO innovation activity at both venture-capital- and non-venture-capital-backed firms. This persistence in innovation suggests that firms' pre-IPO innovation experience...

We show that one third of S&P 1500 firms have private equity (PE) professionals on their boards. PE director appointments are followed by changes in firm investment policies; specifically, by significant declines in R&D outlays, capital expenditures, and innovation activity of public firms. PE...