This paper studies the motives behind private equity acquisitions of publicly listed firms in continental Europe. As corporate control and ownership in continental Europe tend to be highly concentrated, we argue that it is important to take into account the incentives of the incumbent large...

Germany benefits from an especially lively philanthropic sector, with over twenty three thousand active charitable foundations. An empirical assessment of the portfolio preferences of German foundations yields fundamental intragroup differences in their approach to asset allocation. We build on...

We document empirical evidence that the investment patterns of the two most relevant investor groups from regions with hierarchical structures in the German stock market, namely China (including Hong Kong) and the Gulf Cooperation Council, differ substantially. Chinese investors buy large shares...

“Equipment as a service” is perhaps one of the most drastic examples of usage-based business model innovation (BMI) in the field today. To date, a systematic analysis of this phenomenon is lacking. This study aims to close this gap and develops a primer for usage-based BMI. Drawing on BMI...

Understanding value creation at the transaction level is at the heart of explaining private equity (PE) returns. Taking advantage of a proprietary sample of 2,029 international buyout deals executed between 1984 and 2013 we provide detailed evidence on financial, market and operational value...

There is an ongoing public debate about executive remuneration in listed firms. Specifically, in the course of the financial crises executive remuneration principles where claimed to be one of the driving forces for excessive risktaking and short-termism. Family firms, in contrast, are often...

Financial covenants play a crucial role in mitigating agency conflicts in loan agreements of high leverage. In a European-wide qualitative survey among private equity experts, we assessed the impact of the financial crisis on financial covenants in leveraged buyout transactions. We concentrated...

Privately-held family businesses are usually characterized by concentrated ownership and the involvement of the family in the management as well as the control of the company. Theories of family control offer arguments both for governance benefits as well as costs due to the family involvement....

Purpose: This papers analyses the case study of UK fashion retailer New Look and focuses on the impact of private equity on corporate governance, employment and leverage after the public-to-private transaction in 2003. Design/methodology/approach: We follow a single case study approach to offer...

In order to implement and scale their ideas to solve social problems, social entrepreneurs need financial as well as non-financial support from external investors. At the same time, there is no common reporting standard instructing social entrepreneurs how to measure and report their...