The real options-based conceptual framework for alliance-making presented here responds to the challenge of developing a new metrics for managing strategic partnerships in the face of uncertainty. Such a framework involves: mapping (and selecting one of) the various staged paths envisioned for...

1. The Economics of Private Equity: Designing and Structuring the Management Company -- 2. Who are Private Equity Targets? -- 3. Survey on Private Equity Investment Targeting in Italy -- 4. A Private Equity Deal: the Case of Invisible Ink -- 5. Conclusions