There has been considerable debate concerning the contribution of venture capitalists (VCs) to their investee companies ( Sapienza, Manigart, & Vermeir, 1996 ). This research has shown that VCs can add value and impact the strategic direction of their investee firms through their skills and...

Evidence suggests habitual entrepreneurs (i.e. those with prior business ownership experience) are a widespread phenomenon. Appreciation of the existence of multiple entrepreneurial acts gives rise to the need to examine differences between habitual and novice entrepreneurs (i.e. those with no...

We review the governance role of private equity (PE) firms in companies that have experienced an LBO. We conjecture that PE firms may provide powerful remedies to agency conflicts associated with public and private firms, such as managerial entrenchment and opportunism

Using a unique dataset, we examine financial performance, and venture capital (VC) involvement in 167 MBOs exiting through IPOs (MBO-IPOs) on the London Stock Exchange, during the period 1964 -1997. VC backed MBOs seem to be more under-priced than MBOs without venture capital backing, based on...

This report investigates listed family firms in the UK and focuses on their incidence, industrial and geographical context, governance and performance. At the time of writing we identified 70 family firms who were listed in the years 2007-2009. The firms were listed on the London Stock Exchange,...

The objective of this article is to compare the United States and British systems of business organisation and corporate governance during the last 50 years. Of particular interest is the contrasting relationship between governance systems and the pursuit of diversification and refocusing...

It has widely been suggested that during the 1980s many diversified firms narrowed the scope of their activities by refocusing on core businesses, primarily through divestment activity. This study examines the impact of divestment on firm performance, using an unbalanced panel of 132 UK quoted...