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- 13 Dec 2022
- Research & Ideas
The Color of Private Equity: Quantifying the Bias Black Investors Face
Prejudice persists in private equity, despite efforts to expand racial diversity in finance. Research by Josh Lerner sizes up the fundraising challenges and performance double standards that Black and Hispanic investors confront while trying to support other ventures—often minority-owned businesses.

- 03 Oct 2022
- Research & Ideas
Why a Failed Startup Might Be Good for Your Career After All
Go ahead and launch that venture. Even if it fails, the experience you gain will likely earn you a job that's more senior than those of your peers, says research by Paul Gompers.

- 25 Aug 2022
- Research & Ideas
It’s All in a Name: Reputable Investors Help Startups Shine
Attracting high-quality talent is a challenge for any young firm. Shai Bernstein says startups get a reputation boost and draw more job applicants when they're backed by well-known venture capital investors.

- 10 May 2022
- Research & Ideas
Being Your Own Boss Can Pay Off, but Not Always with Big Pay
Working for yourself might bring freedom and autonomy, but it increasingly comes with a major risk: low pay. Research by William Kerr explores the shifting sands of self-employment.

- 15 Feb 2022
- Cold Call Podcast
How to Make Venture Capital Accessible for Black Founders: An Entrepreneur’s Dilemma
In May of 2021, Kevin D. Johnson had just graduated from a rigorous Executive MBA program, and he needed to decide on his next career move. Johnson was the founder and CEO of a successful media company, but his career goals had shifted during business school. He wanted to use his talents to help other BIPOC entrepreneurs access capital and provide opportunities to create intergenerational wealth. Johnson evaluated his four options: work full-time at an online platform dedicated to connecting Black founders with funding, join a BIPOC-focused venture capital ("VC") firm, pursue a job at an established VC firm, or continue scaling his media company. Harvard Business School senior lecturer Jo Tango and Johnson discuss which option he should choose in the case, “Kevin D. Johnson: To Be a Venture Capitalist or an Operator.” Open for comment; 0 Comments.

- 27 Apr 2021
- Research & Ideas
IPO or M&A? How Venture Capital Shapes a Startup's Future
To a cash-strapped founder, any funding seems like a win, but research by Rory McDonald and colleagues shows that much more is at stake when it comes to venture capital. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

- 30 Nov 2020
- Working Paper Summaries
Short-Termism, Shareholder Payouts, and Investment in the EU
Shareholder-driven “short-termism,” as evidenced by increasing payouts to shareholders, is said to impede long-term investment in EU public firms. But a deep dive into the data reveals a different story.

- 30 Nov 2020
- Research & Ideas
COVID Not Slowing VC Investment
Despite the economic uncertainty, most venture capitalists expect their investments to outperform major equity indexes and are still funding new endeavors, says Paul Gompers. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

- 17 Nov 2020
- Working Paper Summaries
Venture Capitalists and COVID-19
This survey of more than 1,000 venture capitalists finds that the VC industry and its portfolio companies have reduced their activity less than in previous recessions and have been more resilient than many other sectors of the global economy.

- 03 Nov 2020
- Working Paper Summaries
The Stock Market Value of Human Capital Creation
Measuring human capital creation is complex but increasingly important to managers for understanding the relationship between employee expenditures and firm performance. This paper develops a strategy to examine aspects of the intangible human capital investment embedded in a firm’s personnel expense. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

- 27 Oct 2020
- Working Paper Summaries
Does Venture Capital Attract Human Capital? Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment
Using a randomized field experiment conducted on a large online search platform, this study illustrates how investments by top venture capital investors attract potential employees and improve the pool of candidates available for the startup.

- 13 Oct 2020
- Working Paper Summaries
Fencing Off Silicon Valley: Cross-Border Venture Capital and Technology Spillovers
This study of foreign corporate investment transactions from 32 countries between 1976 and 2015 finds these investments pose a trade-off: While they support young firms in pursuing innovations they could not otherwise afford, they also generate knowledge for the foreign investors.

- 27 Jul 2020
- Working Paper Summaries
The Evolution of CEO Compensation in Venture Capital-Backed Startups
Resolving uncertainty related to market demand—so called “product-market” fit—marks a key inflection point in the compensation contract for CEOs of venture-capital backed firms.

- 12 Jul 2020
- Working Paper Summaries
Sticky Capital Controls
One of the legacies of the 2007–2008 global financial crisis has been a reassessment of the potential for restriction of capital flows policies. This paper documents a set of stylized facts on capital controls along their intensive and extensive margins for emerging markets and document them to be “sticky.” We then rationalize them through a model that includes fixed cost of implementing such policies, which lower the welfare gains of implementation.

- 07 Jun 2020
- Working Paper Summaries
Financial Distancing: How Venture Capital Follows the Economy Down and Curtails Innovation
Common wisdom holds that VC investment and VC-backed startups are relatively insulated from downturns. This study shows that the relative quantity and quality of innovation declines more for VC-backed firms than for other types of firms during downturns.

- 04 Feb 2020
- Cold Call Podcast
Why Backstage Capital Invests in ‘Underestimated’ Entrepreneurs
Laura Huang discusses VC Arlan Hamilton’s strategy of backing entrepreneurs who have been ignored because of stereotypes, biases, and preconceptions. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

- 07 Jan 2020
- Cold Call Podcast
Can Capitalism Be Fixed by Making Companies More Just?
JUST Capital seeks to make public companies more "just" by measuring and ranking their overall impact on society, based on priorities most important to average Americans. Ethan Rouen and Charles Wang explore whether JUST Capital's performance evaluation methodology can improve corporate behavior. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

- 10 Aug 2019
- Working Paper Summaries
Varieties of Outward Chinese Capital: Domestic Politics Status and Globalization of Chinese Firms
Most popular and scholarly writing about China’s global push overemphasizes the power of the state. This paper explains how three types of domestic Chinese capital—state capital, private capital, and crony capital—differ in political vulnerability and pursue globalization in different ways. All prefer capital openness, but they do so for different reasons.

- 10 Apr 2019
- HBS Case
How Entrepreneurs Can Turn Lead Into Gold
Innovative about creating new products, entrepreneurs often lose imagination when it comes to funding their dreams. Andy Wu reveals alternatives beyond friends and family. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
When Celebrity ‘Crypto-Influencers’ Rake in Cash, Investors Lose Big
Kim Kardashian, Lindsay Lohan, and other entertainers have been accused of promoting crypto products on social media without disclosing conflicts. Research by Joseph Pacelli shows what can happen to eager investors who follow them.