THE STRATEGIC ROLE OF PRIVATE EQUITY IN THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF ITALIAN SMEs

The internationalization of the portfolio company is a key strategy used by private equity (PE) investors to create value and produce returns. In recent years, the focus on the strategies for value-creation through operational improvement has become essential to achieve the exponential growth required to the portfolio company, given the low multiples and the market risk of leverage. In this paper, we define the key types of contribution that a PE investor can provide in order to support the internationalization process and their effects on the portfolio company’s performance. The research is based on a survey administered to 47 PE fund managers, which covers 156 deals involving Italian companies. The results offer insight into the contribution to the corporate governance, strategy and management that PE provides in addition to the monetary support. The findings show that the non-financial support given to the portfolio companies has a positive impact on the performance and that the most impactful contribution the PE can give is the support to the relational network when the company strategy involves a foreign direct investment.

IPO as a VC-Funds Type of Exit

The key characteristic of private equity finance is that investors hold their investments only for a limited period of time. The key goal of VC funds is to grow the company to a point where it can be sold at a price that far exceeds the amount of capital invested. This process is called an exit or divestment. There are three basic types of exits: going public, being acquired by a larger corporation, a sale to a third-party investor.It is a widely believed and accepted proposition in private equity literature that the initial public offering of a private equity portfolio company is the most successful and profitable exit opportunity. However, according to the few sources of literature, public offerings are not the preferred divestment type for venture capital firms. Going public is one of the most critical decisions in the lifecycle of a firm. This is not easy, as the process is very comprehensive and complex. Hence, a lot of considerations should be taken into account. Because every investee firm is different, a development plan to achieve a successful exit takes into consideration a number of macroeconomic and microeconomic factors. Moreover, several advantages and disadvantages of exit through an IPO could be indicated. The objective of this paper is to show the success and profitability of going public by VC funds. The VC’s exit type as a way of cashing out on its investment in a portfolio company is a consequence of the exit strategy, which means the plan for generating profits for owners and investors of a company. While an IPO is the most spectacular and visible form of exit, it is not the most common one, as historically in the US it was, but still in Europe it has not been yet. There will be both literature and statistical data coming from different studies and reports used in this research.

The disruptometer: an artificial intelligence algorithm for market insights

Social media data mining is rapidly developing to be a mainstream tool for marketing insights in today’s world, due to the abundance of data and often freely accessed information. In this paper, we propose a framework for market research purposes called the Disruptometer. The algorithm uses keywords to provide different types of market insights from data crawling. The preliminary algorithm data-mines information from Twitter and outputs 2 parameters-Product-to-Market Fit and Disruption Quotient, which is obtained from a brand’s customer value proposition, problem space, and incumbent space. The algorithm has been tested with a venture capitalist portfolio company and market research firm to show high correlated results. Out of 4 brand use cases, 3 obtained identical results with the analysts ‘studies.

Unilever's Mission for Vitality

Dove and Axe were two highly successful brands owned by Unilever, a portfolio company. Dove was a female-oriented beauty product brand that exhorted “real beauty” and not the unachievable standards that the media portrayed. In contrast, Axe was a brand that purportedly “gives men the edge in the mating game.”□ Their risqué commercials always portrayed the supermodel-type beauty ideal that Dove was trying to change. Unilever had always been a company of brands where the consumer knew the brands but not the company, but recently there had been the idea to unify the company with an umbrella mission for all of its brands. This would turn Unilever into a company with brands, potentially increasing consumer awareness and encourage cross-purchases between the different brands. However, this raised questions about the conflicting messages between the brands' marketing campaigns, most notably between Unilever's two powerhouse brands, Dove and Axe. The case begins with COO Alan Jope anticipating an upcoming press meeting in New York City to discuss Unilever's current (i.e., 2005) performance and announce Unilever's decision to create an umbrella mission statement for the company. This case focuses on the central question of whether or not consistency between brand messages is necessary or inherently problematic.The Unilever's Mission for Vitality case was created to help students and managers develop an appreciation for how the values underlying a marketing campaign can affect and alter an organization's culture. The case focuses on how two products and marketing campaigns that express conflicting underlying values (as reflected in the Dove Real Beauty and the Axe Effect campaigns) within the same corporation can give rise to a number of unintended organizational and marketing complications.

Venita Fields: What Private Equity Professionals Really Do

Ever since he had heard her speak at a private equity conference, Babatunde Omotoba had wanted to work for Venita Fields, co-founder and senior managing director of private equity firm Smith Whiley & Company. He wrote and asked her for an informational interview, and was excited to receive her invitation to meet with her at the firm's regional office in Evanston, Illinois. After the interview, however, Omotoba came to the grim realization that despite all his preparations—researching private equity firms, studying the types of deals they make, and evaluating the analytical tools used to perform due diligence on companies and make investment decisions—he did not have a full grasp on the actual day-to-day work private equity professionals perform. He spent time reviewing materials from the career management office about private equity, and he meets two Kellogg alumni for informational interviews. He also reviews the investment process. The case ends with Omotoba having a broader perspective on the human aspect of private equity, beyond the analytical and financial aspects, as he anticipates meeting Fields again, hopefully to get the job offer.Students learn the “tools of the trade” in private equity: managing portfolio company executives, meeting with limited partners to raise funds, managing the fund, selecting investments, and managing their time. Students learn the interpersonal nature of the business, including persuasion and negotiation, and how that is as important as financial skills. Students learn the process of preparing to interview with a private equity professional.

Good Capital and Better World Books (B): A Better World for Investing

The purpose of this case is to introduce the topic of socially responsible investing from both the investor and investee perspective. The students will walk away with an understanding of: 1) how to evaluate a portfolio company on a social/environmental mission as well as on traditional financial criteria and 2) what considerations should be top of mind for a social venture considering accepting an equity investment. Wes Selke is a portfolio manager at Good Capital, an investment fund created to increase the flow of capital to innovative non- and for-profit social ventures that are using market-based solutions to solve problems of poverty, illiteracy, and inequality. In 2007, Good Capital is ready to make its first growth equity investment in a for-profit social enterprise and Selke is considering Better World Books as the firm's primary target. Selke must evaluate whether or not the firm is a financially sound investment, and if its social and environmental mission can be preserved upon a liquidation event. If Good Capital proceeds with the investment, Selke must also rework some of Better World Books' current procedures, which includes fine-tuning the philanthropic giving strategy that is the main component of its social mission.To expose students to both the investor and investee perspectives in social venture capital (SVC) deal ensuring they understand the criteria that must be considered when evaluating a potential investment in a for-profit social enterprise (investor perspective) and know what questions to ask both the investor and your organization before accepting an equity investment (investee perspective). To emphasize the importance of structuring a deal so that the social/environmental mission of a portfolio company is preserved upon exit.

Good Capital and Better World Books (A): A Better World for Investing

The purpose of this case is to introduce the topic of socially responsible investing from both the investor and investee perspectives. The students will walk away with an understanding of 1) how to evaluate a portfolio company on a social/environmental mission and on traditional financial criteria, and 2) what considerations should be top of mind for a social venture considering accepting an equity investment. Wes Selke is a portfolio manager at Good Capital, an investment fund created to increase the flow of capital to innovative nonprofit and for-profit social ventures that are using market-based solutions to solve problems of poverty, illiteracy, and inequality. In 2007, Good Capital is ready to make its first growth equity investment in a for-profit social enterprise and Selke is considering Better World Books as the firm's primary target. Selke must evaluate whether or not the firm is a financially sound investment and if its social and environmental missions can be preserved upon a liquidation event. If Good Capital proceeds with the investment, Selke must also rework some of Better World Books' current procedures, including fine-tuning the philanthropic giving strategy that is the main component of its social mission.To expose students to both the investor and investee perspectives in social venture capital (SVC) deal ensuring they understand the criteria that must be considered when evaluating a potential investment in a for-profit social enterprise (investor perspective) and know what questions to ask both the investor and your organization before accepting an equity investment (investee perspective). To emphasize the importance of structuring a deal so that the social/environmental mission of a portfolio company is preserved upon exit.

Making up performance: the construction of “performance” in venture capital firms portfolios

Performance measurement is understood as a corner stone of organizations’ accounting and control function (Chenhall,2003; Merchant & Van der Stede, 2012). In the wake of the relevance lost debate accounting systems have beencriticized for being obsessed with historical financial accounting information making accounting data inadequate fordecision making and insufficiently useful for creating a future alertness in organizations (Johnson & Kaplan, 1987). Inthe aftermath of this, more strategically-oriented accounting systems fostering on the non-financial dimension ofperformance, as most prominently presented by the balanced scorecard, gained increasingly attention by organizationsand accounting scholars (Ax & Bjørnenak, 2005; Nørreklit, 2000, 2003). Yet, there is a substantial body of researchstudying the adoption of MAIs (Management Accounting Innovations) addressing questions of how MAIs such as theBalanced Scorecard travel and change in the course of diffusion and organizational implementation (e.g. Ax &Bjørnenak, 2005; Jones & Dugdale, 2002; Qu & Cooper, 2011). What the literature does not reveal in depth is how dointegrated systems for performance measurement and control comprising financial and non-financial KPIs supportorganizations in handling uncertainty and complexity (Chenhall & Moers, 2015). In this paper, we aim for exploringperformance measurement and control and thus contributing to existing literature by studying how venture capital firmsmobilize ideas of performance measurement and control to handle uncertainty and complexity in their investmentportfolio. More specifically, we investigate two firms of the venture capital industry that use financial and non-financialindicators to manage their portfolio and make decisions. Consequently, this paper addresses the following researchquestions: How do venture capital firms use performance measurement to manage their investment portfolios? And howis “performance” constructed in this context?Exploring how firms from a quite volatile industry use performance measurement is regarded to be interestingfrom various perspectives: First of all, we know little about the link between uncertainty and performance measurement.Second from a theoretical perspective of ActorReality Construction (ARC) there is little empirical evidence on howorganizations construct facts or the factual dimension of accounting and management – facts in the context of ourempirical setting, the venture capital industry, are measures used in the performance measurement system (PMS).Particularly, venture capital firms having a big stake in early phase seed investments, are uncertain in the sense thatattaching a score or a number to a performance dimension of a portfolio company is maybe not that stable over time andambiguous. However, doing the exercise of reviewing each portfolio company according to a dashboard-like PMS givesthe KPIs, despite of their uncertain nature, a factual character. The PMS numbers allow managers to discuss andevaluate “performance” of the portfolio companies in management meetings as well as to make decisions, on forexample, investing additional money, based on the performance facts of the portfolio company. Interestingly, thecombination of “hard” and “soft” numbers – thus, financial and non-financial indicators, plays a pivotal role for VCcompanies in order to be capable to assess “the performance” of the portfolio companies. In other words, it enablesventure capital firms to better take into account the particular organizational contexts of portfolio companies.