We analyze the impact of the introduction of credit default swaps (CDSs) on real decision-making within the firm. Our structural model predicts that CDS introduction increases debt capacity more when uncertainty about the credit events that trigger CDS payment is lower.
On Sept. 5, our affiliated Center for Sustainable Enterprise awarded Firsthand Foods the 2019 UNC Sustainability Award. Founders Jennifer Curtis and Tina Prevatte Levy met at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School and developed the concept of connecting farmers to market. The UNC Sustainability Award recognizes leadership and best practice of a North Carolina business demonstrating initiative, innovation and impact in sustainability.
On Wednesday, October 20, Harvard’s Bill George and Three Ships’ Zach Clayton joined Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior and Associate Dean of the Undergraduate Business Program Shimul Melwani for a fireside chat. George and Clayton discussed their newly released book "True North: Emerging Leader Edition."
This paper seeks to improve our understanding of how intermediaries operate to advance the commercialization of science by providing a set of specialized services. We review five intermediaries commonly mentioned in the ecosystem literature: university technology transfer and licensing offices; physical space (incubators, accelerators, and co-working spaces); professional services providers; networking, connecting, and assisting organizations; and finance providers (including venture capital, angel investors, public financing, and crowdfunding).
Last week, our affiliated Center for Sustainable Enterprise hosted the 11th Annual Alliance for Research on Corporate Sustainability Conference at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School. ARCS is a consortium of universities and individuals that serves as a professional society of scholars studying the interface between business and sustainability. The annual conference brings together researchers from a variety of disciplinary and methodological perspectives who seek to advance the state of the field.
The growth of the venture capital market should not blind one to its limitations as an engine of innovation. Kenan Institute Distinguished Fellow Josh Lerner lays out three areas of concern worthy of more research.
Leading practitioners and researchers offer diverse perspectives on the long- and short-term implications of the U.S.–China trade war.
This year Rethinc. Labs joined the Duke Quantum Center and the IBM Quantum Hub at NC State to bring their Financial Services focus to the Triangle Quantum Computing Seminar Series. We will welcome João Doriguello, from the National University of Singapore to share his least squares Monte Carolo algorithm.
There is an emerging field for economists centered on quantum money and the use of quantum computing in economic models. Quantum money is an early invention of the quantum communication literature, recently implemented in an experimental setting. Quantum money offers the privacy and anonymity of physical cash, the option to transact without the involvement of a third party, and the efficiency and convenience of a debit card payment. Quantum speed-ups, including function approximation, linear systems analysis, Monte Carlo simulation, matrix inversion, principal component analysis, linear regression, interpolation, numerical differentiation, and true random number generation, can now be used to solve and estimate economic models. Join us for our next discussion as Isaiah Hull, a Senior Economist with Sweden’s Central Bank introduces quantum money and highlights the common misconceptions about what is achievable with quantum computing in economic models.
With the belief that private enterprise is the cornerstone of every free and prosperous society, the nonpartisan Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise develops and promotes innovative, market-based solutions to vital economic issues facing business today. Hear from Prof. Greg Brown, the institute’s executive director, about our work to foster the entrepreneurial spirit, stimulate economic growth and improve the lives of people everywhere in the video above, and visit www.kenaninstitute.unc.edu to learn more about how you can get involved.
On October 14, 2016, the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School hosted a conference titled What’s Next, America. Convened fewer than four weeks prior to the presidential election, the objective of the forum was to allow influential business leaders, academics and policy makers to examine issues critical to the U.S. economy now and in the future. The conference offered actionable solutions to the most important economic issues facing the next administration.
The availability of high quality and “clean” data documenting historical individual stock performance has had a profound impact on financial economics and the financial‐services industry.
This paper examines private equity (both buyout and venture funds) performance around the globe using four data sets from leading commercial sources. For North American funds, our results echo recent research findings: buyout funds have outperformed public equities over long periods of time; in contrast, venture funds saw performance fall after spectacular results for vintages in the 1990s. For funds outside North America, buyout funds show performance similar to those in North America while venture fund performance is weaker than in North America. Venture samples outside North America are, however, relatively small and strong conclusions await further research. The similarity of performance estimates across the data sets strengthens confidence in conclusions about the results of private equity investing.
UNC’s Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise and the Duke University Innovation and Entrepreneurship (I&E) initiative have embarked on a joint initiative to build a data repository to facilitate empirical research in entrepreneurship.
Developing measures to improve the traceability of contaminated food products across the supply chain is one of the key provisions of the 2011 FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). In the event of a recall, FSMA requires companies to provide information about their immediate suppliers and customers—what is referred to as “one step forward” and “one step backward” traceability.
Private equity funds hold assets that are hard to value. Managers may have an incentive to distort reported valuations if these are used by investors to decide on commitments to subsequent funds managed by the same firm.
In the U.S. automobile industry, manufacturers distribute products through dealers and rental agencies. To mediate direct competition between the two intermediaries, manufacturers adopted buyback programs to repurchase used rental cars from rental agencies and redistribute them through dealers.
This research utilizes data from the World Bank Investment Climate Survey to examine the use of external capital for almost 70,000 small and medium-sized firms in 103 developing and developed countries.
In its original conception the Kerr Tar Hub was broadly envisioned as a tech-intensive, locally driven regional park potentially providing a wide variety of infrastructure and service offerings intended to attract and support the location of emergent firms from within selected RTRP targeted industries.