Virginia’s rapid population growth over the past three decades has been uneven, creating demographic winners and losers, and masks several demographic headwinds that will constrain future growth and competitiveness if left unaddressed, including slowing rates of total and foreign-born population growth, white population decline, deaths of despair, and declining labor force participation among prime working age males and females in the state.
Small businesses are an undeniable engine of growth for the United States, comprising 99 percent of all U.S. firms and driving nearly half our total economic activity. Yet small business owners across the country lack sufficient capital to succeed, grow and scale. The Kenan Institute has conducted a new analysis on the role of the Small Business Administration’s SBIC program in providing capital to the often-overlooked small businesses operating outside of metropolitan centers, as well as those owned by women and underrepresented minorities. You can access an overview of our findings, as well as key takeaways for business and policy leaders, by clicking below.
While technological advances have traditionally been a boon to the U.S. economy, the rapid rise of new platforms and the increased financialization of the economy in recent years have encouraged the growth of monopolies—driving an ever-widening geographic gap in the distribution of income across the country. New research from the Kenan Institute’s Professor Maryann Feldman explores the ramifications of this growing divide.
Workplaces are under pressure to be more inclusive due to public demands and rapidly changing demographics in the U.S. workforce. These commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) aren't just moral, they're crucial to business prosperity. In this Kenan Insight, we explore strategies for startups to employ and explain why starting early is key to success.
Conventional wisdom touts tax breaks and other economic incentives as the key to attracting out-of-state business. But do educational policies play an even bigger role? In a recent article in The New Republic, Brent Lane, economic strategist for the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, says a well-educated workforce is essential, and not just for winning business bids.
Are you a forward-thinking student at UNC? Join the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise Ambassador Interest Meeting on September 19 at 5 PM to learn more about how you can represent the Institute and serve as hosts for visitors.
This afternoon, President Trump is expected to formally declare the nation’s opioid abuse epidemic a public health emergency – just as proceedings get underway at the Kenan Center at an expert roundtable discussion on the same topic.
When large firms are in search of new leadership, oftentimes a former leader is the answer. There have been many high-profile examples of boomerang CEOs being both resounding successes and spectacular failures. So what do the numbers say?
When large firms are in search of new leadership, oftentimes a former leader is the answer. These are commonly referred to in business as "boomerang CEOs." There have been many high-profile examples of boomerang CEOs being both resounding successes and spectacular failures. So what do the numbers say? Are boomerang CEOs good or bad on average? This is the question Kenan Institute Grant Recipient Travis Howell and UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship Chris Bingham addressed in their latest study.
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.
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.
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.
This case study describes the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Durham, North Carolina – the people and organizations primarily located downtown who embrace this mission.
On March 1-2, approximately 1,000 people convened at the William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education in Chapel Hill for the fourth annual UNC Clean Tech Summit. Themes of the 2017 summit included clean energy, food, innovation, and water and energy.