Who is the boss? Entrepreneurial governance in private equity investments in emerging markets

Abstract

We investigate the different forms of entrepreneurial governance in private equity (PE) investments in emerging markets. Our research design is a multicase, inductive study that uses field data to assess the full cycle of PE investments in forty companies in Brazil, a dynamic emerging economy. Our central contribution is a framework of PE investment in the presence of institutional voids. We find that PE firms can adopt three distinct entrepreneurial governance structures: growth equity, entrepreneurial buyout, and submissive buyout. We describe the main characteristics of these governance structures and discuss the key drivers that influence their adoption.