Predators in the Boardroom: Relating Sexually Predatory, Discriminatory Behavior to Private Capital Performance

40 Pages Posted: 25 Oct 2018

See all articles by Imogen Rose Smith

Imogen Rose Smith

UCOP

Philip E. Auerswald

George Mason University - School of Policy, Government, and International Affairs

Gitanjali Swamy

PCRI, Harvard Business School; IoTask; University of California, Berkeley; Auto-ID Center, MIT

Date Written: September 23, 2018

Abstract

This paper is a study of the impact of sexually predatory and/or discriminatory behavior on the performance of venture capital and private equity funds. We contend that predatory and/or discriminatory behavior is a poor management practice resulting in organizational dysfunction and poor investment performance. We begin by introducing a Predatory Behavior Index at the scale of the fund, which we construct by establishing an order relation between different types of predatory behavior; gathering validated information from legal filings to score the index value; and computing the index value as a weighted sum from the scoring. We find statistically significant evidence that fund-level investment performance is negatively correlated with sexually predatory and/or discriminatory behavior.

Keywords: Private Capital, Venture Capital, Performance, Diversity, Predatory, Harassment

JEL Classification: G24, O35

Suggested Citation

Rose-Smith, Imogen and Auerswald, Philip Edgar and Swamy, Gitanjali, Predators in the Boardroom: Relating Sexually Predatory, Discriminatory Behavior to Private Capital Performance (September 23, 2018). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3254280 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3254280

Imogen Rose-Smith

UCOP ( email )

Berkeley
United States

Philip Edgar Auerswald

George Mason University - School of Policy, Government, and International Affairs ( email )

3351 Fairfax Dr.
Arlington, VA 22201
United States

HOME PAGE: http://auerswald.org

Gitanjali Swamy (Contact Author)

PCRI, Harvard Business School ( email )

114 Western Ave
Allston, MA 02134
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.privatecapitalresearchinstitute.org/people.php

IoTask ( email )

One Broadway, 14th floor
Cambridge, MA 02142
United States
7819753345 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.iot-ask.com

University of California, Berkeley ( email )

310 Barrows Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720
United States

Auto-ID Center, MIT ( email )

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
134
Abstract Views
1,252
Rank
385,726
PlumX Metrics