Research and projects

1. When Startups Fail, Knowledge Survives: The Role of Corporate Venture Capital 

Abstract: Most venture-backed startups fail, but the knowledge they create need not disappear with them. This paper identifies a distinctive role for corporate venture capital (CVC) in preserving and redeploying knowledge from failed ventures. Relative to independent VCs, corporate investors combine endorsement with patience: they finance ultimately failed startups for roughly two additional years, and during this extended wind-down period, their portfolio companies’ patents receive greater inventor-directed, but not examiner-generated, attention. This combination of visibility and time helps knowledge outlive the venture that created it. Greater attention during wind-down predicts subsequent patent renewal, adoption by independent firms, and recognition across broader technological fields. Knowledge also diffuses through labor mobility, as inventors from CVC-backed failed startups are more likely to join established outside firms. Corporate parents, in turn, use the knowledge, technologies, and talent emerging from failed ventures to redirect innovation away from unsuccessful approaches and toward promising new domains. These strategic benefits align corporations’ private incentives with the broader preservation of entrepreneurial knowledge, recasting startup failure as a process through which knowledge is transferred rather than destroyed.

• Presentations: FIRN PhD Symposium 2025, AFA PhD Poster Session 2026, AsianFA 2026

2. The Evolving Market for CEO Talent: The Value of Nonprofit Experience (joint with Tianyu Cai, Leo Liu and Jason Zein)

Abstract: Nonprofit experience has become increasingly common among public-company CEOs. By 2023, roughly one in six CEOs of U.S.-listed firms had worked for at least one nonprofit organization during their career. We examine whether this pattern reflects changing demands on corporate leadership. We find that firms are more likely to appoint nonprofit-experienced CEOs when environmental and social concerns are salient and when ESG-oriented investors hold greater ownership stakes. Flow-induced shocks to ESG-fund ownership and state anti-ESG laws provide quasi-experimental evidence that appointments respond to exogenous changes in stakeholder pressure. These appointments are also associated with positive stakeholder-related outcomes that appear to motivate them. Firms led by nonprofit-experienced CEOs have higher CSR ratings and employee satisfaction, more green patents, and lower toxic emissions. Instrumental-variable estimates and evidence from plausibly exogenous CEO departures support a causal interpretation. Overall, the evidence suggests that nonprofit experience becomes more valuable as firms face greater stakeholder-oriented leadership needs.

• Award: New Zealand Finance Meeting (NZFM) Runner-up Paper Award

• Presentations: AFA 2024, NZFM 2024, FIRN 2023, AFAANZ 2023, CAFM 2022, AFBC 2022, FMA Asia-Pacific 2022

3. What Does Skewness Teach Us About Venture Capital Managerial Skill? (joint with Peter Pham, David Robinson, Roham Rezaei and Jason Zein)

Abstract: This paper investigates whether the degree of return skewness within a VC fund portfolio is informative of managerial skill. While VC investment returns are typically highly skewed, we document substantial variations in skewness of within-fund return distributions. A numerical simulation shows that when portfolio size is limited (as is typical in VC), a single outlier that distorts average returns, makes it possible to mistake luck for skill. Using proprietary portfolio company-level return data, we provide empirical evidence consistent with this notion. Given the same mean return, a fund with a highly skewed return distribution is less likely to sustain strong performance in its successor funds compared to one with more uniformly distributed deal returns. Although some funds may deliberately pursue high-skewness strategies, such outcomes are not reliably replicated. Nonetheless, these funds are more likely to raise follow-on capital, suggesting that limited partners may place disproportionate weight on outlying successes. These findings underscore the importance of looking beyond headline IRRs and considering the higher moments of VC fund returns when evaluating GP skill.

• Presentations: Private Equity Research Consortium (PERC) Symposium in Oxford 2026, Asia Innovation and Entrepreneurship Association (AIEA) Seminar

4. The Buy and Build Strategy in Private Equity Buyouts: Value Creation or Window Dressing? (joint with Ludovic Phalippou and Jason Zein)

Abstract: This paper investigates whether private equity (PE) sponsors use add-on acquisitions to create the appearance of strong earnings growth in their portfolio firms. Focusing on PE-backed firms that eventually go public, we find that those undertaking a high volume of add-on acquisitions tend to underperform their peers in the long run when their IPO prospectuses fail to clearly disclose the sources of earnings growth. These firms experience more negative abnormal returns around earnings announcements in the first year after the IPO and receive overly optimistic analyst forecasts. Moreover, PE sponsors tend to exit these add-on intensive firms significantly earlier after listing, suggesting a strategic effort to capitalize on temporarily inflated valuations. The effects are most pronounced during economic downturns, when organic growth is harder to achieve. Overall, the findings highlight the need for clearer disclosure and greater transparency in PE-backed firms.