Private Equity Firms

3 Empirical Analysis with Explanatory Design of the Role of French Private Equity Firms in the Formation of Alliances

With the theoretical analysis complete, it now remains to test the propositions advanced in the Chapter 2 (see Table 2.7). In this chapter, we make explicit the methodology that we are using (section 3.1). It involves a multimethod study including an econometric study and a multiple case study. We then use it to test our theoretical model (section 3.2).

This empirical section seeks to test our theoretical framework on the French private equity market. It should allow us to respond to the general questions which we have raised. These are as follows:

• – Why do private equity firms intervene in the formation of alliances for their portfolio companies?
• – How do they intervene?
• – What is their impact on the resulting creation of value?

As these questions apply to the whole set of French private equity firms, the question of the general character of our propositions also arises.

Questions of how and why private equity firms intervene in the formation of alliances can be typically approached through case studies. The question of the general character of the possible roles played by private equity firms suggests a methodology which allows statistical generalization of the results, thus justifying the use of econometric techniques.

After justifying in a more detailed fashion the use of these two techniques (econometric and case study), they are, at first, presented separately. ...