Il private equity: un “agente” del cambiamento strategi-co nel percorso di risanamento aziendale. Evidenze empiriche dal contesto italiano

This paper aims to investigate “whether”, two years after the closing, in a recovery process, the private equity (PE) investor has a positive impact on venture backed firm (VBF) performances and “how” it contributes to the turnaround management. To this end, we studied a sample made up by 40 Italian companies of which 10 are venture backed while 30 are not venture backed. The latters can be considered a control group to compare with the venture backed firms. We chose Italian context, since during the period 2005-2008, there has been a steady upward trend of the investments inherent to the turnaround segment. In particular, the compound annual growth rate of the investments for this deal type has been 14%. Moreover, in the same period, the divestitures did not overcome the threshold of 5%. This value was a far more lower than one recorded for other deal types, such as buy-out and expansion. So, the PE investor tends to hold his stake in VBF instead of opting for a quick way-out. Thanks to the adoption of a non-parametric test (i.e. Mann Whitney U), our findings show that the PE investor affects positively on some VBF managerial fields, such as efficiency, economic performances and investments in innovation. Additionally, we run four multivariate regression models by which we pointed out that the PE investor adopts a managerial approach oriented to privilege the investments in innovation rather than the economic performances of the VBF in the short-term. Therefore, besides to the PE investors named “locusts” in the doctrinal debate, there are others that can be observed from a strategic corporate entrepreneurship standpoint, as they judge the stake in the VBF like a long-term investment and, consequently, become a strategic change “agent” during the recovery process. In a special situation, hence, the top management of the VBF might take a less suspicious attitude and consider the opportunity “to open” the equity to a PE investor, as it could contribute to undertake a value creation path. In terms of managerial implications, our empirical evidence are in line with foregoing studies and suggest that the PE investor tends to lay the foundations for the VBF development in the years ahead rather than merely supporting her “rescue”. Indeed, the PE investor seeks to give to the innovation a pivotal role among the entrepreneurial values that should inspire the top management of the VBF.