ABSTRACT
General partners in private equity (PE) firms manage funds contributed by PE investors to acquire portfolio firms, most often using additional debt capital borrowed from banks or debt markets. This chapter examines the evolution of PE firms and specify the nature of PE firms' strategic positioning. It discusses theoretical implications and future research opportunities using proposed conceptual framework as well as managerial and public policy implications in regard to emerging trends in the PE industry. The chapter argues that financial structure emphasis and portfolio firm scope dimensions capture configuration types among PE firms and that the combination of resource dependence theory and resource-based theory provides theoretical rationales for choosing these two dimensions. It identifies PE firms into four types: short-term efficiency niche players, niche players with long-term equity positions, diversified players with focused groups of portfolio firms, and short-term diversified efficiency-oriented players.
