The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Private Equity
The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Private Equity is a major reference work which covers more than 250 topics related to private markets, entrepreneurial finance, and alternative investments. It takes an interdisciplinary perspective and brings together contributions from the fields of finance, accounting, entrepreneurship, strategic management, law, human resource management, economics, international management, business ethics and innovation management. The aim of this major reference work is to summarize the current state of research and provide an overview of the most important methods used in practice. In addition, The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Private Equity summarizes selected definitions, laws, and historical developments. The authors are leading scholars and experts from the field from all over the world. All contributions are concise and allow you to quickly obtain reliable information for academic papers, journalistic research, political discussions or day-to-day investment practice.
Douglas Cumming, J.D., Ph.D., CFA, is the Professor of Finance and the Steven Shulman ’62 Endowed Chair for Business Leadership at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. Previously, Douglas was the DeSantis Distinguished Professor of Finance and Entrepreneurship at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida, from 2018 to 2025, and Professor and the Ontario Research Chair at the Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto, Canada, from 2007 to 2018. He has held prior visiting appointments at Essex Business School, Kobe University, EM Lyon, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT University), Birmingham, and University of Bergamo, among others. Douglas has published over 250 articles in leading refereed academic journals (including 49 in Financial Times top 50 journals) in finance, management, and law and economics. In November 2022, Douglas was listed by Clarivate as one of the top 92 most cited researchers in the world in the business and economics category. Douglas’ work has been cited over 32,000 times according to Google Scholar. Douglas is the Managing Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Alternative Investments (2025-current) and the Review of Corporate Finance (2021–current). He is a former Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Industrial and Business Economics (2021–2024). He is a former Managing Editorin- Chief of the British Journal of Management (January 2020–December 2022) and the Journal of Corporate Finance (January 2018–December 2020). He is a former Editor of Corporate Governance: An International Review (2015–2024). He is the Founding Editor of Annals of Corporate Governance (2016–2020) and a former Co-Editor of Finance Research Letters and Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice. He is currently serving as an Associate Editor for Economic Modelling, European Journal of Finance, Journal of Banking and Finance, and Studies in Economics and Finance, and as an Editorial Board member of numerous academic journals. Douglas has published 21 academic books. Douglas’ work has been reviewed in numerous media outlets, including The Economist, The New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Wall Street Journal, the Globe and Mail, Canadian Business, the National Post, and The New Yorker. Douglas holds a CFA designation from the Chartered Financial Analysts Institute. He completed his Ph.D. in Economics and Finance at the University of Toronto (1995–1999) and holds a J.D. in Law from the same institution (1994–1998). Additionally, he earned a master’s degree in Economics from Queen’s University (1992–1993) and a Bachelor of Commerce (Honors) in Economics and Finance from McGill University (1988–1992).
Dr. Benjamin Hammer, FHEA, is a member of the Accounting & Finance Department at Lancaster University Management School in Bailrigg, United Kingdom, and an Assistant Professor at Lancaster University’s branch campus in Leipzig, Germany, where he has held various leadership positions since 2020. Prior to joining Lancaster University, Benjamin was the Executive Director of the Center for Corporate Transactions & Private Equity (CCTPE) at HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management, a leading think tank for private equity research in Europe. He has held visiting or affiliate positions at Florida Atlantic University, Concordia University, and Utrecht University. Benjamin’s research focuses on private equity and leveraged buyouts and has been published in highly ranked journals such as the Journal of Corporate Finance and the British Journal of Management. His research has been recognized with the Larry Lang Corporate Finance Best Paper Award at the 2015 European Financial Management Association (EFMA) Annual Meeting, the 2018 Bundesverband Alternative Investments (BAI) Science Award for excellent dissertations in the field of alternative investments, and the 2023 BAI Science Award for the best research paper in the field of alternative investments. He is a member of the editorial board of Venture Capital: An International Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance and is a regular speaker at academic (e.g., European Finance Association) and practitioner conferences (e.g., SuperReturn). Benjamin attended the Management Development Program at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education and holds a Habilitation and Ph.D. in Finance (with highest honors) from HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management. He studied at HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management and Tulane University as a scholar of the German Academic Merit Foundation and is a member of the Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society.