Winning a Deal in Private Equity: Do Educational Networks Matter?

Networks can establish business connections and facilitate information flows. But how valuable are they in competitive settings, such as the deal generation of private equity? We find that educational ties between acquiring partner and target firm management are frequent (around 15%) and increase the odds of winning a deal (by 79%). When competing with other funds, exclusivity rather than the school’s ranking matters. In addition, educational ties also allow mitigating prevailing home bias. Yet, the pure existence of network-based relationships does not automatically lead to better deal performance.