Darden conference issue: Capital raising in emerging economies

The unique characteristics of emerging economies give rise to profitable business opportunities and also raise practical challenges to realizing those opportunities. The ongoing internationalization of these economies regularly brings to light such opportunities and challenges and propels critical reviews of regulatory policy. The impact of this complex and dynamic setting on corporate decision making is clearly evident in the context of capital raising. In contrast to decisions made in efficient and integrated capital markets, capital raising in emerging economies must address issues as fundamental as property rights and as subtle as the differences in information available to domestic and foreign investors. The papers in this special issue explore topics related to the financing of corporations in emerging economies and have been selected from those included in the program of the 5th Annual Darden International Finance Conference. The selected papers can be divided into three topical areas: governance, capital structure, and internationalization. The first two are clearly defined areas of enquiry, while the last spans a broader set of issues related to characteristics uniquely related to global portfolios and direct investment. As with so many topics in international finance, there is substantial overlap between the issues discussed in each paper, and various alternate groupings are readily justifiable. In fact, our goal in this introduction is to highlight the connections among the papers while providing a context for understanding the relevance and importance of each paper’s contributions.