Constructing legitimacy: an ethnography of the struggle for financial capital in two Paris-based private equity funds
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Date
25/11/2019Item status
Restricted AccessEmbargo end date
25/11/2020Author
Bourgeron, Théo Paul
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Abstract
This dissertation uses an original qualitative empirical material (two ethnographic
observations of private equity funds and 44 interviews with managers of these funds) to
investigate how fund managers construct their legitimacy to manage capital. Focusing on the
struggle for capital in the private equity sector, it shows how fund managers use symbols to
assert their legitimacy on different stages and details the symbolic hierarchies of the private
equity sector: it emphasises how this legitimacy struggle is embodied in the body of fund
managers and the geographical organisation of their funds (1); it looks at how fund managers
accumulate local symbols, such as diplomas, experiences in prestigious institutions or ‘track-record’
of past operations (2); it underlines how fund managers turn potential investment
operations into ‘good investment opportunities’ by accumulating symbols of legitimacy
coming from bureaucratic internal and external procedures (such as formal decisions by
internal committees or reports by auditors and consultants) (3). In doing so, this dissertation
shows the cultural dimension of the channels through which capital circulates in the private
equity sector.