Deal-Level Value Creation in Private Equity: A Literature Review with a Focus on Tobin’s Q
Advisor: Nicolas Pardon, MSc.
Type: Bachelor’s Thesis
Start: asap (June 2025)
Overview
Understanding how value is created at the deal level is a core question in private equity research. This thesis aims to explore the relationship between deal-level value creation and firm valuation metrics, with a specific focus on Tobin’s Q as a potential indicator of value creation opportunities.
Tobin’s Q, a ratio comparing a firm's market value to the replacement cost of its assets, may help explain differences in value creation across deals. By conducting a structured literature review, this thesis will assess how Tobin’s Q is used in empirical research and whether it has predictive power for investment outcomes.
Objective
- Conduct a structured literature review on deal-level value creation in private equity.
- Explore how Tobin’s Q is defined, applied, and interpreted across financial and strategic investment literature.
- Identify gaps in current research and propose avenues for empirical testing or theoretical development.
Requirements
- Strong interest in Private Equity, Corporate Finance, and Valuation Metrics
- Ability to conduct structured literature reviews and synthesize findings clearly
- Basic knowledge of academic research databases (e.g., JSTOR, SSRN, Google Scholar)
- Familiarity with key financial concepts such as value drivers, and firm valuation
Set-up & Supervision
- Individual guidance on conducting literature reviews and identifying relevant academic sources
- Feedback on research structure, academic writing, and topic development
- Optional: opportunity to connect findings to ongoing empirical research at the chair
If you are interested in writing your thesis on this topic, please indicate so in your application.