A significant fraction of corporate investments in startups are made directly without relying on corporate venture capital (CVC) units. Moreover, most firms making investments via CVC programs also make direct investments. We show that such direct investments are utilized to flexibly respond to investment opportunities over a short period of time: (1) firms respond to a competition shock by sharply increasing direct investments; (2) firms rely on direct investments when startups are easier to evaluate in the short term; and (3) direct investments are less likely to be followed up. We find no evidence that direct investments are used to entrench managers.

We examine the impact of employee-related Corporate Social Responsibility (ER-CSR) on pay disparity between top management and the average worker. Firms with higher ER-CSR ratings have a lower pay disparity and the effect is greatest when executives are paid the most. ER-CSR is associated with a lower ratio of top management's cash and long-term incentive compensation, relative to the average employee's pay. We find that the negative relation is driven by socially responsible firms paying their average employees more. Finally, we document that CSR activities related to employee relations and diversity are those leading to a significant pay disparity reduction.

Historically, a key advantage of being a public firm was broader access to capital, from a disperse group of shareholders. In recent years, such capital has increasingly become available to private firms as well. We document a dramatic increase over the past twenty years in the number of mutual funds participating in private markets and in the dollar value of these private firm investments. We evaluate several factors that potentially contribute to this trend: firms seeking extra capital to postpone public listing, mutual funds seeking higher risk-adjusted returns and initial public offering (IPO) allocations, and venture capitalists (VCs) seeking new investors to substantiate higher valuations. Results indicate that the first two factors play a significant role.