According to the Security Market Line (SML) equation, an increase in beta will increase a company's expected return by an amount equal to the market risk premium times the change in beta. For example, assume that the risk-free rate is 6 percent, and the market risk premium is 5 percent. If the company's beta doubles from 0.8 to 1.6 its expected return increases from 10 percent to 14 percent. Therefore, in general, a company's expected return will not double when its beta doubles.