Systematic Review on Evolutions of Corporate Governance at IPO Threshold Firms

Abstract

Since the 2000s, researchers have increasingly employed a biological analogy to conceptualize the progression of corporate governance, whereby companies’ boards of directors evolve across the organizational life cycle, from inception and initial public offering (IPO) to maturity and decline. Furthermore, with the rise of venture firms, which serve as engines of innovation in the Japanese economy, there has been mounting demand from the business community to develop theories pertaining to the establishment of corporate governance in venture firms both prior to and following IPOs. In this paper, we conduct a systematic review of the literature on “evolutions of corporate governance in IPO threshold firms,” which has not necessarily been established as a single research area, although interest has been growing in recent years. We have structured and systematized the methods and theoretical underpinnings of extant research. Based on our findings, we put forth a research agenda aimed at investigating the evolutionary process of governance in IPO threshold firms, along with the causal conditions driving the “substantial” evolution of governance in public venture firms.