Initial public offering: a critical review of literature

Abstract

Purpose The main purpose of the paper is to critically review the studies in the area of management and entrepreneurship. Secondly, the study aims to identify various performance measures used by researchers to evaluate short and long-term IPO performance. Design/methodology/approach The author used systematic database survey procedures recommended in previous studies for the review (Short, 2009; Uberbacher, 2014). The review of the study includes articles published in top management and entrepreneurship journal published after 2009 (January 2010 to December 2020). The source of the collection of articles is the Web of Science and Scopus databases. The search included keywords: initial public offering(s) and IPO(s). The study considers the top journals in the area of management, which includes Administrative Science Quarterly, Journal of Management, Journal of Management Studies, Organization Science and Strategic Management Journal. In entrepreneurship, the author included: Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Journal of Business Venturing and Journal of Small Business Management. After careful consideration of each article, the search returned 104 articles, of which (92 articles) were empirical studies. Findings The outcome of the study will recommend research gaps and questions for future studies. The review will also recommend prominent performance measures to evaluate IPO performance. Originality/value The study contributes to the literature of management and entrepreneurship in two folds. First, the study critically reviewed the three themes (“Corporate governance”, “Upper echelons” and “Social influence”). Second, the author also reviewed various IPO performance measures used the management and entrepreneurship scholars from IPO context. Finally, the study identifies the research gap/research question in the three themes as well as five new themes, which can be a valuable addition for future studies. The author hopes that this study will further help future scholars to enhance the understanding of IPO in the area of management and entrepreneurship.