The transition from private to public ownership through the process of going public (i.e. initial public offering, or IPO) has attracted scholarly attention because of the governance, strategic and financial challenges and changes that firms face to achieve favourable valuations from equity markets. This is especially true for family companies, resulting in growing interest in the subject from family business scholars. This study systematically reviews existing research on IPOs in family businesses and assesses the state of the art in this field. It examines scholarly articles published in academic peer-reviewed journals from 1995 to 2020 and identifies research streams on the topic. It then systematizes the existing knowledge on IPOs in family firms through an input–process–output model that conceptually overlaps with IPO phases. This organizes the papers under investigation across four levels of analysis (firm, family, individual, and contextual levels). The article contributes to both research and practice by providing a useful theoretical driven model to guide future research efforts on IPOs in family businesses and suggesting specific policy interventions to support the listing process of family firms.

通过上市（即首次公开募股或首次公开募股）过程从私有制向公有制的转变引起了学术界的关注，因为公司面临着治理、战略和财务挑战以及从股票市场获得有利估值的变化。对于家族企业来说尤其如此，导致家族企业学者对该主题的兴趣日益浓厚。本研究系统地回顾了有关家族企业首次公开募股的现有研究，并评估了该领域的最新技术。它检查 1995 年至 2020 年在学术同行评审期刊上发表的学术文章，并确定有关该主题的研究流。然后，它通过一个在概念上与 IPO 阶段重叠的输入-过程-输出模型，系统化了家族企业中有关 IPO 的现有知识。这将正在调查的论文组织在四个分析级别（公司、家庭、个人和背景级别）。本文通过提供有用的理论驱动模型来指导未来对家族企业首次公开募股的研究工作，并提出具体的政策干预措施以支持家族企业的上市过程，从而为研究和实践做出了贡献。