The State of Corporate Governance Research in State-Owned Enterprises: A Systematic Literature Review from 2017 to 2023

Abstract

The aim of the article is to make a systematic review of the state of corporate governance literature on SOEs for the period from 2017 to 2023 post the work of Daiser et al. (2017). Overall, 904 papers were systematically reviewed from two databases, namely, Emerald and Elsevier. The review shows that there is an increase in the volume of research on governance of SOEs in general and Chinese SOEs in particular. The agency theory, quantitative methodology with archival panel data analysis and Chinese centrism are dominant features of the reviewed papers. Ownership structure and board characteristics are among the most researched governance variables. The findings reinforce that the extant calls for further governance research involving multi-theoretic approach, qualitative methodology and varied contexts remains unresolved