Investor Participation in Initial Public Offerings: A Systematic Survey of Retail and Institutional Perspectives

This study provides a systematic survey of the academic literature examining the determinants of retail and institutional investor participation in Initial Public Offerings (IPOs). Recognizing the central role of investor demand in primary equity markets, the review synthesizes nearly three decades of research to develop an integrated understanding of how informational, institutional, regulatory, and behavioral factors shape participation decisions across diverse market settings. Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta‐Analyses (PRISMA) protocol, we analyse 47 peer‐reviewed studies published between 1995 and 2025. The survey demonstrates that IPO participation is jointly influenced by market design and allocation mechanisms, underwriter reputation, regulatory environments, and firm‐specific signals, alongside behavioral and cognitive biases that differentially affect retail and institutional investors. While the literature is largely grounded in information asymmetry and signaling frameworks, more recent studies increasingly incorporate behavioral finance and institutional perspectives. Despite substantial progress, research remains fragmented across methodologies, markets, and investor types, limiting cumulative knowledge. By organizing the literature around key theoretical lenses, empirical evidence, and methodological approaches, this survey identifies unresolved debates and underexplored areas, including cross‐country institutional variation, investor learning dynamics, and interaction effects between retail and institutional demand globally.