本研究旨在從組織決策、組織變革觀點，對公司上市做定性的觀察。在台灣如欲成為一家上市公司，必須通過證管會所規定的層層關卡，而這上市的過程，即是私人企業轉型成上市公司的組織變革過程。本研究透過深度訪談的研究方法，從組織理論的角度探討公司為何要上市以及如何上市。研究結果發現經濟考量固然是公司上市決策的重要因素，非經濟因素在上市決策過程中也是不可忽略的。除此，本研究界定公司上市為四個階段，並在各階段中釐定公司的關鍵工作、所面對的管理問題與現象、及其因應措施。公司藉由上市進行組織變革，使體質與經營結構更健全。故此對公司上市的定性觀察應有助於定量研究領域的開拓。

Corporate IPO in Taiwan is not an easy process. The Security Exchange Committee has a strict regulatory procedure to review each corporation's IPO application. It is, therefore, a challenging organizational change process for a private corporation to become a public company. On the basis of extensive field interviews, this paper addresses two issues involved in a corporate IPO. First, why a corporation wants to become a public company? Second, how a private company evolves into a public company? Unsurprisingly, we find that economy or efficiency concerns are important for some corporations' decisions to go public. Nevertheless, non-economic motivations, such as institutional imitation and owners' concern for ”losing face”, also play key roles in the IPO decision process. Four stages, Exploring, Preparing, Applying, and Listing, are identified for a corporation to successfully complete an IPO process. In order to become a public company, it is necessary for a corporation to accomplish some key tasks in each stage. This paper specifies those key tasks in each stage, thus bears important management implications.