Final answer:
Corporate culture is shaped by a company's founders and their successors, affecting a startup's values, vision, and operations. Ownership structures vary from sole proprietorships to public companies with corporate governance overseeing executive actions.
Step-by-step explanation:
Corporate culture is typically shaped by a company's founder and the founder's successors. This includes the values, vision, norms, working language, systems, symbols, beliefs, and habits of the organization. When a startup firm is young, it is shaped considerably by the founders, who have the insight into the firm's potential and demonstrate a belief in its prospects by investing their own money. This initial stage is crucial, as it attracts angel investors and venture capitalists, who provide not only financial backing but also valuable advice, overcoming imperfect information by getting to know the managers and the business plan personally.
In terms of ownership, a private company may be a sole proprietorship or a partnership depending on whether it is run by an individual or a group. If the firm decides to go public by selling stock that financial investors can purchase, it becomes a public company, owned by shareholders and managed by a board of directors. The system of corporate governance refers to the set of institutions tasked with monitoring top executives to ensure that they act in the best interests of the shareholders, although it is not always effective in preventing managerial excesses or failures.