Basing on the results of a Russia-Japan joint enterprise survey conducted in 2005, the paper examines the legal-organizational form of joint-stock companies (JSCs) in Russia. The Federal Law on joint-stock companies stipulates that JSCs should be established in one of the two different legal forms, namely "open" or "closed" companies that provide a unique institutional setting for Russian firms from the viewpoint of their corporate governance. The paper deliberates the determinants of organizational choice between these two legal forms. Then it examines empirical relations between the legal forms of JSCs and their organizational behavior.
