my research focuses on the economic performance effects of corporate purpose and governance at various stages of a firm’s life cycle: from launch to growth, shake-out, maturity, and decline. i view corporate purpose as the weighted average of the individual sense of purpose of the human actors within a firm, especially those of its leaders. it is a firm’s “core reason for being, its impact on the world,”¹ and a crucial determinant of its environmental, social, and governance (esg) imprints. i view corporate governance simply as how a firm directs and controls its affairs toward its purpose. overall, my research situates nicely at the intersection of several related subfields: corporate, behavioral, and entrepreneurial finance; industrial organization; corporate law and financial regulation; technology and innovation; energy economics and environmental policy. the breadth of my research interests derives mainly from my diverse industry and business management experience. however, the depth is streamlined and goes through only four unified themes: corporate purpose, governance, opportunities and risk management, and sustainable financial performance (pgorp, for short). i use my pgorp research paradigm as a four-pronged comb for extracting salient research questions.