Stereoselectivity is a very important factor in organic synthesis. Most of the natural chemistry in the world, at least the world that involves biology and chemistry, is chiral, favoring one enantiomer over another. Speaking from the perspective of pharmaceuticals, chirality is critical to biological activity with respect to therapeutic benefit or toxicity. It is often desirable to produce one enantiomer in large excess to increase the yield of the desired "useful" product and reduce expense, waste, or extra steps required to isolate or purify the product, especially when multiple steps are required in synthesis and even small losses accumulate with each step.
In the case of many reactions, the ratio of stereoisomers produced can be random, leading to a near 50:50 split. In other cases, factors such as the intrinsic chirality or sterics of one or more reactants may influence the enantiomeric ratio. In some cases, one enantiomer is preferred almost exclusively because a reactant cannot approach the reaction site because of steric hindrance or factors including molecular conformations, such as hydrogen bonding, solvent, or temperature.
Books have been written about this topic, as well as numerous individual publications and review articles. A few references that might be helpful are listed below.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereoselectivity
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316322015_Principles_of_Asymmetric_Synthesis
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262607017_Editorial_Thematic_Issue_Enantioselective_Synthesis_in_Organic_and_Medicinal_Chemistry
http://www.carborad.com/Volume%20I/Chapter%2011/Stereoselectivity.pdf