Optimizing Human Resource Conditions for 20-Year Initial Public Offering (IPO) Survival

Theresa M. Welbourne; Miranda J. Welbourne Eleazar; Joshua V. White

doi:10.1111/peps.70021

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Optimizing Human Resource Conditions for 20-Year Initial Public Offering (IPO) Survival

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Optimizing Human Resource Conditions for 20-Year Initial Public Offering (IPO) Survival

Theresa M. Welbourne, Miranda J. Welbourne Eleazar and Joshua V. White

Personnel psychology

02/10/2026

DOI: 10.1111/peps.70021

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Abstract

The entrepreneurship literature emphasizes the importance of imprints founders leave on companies; those imprints can change at transformational events such as the initial public offering (IPO). Prior research has found that objective measures (such as structure or compensation systems) can imprint and predict survival post IPO. However, executive value imprinting has received less attention. We theorize that executive values, which are core to the change management literature, are particularly important for post-IPO imprinting. Expanding employee-organization relationships to firm-level outcomes, we argue that optimization (not underemphasis or overemphasis) of the executive values of sense of urgency and valuing employees creates a unique human resource condition that is key to long-term survival after the change event of the IPO. Based on the role of the human resource executive (HRE) as a change agent, we posit that having an HRE in place positively impacts 20-year survival of the firm as its own, independent entity, by bolstering the initial imprint with ongoing support of the imprinted values. We find support for our hypotheses using survey data from executives leading companies from the 1996 IPO cohort and longitudinal archival data. We contribute to the literature on imprinting in IPOs, change management, and human resource management.

change management

employee–organization relationship

human resource management

human resource strategy

imprinting

initial public offerings (IPOs)

sense of urgency

valuing employees

Details

Title: Subtitle: Optimizing Human Resource Conditions for 20-Year Initial Public Offering (IPO) Survival
Creators: Theresa M. Welbourne - University of Alabama
Miranda J. Welbourne Eleazar - University of Iowa
Joshua V. White - Samford University
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Personnel psychology
DOI: 10.1111/peps.70021
ISSN: 0031-5826
eISSN: 1744-6570
Publisher: Wiley
Language: English
Electronic publication date: 02/10/2026
Academic Unit: Management and Entrepreneurship ; Center for Social Science Innovation; Law Faculty
Record Identifier: 9985139274502771

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