HRM consequences of going public

Abstract

In a sample of 28 Dutch IPOs we looked for the organizational and human resource changes that accompany the transformation from a private into a public firm. We observed a growing efficiency climate and accountability drives, as well as a relationship between financial participation and performance, as recent literature seems to imply. This suggests that HR and IPO are related to each other, under the transparency and accountability imperatives that accompany IPOs. In contrast to most other IPO studies, the average Dutch case featured over‐ instead of under‐performance during the first few years after quotation.