Imprinting Effects of Founding Conditions, Structure, and Capabilities on Social and Financial Organizational Outcome Satisfaction

My work investigates the effects of founding conditions for organizational
founders on the eventual satisfaction founders have with the financial and social
outcomes of their organization. First, I introduce two new constructs, social salience and
economic salience, which represent the intended social or economic goals of the founder
for their organization when they found the new organization. I then utilize organizational
imprinting theory to argue that the social and economic salience, along with founders’
previous work experience, influence the structure of the new organization via the legal
form. I then argue that the legal form influences the specific capabilities that the
organization will acquire or create early in the organization’s life. Finally, I argue that the
capabilities established at founding will influence the eventual satisfaction founders currently have with their organizations’ social and financial outcomes as the capabilities
endure over time.
Based on a sample of 150 organizational founders that are still actively managing
their organizations, my results support the idea that founding conditions for individual
founders influence the capabilities that their organizations create or acquire. Further,
founders’ current level of satisfaction with the financial and social performance of their
organizations is significantly related to these capabilities. These results largely support
the process based model of imprinting effects on organizational outcomes, and suggest
that founders play a critical role in setting the original imprint of an organization that will
endure via organizational inertia, perhaps long after the imprint’s originally designed
purpose.