In turbulent situations like an IPO, explicit efforts at sensemaking and sensegiving tend to occur to redress uncertainty (Maitlis, 2005 and Weick et al., 2005). Previous research suggests that numerous external stakeholders, such as lawyers and auditors, interact with top management in the process of developing the IPO prospectus (e.g., Arthurs et al., 2008 and Fischer and Pollock, 2004).