A Process View of Business Failure in Entrepreneurship

Abstract

While the importance of failure in entrepreneurship is well recognized, understanding of failure’s role(s) and its relationship with the entrepreneur throughout the entrepreneurial process is still limited. While typically associated with the end of the road for a venture (i.e. the end of the entrepreneurial process), failure may take different forms and feature at various stages of the entrepreneurial process thereby influencing the entrepreneur’s life along the entrepreneurial journey. The purpose of this symposium is to present research that encourages a process view of business failure in relation to the entrepreneur and the entrepreneurial setting. We present four papers focusing on different aspects of business failure and in different phases of the entrepreneurial process. We start with the role of fear of failure and its influence on the entrepreneur’s emotions, cognition and behavior. We then explore the concept of ‘small failures’ that may lead to terminal failure and how entrepreneurs make sens...