From entrepreneurial failure to re-entry

Abstract

Failure is not the outcome entrepreneurs expect when they start their business. However, many do fail, experiencing painful and damaging outcomes with quite negative repercussions in their professional, personal, and social lives. Knowledge about entrepreneurial failure (EF) is still recent, and further research is needed to better understand the phenomenon, as it is a fundamental aspect of the development of the economy and of social welfare. This study aims to systematize the knowledge already developed on EF, identify gaps, and propose future research lines. Through a systematic literature review on EF, it was possible to identify essential themes, such as causes, learning, and fear, but also how those lead to reentry. Opening the black-box of reentry, by uncovering the antecedents, mechanisms, and triggers that lead entrepreneurs to restart, allows us to advance the focus on an area of the entrepreneurship literature that has been neglected.