Entrepreneurial resilience and venture failure
通过11位创业者的叙事研究,发现多数创业者在企业失败后表现出心理韧性(功能稳定),而非需要心理恢复,这对再创业和应对失败有启示。
This article explores the emotional and psychological functioning of entrepreneurs after venture failure. Accordingly, it investigates the extent to which entrepreneurs exhibit resilience, defined by psychologists as stability in functioning over time, despite experiencing a traumatic event. Entrepreneurial resilience is rarely investigated in the context of failure despite it being a debilitating experience. Our exploration is critical to venture creation as resilience plays a key role in re-entry into entrepreneurship. A qualitative, narrative research design reveals how 11 entrepreneurs functioned after failure. The majority of entrepreneurs show resilience; that is, they exhibit stable levels of functioning. This stability is different from the disruptions in functioning that psychologists label as ‘recovery’ from a severe event. Our findings, therefore, challenge the assumption that recovery is required after venture failure. Implications for re-entry into entrepreneurship and learning from, and coping with, failure are explored.