Fail, Learn, Persist: The Psychology of Re-Entry into Entrepreneurship After Business Failure
(2025) ENTN19 20251Department of Business Administration
- Abstract (Swedish)
- This study explores the different psychological processes and psychological capital resources that help entrepreneurs sustain motivation to re-enter entrepreneurship after discontinuing a previous venture. While existing literature has focused intensely on the financial and social costs of business failure, minimal yet growing scholarly attention has focused on the psychological costs of failure and psychological resources that aid in the recovery process and decision-making capabilities of entrepreneurs. To explore this gap, this study investigates how the different psychological processes, such as appraisal, sense-making, emotion regulation, and the development of psychological capital (constituting the psychological assets of... (More)
- This study explores the different psychological processes and psychological capital resources that help entrepreneurs sustain motivation to re-enter entrepreneurship after discontinuing a previous venture. While existing literature has focused intensely on the financial and social costs of business failure, minimal yet growing scholarly attention has focused on the psychological costs of failure and psychological resources that aid in the recovery process and decision-making capabilities of entrepreneurs. To explore this gap, this study investigates how the different psychological processes, such as appraisal, sense-making, emotion regulation, and the development of psychological capital (constituting the psychological assets of self-efficacy, optimism, hope, and resiliency), enable entrepreneurs to persist on the entrepreneurial path.
This study employed a qualitative, interpretivist approach by interviewing 11 entrepreneurs with a semi-structured framework. These entrepreneurs have experienced an involuntary business discontinuance and chose to found a new venture within five years of experiencing failure. To conduct a thorough analysis of the findings, the Gioia method was applied with a grounded theory approach. This enabled the authors to identify patterns and connections to the different theories and concepts written in the theoretical framework.
The empirical findings revealed that the recovery process involved in-depth emotional reflection, with a pragmatic recovery that primarily helped build resilience amidst the turmoil of failure’s aftermath. Contributions also include insights on entrepreneurial identity rebuilding and the development of hope and optimism to aid recovery, well-being, and motivation that ultimately led to re-entry. It was clear that entrepreneurs developed and strengthened the resource elements of psychological capital (self-efficacy, optimism, hope, and resilience) to varying degrees based on their recovery strategies and baseline cognitive predisposition, which influenced the approach and timeline of their re-entry. Lastly, this study also presents practical implications for entrepreneurs and future research that could expand on gender differences and account for the experiences of entrepreneurs who choose to withdraw from entrepreneurship following failure. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9204106
- author
- Quinney, Amelia LU and Martine Jambu, Anaelle LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- ENTN19 20251
- year
- 2025
- type
- H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
- subject
- language
- English
- id
- 9204106
- date added to LUP
- 2025-06-24 09:59:31
- date last changed
- 2025-06-24 09:59:31
@misc{9204106,
abstract = {{This study explores the different psychological processes and psychological capital resources that help entrepreneurs sustain motivation to re-enter entrepreneurship after discontinuing a previous venture. While existing literature has focused intensely on the financial and social costs of business failure, minimal yet growing scholarly attention has focused on the psychological costs of failure and psychological resources that aid in the recovery process and decision-making capabilities of entrepreneurs. To explore this gap, this study investigates how the different psychological processes, such as appraisal, sense-making, emotion regulation, and the development of psychological capital (constituting the psychological assets of self-efficacy, optimism, hope, and resiliency), enable entrepreneurs to persist on the entrepreneurial path.
This study employed a qualitative, interpretivist approach by interviewing 11 entrepreneurs with a semi-structured framework. These entrepreneurs have experienced an involuntary business discontinuance and chose to found a new venture within five years of experiencing failure. To conduct a thorough analysis of the findings, the Gioia method was applied with a grounded theory approach. This enabled the authors to identify patterns and connections to the different theories and concepts written in the theoretical framework.
The empirical findings revealed that the recovery process involved in-depth emotional reflection, with a pragmatic recovery that primarily helped build resilience amidst the turmoil of failure’s aftermath. Contributions also include insights on entrepreneurial identity rebuilding and the development of hope and optimism to aid recovery, well-being, and motivation that ultimately led to re-entry. It was clear that entrepreneurs developed and strengthened the resource elements of psychological capital (self-efficacy, optimism, hope, and resilience) to varying degrees based on their recovery strategies and baseline cognitive predisposition, which influenced the approach and timeline of their re-entry. Lastly, this study also presents practical implications for entrepreneurs and future research that could expand on gender differences and account for the experiences of entrepreneurs who choose to withdraw from entrepreneurship following failure.}},
author = {{Quinney, Amelia and Martine Jambu, Anaelle}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Fail, Learn, Persist: The Psychology of Re-Entry into Entrepreneurship After Business Failure}},
year = {{2025}},
}