Fear of failure in entrepreneurship : a review, reconceptualization and operationalization

In entrepreneurship, the fear of failure has been identified as a significant barrier to entrepreneurial activity. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), the world's largest study of entrepreneurial activity, defines the fear of failure as a strong inhibitor for seizing opportunities and transforming entrepreneurial intentions into entrepreneurial actions. Contrary to entrepreneurship research, psychological theory offers a counterintuitive prediction of the outcomes of fear of failure. While early achievement theories argued that fear of failure inhibits behavior, later psychological research has found fear of failure to be dualistic in nature, sometimes motivating individuals to act while at other times inhibiting such action. Although there is no unified theory on fear of failure within the psychology literature, the theoretical background of this construct in entrepreneurship appears even more fragmented. An examination of the existing entrepreneurship literature on fear of failure reveals that scholars have used different definitions and measures to explain this phenomenon and investigate its effects on entrepreneurial behavior. Because these measures refer to a different nature of the fear of failure construct, it is very unlikely that they converge to capture the same phenomenon. Therefore, a clear understanding of the nature and effects of fear of failure in entrepreneurship is needed. In this respect, this thesis addresses the research question of how fear of failure can be defined and measured within the entrepreneurial process. Three articles have been developed to answer this research question. In Article 1, the conceptual issues associated with the current status of the literature on fear of failure in entrepreneurship and the characteristics of the entrepreneurial setting that shape the fear of failure experience are discussed. Building on these conceptual observations, Article 2 adopts a qualitative approach to investigate the experience of fear of failure antecedent and concurrent to the entrepreneurial process. Sixty-five entrepreneurs and potential entrepreneurs have been interviewed to show that fear of failure can be defined as a complex combination of cognition, affect, and behavior. Finally, in Article 3 four studies are conducted to develop and validate a new measure of entrepreneurial fear of failure. Findings from these three articles shed light on the fear of failure construct in entrepreneurship, which emerged as a context-sensitive phenomenon

Who complies with COVID-19 transmission mitigation behavioral guidelines?

During the past 6 months, the world has lost almost 950,000 lives because of the outbreak of COVID-19, with more than 31 million individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 worldwide. In response, lockdowns, and various other policies have been implemented. Unfortunately, many individuals are violating those policies and governments have been urging people to comply with the behavioral guidelines. In this paper, we argue that personality traits need to be considered to understand and encourage more effective public compliance with COVID 19 transmission mitigation behavioral guidelines. Using a sample of 8,548 individuals from Japan, we show that certain personality traits are related to the tendency to comply with COVID-19 transmission mitigation behavioral guidelines. We emphasize the importance of understanding why people respond differently to the same authority’s messages and provide actionable insights for government policy makers and those who implement policies

Fear of failure may inhibit entrepreneurs, but may also drive them to work harder

A qualitative study explores the fear-of-failure phenomenon in entrepreneurship, write Gabriella Cacciotti, James Hayton, Robert Mitchell and Andreas Giazitzogl

A reconceptualization of fear of failure in entrepreneurship

Fear of failure both inhibits and motivates entrepreneurial behavior and therefore represents a rich opportunity for better understanding entrepreneurial motivation. Although considerable attention has been given to the study of fear of failure in entrepreneurship, scholars in this field have investigated this construct from distinct disciplinary perspectives. These perspectives use definitions and measures of fear of failure that are potentially in conflict and are characterized by a static approach, thereby limiting the validity of existing findings about the relationship between fear of failure and entrepreneurship. The purpose of this paper is to delineate more precisely the nature of fear of failure within the entrepreneurial setting. Using an exploratory and inductive qualitative research design, we frame this construct in terms of socially situated cognition by adopting an approach that captures a combination of cognition, affect and action as it relates to the challenging, uncertain, and risk-laden experience of entrepreneurship. In so doing, we provide a unified perspective of fear of failure in entrepreneurship in order to facilitate progress in understanding its impact on entrepreneurial action and outcomes

MicroRNA-29 family expression and its relation to antiviral immune response and viro-immunological markers in HIV-1-infected patients

Abstract BACKGROUND: Several in vitro studies suggested the microRNA-29 (miRNA-29) family is involved in regulating HIV-1 and modulating the expression of interleukin (IL)-32, an anti-HIV-1 cytokine. METHODS: To investigate the contribution of the miRNA-29 family to HIV-1 infection in vivo, we compared miRNA-29 expression in PBMC collected from 58 HIV-1-infected patients, naïve for antiretroviral therapy, and 21 gender- and age-matched HIV-1 seronegative healthy donors, using RT-Taqman assays. The relation between miRNA-29 levels and HIV-1 viro-immunological markers and the activation rate of antiviral immune response were also evaluated. In addition, we profiled miRNA-29 expression in CD4+ T lymphocytes and CD14+ monocytes collected from 5 antiretroviral treated HIV-1 infected patients. RESULTS: miRNA-29b levels were higher in HIV-1-infected patients than in the control group (p < 0.001). There were no correlations with either HIV-1 RNA levels or CD4+ T count, whereas a significant correlation was found between miRNA-29-a/c levels and integrated HIV-1 DNA (miRNA-29a: p = 0.009, r = -0.448; miRNA-29c: p = 0.029; r = -0.381). When the HIV-1-infected patients were grouped on the basis of their plasma HIV-1 RNA and CD4+ T cell count, we also found that patients expressing the lowest levels of miRNA-29c showed high viraemia, low CD4+ T cell count and high levels of integrated HIV-1 DNA. Moreover, miRNA-29b levels were correlated with those of IL-32nonα (p = 0.028; r = -0.298). Patients expressing higher levels of miRNA-29b showed lower levels of MxA, an interferon-stimulated gene, also induced by IL-32 (p = 0.006 r = -0.397). Lastly, we found that CD4+ T lymphocytes and CD14+ monocytes shared similar miRNA-29a/b/c expression patterns but the amount of miRNA-29a/b/c, IL-32 isoforms and MxA were highly variable in these two cellular subsets. CONCLUSIONS: The miRNA-29 family could influence the clinical progression of HIV-1 infection, the HIV-1 proviral load and the innate immune response against HIV-1

Are interactions between need for achievement and social networks the driving force behind entrepreneurial Intention? A trait activation story

Producción CientíficaEntrepreneurial intention plays a key role in entrepreneurship. Over the years, scholars have explained it using personality traits, cognitive models and, to a lesser extent, the role of social environment. Since this role has been underestimated, we build on trait activation theory to explore how social networks are especially relevant and can trigger the activation of individuals’ need for achievement to predict entrepreneurial intention. We test our hypotheses on a sample of 597 university students from Spain using partial least squares (PLS). Our results confirm that social network size positively influences the entrepreneurial information obtained in social networks, which in turn, positively impacts entrepreneurial intention. Additionally, we found that need for achievement is activated in the context of social networks, enhancing the influence of this information on entrepreneurial intention. Through fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), we also identify alternative configurations of the previous variables that lead to greater entrepreneurial intention

Perifosine as a Potential Novel Anti-Cancer Agent Inhibits EGFR/MET-AKT Axis in Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma

PI3K/AKT signalling pathway is aberrantly active and plays a critical role for cell cycle progression of human malignant pleural mesothelioma (MMe) cells. AKT is one of the important cellular targets of perifosine, a novel bio-available alkylphospholipid that has displayed significant anti-proliferative activity in vitro and in vivo in several human tumour model systems and is currently being tested in clinical trials.We tested Perifosine activity on human mesothelial cells and different mesothelioma cell lines, in order to provide evidence of its efficacy as single agent and combined therapy.We demonstrate here that perifosine, currently being evaluated as an anti-cancer agent in phase 1 and 2 clinical trials, caused a dose-dependent reduction of AKT activation, at concentrations causing MMe cell growth arrest. In this study we firstly describe that MMe cells express aside from AKT1 also AKT3 and that either the myristoylated, constitutively active, forms of the two proteins, abrogated perifosine-mediated cell growth inhibition. Moreover, we describe here a novel mechanism of perifosine that interferes, upstream of AKT, affecting EGFR and MET phosphorylation. Finally, we demonstrate a significant increase in cell toxicity when MMe cells were treated with perifosine in combination with cisplatin.This study provides a novel mechanism of action of perifosine, directly inhibiting EGFR/MET-AKT1/3 axis, providing a rationale for a novel translational approach to the treatment of MMe

Blockholder structures and power mechanisms in family firms

We extend the work of Fattoum-Guedri, Guedri, and Delmar (in press) by suggesting that the number of family blockholders moderates the relationship between the distribution of voting power between family and nonfamily blockholders and firm performance. Building on power and negotiation theories, we argue that the participation of multiple generations of family members in the firm’s ownership leads to greater diversity of perspectives that generates potential conflict over the distribution of resources. We highlight four power mechanisms—potential power, perceived power, power games, and realized power—to explain why family blockholders’ conflicting and/or misaligned preferences, objectives, and visions for the family firm might influence the nature of the negotiation between the family and the nonfamily blockholder and impact family firm performance. We offer directions for future research