Evaluating Entrepreneurial Learning from Failure Through a Grief Lens

Abstract

This paper conducts an empirical study of entrepreneurial learning and focuses on critical events, specifically failure as defined by the cessation of a company due to insolvency. The study reported in the paper draws upon the theories and hypotheses that have been proposed in the subject of learning from failure, specifically as they relate to critical setbacks and catastrophic failure. Further, the study explores how entrepreneurs experience grief from failure and how such grief impacts on their capacity to learn. The study builds and empirically tests a new conceptual model of entrepreneurial learning through failure. Results from the empirical analysis show that entrepreneurs do experience grief when their businesses fail. Further, learning and grief interact during the recovery process for the entrepreneur, in a complex manner, and grief recovery interferes with learning