Differentiating the entrepreneurial life story: investigating narrative identity in relation to business failure (original) (raw)

Narrative attributions of entrepreneurial failure

We examine how organizational stakeholders use narratives in their psychological processing of venture failure. We identify a range of “narrative attributions”, alternative accounts of failure that actors draw on to process the failure and their role in it. Our analysis provides a view of entrepreneurial failure as a complex social construction, as entrepreneurs, hired executives, employees and the media construct failure in distinctively different ways. Narratives provide means for both cognitive and emotional processing of failure through grief recovery and self- justification.

From Riches to Rags: A Narrative Approach to Entrepreneurs' Experience of Venture Failure

Academy of Management Proceedings, 2013

This paper investigates entrepreneurs' experience of stigma associated with venture failure. We implement a narrative approach to understand how stigma was experienced personally by entrepreneurs. Findings draw on the lived experience of 12 entrepreneurs and tell a collective story of what stigma meant and how it affected entrepreneurs' actions, behaviors, and decisions as they anticipated, enacted, and moved beyond venture failure. Overall the paper shifts the focus of stigma research from the socio-cultural perspective that constitutes the bulk of research to date, to the level of the microprocesses underlying these socio-cultural trends. Importantly, findings show how entrepreneurial failure engendered epiphanies or sudden deep insights for entrepreneurs that ultimately transformed failure from a very negative to a positive life experience. This transformation inspired entrepreneurs to contribute their knowledge gained through failure to future entrepreneurial efforts, even if these efforts were not their own. We discuss implications of findings for failed entrepreneurs' future start-ups and for the application of learning from venture failure.

Becoming an Entrepreneur: A Theory of Entrepreneurial Identity

This paper focuses on the nascent entrepreneurial process from an identity-based perspective. We build on research in the role identity, entrepreneurship, and career literature to develop a multi-dimensional concept of entrepreneurial identity. We link entrepreneurial identity to the nascent process by detailing how it influences the way individuals explore an opportunity or business idea, interpret environmental feedback, and evaluate alternatives. Through these processes, entrepreneurial identity influences key outcomes of the nascent stage, including whether nascents persist or abandon their efforts to become entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurial resilience and venture failure

International Small Business Journal: Researching Entrepreneurship, 2017

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 ...

Entrepreneurship Resilience: Can Psychological Traits of Entrepreneurial Intention Support Overcoming Entrepreneurial Failure?

Frontiers in Psychology, 2021

Entrepreneurial failure (EF) can occur due to aspects beyond the control of an entrepreneur, even if planning and calculations have been thorough. This research proposes a framework to illustrate how entrepreneurs cope with failure, based on the psychological characteristics that lead them to become entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurial self-efficacy and internal locus of controls measure the perceived learning from failure and recovery ability that can support continued entrepreneur engagement and new opportunity recognition after a failure. This study applied Partial Least Square to calculate and evaluate data from 146 respondents to an online questionnaire survey. The analysis shows that the psychological characteristics represented by entrepreneurial self-efficacy and internal locus of control can influence the willingness of entrepreneurs to learn from failure and increase their ability to recover. This can increase the willingness to continue in entrepreneurship and help them to reco...

A Construction of Entrepreneurial Personality Tests: Testing Archetype Personality Inventory in Entrepreneurship

International Journal of Applied Business and International Management, 2021

VUCA is about a hyper-competitive and unpredictable environment. It stands for volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. Personal attributes are necessary to navigate the VUCA environment. Studies in entrepreneurship show that narratives help people to connect different experiences. Literature shows that a narrative journey can be described through archetypes and relate to entrepreneurial behavior. This study aims to construct and validate measurements of entrepreneurial personality by adapting Pearson & Marr's archetype inventory test within the entrepreneurial context. This study was conducted as an assessment of the measurement psychometric attributes consisting of 12 archetypes. Explanatory Factor Analysis (EFA) was carried out by Oblimin rotation resulting in 60 final items. This study involved 154 small and medium entrepreneurs in Jakarta and West Java.

Searching for the Entrepreneurial Personality: New Evidence and Avenues for Further Research

What makes the entrepreneurial personality is the key question we seek to answer in the special issue of the Journal of Economic Psychology on "Personality and Entrepreneurship". The contributions are clustered around questions regarding the linkage between personality, socio-economic factors and entrepreneurial development. Results further explain the gender puzzle, while, at the same time, it is clear that stereotypes of what makes the ideal entrepreneur must be revisited. This conclusion is based on new insights into the effects that variables, such as risk tolerance, trust and reciprocity, the value for autonomy and also external role models, have on entrepreneurial decision making. On a more general note, it is clear that more informative longitudinal data sets at the individual level are needed in order to find conclusive answers. In an ideal world researchers would have access to data that includes personality characteristics and psychological traits, motivational factors and cognitive skills. In this respect the research community needs to find new ways to collect these data and make them available for entrepreneurship research.

Theoretical Study of The Life Story Narrative Personality Dynamics Based on Archetype in Indonesian Context Entrepreneurs

Journal of International Conference Proceedings

Understanding personality development of entrepreneurs is important in current entrepreneurial research. Previous studies have mentioned some perspectives towards a scientific understanding of entrepreneurship, through identification and in-depth examination of personality characteristics. These studies show that individual's function as a totality of personal characteristics (which involve biological, psychological, and cultural levels related to personal narratives) is needed. Some experts point out that success can be explained in the dynamics of the daily journey of the business persons than in trying to explain them into personality categories. The growth of entrepreneurial personality can be understood in accordance with the identity of the community and local culture. The wholeness of a person being an entrepreneur is a process of forming and revealing the development of an entrepreneurial personality. Personality growth will be revealed along the journey of life, following the same pattern in a narrative life story that is influenced by socio-cultural aspects. These patterns can be expressed in archetype. Entrepreneurs also share a set of cultural and social values, some of which are based on the values held by the community. However, research on entrepreneurial personality as a whole in the context of Indonesian culture, is still needed This study aims to look at entrepreneurship as the dynamic's perspective of the personality narrative life stories and archetype of the cultural context in Indonesia. In addition, this study seeks non-economic factors, such as entrepreneurial personality and culture, affect the dynamics of the performance of a startup business. Through the study of archetype theory and narrative life story, it can be proposed a measuring tool that can explain the concept of entrepreneurial archetype personality in the Indonesian context. This archetype personality measurement tool uses a life story perspective that sees the dynamics of entrepreneurial journey as an archetype hero journey

Are entrepreneurs born or made? The influence of personality

Personality and Individual Differences, 2019

Currently, entrepreneurship is of great importance to economic growth and reduced unemployment. Since entrepreneurial behaviour is multidimensional, interest in understanding the roles of individual variables has increased significantly. The present study uses the theoretical and empirical framework of entrepreneurship research to explain the existence of the psychological profile of an entrepreneur, the impact of the psychological variables of personality on behaviour and entrepreneurial intention, and the relationship between personality traits and other specific traits frequently related to entrepreneurship. A sample of 337 participants composed of real entrepreneurs (n = 83) and university students (n = 254) with high scores in entrepreneurial intention were evaluated in personality (Big Five) and other specific traits: ambiguity tolerance, emotional intelligence and coping and problem solving. The results showed that both groups share the same profile in these variables once adjustments were made for the effects of sex and age. A target profile and a preliminary evaluation of its best possible accuracy are provided.