Understanding Entrepreneurial Failure: Conceptualizing Failure, Taking Stock, and Broadening the Scope of Failure Research

Failure is inherent to the entrepreneurship process, yet, this frequent outcome from entrepreneurial efforts was overlooked. The entrepreneurship field has started to take failure seriously, with a growing body of literature focusing on the impact that failure has on entrepreneurs. Insights from entrepreneurial failure have the potential to provide valuable knowledge on how entrepreneurs learn from experience, the antecedents to habitual entrepreneurship, and the well-being and financial risks of independent entrepreneurship. Understanding Entrepreneurial Failure takes stock of the emerging body of literature on entrepreneurial failure with a focus on how failure has been conceptualized, the impact that failure has on entrepreneurs, and the different theoretical and methodical approaches taken to understand failure to lay the foundation for identifying new avenues for future research. This review is focused on entrepreneurial failure in the context of independent entrepreneurship where the entrepreneur and their business are tightly intertwined.