Learning the entrepreneurial craft from Narratives of Emotional Setbacks and Failures of Serial Entrepreneurs

Abstract

Prior research efforts had overemphasized importance of cognitive aspects of entrepreneurial learning with emotional aspects remaining relatively under researched. Traditionally, focus has been on learning from success stories as against approaches to investigate role of emotional incidents such as failure in stimulating entrepreneurial success which this research aims to investigate. The research uses a qualitative research design with narrative as a strategy of inquiry. A total of 84 entrepreneurs were interviewed in pilot phase of study. Out of these, 18 serial entrepreneurs were re-interviewed based on suitability of narratives for this study. The findings have been distilled through a fine grained analysis of condescend micro-narratives as experienced by serial entrepreneurs. The study suggests that external factors beyond locus of control of contribute more to business failure and success. The study helps to deepen our understanding of entrepreneurship dynamics by highlighting factors which contribute to learning from failure such as locus of control, prior experience, societal norms, and lack of reliable co-founders and erosion of moral standards in local context.