Fail But Try Again? The Effects of Age, Gender, and Multiple-Owner Experience on Failed Entrepreneurs’ Reentry
Entrepreneurship, Theory & Practice, Forthcoming
Northeastern U. D’Amore-McKim School of Business Research Paper No. 2816615
47 Pages Posted: 2 Aug 2016 Last revised: 17 Feb 2017
Date Written: July 31, 2016
Abstract
We investigate what leads failed entrepreneurs to reenter entrepreneurship by taking a developmental career perspective. Specifically, we hypothesize that the age of failed entrepreneurs has a non-linear relationship with the likelihood of reentering entrepreneurship that follows different career stages (early, middle, and late). The gender of failed entrepreneurs and multiple-owner experience in the failed firm are hypothesized to be moderators of this relationship. We test our hypotheses using a database consisting of the Swedish population, including 4,761 entrepreneurs who failed between 2000 and 2004. Analyzing their career paths over the years following their failure offers support for our theoretical expectations.
Keywords: entrepreneurship, failure, age, reentry, gender, ownership
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