Entrepreneurial failure influences the health of Chinese farmers: Evidence from the data of China labor-force dynamic survey

High failure rate is a primary characteristic of current farmer entrepreneurial activities in China. We examined the impact of entrepreneurial failure on the health of Chinese farmers based on the data from the China Labor-force Dynamics Survey (CLDS). We found that entrepreneurial failure significantly depresses the health of Chinese farmers. Specifically, the farmers with entrepreneurial failure experience are more likely to have low self-reported levels of psychological and physical health, and the probability of experiencing severe injury and illness is elevated by 4.6 %. Mechanism analysis shows that entrepreneurial failure depresses the health of Chinese farmers through weakening informal social support and increasing the probability of overwork. Furthermore, these effects are more significant in the older generation of farmers who were born before 1980 and the farmers striving to make a living.

Individual ambidexterity after entrepreneurial failure in COVID-19 pandemic times: the influence of current employment status

Purpose

This study highlights the business failure experienced in pandemic times, its impact on entrepreneurs' perception of failure and the reciprocal relationship between entrepreneurs' perception of failure and individual ambidexterity.

Design/methodology/approach

The study provides empirical evidence on interpreting the long-term outcomes of business failure in pandemic times and develops a deeper insight by utilizing a two-year research design (time 1: 2020 and time 2: first half of 2021). It draws on data from 200 entrepreneurs who experienced business failure in the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic times which is a global crisis.

Findings

The results revealed that both challenge and hindrance appraisals of failure are associated with individual ambidexterity over time. Self-efficacy and social valuation of re-entry decisions are mediators between hindrance appraisal and individual ambidexterity on both time 1 and time 2. Moreover, there is a positive reciprocal relationship between self-efficacy and ambidexterity throughout the two time periods. In regard to participants' current employment status, hindrance appraisal, self-efficacy and perceptions of ambidexterity linkages were found to be significantly different in terms of unemployment and employment.

Originality/value

To the best of the author's knowledge, it is the first time that the individual ambidexterity of failed entrepreneurs was explored after hard times in the pandemic. It comprehensively helps to understand the importance of cognitive appraisal of hard times and identifies the perceptional and behavioral consequences of failure in entrepreneurship.

Re-creation After Business Failure: A Conceptual Model of the Mediating Role of Psychological Capital

In case of failure, entrepreneurs could endure various financial, psychological, and social costs. These intertwined costs could affect their learning from failure. All individuals do not react in the same way when dealing with adversity. Rather than focusing on (negative) consequences of business failure, we took a more positive approach by using the Conservation of Resources (COR) model theory to build our conceptual model. Psychological capital, which refers to “an individual’s positive psychological state of development characterized by high levels of self-efficacy, optimism, hope, and resilience,” could be considered as a resource to recover from entrepreneurial setbacks. We suggest that a high level of psychological capital plays a mediating role in the relationship between the negative consequences of failure and learning from failure. By learning from this experience, failed entrepreneurs will increase their intention to re-create a venture and pursue their entrepreneurial career. This theoretical research, by building a conceptual model based on resources, offers a more positive approach of entrepreneurial failure and investigates key psychological assets, such as psychological capital, that support the development of entrepreneurial resilience rather than the prevention of business failure.

You Learn When It Hurts: Evidence in the Mutual Fund Industry

This paper aims to contribute to the lack of research on the learning process of mutual fund markets. The empirical design is focused on the ability of the Spanish equity mutual fund industry to learn from its important errors. The choice of this industry is justified by both its relevance in the European mutual fund markets and some specific characteristics, such as the concentration and the banking control of the industry, which may affect the learning process. Our main objectives are to identify important trading errors in mutual fund management by applying three independent filters based on the relative importance of each decision, and then testing the evolution of these errors both at the industry level and at the fund family level. We apply the dynamic model of generalized method of moments (GMM), and we find an overall significant decrease in the percentage of important trading errors over time, thereby providing evidence of the global learning process of the industry. In addition, we find that a large number of fund families drive this evidence. Finally, we obtain that the family size and its dependence on financial groups do not seem to play significant roles in explaining the learning process. Therefore, we conclude that fund managers have incentives to learn from their important trading errors, in order to avoid them in future decisions, due to their serious negative consequences on fund performance, regardless of the characteristics of the families to which they belong.

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

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 recognize new opportunities. However, recovery ability does not support entrepreneurial self-efficacy or new opportunity recognition because the ability to recover may vary among the entrepreneurs, depending on many factors.

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

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 recognize new opportunities. However, recovery ability does not support entrepreneurial self-efficacy or new opportunity recognition because the ability to recover may vary among the entrepreneurs, depending on many factors.

Entrepreneurial education: an entrepreneurial ecosystem approach

How can an entrepreneurial education program simultaneously create entrepreneurial knowledge, skills and competencies, as well as new ventures and jobs? This is a particular challenge for universities that are keen to align with government policies and demonstrate impact. Our paper examines a novel approach to enterprise and entrepreneurship education that integrates training/learning with new venture creation by operating as an entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE). We outline a comprehensive EE framework and apply this model using an exploratory case study of an EE centred around an innovative academic unit called The Entrepreneurial Garden (TEG) at Burgundy School of Business in Dijon, France. TEG offers entrepreneurial education, research and new venture development as an integrated portfolio. This analysis shows how an academic unit can be developed as an EE building from local resources and expertise, aligning with macroeconomic policies and priorities, and leveraging partnerships to provide access to other entrepreneurial players, resources and networks.

Success or failure? Making sense of outcomes in a public sector change project

The most common method of assessing outcomes of change projects is to compare the final outcomes with predefined goals and conclude that the project has been a success, or more commonly, a failure. We question whether such simple conclusions pay due respect to complex processes. In this paper, we apply a sensemaking perspective to explore how and when outcomes of change projects are assessed. We report from a longitudinal case study of a project in the Norwegian public sector that was initiated to suggest and implement changes in response to major challenges in the health sector. We found outcome narratives in all project phases, including those not based on change objectives. The study contributes to the literature by suggesting that outcome narratives are continuously constructed throughout change projects and that competing outcome narratives can co-exist, be reinforced or be merged over time.

Developing entrepreneurial resilience: implications for human resource development

Purpose

Leadership development has attracted much research attention within the human resource development (HRD) community. However, little scholarly effort has been made to study a special group of leaders – entrepreneurs. This paper aims to fill in this knowledge gap by taking a close look at entrepreneurial resilience, a key ability of entrepreneurs to overcome challenges and adapt to uncertainties.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper conducted an extensive literature review using conceptual analysis as the primary method. Enablers and inhibitors affecting entrepreneurial resilience development were identified from the selected empirical studies.

Findings

From the analysis of empirical studies, a set of enablers and inhibitors was identified, and the effects on entrepreneur resilience were explored. Based on identified enablers and inhibitors, an integrative model of entrepreneurial resilience that serves as a building block for entrepreneurial resilience theory building was proposed.

Originality/value

Findings from this research and the newly proposed model will not only contribute to the much-needed entrepreneurial resilience theory building but also serve as a useful guide for human resource professionals and trainers in designing leadership development interventions.