Narrow Results

The purpose of this research is to understand: (1) the main themes that appear to contribute to entrepreneurial success, (2) the various combinations of antecedents that can lead to entrepreneurial success, and; (3) the role that travel plays in entrepreneurial success. We first use a qualitative methodology to assess the themes that emerge in our conversations with 14 highly-successful Canadian entrepreneurs. The main categories that emerged from our interviews that contribute to entrepreneurial success involve: learning, travel, adversity quotient, and mentorship. From these results, we conduct a qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) and find that the input variables that were most important to entrepreneurial success were: learning, experiencing failure, learning from mentors, and adversity quotient. The contributions to knowledge of this research are twofold. First, we show that travel is an important construct to entrepreneurial success, which is significant as travel has largely been omitted from the entrepreneurship literature. Second, we show that entrepreneurial success is dependent on a complex combination of variables of varying levels of importance.

Failure among SMEs has been attributed to size, age, location and being part of particular industries and not part of a network. These determinants, if used as surrogates for resources, suggest firms that lack such resources are more susceptible to failure. Using the resource-based view of the firm, this paper aims to do a post-mortem examination on the attributes of failed SMEs by analyzing data of more than 13,000 failed firms in the UK between 1999 and 2009. The findings reveal that failure is not merely a function of lack of resources. Although these findings shed new light on attributes of failed SMEs, there are still some limitations to the work that must be taken into consideration when applying the results.

This paper, using a flexible and more robust analytical tool, neural networks models, analyzes the most important factors in determining business failure among small, high-technology firms. Using the resource-based view and organizational ecology as the theoretical lenses through which to view the problem, the paper modeled a number of variables that stood as proxies for resources. The results suggest profit, in the form of retained earnings, is the most significant factor that determines failure among these firms. Other factors of importance are governance structure, location and firm size. Importantly, the issue of governance structure as a resource has received very little attention in existing works on business failure, and as such, this paper makes a contribution to the literature by adding governance as an important resource.

New entrepreneurs often face failures that can erode confidence and self-efficacy, thereby obstructing progress. This study considers the effects of failure on entrepreneurial self-efficacy and proposes a model based on entrepreneurial learning of how passion and resilience may mitigate these effects. Using data from 423 entrepreneurs (both successful and unsuccessful) in North America, it tests a model via structural equation modeling, in which entrepreneurial self-efficacy is directly affected by failure, and indirectly affected by passion and resilience. The results indicate the negative direct effects of failure on entrepreneurial self-efficacy may be offset by strongly positive effects of entrepreneurial passion and by resilience. This appears to be the first empirical study to test directly the moderating effects of entrepreneurial passion and resilience on the relationship between failure and entrepreneurial self-efficacy. In the presence of sufficient passion and resilience, failure may be viewed as a positive influence on self-efficacy. The results suggest that entrepreneurial failure may act as a precursor to entrepreneurial passion. They also suggest that the practical, negative effects of setbacks can be mitigated, or even reversed, by focusing on developing entrepreneurial passion and resilience in new entrepreneurs.

My story is one where I thrust myself into an entrepreneurial endeavor at one of the world’s largest innovation hubs, achieving some successes, but ultimately falling short of the mission I set out to complete. Through an application of autoethnographic research, I propose the concept of coherence as a practical way to align entrepreneurial storytelling and management techniques as both are critical to successful venturing and key ingredients for an ensemble may be required to sustain the exploitation of an opportunity.

Storytelling in leadership research is usually approached positively and seen as a non-problematic resource or even a “tool” for leadership purposes. However, using stories and narratives involves challenges for leaders. Storytelling may result in intended outcomes, but it also carries a risk for undesirable leadership consequences. In the storytelling approach, there is a hidden assumption that listeners are homogeneous and that they are not critical or active. Empirical studies rarely approach failed storytelling experienced by leaders: the feelings of failure, reasons, and consequences. In this chapter, we focus on the risky nature of leadership storytelling as well as the element of learning to be a better leader inherent in it. Based on empirical qualitative data, we apply thematic and content analysis on interviews from 13 leaders. Based on the findings, we present the following five special dimensions/themes of failure, illustrating the risks involved in leadership storytelling: (a) diversity of the audience, (b) situation/context, (c) loss of authority, (d) storytelling skills, and (e) audience misinterpretation. We interpret the findings in the context of the leaders’ personal experiences, their meaning for the leaders’ self-reflection, and the leaders’ leadership learning for the future. Moreover, we discuss these dimensions from the perspective of diversity and the hidden assumption in the storytelling approach that the listeners are a homogeneous group.