Characteristics of entrepreneurs who restart the business after their venture failed: a comparison between restarters and non-restarters | |
| Author | Widiawan, Kriswanto |
| Call Number | AIT Diss no.SM-22-03 |
| Subject(s) | Entrepreneurship Business failures Business|xDecision making |
| Note | A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Management |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | The objective of this study is to explore the characteristics and context of resilient entrepreneurs who were able to restart business after their first venture had failed. Non-restarter entrepreneurs serve as the control group. I adopted the survey research method combined with face-to-face interviews. The two dimensions explored in both groups of entrepreneurs are the type of business failure and the entrepreneurs’ personal characteristics. My findings identify the business failure conditions and personality traits that clearly distinguish restarter entrepreneurs from the non-restarters. All entrepreneurs who decided to restart business after failure exhibited two critical abilities that helped to eventually overcome both material and psychological impacts from the failure. Likewise, all non-restarter entrepreneurs stated very similar reasons for their inability to re-start doing business. There is also a clear distinction of coping strategies adopted by these two groups. While restarters applied problem-focused coping strategies to address huge financial problems, none of the non-restarter entrepreneurs did have any specific strategy to cope with the, sometimes severe, psychological problems prevalently found in this group. Regarding the entrepreneur’s personal characteristics, the most influential entrepreneurial attitudes turned out to be perfectionism, creativity, innovativeness, preference of autonomy, and breakthrough thinking ability. Extraversion and Emotional stability were found as the personality trait that distinguished resilient restarter entrepreneurs from the non-restarter group. My contribution to theory is an integrated analysis of failure causes and impacts and coping strategies that previous research had investigated in isolation. While my findings shed new light on the interaction between type and impact of failure and coping strategy on the entrepreneur’s post-failure decision, some limitations related to the size and characteristics of my respondent sample suggest an agenda for further research. My recommendations for further research propose to study how differences in the socio-cultural contexts across different countries and regions would impact on an entrepreneur’s ability to cope with business failure. Implications for the practice of educators and policymakers are to rethink current approaches to entrepreneurship education and curriculum design by integrating systematically scenarios and simulations of business failure that train entrepreneurs how to cope with the multiple impacts created by such failures. |
| Year | 2022 |
| Type | Dissertation |
| School | School of Management (SOM) |
| Department | Other Field of Studies (No Department) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Doctor of Philosophy in Management (Publication code = SM) |
| Chairperson(s) | Igel, Barbara |
| Examination Committee(s) | Zimmermann, Willi;Badir, Yuosre F. M.;Hadikusumo, Bonaventura H. W. |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Petra Christian University, Indonesia |
| Degree | Thesis (Ph.D.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2022 |