Looking Back To Venture Forward: Exploring Idea and Identity Work in Public Failure Narratives. (March 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Saylors, Rohny; Lahiri, Amrita; Warnick, Benjamin; Baid, Chandresh
• Is Part Of: Entrepreneurship theory and practice. Volume 47:Number 2(2023)
• Page Start: 398
• Page End: 429
• Publication Date: 2023-03
• Subjects: failure -- serial entrepreneurship -- entrepreneurial exit -- identity work -- idea work; Small business -- Periodicals; New business enterprises -- Periodicals; Entrepreneurship -- Periodicals; 658.421
• DOI: 10.1177/10422587211057027
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1042-2587

Abstract

Business failure often leads entrepreneurs to craft public narratives. Taking a performative storytelling perspective of such narratives, we investigate how entrepreneurs jointly reevaluate their ideas and identities, and how this relates to their subsequent career paths. We theorize that the stories entrepreneurs tell shape who they become, changing not only how others see them but also how they see themselves. This broadens theoretical understanding of how failed entrepreneurs navigate their transition to a diverse array of subsequent careers, including different forms of serial entrepreneurship (same industry; new industry) and exit (startup employee; established business employee; exit with reentry).