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Small Business Economics
Published in: Small Business Economics 3/2014

01-03-2014

Stigma and business failure: implications for entrepreneurs’ career choices

Authors: Sharon A. Simmons, Johan Wiklund, Jonathan Levie

Published in: Small Business Economics | Issue 3/2014

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Abstract

We use data from global entrepreneurship monitor to examine the act of entrepreneurial reentry by entrepreneurs who exit a failed business. We study reentry by mode of entry and by form of organizing. We find that, in countries where the levels of stigma and regulatory conveyance of stigma markings were at their highest, entrepreneurs who exited failed businesses were less likely to reenter into entrepreneurial activity. Our finding suggests that negative social and economic sanctions that are associated with stigma markings speak only to one side of the entrepreneurship phenomenon. On the other side, stigma can function as a stimulus for entrepreneurs to defy the illegitimacy of the failed business and to actively seek out and engage in innovative behaviors that contribute to the overall diversity of entrepreneurial activities in their country.
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Footnotes
1
Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, United Kingdom, and United States.
 
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Metadata
Title
Stigma and business failure: implications for entrepreneurs’ career choices
Authors
Sharon A. Simmons
Johan Wiklund
Jonathan Levie
Publication date
01-03-2014
Publisher
Springer US
Published in
Small Business Economics / Issue 3/2014
Print ISSN: 0921-898X
Electronic ISSN: 1573-0913
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-013-9519-3

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