›› 2017, Vol. 29 ›› Issue (6): 96-105.

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Entrepreneurs'Failure Experience,Their Reaction to Failure and Learning from Failure

Wang Huafeng, Gao Jing, Wang Xiaoting   

  1. School of Economics and Management, Shaoxing University, Shaoxing 312000
  • Received:2015-05-15 Online:2017-06-28 Published:2017-06-23

Abstract:

This paper focuses on the influence of entrepreneurs' previous failure experience and their post-failure reaction to learning from failure.The research objects are those micro business owners who have experienced business failures.We have a total of 147 valid questionnaires.The empirical results show that different failure experience will lead to different degree of reaction to failure and learning from failure.Too much or too little failures are not good for learning from failure.Modest failure is the best condition for learning.The number of entrepreneurs' previous failure (s) will be positively associated with their internal attribution of failure.The extent of entrepreneurs' previous failure (s) will be negatively associated with their internal attribution of failure.The attribution of failure will affect the effectiveness of learning process.The relationship between them is moderated by the number of failures.Specifically,ventures by entrepreneurs who have experienced a small number of failures,will learn much more with higher levels of internal attribution;ventures by entrepreneurs who have experienced a large number of failures,will learn much less with higher levels of internal attribution.

Key words: failure experience, reaction to failure, learning from failure