A Theoretical Framework for Entrepreneurial Resilience in the Context of Entrepreneurial Failure

As a protective mechanism for individuals to cope with difficulties, resilience is formed through constant dynamic interaction with the outside world, which is the result of interaction between individuals and situations. This paper focuses on three questions: What does entrepreneurial resilience mean? How do the different characteristics of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial failure affect entrepreneurial resilience? What are the cognitive and behavioral consequences of entrepreneurial resilience? So, we first review the research on resilience research in psychology and entrepreneurship. Considering the definitions from psychological research and the unique characteristics of entrepreneurial situations, we define entrepreneurial resilience as the ability of entrepreneurs to achieve good adaptation, successful response and even self-transcendence, and become stronger through self-regulation and outside help in the face of adverse entrepreneurial situations such as stress and failure. At the same time, we clarify the three dimensions of entrepreneurial resilience: adaptation, coping and transcendence. In terms of the characteristics of entrepreneurs, we mainly focus on how self-efficacy, optimism and entrepreneurial failure experience influence entrepreneurial resilience. The effects of situational factors on entrepreneurial resilience are investigated from social support after failure and economic costs brought by failure. In the following sections, we explore how resilience influences the fear of failure, learning from failure and intention to restart. In this regard, entrepreneurial resilience is an important psychological protection mechanism to alleviate external pressure, danger, obstacles and other negative factors. And through the cognitive regulation and emotional recovery of information reception, transformation and processing of failed events after failure, entrepreneurial resilience can not only reduce the fear of failure, but also stimulate entrepreneurs to show strong learning tendency and initiative, and excite target motivation and entrepreneurial intention. Based on the broad review of extant research, this paper tries to construct a theoretical framework and propose future research directions. Future research on entrepreneurial resilience can investigate the heterogeneity of individuals’ characteristics, regions and even specific events of the research objects. In addition, it is also necessary to further consider the diversification of research methods on entrepreneurial resilience and deeply explore the influence of interaction among various factors on entrepreneurial resilience. This paper constructs a research framework of entrepreneurial resilience in the context of failure, and enriches the understanding of entrepreneurs’ cognitive, emotional and behavioral differences after failure, which has important implications for entrepreneurs to strengthen psychological construction and achieve better performance in subsequent endeavor.