Once bitten, twice shy? The relationship between business failure experience and entrepreneurial collaboration

This paper draws on entrepreneurial failure and firm collaboration literature to conduct two studies on serial entrepreneurs in a developing economy. In Study 1, we used qualitative semistructured interviews to derive insights from 16 entrepreneurs with prior business failure experience. We observed that business failure experience incentivizes some serial entrepreneurs to collaborate with other entrepreneurs, and this phenomenon is shaped by religious orientation. In Study 2, we conducted a survey of 421 serial entrepreneurs to empirically test the effect of business failure experience and entrepreneurial collaboration. We also examined the moderating role of religious and family orientations on this relationship. The results from the survey revealed a positive relationship between entrepreneurs’ business failure experience and entrepreneurial collaboration. In addition, our results indicate that the positive impact of business failure experience on entrepreneurial collaboration is stronger among entrepreneurs leading non-family firms than family firms. Among firms led by non-religious oriented entrepreneurs, business failure experience was signficantly positively related to collaboration. Theoretical and practical implications are considered.