Spirituality and entrepreneurial failure

Abstract

The paper examines how spirituality, an inner awareness especially of a greater force or power beyond the individual self, affected entrepreneurs’ experience of an important but under-researched part of the entrepreneurial process – venture failure. We implement a qualitative, narrative research design and present a collective narrative of nine entrepreneurs whose spirituality played a role in experiencing venture failure. Unexpectedly, findings revealed entrepreneurs engaging deeply with failure instead of indulging in the self-deception and denial suggested by research that applies psychological theories to venture failure. Furthermore, findings provided a rare, positive outcome from failure – entrepreneurs’ spirituality deepened through experiencing this negative life event. Finally, results indicate how spirituality influenced entrepreneurs’ decisions about founding future ventures after failure.

Keywords:

• spirituality
• entrepreneurial failure
• positive failure outcomes
• spiritual transformation for entrepreneurs
• narrative
• qualitative research