Rückschläge richtig wegstecken: Eine moderate Anpassung der Strategie erhöht die Erfolgsaussichten

In this study, we seek to provide new insights into the process of problemistic search by examining entrepreneurs’ behavioral responses to failures. Using a comprehensive dataset of over 65,000 crowdfunding projects, we specifically explore how negative performance feedback influences entrepreneurs’ search distance, meaning their change in strategy. Our results demonstrate that the severity and persistence of failure have a u-shaped and inverted u-shaped relationship with search distance, respectively. Moreover, greater temporal distance between an entrepreneur’s failure experience and a subsequent crowdfunding project is not only associated with increases in search distance, but also attenuates the curvilinear main effects. The observed inverted u-shaped relationship between search distance and crowdfunding project performance suggests that decision makers should not fall into the trap of over-searching to correct failures, but rather follow a moderate adjustment strategy.