Searching for Success: Entrepreneurs’ Responses to Crowdfunding Failure

Erk Peter Piening, Ferdinand Thies*, Michael Wessel, Alexander Benlian

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Abstract

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. 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.
Original languageEnglish
JournalEntrepreneurship: Theory and Practice
Volume45
Issue number3
Pages (from-to)626-657
Number of pages32
ISSN1042-2587
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2021

Bibliographical note

Published online: 24 December 2020

Keywords

  • Failure
  • Problemistic search
  • Search distance
  • Entrepreneurs
  • Crowdfunding

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