Different Strokes for Different Folks: Entrepreneurial Narratives of Emotion, Cognition, and Making Sense of Business Failure

Orla Byrne, Dean A. Shepherd

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

215 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This multiple case study of eight entrepreneurial narratives of failed businesses examines how narratives that express different emotional states (folks) reflect different efforts to make sense of failure experiences (strokes). Our comparisons of the narratives' emotional content (describing emotional states at the time of business failure and presently) revealed some new insights. First, high negative emotions motivate making sense of a loss, while high positive emotions provide cognitive resources to facilitate and motivate making sense of the failure event. Second, emotion-focused coping helped deal with negative emotions. Finally, sensemaking was also facilitated by cognitive strategies that focused attention on the failure event and promoted self-reflection.
Original languageEnglish
Peer-reviewed scientific journalEntrepreneurship Theory and Practice
Volume39
Issue number2
Pages (from-to)375-405
Number of pages31
ISSN1042-2587
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2015
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article - refereed

Keywords

  • 512 Business and Management

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