Narrative attributions of entrepreneurial failure

We examine how organizational stakeholders use narratives in their psychological processing of venture failure. We identify a range of “narrative attributions”, alternative accounts of failure that actors draw on to process the failure and their role in it. Our analysis provides a view of entrepreneurial failure as a complex social construction, as entrepreneurs, hired executives, employees and the media construct failure in distinctively different ways. Narratives provide means for both cognitive and emotional processing of failure through grief recovery and self-justification.

► Key stakeholder of a venture make sense of business failure by the means of different narratives.
► Narrartives provide means for cognitive and emotional processing of failure through grief recovery and self-justification.
► Differences between narrative attributions show that business failure is a polyphonic social construction.