Dr. K's Entrepreneurial Mind: Entrepreneurial Failure

Dean Shepherd and Donald Kuratko discuss Shepherd's research on entrepreneurial failure. Shepherd is the Randall L. Tobias Chair of Entrepreneurial Leadership, and Kuratko is the Jack M. Gill Chair of Entrepreneurship, both at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business. Shepherd's interest in entrepreneurial failure began when his father had to close the family business. While Shepherd taught his students to learn from their failures and try again, he saw that this was more difficult to do in real life. To better understand how entrepreneurs deal with failure, Shepherd turned to the existing research on grief, believing that business failure might produce a negative emotional reaction similar to losing a loved one.

Shepherd found the literature on grief to be divided. Working through grief can be effective, but may ultimately escalate emotions. Not thinking about grief can also be effective, but emotions may later resurface. Shepherd's method borrows from each side and involves an oscillation between loss orientation and restoration orientation. He encourages entrepreneurs to focus on secondary causes of grief. Shepherd also describes how the method can be used for corporate entrepreneurs dealing with project failure, and he discusses his research focusing on family businesses.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Donald Kuratko
• IU
• Kelley
• Indiana University
• School of Business
• entrepreneurship
• Business School Entrepreneur
• Dr. K
• Dean Shepherd
• leadership
• failure
• family business
• education
• academic
• grief
• research
• emotion
• corporate
• emotional intelligence
• personal development