A reconceptualization of fear of failure in entrepreneurship.

In recent years, entrepreneurship research has looked for those factors that inhibit entrepreneurial behaviour and that act as barriers to entrepreneurship. Within this stream of research, scholars have focused on the role of the fear of failure. Although entrepreneurship researchers have made progress in understanding fear of failure in entrepreneurship, they have investigated this construct from multiple different perspectives. These perspectives use definitions and measures of fear of failure that are potentially in conflict, limiting the power of existing findings on the relationship between fear of failure and entrepreneurship. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to more precisely delineate the nature of fear of failure in entrepreneurship. Specifically, we use a qualitative approach to examine this construct as a complex combination of cognition, affect and action. In so doing, we provide a unified perspective of fear of failure in entrepreneurship in order to facilitate the progress in understanding its impact on entrepreneurial action and outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]