Grief after firm failure: an appraisal framework

This paper provides a first systematic assessment of how entrepreneurs react to firm failure. We use appraisal theory as an overarching theoretical framework and hypothesize that the greater the failure experience is appraised as stressful the greater the feelings of grief . To test this hypothesis we developed a unique, hand collected, database of entrepreneurs who recently filed for firm bankruptcy. 310 telephone interviews were conducted (response rate 31%) directly followed by a mail questionnaire. After a threewave mailing (i.e. two reminders) 147 valid mail questionnaires were returned (response rate 14.7%). This paper constitutes an important step in advancing empirically valid theory of emotional responses to entrepreneurial failure.