Resilience and entrepreneurship: A dynamic and biographical approach to the entrepreneurial act

  • Marie-Josée Bernard EM Lyon Business School
  • Saulo Dubard Barbosa EM Lyon Business School

Abstract

Resilience in the literature of Entrepreneurship is largely presented as a personality trait of the entrepreneur. Our approach is to study it as a process and to explore in detail the role that a resilience dynamic can play in the decision to become an entrepreneur. We recorded the life stories of three resilient entrepreneurs and analysed in detail their experiences, which include a total of 206 critical events. From this analysis, we have drawn up a model based on trauma theory as a trigger of the resilience process, highlighting the key elements that feed this process. We note that several of these elements are precursors to the entrepreneurial initiative: resilience mentors offer the emotional support necessary to enable the individual to build a social network; commitment to action enables experiences and interactions that are a source of learning; interim victories and self-esteem work bring the legitimacy and self-confidence that are indispensable to becoming an entrepreneur later on. Finally, the search for meaning and coherence highlights the gaps between the personal values of the individual and the managerial practices of the employer organisation, thereby contributing to encouraging the individual towards entrepreneurship and shaping his or her business start-up project. Thus our study demonstrates that the resilience dynamic can play a multidimensional role at the interface of causal factors leading to entrepreneurship.

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Published
2016-06-01
How to Cite
Bernard M.-J., & Dubard Barbosa S. (2016). Resilience and entrepreneurship: A dynamic and biographical approach to the entrepreneurial act. M@n@gement, 19(2), 89-123. Retrieved from https://management-aims.com/index.php/mgmt/article/view/3894
Section
Original Research Articles