Emotional Resilience and Meaning-Making Among Women Entrepreneurs After Business Failure
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Abstract
Entrepreneurship is widely recognized as a driver of innovation and economic growth, yet women entrepreneurs often face distinctive challenges shaped by social and cultural expectations. In this context, business failure represents not only an economic loss but also an emotionally charged experience that affects resilience and identity reconstruction. However, limited research has examined how women entrepreneurs interpret and emotionally process such failures, leaving a gap in understanding how they make sense of and recover from these experiences. This study addresses this gap by employing an interpretative phenomenological approach (IPA) to explore the lived experiences of twelve women entrepreneurs who encountered business failure. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed thematically using IPA. The findings reveal four interrelated themes: (1) the emotional weight of collapse, (2) social judgment and isolation, (3) transformative reflection, and (4) rebuilding ventures through an “emotional resilience cycle.” Participants described failure as a deeply personal crisis marked by shame, isolation, and stigma; however, through reflection and meaning-making, they reframed these experiences into sources of renewal and strength. These insights highlight that resilience is not a fixed trait but a dynamic process shaped by emotional interpretation and cultural context. The study contributes to theoretical understandings of entrepreneurial resilience by emphasizing its emotional and interpretative dimensions, and it offers practical implications for designing policies and programs that better support women entrepreneurs in recovering from business failure.
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