Grief recovery from the loss of a family business: A multi- and meso-level theory

Entrepreneurial Cognition

“…We also detailed how employees often become attached to their projects and experience a negative emotional reaction-grief )-when their projects or businesses fail Shepherd , 2009). These entrepreneurs often feel grief because they have lost something important to them-something that satisfied their needs for competence, autonomy, and belonging ).…”

Conclusion

“…We also detailed how employees often become attached to their projects and experience a negative emotional reaction-grief (Shepherd 2003)-when their projects (Shepherd et al 2009a or businesses fail (Byrne and Shepherd 2015;Shepherd 2003Shepherd , 2009). These entrepreneurs often feel grief because they have lost something important to them-something that satisfied their needs for competence, autonomy, and belonging (Shepherd and Cardon 2009).…”

Researching Entrepreneurial Failures

“…However, it appears that these emotional obstacles to learning from failure can be reduced more quickly for some individuals (e.g., those with learned optimism [Cardon & McGrath, 1999] and self-compassion [Shepherd & Cardon, 2009]) and for those embedded within certain groups (e.g., the family [Shepherd, 2009]) and/or embedded in certain organizations (Shepherd, Covin, & Kuratko, 2009;. Previous studies provide a solid foundation for understanding how and why negative emotional reactions are triggered after failure upon which we can build to explore a number of important research topics.…”

“…Previous studies have used the term grief when referring to any of the negative emotions caused by the loss of a business (Byrne & Shepherd, 2015;Shepherd, , 2009 or project (Shepherd & Cardon, 2009;Shepherd, Covin et al, 2009, 2011, and current research has investigated how grief (used as an umbrella term) affects cognitive processes related to learning. However, research on emotions has shown that different forms of negative emotions have distinct sources as well as varying impacts on cognition (Bodenhausen, Sheppard, & Kramer, 1994;Keltner, Ellsworth, & Edwards, 1993).…”

“…When entrepreneurial team members and/or employees take part in collective sensemaking, which aids in learning and recovery, is the likelihood of attribution bias (i.e., developing more plausible stories) reduced, or do these kinds of biases extend to the team? The answers to these questions likely reflect attributes of the team, such as team members' emotional capabilities (see Shepherd, 2009) and/or the cognitive diversity within the group (Kilduff, Angelmar, & Mehra, 2000).…”