IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/bsu/wpaper/200402.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Learning from Failure

Author

Listed:
  • Philip R. P. Coelho

    (Department of Economics, Ball State University)

  • James E. McClure

    (Department of Economics, Ball State University)

Abstract

Failures may lead to ultimate success in both nature and business. Just as dynamic ecosystems depend on death to replace senescent organisms with vigorous growth, the termination of uneconomic activities is essential to wealth creation. This paper explores the benefits of failures, and uses aspects of the analogy between death and business failure to analyze how failures in business economize upon resources and lead to better firms and greater efficiencies. A distinguishing feature of our work is the analytic use of competitive markets to provide insights into the processes of success and failure. Recognizable patterns of business failures are discussed in an effort to provide entrepreneurs and mangers with a basis for understanding and acting upon changing circumstances.

Suggested Citation

  • Philip R. P. Coelho & James E. McClure, 2004. "Learning from Failure," Working Papers 200402, Ball State University, Department of Economics, revised Jan 2005.
    • Handle: RePEc:bsu:wpaper:200402
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://econfac.bsu.edu/research/workingpapers/bsuecwp200402coelho.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2004
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mata, Jose & Portugal, Pedro, 1994. "Life Duration of New Firms," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(3), pages 227-245, September.
    2. Baldwin, John R. & Gorecki, Paul K., 1990. "Firm Entry and Exit in the Canadian Manufacturing Sector," Queen's Economics Department Working Papers 273171, Queen's University - Department of Economics.
    3. Jovanovic, Boyan & MacDonald, Glenn M, 1994. "The Life Cycle of a Competitive Industry," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(2), pages 322-347, April.
    4. George G. Gordon & Nancy DiTomaso, 1992. "Predicting Corporate Performance From Organizational Culture," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(6), pages 783-798, November.
    5. Holmes, Thomas J & Schmitz, James A, Jr, 1995. "On the Turnover of Business Firms and Business Managers," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 103(5), pages 1005-1038, October.
    6. Robert Jacobsen, 1988. "The persistence of abnormal returns," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(5), pages 415-430, September.
    7. Armen A. Alchian, 1950. "Uncertainty, Evolution, and Economic Theory," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 58(3), pages 211-211.
    8. John R. Baldwin & Paul K. Gorecki, 1990. "Firm Entry and Exit in the Canadian Manufacturing Sector," Working Paper 767, Economics Department, Queen's University.
    9. Uma V. Sridharan & Lori Dickes & W. Royce Caines, 2002. "The Social Impact of Business Failure: Enron," American Journal of Business, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 17(2), pages 11-22.
    10. Jerker Denrell & James G. March, 2001. "Adaptation as Information Restriction: The Hot Stove Effect," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 12(5), pages 523-538, October.
    11. Baldwin, John R. & Gorecki, Paul K., 1990. "Firm Entry and Exit in the Canadian Manufacturing Sector," Queen's Economics Department Working Papers 273170, Queen's University - Department of Economics.
    12. George J. Stigler, 1951. "The Division of Labor is Limited by the Extent of the Market," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 59(3), pages 185-185.
    13. Jerker Denrell, 2003. "Vicarious Learning, Undersampling of Failure, and the Myths of Management," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 14(3), pages 227-243, June.
    14. Audretsch, David B, 1991. "New-Firm Survival and the Technological Regime," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 73(3), pages 441-450, August.
    15. Gort, Michael & Klepper, Steven, 1982. "Time Paths in the Diffusion of Product Innovations," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 92(367), pages 630-653, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. de Graaff, Bert & Huizenga, Sabrina & Bal, Roland, 2025. "‘It's about the connections we've made with each other’: resilience and risk translation in governing healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 380(C).
    2. Sandra Gottschalk & Bettina Müller, 2022. "Correction to: A second chance for failed entrepreneurs: a good idea?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 59(2), pages 769-771, August.
    3. Dawn R. DeTienne & Francesco Chirico, 2013. "Exit Strategies in Family Firms: How Socioemotional Wealth Drives the Threshold of Performance," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 37(6), pages 1297-1318, November.
    4. Jisha Gopi & Suresh Subramoniam, 2024. "Establishing the Relative Importance of Challenges in Early-stage Entrepreneurship using Analytical Hierarchy Process," Business Perspectives and Research, , vol. 12(4), pages 555-578, October.
    5. Gottschalk, Sandra & Greene, Francis J. & Höwer, Daniel & Müller, Bettina, 2014. "If you don't succeed, should you try again? The role of entrepreneurial experience in venture survival," ZEW Discussion Papers 14-009, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    6. Kuijper, Syb & Felder, Martijn & Clegg, Stewart & Bal, Roland & Wallenburg, Iris, 2024. "“We don't experiment with our patients!” An ethnographic account of the epistemic politics of (re)designing nursing work," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 340(C).
    7. Muhammad Furqan Ashraf & Babak Mahmood & Mudassar Mushtaq, 2019. "An Empirical Study of Impediments of Entrepreneurship Failure. A Case Study of District Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan. (Thematic Analysis)," Global Regional Review, Humanity Only, vol. 4(1), pages 343-350, March.
    8. Sabaa Sayed & Thouraya Gherissi Labben, 2024. "Failure in internationalization: motivation and self-efficacy after withdrawal from foreign markets," Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 1-25, December.
    9. Niël Almero Krüger & Natanya Meyer, 2021. "The Development of a Small and Medium-Sized Business Risk Management Intervention Tool," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-14, July.
    10. Hyo Sun Jung & Hye Hyun Yoon, 2017. "Error management culture and turnover intent among food and beverage employees in deluxe hotels: the mediating effect of job satisfaction," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 11(4), pages 785-802, December.
    11. Cope, Jason, 2011. "Entrepreneurial learning from failure: An interpretative phenomenological analysis," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 604-623.
    12. Nitin Pangarkar, 2009. "Do Firms Learn from Alliance Terminations? An Empirical Examination," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(6), pages 982-1004, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jerker Denrell, 2003. "Vicarious Learning, Undersampling of Failure, and the Myths of Management," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 14(3), pages 227-243, June.
    2. Yang, Qing Gong & Temple, Paul, 2012. "Reform and competitive selection in China: An analysis of firm exits," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 286-299.
    3. Mata, Jose & Portugal, Pedro & Guimaraes, Paulo, 1995. "The survival of new plants: Start-up conditions and post-entry evolution," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 459-481, December.
    4. José Miguel Benavente & Alexander Galetovic & Ricardo Sanhueza, 2005. "La dinámica industrial y el financiamiento de las pyme," Documentos de Trabajo 201, Centro de Economía Aplicada, Universidad de Chile.
    5. David Audretsch & Patrick Houweling & A. Thurik, 2000. "Firm Survival in the Netherlands," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 16(1), pages 1-11, February.
    6. Silviano Esteve-Pérez & Fabio Pieri & Diego Rodriguez, 2018. "Age and productivity as determinants of firm survival over the industry life cycle," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(2), pages 167-198, February.
    7. Allen N. Berger & Seth D. Bonime & Lawrence G. Goldberg & Lawrence J. White, 1999. "The dynamics of market entry: the effects of mergers and acquisitions on do novo entry and small business lending in the banking industry," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 1999-41, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    8. Das, Sanghamitra & Das, Satya P., 1997. "Dynamics of entry and exit of firms in the presence of entry adjustment costs," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 217-241, April.
    9. Roberts, Michael J. & Key, Nigel D., 2006. "Government Payments and Farmland Concentration," 2006 Annual meeting, July 23-26, Long Beach, CA 21097, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    10. Enrico Santarelli & Marco Vivarelli, 2007. "Entrepreneurship and the process of firms’ entry, survival and growth," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 16(3), pages 455-488, June.
    11. Silviano Esteve Pérez & Fabio Pieri & Diego Rodriguez, 2015. "Age and productivity as determinants of firm survival over the product life cycle," Working Papers 1502, Department of Applied Economics II, Universidad de Valencia.
    12. Raquel Ortega-Argilés & Rosina Moreno, 2005. "Firm Competitive Strategies And The Likelihood Of Survival - The Spanish Case," ERSA conference papers ersa05p347, European Regional Science Association.
    13. Gopinath, Gita, 2004. "Lending booms, sharp reversals and real exchange rate dynamics," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 1-23, January.
    14. Astrid Cullmann & Jens Schmidt-Ehmcke & Petra Zloczysti, 2012. "R&D efficiency and barriers to entry: a two stage semi-parametric DEA approach," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 64(1), pages 176-196, January.
    15. Mulligan, Robert F., 2004. "Fractal analysis of highly volatile markets: an application to technology equities," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 155-179, February.
    16. Guidi, Francesco & Solomon, Edna & Trushin, Eshref & Ugur, Mehmet, 2015. "Inverted-U relationship between innovation and survival: Evidence from firm-level UK data," EconStor Preprints 110896, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    17. Jaap H. Abbring & Jeffrey R. Campbell, 2003. "A Structural Empirical Model of Firm Growth, Learning, and Survival," NBER Working Papers 9712, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Russell, Bonita I. & Shapiro, Daniel & Vining, Aidan R., 2010. "The evolution of the Canadian mining industry: The role of regulatory punctuation," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 90-97, June.
    19. Key, Nigel D. & Roberts, Michael J., 2005. "Do Government Payments Influence Farm Business Survival?," 2005 Annual meeting, July 24-27, Providence, RI 19248, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bsu:wpaper:200402. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Tung Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/debsuus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.