The Role of Social Support in Overcoming Entrepreneurial Failure: Evidence from Moroccan Entrepreneurs

This paper focuses on analyzing how social support can be used to help entrepreneurs develop resilience after the failure of a business, and in this case, it is based on Moroccan entrepreneurs. It relies on a literature review in drawing the multidimensional psychological effects of failure and the possibility of social networks alleviating those effects. The aim is to theorize the processes by which various kinds of social support (emotional, instrumental, informational) can facilitate resilience and post-failure reconstruction in the context of the developing economy, such as Morocco. The qualitative narrative research design, as such, was used, meaning that nine Moroccan entrepreneurs, who had failed in their business, were interviewed in depth. The key results are that emotional support by family and friends can be used to redefine entrepreneurial identity and minimize self-blame; instrumental support can be used to re-strategic and re-mobilize resources; peer support can be used to normalize failure and lead to vicarious learning, which can help psychological recovery and renewed engagement by an entrepreneur. The contributions are triangular in nature, in theory, a fine-grained typology of post-failure support mechanisms in an emerging economy setting; in-depth, first-time qualitative analysis in Morocco; and policy-wise, advice on how to implement second-chance programs by the government and the business community to improve recovery of businesses.