{"id":3594,"date":"2025-07-08T15:58:55","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T15:58:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=3594"},"modified":"2025-07-08T15:58:55","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T15:58:55","slug":"dealing-with-a-failed-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/dealing-with-a-failed-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Dealing with a Failed Business"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher<\/a><\/p>\n

Most people\u2019s reaction to the failure of their own business going under is like grief after the loss of a loved one. For many entrepreneurs, the best way to cope with failure is switching between talking about it and reflecting on it, according to Academy of Management Scholar Dean Shepherd<\/a> of the University of Notre Dame.<\/p>\n

Shepherd said that for some people, the more they talk about it, the worse their emotional reaction to the painful event gets. But for others, talking about their business failing can be cathartic.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor some people, talking about failure helps them process it, but for others, dwelling on it causes the negative emotions to worsen, and that people actually need to have some periods where they can recharge their emotional batteries,\u201d Shepherd said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most recent research in that area said people actually have to oscillate between these two, a loss orientation, where you\u2019re focusing on it, and a restoration orientation, where you\u2019re deliberately ignoring it, not thinking about it, and start addressing secondary causes of stress, like selling the house, moving the kids from one school to another, these types of things,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe important part is oscillating between the two, which I thought this was the weirdest thing, but I wrote a paper that ended up getting accepted in the Academy of Management Review<\/em>, and then that set off quite a stream of related research.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shepherd then asked himself, \u201cWhat happens if the organization doesn\u2019t disappear, but the project that I\u2019m working on does?\u201d He worked on a paper with two coauthors about the negative emotional reactions that scientists working in Germany have when their projects fail.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose who are able to learn the most from the failure and those who were motivated to try again were the ones who were engaged in this oscillation process\u2014they used both loss orientation and also restoration orientation,\u201d Shepherd said. \u201cThey were able to learn the most and remain committed to the organization.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher Most people\u2019s reaction to the failure of their own business going under is like grief after the loss of a loved one. For many entrepreneurs, the best way to cope with failure is switching between talking about it and reflecting on it, according to Academy of Management Scholar Dean Shepherd of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3596,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,22,21,46],"tags":[],"sp_smart_badges":[],"ppma_author":[70],"class_list":["post-3594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-emotions","category-entrepreneurship","category-innovation","category-well-being"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDealing with a Failed Business - Academy of Management Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/dealing-with-a-failed-business\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Daniel Butcher\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/dealing-with-a-failed-business\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/dealing-with-a-failed-business\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Daniel Butcher\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d1297a59039d9ca7bac9d9f0952e508c\"},\"headline\":\"Dealing with a Failed Business\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-08T15:58:55+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/dealing-with-a-failed-business\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":342,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/dealing-with-a-failed-business\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/sad.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"EMOTIONS\",\"ENTREPRENEURSHIP\",\"INNOVATION\",\"WELL-BEING\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/dealing-with-a-failed-business\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/dealing-with-a-failed-business\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/dealing-with-a-failed-business\\\/\",\"name\":\"Dealing with a Failed Business - 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