Are Failures Blamed on Misfortune or Mistakes? Entrepreneurial Failure Attributions in US Newspapers

Failure is a fundamental component of entrepreneurship. This study examines cultural views of failure within the US through the lens of attribution theory. Specifically, we examine under what conditions failures are attributed to mistakes made by entrepreneurs themselves versus being attributed to misfortunes, of factors that adversely impacted the venture but were outside of the control of the entrepreneur. We collected all articles concerning business failures during 1999, 2000, and 2001 from four major US newspapers, and analyzed 497 accounts of business failure. Our data suggests that perhaps failure is not readily accepted universally, as anecdotal evidence would suggest. Instead, we see a change in failure attributions and acceptability across time and by the geographical area where the failures occurred