Research Handbook of Entrepreneurial Exit

Citation

Fernando G. Alberti (2016), "Research Handbook of Entrepreneurial Exit", Competitiveness Review, Vol. 26 No. 1, pp. 108-110. https://doi.org/10.1108/CR-05-2015-0032

Entrepreneurial exit is an important phenomenon that affects not only the entrepreneur and the firm but also the industry and, in some cases, even the regional economy and its competitiveness. It can be defined as the transfer of control over an entrepreneurial firm to one or several individuals or an organization or alternatively the liquidation of the firm. Entrepreneurial exit is a fact all over the world both in start-ups, who suffer from the “liability of newness”, as well as in mature businesses. It crosses industries, technological regimes, types of ownership and regional contexts.

Contrary to the prevailing entrepreneurship research that suggests that the entrepreneurial process is complete when the new venture is created, “a central part of the new venture value creation efforts hinges on the ability to harvest that value at some point(s) in the future” (Holmberg, 1991, p. 203).

Entrepreneurial exit has only recently received scholarly attention (DeTienne, 2010; Wennberg et al., 2010; DeTienne and Cardon, 2012), and both scholars and educators recognized that exit is an important part of the entrepreneurial process. Entrepreneurial exit has been investigated in the past decade in various research settings and contexts (high-tech vs low-tech industries, entrepreneurial vs routinized technology regimes, different industry life cycle phases, old firms vs new firms, independent vs branch firms, family businesses, etc.), along the entrepreneurial process (from firm infancy – conception and gestation – to growth and maturity), at several levels of analysis (the entrepreneur/founder, the firm, the industry/cluster, the regional context). Nevertheless, despite relevant advances in the field of entrepreneurial exit, still there is room for major conceptual and empirical advances (Alberti, 2013) that call for this Handbook.

Thus, as a counterweight to the voluminous research on entry and growth, this book on entrepreneurial exit is timely and valuable. The book offers intriguing answers and viewpoints to key questions in the field of entrepreneurship and competitiveness. Can we really gain a deep understanding of entrepreneurship without also considering exit? Is exit a sign of failure and continuation a synonymous of success?

As reported by Davidsson and Wiklund (2001) in entrepreneurship research, there has been some confusion whether research on exit deals with the exit of the entrepreneur or the exit of the firm they operate, even if often – but not always – firms and entrepreneurs exit simultaneously, that is, when entrepreneurs liquidate their firms. The main reason for lack of systematic research progress in the field, which – as already stated by Gimeno et al. (1997) – is that exit has remained an underspecified variable or – better – that “exit” is too broad a concept.

In this book, two of the leading researchers in the field of entrepreneurial exit bring together a group of scholars addressing the topic from a variety of perspectives. Professors DeTienne and Wennberg have been instrumental in developing our collective knowledge on entrepreneurial exit; they have been researching that field for years and promoted The State of the Field Entrepreneurial Exit Conference in 2013. That conference, held at the Ration Institute in Stockholm (Sweden) and sponsored by the Marcus Wallenberg Foundation for International Scientific Collaboration, was the seedbed of the present book. The editors, who organized the conference, registered a record number of submissions from Australia, Canada, India, Scotland, Ireland, Sweden, The Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, France, England, Iran and the USA, even from leading scholars in the field of entrepreneurship. This valuable material on the topic allowed them to promote both the publication of this handbook and of a Special Issue of International Small Business Journal on the topic of entrepreneurial exit.

Even though it has received little research attention, previous exit research has assumed a multi-faceted nature, because of the differences in levels/units of analysis, theoretical perspectives, contexts and choice of dependent and independent variables – all accounted for in this Handbook. The book combines historical perspectives with more contemporary thinking and current issues on the topic of entrepreneurial exit. It provides a theoretical and a methodological framework for investigating the topic or by way of introduction. Contributions come from leading authors in the field of entrepreneurship at large and, more specifically, in the sub-field of entrepreneurial exit.

The book examines the following topics through several perspectives, multiple levels of analysis and methodological approaches from event history analysis to surveys and case studies: the gender perspective, retirement intentions, psychological barriers, emotional aspects, venture capital funding view, firm regional relocation implications, social ventures drawbacks and the role of exit in the entire entrepreneurial process.

The approach of this volume is within an entrepreneurship research framework but written very accessibly and with sufficient clarity to attract readers, neither scholars nor academics, with an interest in the exit phenomenon. This is a critical read for scholars new to the research area, as well as for researchers and habitual entrepreneurs interested in the specific phenomenon of exit. Data and case studies reported in the book may shed new light on the phenomenon both for practitioners and educators who focus on “why” and “how” entrepreneurs exit their ventures.

In conclusion, the book offers newest thoughts and research evidence on the topic of entrepreneurial exit, and opens up to many new and wonderful insights on the topic. It provides a rich, multi-faceted and comprehensive understanding of the important phenomenon of entrepreneurial exit.

This book encouraged me to further consider not only the entrepreneurial entry but also the exit, which represents the most understudied part of the entire entrepreneurial journey.

About the reviewer

Professor Fernando G. Alberti, Institute for Entrepreneurship and Competitiveness – LIUC, 22 corso Matteotti – 21053 Castellanza (Italy), ph. +390331572201.