Contribution à la compréhension de l'échec des nouvelles entreprises : exploration qualitative des multiples dimensions du phénomène

Although business failure has been widely studied by researchers in finance and accounting from the financial failure of established firm?s perspective, less attention has been given to new venture failure. To reach a better understanding of this phenomenon which is multidimensional and complex, this paper proposes to reconstruct, in conjunction with an integrative theoretical framework, an operational analysis model. As such, we carry out a strategy of three stages. First, we pursue a preliminary exploration that aims to bring out a global representation of entrepreneurial failure from unstructured interviews conducted with three categories of stakeholders who are the researchers, ?privileged witnesses? and the failed entrepreneurs. Second, we conduct more directive interviews with sixteen entrepreneurs known to be failing by ?privileged witnesses? to identify the essential dimensions of the phenomenon. Finally, we addressed a qualitative exploration by a study of seven cognitive maps of failed entrepreneurs to identify the relation between dimensions of entrepreneurial failure. Our results indicate that entrepreneurial failure is not the exclusive consequence of the absence or presence of success or failure factors, but the immediate result of the interaction of six key dimensions that this research aims to explore, describe and classify.