La construction de la confiance : le cas de l’entrée en relation du banquier avec un entrepreneur ayant une subi une liquidation

Entrepreneurs who have gone into bankruptcy are generally victims of stigmatization. This hinders their ability to access financial resources for a new entrepreneurial project. In particular, the image of post-failure entrepreneurs is tarnished among banking partners. They are thus victims of discrimination. However, some of them manage to obtain financing from banks when they start a new business. The quality of the entering relationship with the loan officer is, in this respect, preponderant. In this article, we seek to understand under what conditions loan officers sometimes place their trust in a post-bankruptcy entrepreneur, despite a negative first impression of its funding application due to its previous failure. We use Mayer et al.'s (1995) model of the antecedents of interpersonal trust for this purpose. We also rely on a qualitative approach, based on semi-structured interviews with 27 bankers (stigmatizing actors) and entrepreneurs (stigmatized actors). The analysis of our empirical data, through the Gioia et al.'s (2013) methodology, allows us, first, to better understand the stigmatization of post-bankruptcy entrepreneurs (origin, manifestation, reinforcing or mitigating elements), as well as the mistrust they are spontaneously subjected to by the loan managers during the entering relationship. Our results then show that a process of de-stigmatization of post-bankruptcy entrepreneurs can nevertheless emerge during the discovery interview. As such, we highlight, in the form of a four-step decision tree, the banking engagement technology that allows the loan officers to overcome their initial prejudices and be reassured about the perceived integrity and capacity of the entrepreneur despite its past failure.