Prospecting, balancing and reversing: entrepreneurial learning from positive and negative events

This study investigates the entrepreneurial learning process by focusing on entrepreneurs' valence assessment and connecting it to subsequent emotional and behavioral reactions that culminate in new knowledge. Current studies are nebulous in representing how everyday events, different from failure, might generate learning, from its criticality recognition to reactions' trajectories enacting learning. Our work addresses this gap by exploring the experiences of 38 entrepreneurs through in-depth interviews. By unfolding micro-dynamics that relate critical events to the learning process, integrating events valence, and elucidating its affective influence on entrepreneurial learning, this study brings new insights for an event-based theory of entrepreneurial learning.