Bibliometric Mapping of Entrepreneurial Failure: An Exploration of Three Key Dimensions

Abstract

Entrepreneurial failure is a field of research characterized by significant conceptual dispersion, making it difficult to identify its central determinants. Despite the abundance of research, the literature remains fragmented and rarely integrated into a unified analytical framework, particularly through bibliometric approaches. To better understand this phenomenon, our study aims to clarify this concept by employing an approach combining a structured theoretical review and bibliometric analysis based on keyword co-occurrences, author networks, and thematic groupings from the Scopus database. The results reveal a remarkable convergence around three major dimensions: the psychological, the economic, and the contextual. Through an in-depth exploration of the literature, the analysis shows that these three approaches are actually complementary but often treated in a fragmented manner. Based on this, the study proposes an integrated triangular model highlighting the dynamic interactions between these dimensions, in contrast to the work of Ucbasaran et al. (2013) and Khalil (2016), who address these dimensions separately. This model helps to unify, clarify, and synthesize scattered research and offers a coherent conceptual framework for analyzing entrepreneurial failure, particularly in contexts such as Moroccan SMEs. Finally, the article discusses the theoretical and practical implications of this model, while highlighting the methodological limitations related to the corpus and the exclusive use of bibliometric data.

Classification JEL : L26

Paper Type : Theoretical Research