Seminar (Dept. of Organization and Human Resources)

Theme：When there is no shame, there is no honor: Can shame help entrepreneurs rebound from failure?

Speaker：Siran Zhan (School of Management and Governance, UNSW Business School)

Time：2021-12-15 14:00

Address：Zoom Meeting、Room 1008, Mingde Business Building

Language：Chinese/English

Venue: Room 1008, Mingde Business Building

Zoom Meetinghttps://zoom.us/j/81092385872?pwd=U0V5UGR2UjA2VGRFT1FLY2VVWVhUUT09 

Meeting ID：810 9238 5872

Password：327236

ABSTRACT：   

Entrepreneurship is an emotional journey because it is full of ups and downs. A growing body of research has also shown that emotions play an important role in influencing entrepreneurial motivation, decisions, and performance. Past research focused mainly on positive and negative affect and scholars are increasingly calling for new research that uses "discrete emotions to examine more nuanced relationships" in entrepreneurship. Answering this call, this study focuses on shame, an emotion that commonly follows from setbacks and failure prevalent in entrepreneurship. Although shame is widely believed to have devastating effects such as psychological suffering and corrosion of entrepreneurial motivation and performance, this research argues that shame associated with business failure can also induce a self-restorative motivation that drives entrepreneurs to boost self-image in serial entrepreneurial pursuit, particularly when the shame associated with business failure is perceived as reparable. A lab experiment and a field survey provide initial support for these hypotheses. Theoretical and practice implications are discussed.

SHORT BIOGRAPHY：

Siran Zhan is an assistant professor at the School of Management and Governance at UNSW Business School. She obtained her PhD from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. In her first line of research, Siran utilizes a behavioral lens to advance theories about the social (e.g., culture) and individual (e.g., identity, cognition, and emotions) determinants of creative and entrepreneurial performance. In her second line of research, Siran studies post-entrepreneurship work issues to uncover career implications of entrepreneurial experimentation for individuals and talent utilization implications for organizations. Siran's research has appeared in premier management, entrepreneurship, and psychology journals, and has been recognized with best paper awards at the Australian Centre for Entrepreneurship Research Exchange Conference. Siran currently serves on the editorial board of Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice and Management Organization Review.