Failure is an inevitable feature of innovation, and management research promulgates the importance of learning from it. Key to excelling at an innovation‐based strategy is understanding the processes that can turn failures into successes. However, post‐failure success remains elusive. Although failure signals that the innovation journey is off course, shifting trajectory is difficult, because it may require revising assumptions and reformulating the project’s problem representation. Using comparative case studies, this study set out to understand how problem representations are reformulated. Employing case method and comparing data versus theory iteratively, the important role of sensemaking and of leadership behaviors in driving post‐failure success became salient. Findings show that problem representations post‐failure require a process of problem formulation characterized by sensemaking and that innovative solutions are enabled by the reformulation of problem representations that spring from prospective sensemaking. Furthermore, this article identifies leadership change behavior as the linchpin driving a problem formulation process characterized by prospective sensemaking that catalyzes innovative solutions and explains why some projects thrive post‐failure and others do not. This article provides empirical support to the theoretical work of the literature on problem formulation, while extending the learning‐from‐failure literature by emphasizing and demonstrating the process driving post‐failure success. The major implication of our study is that different leadership behaviors may foster different types of sensemaking (retrospective or prospective), and that, in turn, the type of sensemaking matters for how a problem is reformulated. Ultimately, this article concludes that in the context of project failure, problem reformulation that springs from prospective sensemaking enables innovative solutions post‐failure.

中文翻译：

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失败后的成功：问题表达重构中的理性思考

失败是创新的必然特征，管理研究表明了从失败中学习的重要性。实施基于创新的策略的关键是了解可以将失败转化为成功的过程。但是，失败后的成功仍然难以捉摸。尽管失败表明创新之旅已步入正轨，但改变轨迹是困难的，因为它可能需要修改假设并重新制定项目的问题表示形式。使用比较案例研究，本研究着手了解如何重新构建问题表示形式。采用案例方法并将数据与理论进行迭代比较，在推动失败后成功的过程中，有意义的决策和领导行为的重要作用变得尤为突出。研究结果表明，故障后的问题表示需要一个以感官为特征的问题表达过程，而创新的解决方案是通过对源自前瞻性感官的问题表示的重新表述来实现的。此外，本文将领导者的更换行为确定为驱动问题制定过程的关键，该过程以前瞻性的理性思考为特征，该过程催化了创新的解决方案，并解释了为什么某些项目在失败后会蓬勃发展。本文为问题提出文献的理论工作提供了经验支持，同时通过强调和演示推动失败后成功的过程来扩展从失败中学习的文献。我们研究的主要含义是，不同的领导行为可能会促进不同类型的感官（回顾性或预期性）产生，反过来，感官的类型对问题的重新形成方式也很重要。最终，本文得出的结论是，在项目失败的情况下，从前瞻性的理性思考中产生的问题重新形成可以在故障后提供创新的解决方案。