The purpose of this paper is to provide a process view into moments of entrepreneurial crisis within the venture formation process caused by environmental stressors. A new construct is conceptualized, the entrepreneurial breaking point (EBP), as a critical and potentially insurmountable moment of crisis caused by an entrepreneur’s appraisal of environmental threats during a new venture’s formation.,To develop the EBP within a process model, this study builds upon previous environmental frameworks by expanding upon and infusing a situated social cognitive approach with a stress perspective.,The theoretical framework developed sheds light on the complex person-environment interaction that can create an EBP, the process of experiencing an EBP, how individuals vary in their activation of coping resources to respond to an EBP and how an EBP can ultimately result in new venture exit, sustained performance or growth.,The paper discusses implications for entrepreneurs during these moments of crises, including suggesting the use of trusted, impartial third-parties to overcome individual weaknesses, increasing awareness of the various environmental threats and finding a balance between goal-related commitment and adaptation.,This paper contributes to the existing literature by operationalizing and contextualizing a special case of socio-cognition under duress, filling an identified need for process work, exploring some reasons for EBP response variation across different entrepreneurs and elaborating on how the behavioral outcomes of an EBP may affect venture performance.

中文翻译：

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创业突破点：经历危机时刻

本文的目的是提供一个过程视图，以了解由环境压力导致的创业风险。一种新的构想被概念化，即企业家突破点（EBP），它是由企业家对新企业成立时对环境威胁的评估而造成的关键且潜在的无法克服的危机时刻。为了在过程模型中开发EBP，本研究建立了在以前的环境框架上，通过以压力视角扩展和注入一种处境的社会认知方法，该理论框架的发展揭示了可以创建EBP的复杂人与环境相互作用，体验EBP的过程，