In this study, we seek to provide new insights into the process of problemistic search by examining entrepreneurs’ behavioral responses to failures. Using a comprehensive dataset of over 65,000 crowdfunding projects, we specifically explore how negative performance feedback influences entrepreneurs’ search distance. Our results demonstrate that the severity and persistence of failure have a U-shaped and inverted U-shaped relationship with search distance, respectively. Moreover, greater temporal distance between an entrepreneur’s failure experience and a subsequent crowdfunding project is not only associated with increases in search distance, but also attenuates the curvilinear main effects.

在本研究中，我们试图通过研究企业家对失败的行为反应，为问题搜索过程提供新的见解。我们使用超过65,000个众筹项目的综合数据集，专门研究负面绩效反馈如何影响企业家的搜索距离。我们的结果表明，失效的严重程度和持续性分别与搜索距离呈U形和倒U形关系。此外，企业家的失败经历和随后的众筹项目之间更大的时间距离不仅与搜索距离的增加有关，而且减弱了曲线的主要影响。