When Failure is not the End: Entrepreneurial Restart within Kazakhstan’s Technology Landscape

  • Ghosh, Anjan (PI)
  • Rakshit, Atanu (Co-PI)
  • Babalola, Mayowa (Co-PI)

Project: FDCRGP

Project Details

Grant Program

Faculty Development Competitive Research Grants Program 2022-2024

Project Description

This project will investigate the factors that enable entrepreneurs within Kazakhstan’s nascent technology landscape to restart or reenter the venturing process after experiencing failure. Since the 2017 launch of “Digital Kazakhstan,” a government initiative to catalyze the development of digital technology, several technology incubators and accelerators have sprung up around the country; they form the seeds within Kazakhstan’s incipient innovation landscape that are supposed to attract entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and business angels interested in deepening and benefiting from technology-led business ideas.

Despite the support of the Kazakh government, technology entrepreneurship remains a highly uncertain affair. New technology ventures often fail, bringing financial ruin, psychological trauma and social stigma on the venture founders. It is unlikely that generous state support will eliminate the pain and costs associated with failure. The continued vibrancy of technology clusters, such as Silicon Valley (U.S.), depends in large part not on venture failure per se, but on whether and how entrepreneurs restart venturing after their start-ups fail. It is thus important to understand what enables founders in Kazakhstan to restart new ventures after experiencing failure.

The goal of our project is to assess the role of social networks in the decision of Kazakh technology entrepreneurs to restart after failure. We focus on six prominent technology incubators and accelerators across Kazakhstan. We will employ surveys, structured interviews and participant to assess the efficacy of serial entrepreneurs’ social networks in their restart decision. Our study will advance scientific understanding of the role of social networks in entrepreneurs’ restart decisions as well as generate recommendations for policy makers in Kazakhstan that will broaden the scope of support available to technology entrepreneurs.
Short titleWhen Failure is not the End
StatusActive
Effective start/end date1/1/2212/31/24

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