LAUSR

How does the age of serial entrepreneurs influence re-venture speed after a business failure? The prevailing notion is that the older the entrepreneur, the lower the likelihood of starting a re-venture. However, in real-world practice, many older entrepreneurs start to re-venture quickly after a business failure, and this phenomenon still cannot be explained by present research on the subject. This study takes the age of serial entrepreneurs, the failure loss and family support as the antecedent variables that affect re-venture speed. The direct impact of an entrepreneur’s age is also moderated by failure loss and family support. A total of 268 serial entrepreneurs with business failure experience located in the Bohai Economic Rim of China were included in the study. The results showed that the older the serial entrepreneur, the longer the time taken to start a venture again. Additionally, the larger the failure loss, the slower the re-venture speed. Finally, the relationship between a serial entrepreneur’s age and re-venture speed strengthens when the failure loss is large and weakens when family support is strong.