Business Failure: A Bibliometric Co-Occurrence and Content Analysis

Considering the variety of approaches, levels of analysis, and focus points in business failure research, this bibliometric paper aims to build a knowledge map for business failure and entrepreneurial failure studies (published between 2016 and 2021) to identify related key concepts, and to develop a conceptual framework. In terms of methodology, we conduct a co-occurrence analysis on business failure and entrepreneurial failure. Then, using a content analysis of the key concepts identified in the co-occurrence analysis, we develop a conceptual framework of the studies. This research uses a mixed approach; after quantitative analysis of data (published research between 2016 and 2021 on WOS database) using co-occurrence analysis, qualitative content analysis of keywords derived from co-occurrence analysis is conducted. The findings show that the word "business failure" has the most occurrences with the words "performance", "strategy", "innovation", "failure", "growth", and "behavior". In addition, the word "entrepreneurial failure" has the most occurrences with the words "decision making", "self-efficacy", "perspective", "learning from failure", "persistence", and "self". Based on the results of the content analysis, the studies are divided into 6 general categories: typologies of business failure, post-failure processes, bankruptcy prediction models and financial ratios, determinants of business survival and growth, individual factors affecting the entrepreneurial failure, and environmental and institutional factors affecting business failure. Finally, practical implications and future research are discussed.