Fear not, want not: Untangling the effects of social cost of failure on high-growth entrepreneurship

Prior research on the effect that formal and informal institutions have on high-growth entrepreneurship has tended to propose policies aimed at either lowering the social cost of failure in society, or creating business-friendly entry environments aimed at increasing the rate of entrepreneurship. These policies have triggered a debate about whether policies that focus on stimulating high-growth entrepreneurship conflict with policy goals aimed at decreasing the social cost of failure in society. Using approach/avoidance as a lens, we examine the relationship between high social costs of failure and the odds of individuals engaging in growth-based entrepreneurship. Our unique dataset captures the entry decisions of 208,089 individuals in 29 OECD countries. We find that while countries with a higher social cost of failure experience lower total entrepreneurial activity, they have higher odds of entrepreneurs having high-growth aspirations and firms with export-led orientations.