Research On The Influence Mechanism Of Counterfactual Thinking On Entrepreneurial Opportunity Recognition In The Context Of Entrepreneurial Failure

Innovation and entrepreneurship,key to the promotion of replacing old growth drivers with new ones and stable economic growth,provides strong backing for improving the living conditions of the people and realizing vertical social mobility.However,faced with the complicated and variable political,economic and technological factors,a large number of companies suffer a lot,which,unfortunately,leads to high entrepreneurship failure rate.Although such failure can cause great loss,it is valuable to reflect and learn from the previous experience through which inspiration can be found.With such lesson born in mind,the loser can avoid the same mistakes and achieve success later.Therefore,it is significant that entrepreneurs should get rid of the bad mood caused by the failure and catch another opportunity.Based on what have been discussed above,this paper,paying attention to the opportunity recognition in the context of entrepreneurial failure from the perspective of counterfactual thinking,tries to solve the following question: firstly,how can counterfactual thinking exert influence upon entrepreneurial opportunity recognition;Secondly,is there any mediation between the two;Thirdly,does there exist any medium in the process of the former influencing the latter.This paper,after reviewing articles about the cognitive theory of entrepreneurship,counterfactual thinking patterns,entrepreneurial orientation,entrepreneurial opportunity recognition,and entrepreneurial resilience,establishes the counterfactual thinking influencing entrepreneurial opportunity recognition model under the background of entrepreneurial failure to figure out the interaction between the factors.In order to verify the mechanism of the above research model,questionnaire is used in this study and 224 effective results are collected.It is found that firstly,upward counterfactual thinking has a positive impact upon entrepreneurial opportunity recognition while the downward counterfactual thinking has a negative impact.Secondly,entrepreneurial orientation and its sub-factor(creativity,proactivity,risk-taking)act as a mediator between upward counterfactual thinking,downward counterfactual thinking and entrepreneurial opportunity recognition.Thirdly,entrepreneurial resilience mediates positively between upward counterfactual thinking and entrepreneurial opportunity recognition while it mediates negatively between the downward counterfactual thinking and entrepreneurial opportunity recognition.This study was devoted to the entrepreneurial activity research from the cognitive perspective.In theory,firstly,by introducing the frontier concept of counterfactual thinking,this study intended to investigate its influence on entrepreneurial opportunity recognition in failure contexts,enriching entrepreneurial failure research.Secondly,this paper innovatively conducted an empirical study on the relationship between different types of counterfactual thinking and entrepreneurial opportunity recognition.It would help us to better understand the concept,composition and process of counterfactual thinking and reveal what kind of counterfactual thinking can help entrepreneurs identify opportunities.It is an extension and deepening of the existing counterfactual thinking research.Thirdly,the study empirically demonstrated how counterfactual thinking influenced entrepreneurial opportunity recognition internally and how contingent factors played a role,and deepened the study of the formation mechanism of the differences in the failed entrepreneurs’ opportunity recognition under the perspective of counterfactual thinking.In practice,although failing,entrepreneurs should face up to failure,learn to use upward counterfactual thinking to clarify the development of events,improve their ability to collect information related to opportunity identification,and develop more innovative solutions to problems.At the same time,companies should always make entrepreneurial orientation their strategic choice,emphasize innovation,be proactive,and improve their risk-taking capabilities.Finally,entrepreneurs must learn to cope with stress and failure,and resist the big waves with a strong will.Only by doing so can they get out of trouble.