When the River Runs Dry: Entrepreneurial Imprinting as a Source of Missed Exit Opportunities

Why is it that entrepreneurs miss entrepreneurial exit opportunities? Drawing on entrepreneurial imprinting and path dependency research, we develop theory to explain the dynamics of how venture characteristics formed early in venture development that are conducive for pursuing initial entrepreneurial opportunities (i.e., new product or service introductions) later become maladaptive as entrepreneurs pursue entrepreneurial exit opportunities. Our theoretical framework delineates the evolutionary process by which venture characteristics form through entrepreneurial imprinting across three levels of analysis (i.e., environment, individual, venture) and influence the ability of entrepreneurs to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities. We demonstrate our theory by providing three common examples of imprinted venture characteristics (i.e., frugality, disinhibition, perfectionism) that help entrepreneurs overcome barriers to entrepreneurial entry early on but can eventually shift to become barriers to entrepreneurial exit during later stages of entrepreneurship. In doing so, we highlight a conundrum entrepreneurs face in the entrepreneurial process in which the elements for success early on are markedly different than the elements necessary for success later. In this study, we contribute to growing streams of entrepreneurial exit and entrepreneurial imprinting research by providing theoretical insight concerning why certain entrepreneurs miss the exit ramp.