Preparing for a day that may never come: venturing in limbo
Author(s)
Fathallah, Ramzi
Williams, Trenton Alma
McMullen, Jeffery S
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The new venture creation process is a central phenomenon in entrepreneurship research. Typically, scholarship has sought to identify common, linear stages of development in this process in pursuit of a sustained, growing venture. In contrast to this theory, this study reveals dynamic, non-linear venturing processes that allowed for venture persistence despite failing to ‘progress’ toward traditional outcomes. We generate these insights from qualitative data on Syrian refugee entrepreneurs seeking to create and sustain ventures in Lebanon while living in a state of limbo – a precarious situation where the future is unknown and unknowable. We organize our findings in a model of venturing in limbo, which explains why and how entrepreneurs persist in venture creation practices despite experiencing repeated and significant setbacks that return them ‘to square one’. We reveal dynamic venture creation processes that allow for adaptive responses to erratic environmental shifts by producing entrepreneurial readiness, which consists of behavioural, cognitive, and psychological/emotional capabilities. Entrepreneurial readiness enables persistence of venturing efforts in the face of chronic precarity. Our study contributes to theory on new venture creation in entrepreneurship and organizational liminality.
Date Issued
2025-11-01
Date Acceptance
2024-08-01
Citation
Journal of Management Studies, 2025, 62 (7), pp.2622-2672
ISSN
0022-2380
Publisher
Wiley
Start Page
2622
End Page
2672
Journal / Book Title
Journal of Management Studies
Volume
62
Issue
7
Copyright Statement
© 2024 The Author(s). Journal of Management Studies published by Society for the Advancement of Management Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2024-08-11