This study investigates how failed entrepreneurial experiences can serve as valuable assets for incumbent firms navigating technological discontinuities. While prior research emphasizes the benefits of hiring successful entrepreneurs, we argue that failed entrepreneurs possess unique insights into market dynamics, technological transitions, making them valuable in dynamic environments. Drawing on organizational learning theory, we propose that individuals with failed entrepreneurial experiences contribute to innovation by leveraging their lessons from failure to enhance adaptive decision-making and technological change. Using a longitudinal dataset from the computer printer industry, spanning three distinct technological generations, we aim to empirically test how hiring failed entrepreneurs influences firms' innovation performance, and to shed light on how entrepreneurial failure can be reframed as a strategic resource for fostering resilience and innovation in rapidly evolving markets.
