If failed entrepreneurs willing to re-entrepreneurship? While their social networks are known to provide support to promote entrepreneurial re-entry, however, we argue they may also provide stable employment to inhibit the entrepreneurial re-entry, especially through ties to entrepreneurial family and friends. We further argue entrepreneurs with low opportunity identification capability are more likely to accept these roles permanently, while those with high capability may use them as a stepping stone back into entrepreneurship. Using data of recent failed entrepreneurs in 2019 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor from 48 countries, we find that failure improve re-entry prospects, and the number of entrepreneurial family and friends negatively moderates this relationship. However, the moderating effect will decrease with entrepreneurs’ opportunity identification capability. This underscores the need to integrate both social capital and opportunity recognition when predicting entrepreneurial re-entry, offering a more nuanced understanding of post-failure trajectories.
