This paper adopts a systematic literature review method to analyze the existing studies on entrepreneurial reentry after failure, and proposes future research directions in these fields by identifying and connecting potentially relevant theoretical lens. It first conducts a systematic literature search and selection to obtain 34 relevant articles (21 in English and 13 in Chinese). Then, their full texts are read in detail to manually perform the primary and focused coding for the conceptualization, antecedents, outcomes, and boundary conditions of the behavioral strategies of entrepreneurial reentry after failure. In the controversial part, a consensus coding result is reached through repeated discussion and modification, and finally an integrated conceptual framework for the behavioral strategies of entrepreneurial reentry after failure is extracted.

The coding result shows that: (1) The behavioral change is the main conceptualization of the behavioral strategies of entrepreneurial reentry after failure, which can be further divided into three types according to different theoretical perspectives, namely, metamorphosis, contingency, and risk-taking. (2) Existing studies have explored the three general categories of antecedents: failure experience (including the number and costs of failure), entrepreneurial characteristics (including personality traits, emotional and cognitive responses, and entrepreneurial learning), and entrepreneurial environment (including the completeness of business system and the stigma of failure). (3) Discussions on outcomes focus on the survival, financial performance, growth and innovation of entrepreneurial reentry after failure. (4) The boundary conditions involve the two factors of entrepreneurs/individuals (including personality traits and entrepreneurial endowment) and entrepreneurial environment (including social support and environmental turbulence).

Several directions for future research are put forward: First, beyond the traditional theoretical lens of experiential learning, future research may consider other relevant theoretical perspectives (e.g., commitment escalation and impression management theory). Second, future research may shed light on whether and how entrepreneurs actively (rather than passively) take the initiative to deal with the stigma of failure to successfully carry out subsequent entrepreneurial activities. Third, future research may follow the event system theory to further explore the impact of other attributes of entrepreneurial failure events, such as the causes of failure, the duration of failed venture, firm size, team characteristics, etc. Fourth, more attention can be paid to performance outcomes, especially potential boundary conditions (e.g., situational similarity and re-entrepreneurship time interval). Fifth, future research may conduct more longitudinal methods (rather than horizontal comparison) to provide more convincing evidence and more fully explanations of the behavioral strategies of entrepreneurial reentry after failure.