Paper co-authored with Nils Koester and Erik Schäfer presented at the Academy of Management Annual Meeting, 
Session "Strategizing in Start­ups and Incumbent Firms", 
August 9, 2016, Anaheim, USA.

1. Communicating Corporate Afterlife
Leonhard Dobusch
University of Innsbruck
Academy of Management Annual Meeting,
Session "Strategizing in Startups and Incumbent Firms"
August 9, 2016, Anaheim, USA
Post-Mortem Statements of Failed Startups
1
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Semesterarbeit!
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Nils Koester
Freie Universität Berlin
Erik Schäfer
Freie Universität Berlin

2. <1>
Entrepreneurial Failure
2

3. 3

4. 4
Source: http://kingscross.impacthub.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/03/fuckupnights-1140x407.png

5. 5Source: http://www.fuckupnight.spurprojects.org/images/fuckup04.png

6. How do founders openly communicate
the failure of their business venture?
6

7. <2>
Strategic Failure Communication
7

8. 8

9. 9
as of 2015:
114 entries
- unaccessible,
journalist articles"
65 final sample

10. 10

11. 11
of 65 post-mortem statemtents:
42% on personal blogs"
32% on Medium
15% in online magazines"
8% on company's website

12. <3>
Communicative Afterlife of an Organization?
12

13. IdentityActorhood
Decisions
Communicative
Constitution of
Organization

14. IdentityActorhood
Decisions
Communicative
Constitution of
Organization

15. 15

16. 16
post-hoc rationalizations of
why the venture failed“ (Zacharakis et al.
1999, p. 2)

17. <4>
Sub-Genres of Post-mortem Statements
17

18. 18
Lessons Learned
(46%)

19. 19
Seven lessons I learned from
the failure of my first startup“ Dinnr

20. 20
Mistakes Made
(15%)

21. 21
99 Problems But A Bit Ain’t
One: Why My Startup Failed“ Emjoyment

22. 22
Chronology of Failure
(26%)

23. 23
Dear Internet, our journey began a
long time ago in a galaxy far, far
away... but for all intents and purposes
let’s just say it began in May 2013
“
Poliana

24. 24
Good bye and Thanks!
(12%)

25. 25
Even though Thrive.ly is shutting
our doors, we’d like to think we
have made a small dent in the
world with your help.
“
Thrively

26. <5>
Discussion and Conclusions
26

27. 27
Future-oriented, written for
professional community of
entrepreneurs and investors

28. 28
Communicatively constitute
organizational afterlife,
retroactively alter identity

29. Thank you.
E-Mail: leonhard.Dobusch@uibk.ac.at
Twitter: @leonidobusch
Web: dobusch.net
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Research blog:
www.governancexborders.com