Entrepreneurial Resilience After Failure in the Gulf: A Comparative Multilevel Analysis Across Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates

ABSTRACT Entrepreneurial failure is common in the Gulf, yet what happens after ventures collapse remains poorly understood. This study examines how entrepreneurs in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) rebuild resilience after failure and whether (and how quickly) they reengage in entrepreneurship. Using a mixed‐methods design that combines cross‐sectional survey data from 450 failed entrepreneurs with 30 interviews with founders, ecosystem actors, and policymakers, the paper analyzes how psychological, social, and institutional–cultural factors are associated with post‐failure trajectories. The results show that self‐efficacy, entrepreneurial passion, social support, and institutional support are positively associated with resilience, whereas perceived stigma is negatively associated, particularly in Saudi Arabia. Reported realized reengagement (yes) was highest in the UAE (71.3%) and lowest in Saudi Arabia (38.0%); among reentrants, the median time‐to‐reentry category was 6–12 months in the UAE, 12–24 months in Qatar, and > 24 months in Saudi Arabia. Interview narratives suggest these differences are consistent with variation in second‐chance pathway visibility/accessibility and stigma‐related disclosure constraints. The study develops a multilevel framework linking individual resources to social and institutional conditions and proposes that “time‐to‐reentry” can be used as a behavioral indicator of ecosystem friction and second‐chance capacity, rather than as a direct proxy for entrepreneurial resilience. Given the cross‐sectional survey design, the quantitative evidence is interpreted as associational rather than causal.