摘要：The aim of this study is to investigate factors that can prevent business failure by using
determinist and voluntarist perspectives collectively. Both views implicate numerous theories such
as institutional theory, industry life cycle theory, resource-based view, emotive approach etc. This
research is conducted on a firm-level data collection through a survey. The current study uses
principal component analysis and hierarchical logistic regression to test the proposed hypotheses in
an original dataset of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in Central Europe. The
results demonstrated that facing institutional constraints and internal difficulties can lead to business
failure. Firms in growth phase of business cycle are less likely to fail as compared to their
counterparts in establishment phase. At the individual level, having entrepreneurial experience
diminished the business failure. Moreover, failure is less prone to occur for bigger firms and those
that operate as business-to-business (B2B). The current research contributes to enriching the
literature of the field by offering evidence on how to avoid failure. This paper provides useful
insights for both managers and policymakers who are responsible for designing policies and
strategies to boost entrepreneurship.
