Analyzing Business Failure in Relation to the Life Cycle of the Business and the Economic Cycle: A Study of Entrepreneurial Ventures in Hwange ( Zimbabwe)

Abstract

The research was aimed at establishing the relationships that exist among business failure, economic cycle and the life cycle (age) of the businesses under study using a quantitative data which was recorded and coded using the Stat 11 package. Qualitative methods were however employed to further compliment the quantitative methods, in which interviews were carried out to get respondents to clarify some ambiguous issues on the questionnaires administered. It was established from the results obtained that probability of business failure diminishes with age  of the business and that of the owner as well. In a recession phase results indicated a negative impact on businesses as it was established that they lead to business failure and during a period of boom results showed a positive impact on business . It was further established that there are variations as to the magnitude of the factors that affect businesses with new firms being susceptible to failure than the old firms.

Key words: business failure, entrepreneurial life cycle, economic cycle