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The purpose of this study is to contrast the effects of four exit barriers on word of mouth activities. Monetary, service loss, social and convenience exit barriers are compared. The differential effects of these four barriers on the valence of word of mouth (positive, negative), the type of word of mouth recipient (weak tie, strong tie) and the motives (catharsis, company sabotage) for spreading word of mouth are studied.

The data for empirically addressing a set of hypotheses were collected from 185 consumers. The hypotheses were analyzed using ANOVA models along with post hoc tests.

The results suggest that the type of exit barrier matters. Exit barriers, with respect to word of mouth activities, seem to fall on a continuum. On one extreme, the most detrimental barriers are monetary hurdles, and on the other end, the least detrimental barriers are convenience hurdles. Monetary barriers are responsible for the most negative word of mouth and company sabotage. Social and convenience barriers lead to significantly less.

The implications for erecting exit barriers are discussed. In particular, the value of monetary barriers is questioned. The benefits of such involuntary customer retention methods may be offset by the sabotage they invite through negative word of mouth.

The paper provides insights into word of mouth activities of dissatisfied customers that are trapped by various exit barriers. The word of mouth activities investigated include valence, recipient type and motives. The study contrasts monetary, service loss, social and convenience exit barriers.

This study aims to untangle how perceived barriers provoke entrepreneurial exit intentions during an entrepreneurial engagement. Drawing on the social cognitive theory (SCT), the study also theorizes the mediating role of self-efficacy and moderating effects of the nature of entrepreneurship activity (regular versus sustainable entrepreneurship) on the barriers–exit relationship.

The survey data were collected from 302 entrepreneurs in the UK in two waves using a time-lagged method and analyzed through the structural equation modeling technique

The results indicate that perceived barriers positively related to entrepreneurial exit intentions, whereas self-efficacy served as an effective intervening mechanism to untangle the barriers–exit relationship. In addition, consistent support was found for the moderating role of the nature of entrepreneurship activity for the hypothesized relationships.

The investigation unfolds that perceived barriers lead entrepreneurs to stimulate exit intentions. Therefore, it is recommended that all the stakeholders, including government, industries and academia, must collaborate and provide a favorable institutional environment where sustainable entrepreneurship can thrive and nourish.

Unlike studies that exhibited perceived barriers as an inhibitor to entrepreneurial intentions, the study theorizes the relevance of perceived barriers during entrepreneurial engagement and demonstrates how it determines entrepreneurial exit intentions. The study also comprehends the exiting knowledge by underpinning the SCT construct self-efficacy as an intervening factor in explaining the barriers–exit relationship.

This paper analyzes causes of the low self-employment rate among Mexican-Americans by studying self-employment entry and exits utilizing panel data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). Our results indicate that differences in education and financial wealth are important factors in explaining differences in entrepreneurship across groups. Importantly, we analyze self-employment by recognizing heterogeneity in business ownership across industries and show that a classification of firms by human and financial capital intensiveness, or entry barriers, is effective in explaining differences in entrepreneurship across ethnic groups.

This paper identifies factors that affect entry and exit of beginning, young and women farmers and ranchers.

The empirical framework is fixed effects regression analysis that uses county level data to evaluate how barriers to entry, access to and use of credit, local economic environment, and climate affect entry and exit of Beginning Farmers and Ranchers (BFRs). The dataset is assembled from several sources matching the Census of Agriculture years for the period of 1997–2017.

Results show that new farmers are more likely to enter in counties with more and smaller farms and with lower farm productivity, indicating that BFRs have the potential to improve the overall productivity in such counties if able to grow and succeed. The results also indicate that the high capital intensity nature of farming is an effective barrier to entry. BFRs are more likely to do better in counties where agriculture is more important to the economy and with more off-farm work opportunities. The net entry is positively associated with higher input/output price index and the use of insurance but is unaffected by government payments and farm and off-farm income. The authors observe substitutability between farming and alternative self-employment for more entrepreneurial young people. Net entry increases with availability of non-real-estate loans but decreases with real estate credit. Thus, for BFRs to acquire the assets needed to reach optimal scale, access to credit remains essential.

The authors are not aware of other work that estimates how barriers to entry and other economic factors including access to credit affect entry and exit of BFRs of various ages and young and women farmers using the Census of Agriculture data up to 2017.

Much attention has been paid recently to the concept of service failure. In light of this, the paper develops a model of the potential outcomes from service failure. Results are utilised from interviews with business banking customers who have recently encountered a service failure. The results show that service recovery is only one of the reasons a customer may stay or exit a service organisation after a service failure. Other factors, such as barriers to exit and loyalty, are just as prevalent in the decision‐making process. A model ofservice failure, which was generated through the results of the research, is presented in the discussion section of the paper.

The purpose of this study is to examine the concept of customer value and its role in building switching costs perceptions. The current research develops scales and empirically validates a typology of customer value for business services.

Through an extensive literature review, qualitative interviews, and an empirical investigation, the current study identifies three facets of customer value for business services (i.e. economic value, relational value, and core value) and investigates their relationships with buyers' perceptions of switching costs. Structural equation modeling techniques were used to evaluate a measurement model and structural relationships.

The findings show that economic value and the value obtained from relational and support aspects of a service exert strong positive impact on customers' perceptions of switching costs and thus serve as barriers to exit. Although core service does not seem to have positive impact on switching costs, core value maybe a “hygiene” factor that may promote customers' switching if not properly managed.

The results of this study are generated from a single industry; additional studies in other industries may strengthen the generalizability of the proposed constructs and framework.

Business suppliers need to build exit barriers through co‐creating relational value. Through communications, suppliers may be able to monitor customers' desired value as a proactive action to anticipate changes and to influence positive changes in customer value.

The current study sheds some light on how supplier firms can enhance switching costs, and consequently raise exit barriers by better managing various aspects of customer value perceptions.

Among the many things that land reform in South Africa suffers from is the lack of scientific attention paid to the willingness of commercial producers to exit or contract. This research aims to contribute to literature on this phenomenon.

The interplay between the business confidence and the opportunity costs of a farming enterprise represented in a survey sample of 450 commercial farm owners is investigated, paying special attention to owners who want to, but cannot exit.

The regression analysis suggests that both forces have a strong influence on structural change, as they depict the rather complex interplay between the two main factors that may keep farms in business, one of which is a positive business climate and the other the capital invested. A subsequent cluster analysis indicates that there is a major cluster of producers who are pessimistic about the prospects of their farming business, but who are unable or unwilling to leave their farms.

A limitation of our study is the fairly small sample size (91 exiters in the sample), so caution is advised in generalising the results. Another limitation is the overrepresentation of the Western Cape.

It is likely that the productivity of South African agriculture could improve if some of these producers caught in the “system” could leave farming to create new opportunities for entrepreneurial entrants.

The importance of a captured state has been neglected both in theoretical frameworks and in practical concepts of commercial agriculture in South Africa.

The purpose of this paper is to advance a proactive perspective on business exit and develop a typology of exit strategies.

This is a research paper, which builds on extant theoretical and empirical research.

Business exit, along with entry, is an integral part of corporate strategy that a firm could utilize to reshuffle its business portfolio and embrace new opportunities. In today’s changing environment characterized by high uncertainty and high velocity, it becomes increasingly important for firms to manage business exit deliberately and proficiently. The traditional perspective which generally perceives exits as failures or responses to failures is no longer sufficient. A proactive perspective on exit could be advanced to better inform exit research and practice. Adopting the dynamic capabilities approach, this paper develops a typology of four exit strategies – retreat, redeploy, realign, and reconfigure – and examines the essential tasks of these strategies as well as the corresponding dynamic capabilities required for their successful implementation.

The proactive perspective advanced in this paper systematically coalesces and elaborates on extant research and formally advocates the importance and feasibility of proactive exit. The typology offered not only helps integrate the dynamic capabilities approach with exit research but also helps better inform exit practice.

Although being fired up about changes such as firm expansion, chief executive officers (CEOs) have a hard time with changes that involve divesting businesses or downsizing operations. This study aims to examine how a particular psychological process – regulatory focus – serves as a managerial exit barrier in the context of store closings in the US retail industry. This study also examines how a particular corporate governance mechanism, the board of directors, moderates the relationship between CEO regulatory focus and divestment activity.

This study content-analyzed letters to shareholders to measure the regulatory focus of retail CEOs and used negative binomial regression to test the effect of the CEO’s regulatory focus and board independence on store closure activity.

The two motivation orientations – promotion and prevention – focuses have distinct effects on store closure decisions. As predicted, promotion-focused CEOs, who value attainment and growth, resist “pulling the plug.” Conversely, prevention-focused CEOs, who are more sensitive to losses, are more inclined to close stores. Independent boards decrease the CEOs’ resistance to “pull the plug” only when necessary, which is the case when CEOs have less vigilant tendencies.

This study contributes to the strategy and marketing literature. It examines an individual-level antecedent of store closure decisions and responds to the call for research on the effect of regulatory focus on divestment decisions.

Leaders themselves can be a source of resistance to change. The findings suggest the importance of boards hiring CEOs psychologically aligned with the firms’ strategic priorities. Promotion-focused CEOs may be a better fit for companies engaged in growth and acquisition. By contrast, prevention-focused CEOs may be a better fit for firms involved in retrenchment and restructuring. Independent boards still have the power to influence CEO decisions in the case of a misfit, as the findings suggest.

This study examines divestment decisions during the “retail apocalypse” and provides empirical evidence for the existence of managerial exit barriers, first introduced by Michael Porter.

This paper sets out to present the determinants of firm exit at the micro firm‐level of Slovenian manufacturing derived from the results of pooled and panel probit models.

Empirical research is conducted on the basis of the Slovenian firm registry data which include virtually all the firms in manufacturing. This data set is complemented with sector level trade data to investigate import competition. A representative panel data set of Slovenian manufacturing firms is used to estimate pooled and panel probit models focusing on the effect of firm specific characteristics, domestic sector and import competition, and financial variables on firm exit. The results of the analysis are compared with research for other countries.

The econometric results show a consistently positive, highly significant effect of import competition offsetting the impact of domestic competition on firm exit. Firm's export orientation, capital intensity, innovation expenditures, firm profitability and sector's real sales growth reduce exit, while private ownership and lower firm cost efficiency increase it.

The uniqueness of this paper is twofold. It is one of the first empirical studies to conduct an in‐depth analysis of market dynamics and the determinants of firm exit at the firm level for transition countries, and the first one for Slovenia. The study applies a comprehensive research model to virtually all the Slovenian manufacturing firms and provides valuable insights into the relationship between firm exit and firm specific characteristics, competition and finance.