Pain but gain? How entrepreneurial support organisations adapt to entrepreneurial failure

While entrepreneurial failure (EF) research has focused predominantly on entrepreneurs, the organisational-level responses of entrepreneurial support organisations (ESOs) remain underexplored, creating a critical gap in understanding how support structures adapt to EF. This gap may hinder the evolution of ESOs and limit the potential of university spin-off (USO) creation. Drawing on 52 semi-structured interviews with ESO key informants from nine European countries, this study examines how ESOs adapt to EF. We (1) identify four distinct perceptual ambiguities of EF in ESOs (i.e. typological, temporal, causational and effectual) and (2) document 16 organisational adaptation mechanisms that ESOs implement across six key organisational areas (i.e. offering, staffing, sourcing and selection, network, branding and funding). By showing how ESOs adapt their support practices to perceptual ambiguities of EF, this study deepens understanding of organisational‑level responses triggered by EF and advances organisational adaptation theory in university‑related, early-stage support contexts.