TOWARDS A TYPOLOGY OF VOLUNTARY BUSINESS EXIT: CASE OF POULTRY ENTREPRENEURS IN IRAN

The Business exit is an important event in the stages of venture development. Despite the rapid pace of growth in exit research, still little is known about the voluntary exit of entrepreneurs. The main purpose of this research is to take a step in filling this gap by developing a typology of voluntary exit by focusing on the process of exit and individual aspects of exit decision making. To achieve this purpose, different instances of voluntary exit were studied by taking qualitative research approach and using the Grounded Theory method. The sample consists of 14 owner-managers in Iran who have exited from their businesses voluntarily. The result showed that there are different exit types based on the main factor that ignites the exit intention: profit-seeking exit, critical passion-driven exit and future-oriented reactive exit