This paper attempts to shed light on the nexus of relationships existing between failure, bankruptcy, institutional context, and local characteristics on one hand and entrepreneurship, firm survival, and performance on the other. The aim is to provide a larger vantage point from which to read the research included in this issue with the overall ambition to contribute to a better understanding of our entrepreneurial societies and the role of failure within markets. In this respect, the focus here is mainly on the institutions governing the bankruptcy procedures which do much more than simply regulating the exit of insolvent firms and protecting creditors’ investments, minimizing the social cost of failures. They set up the revolving doors through which creditors can reinvest the recovered capital in new entrepreneurial projects and failed entrepreneurs can bring back to the market their skills and their entrepreneurial spirit for fostering new and hopefully successful ventures. Therefore, by managing bankruptcy, the institutions are not only protecting the economy. Instead, they have become a tool of economic policy, devoted to the delicate issue of regulating a physiological event to the market while avoiding too much waste of resources. In a more positive perspective, managing insolvency and failure is also a mean to strengthen competitiveness and growth, making it possible to stimulate the market in reshuffling skills and resources into new activities. A deeper understanding can in turn contribute to the implementation of better and more efficient policies by integrating bankruptcy as a natural component of firm and market life. © 2018 The Author(s)