Social Capital and Entrepreneurial Loneliness: Mapping the Startup Journeys of London-Based Fashion Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurial loneliness and burnout are pressing issues in the creative industries, impacting business sustainability and founder wellbeing. This research employs a phenomenological methodology to collect startup narratives from solo-founders in London’s fashion product industry. Social capital is used as a theoretical framework to comprehend their entrepreneurial journeys and pinpoint triggers for loneliness and burnout, identifying their prominence shortly after trading begins. This work underscores the importance of safeguarding the resilience of the creative industries in the post-pandemic context by addressing the wellbeing of founders. It uncovers a link between specific forms of social capital and entrepreneurial loneliness, with bonding social capital appearing to reduce loneliness and isolation while bridging social capital appearing to offer limited impact. The authors offer practical suggestions to nurture bonding social capital and increase time resources among entrepreneurs, potentially reducing loneliness and burnout and enhancing founder wellbeing and business sustainability.