Entrepreneur Ambidexterity: A Conceptual Framework and Empirical Investigation Across Early Venture Contexts

Abstract

Entrepreneur ambidexterity (EA) refers to an entrepreneur’s cognitive capability to balance exploration and exploitation in response to shifting venture demands. Unlike ambidexterity in firms or employees, EA centers on the founder’s mental adaptability under high uncertainty and resource scarcity. This dissertation investigates EA as a critical, yet underexplored, capability that shapes venture success across early-stage contexts, aiming to advance theory, inform practice and address the cognitive demands entrepreneurs face when navigating parallel pressures to innovate and deliver. In this dissertation, I offer three complementary essays that jointly address the question: How do entrepreneurs develop and apply ambidextrous capabilities, and how are these capabilities perceived as contributing to venture success in different contexts? Essay 1 develops a conceptual model and research agenda for EA, grounded in social cognitive theory. It synthesizes fragmented insights on individual-level ambidexterity and organizes antecedents into personal, behavioral and environmental factors. The model frames EA as an emergent, context-sensitive capability that drives adaptability, opportunity recognition, investor appeal and personal resilience, while also identifying risks such as cognitive strain from sustained engagement across competing demands. Essay 2 examines how specific self-regulatory traits enable entrepreneurs to align with the shifting demands of exploration and exploitation across venture stages. It shows that different traits matter at different times, highlighting the contingent nature of EA and offering a trait-based view of adaptive entrepreneurial functioning. Essay 3 investigates how early-stage investors interpret founder traits as signals of ambidextrous capability. It finds that the perceived value of traits such as work experience, motivational orientation and self-efficacy varies with venture maturity. EA emerges not only as a cognitive resource for entrepreneurs but also as a relational signal that shapes investor judgments under uncertainty. In combination, the three essays offer a multi-level understanding of EA by integrating its theoretical foundations, cognitive antecedents and stakeholder evaluations.