The role of sole founders’ characteristics in the creation of ambidexterity: Evidence from China

Although founding teams and their influence on firm-level outcomes have received much research attention, sole founders who create and operate the business alone have rarely been studied. In this study, we paid special attention to this prevalent group of entrepreneurs, discussing the unique difficulty they may face when facilitating ambidexterity – a strategic balance critical for ventures’ survival and success— and the possible solution. From the information processing perspective, we posit that three aspects of sole founders’ characteristics--“who they are” (i.e., personal values), “who they know” (i.e., social network outside of the firm), and “how they think” (i.e., interpretative ambivalence)—can facilitate ambidexterity by affecting the sole founders’ grasping and interpretation of information from both within and outside the firm. Multi-source data from 152 firms in China supported most of our hypothesized links, underscoring the importance of sole founders’ personal characteristics in promoting their firms’ ambidexterity.