How founding team members respond to exploration and exploitation behaviors by mimicking and switching

Abstract

Organizational ambidexterity evolves as an aggregated capability based on individuals’ behaviors within a venture. But what happens in founding teams when the founders collaborate? This study aims to decipher individual exploitations/explorations’ interpersonal connection to understand how the social interaction between founders translates into emergent team processes that either enable or hinder the team’s capacity to become ambidextrous. The empirical setting is an exploratory case study of 15 teams, using data from 39 interviews and 12 observations. Our findings indicate that certain behaviors linked to ambidexterity reinforce the co-founders’ behavior. The other founders often mimic the initial exploitation behavior. Nevertheless, individual behavior can also cause co-founders to exhibit switching responses, especially when responding to initial exploration behavior. These observed stimulation response patterns revealed opportunities and threats for the founding team. Our study contributes to the literature on ambidexterity, particularly to the connection of team and individual levels of analysis.