Ambidextrous activities of internet-based entrepreneurships in Apple App Store: two sides of user feedback

ABSTRACT

Ambidexterity has been widely confirmed as contributing to entrepreneurial performance. Scholars have verified the positive relationship between ambidexterity and short-term performance, but few of them paid attention to the impact on survival, which is critical for entrepreneurships. This study attempts to fill the gap by investigating the impacts of ambidextrous activities (exploratory and exploitative activities) and their boundary condition from a longitudinal perspective. The empirical results that are based on a second-hand data research developed on the Apple App Store show a positive effect of ambidextrous activities implemented by online entrepreneurships on both short-term performance and survival. We also observed that the linear relationship between exploitation and short-term performance is impeded while the positive connection between exploration and survival is promoted by user feedback.

KEYWORDS:

• Ambidextrous activities
• user feedback
• Internet

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Yixuan Shao is a Ph.D candidate in Department of Psychology and Behavior Science at Zhejiang University. She mainly focused on topics about entrepreneurial and managerial decision-making.

Ting Wu is a lecturer in the School of Business at Zhejiang University City College where he taught courses in entrepreneurship. He has got a doctorate in entrepreneurship management in Zhejiang University in 2016, and published articles on journals such as Social Behavior and Personality (accepted), Journal of Zhejiang University (Humanities and Social Science) and Studies in Science of Science (in China).

Huiqing Qiu a Ph.D candidate in School of Management at Zhejiang University. He mainly focused on topics about organisational behaviour in intrapreneurship.

Zhongming Wang is a professor in School of Management at Zhejiang University where he taught courses in human resource management, organisational behaviours and entrepreneurship. He has published articles on some journals such as Annual Review of Psychology, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Management and Frontiers in Psychology, He also held the project named 10,000 Women in China, which was funded by Goldman Sachs in 2009 to 2013, on mentoring women entrepreneurship.

ORCID

Yixuan Shao http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6916-6613

Ting Wu http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9130-2404

Huiqing Qiu http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7280-701X

Zhongming Wang http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3732-6568

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number LQ18G020007]; The National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 71232012]; The Ministry of Education Humanities and Social Science Planning Project [grant number 17YJA630142].