Cross-level effects of entrepreneurial orientation and ambidexterity on the resilience of small business owners

ABSTRACT

This study explores the effect of a firm’s entrepreneurial orientation on the individual resilience of small business owners and how this relationship is moderated by firm-level ambidexterity. We build on social cognitive theory to discuss whether and how the three dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation that is, innovativeness, proactivity, and risk-taking) interact with the two components of ambidexterity (that is, exploration and exploitation) to jointly influence the resilience of small business owners. Our findings indicate that a risk-taking orientation is positively related to resilience and that an innovativeness orientation causes resilience to suffer when an exploitative approach is pursued. For firms with a proactivity orientation, however, exploitation has a positive moderating effect. Our study adds to the literature by linking firm-level determinants and individual-level outcomes in the special context of small businesses.

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© 2021 International Council for Small Business

KEYWORDS:

• Entrepreneurial orientation
• exploration
• exploitation
• ambidexterity
• resilience
• small business

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.