Ambidexterity in new ventures founded by university students: the role of the entrepreneur’s subjective vitality

In this study, we investigate the individual origins of ambidexterity by focusing on how entrepreneurs’ subjective vitality impacts on the new ventures’ simultaneous engagement of both exploration and exploitation, and how this relationship is moderated by the context in which the entrepreneurs are embedded. To do so, we take advantage of a sample of 15,561 student entrepreneurs, defined as university students who run an entrepreneurial activity. Student entrepreneurs represent an appropriate setting for our study since they are socially embedded in two contexts, the family and the university, which offer resources and norms uniquely influencing entrepreneurial behaviors. Data are obtained from the GUESSS (‘Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students’ Survey’) project. We find that subjective vitality is positively related to new ventures’ ambidexterity and that such effect increases at higher levels of vitality. Moreover, at low levels of vitality, the positive association is amplified for student entrepreneurs whose parents are majority owners of a business; conversely, at high levels of vitality, the vitality-ambidexterity relationship is magnified by a favorable university climate towards entrepreneurship.