The Role of Founders' Ambidextrous Orientation in Unicorn Valuation: A Study of Indian Start-Ups.

While many entrepreneurship studies have explored factors that influence the birth and growth of start-up firms, there appears to be a dearth of studies examining the influence of founders' ambidextrous orientation, on start-ups' success and speed to success. This study aims to fill this void by proposing that as a part of investment due diligence, investors assess the founders' characteristics, particularly their ambidextrous orientation, before making an investment decision, which influences the start-up firms' speed to success. This study empirically analyses 196 interviews by the founders of 72 Indian unicorns and examines the influence of the founders' ability to explore or exploit on their firms' speed to achieve the 'unicorn' status. Cox Hazard Model and linear regression were used to test the hypothesized relationships. Authors find a strong positive relationship between founders' positioning in the ambidexterity continuum and the speed of becoming a unicorn. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that investors may value the exploratory skills of the founders rather than their exploitation skills. This study offers meaningful insights into the decision thesis of the investors. In so doing, this paper builds on the theories of entrepreneurship and ambidexterity, bringing out implications for research on characteristics of entrepreneurs and founding teams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]