To Ask or not to Ask? Entrepreneurs' Ambidextrous Feedback Seeking

Feedback seeking seems ubiquitous in entrepreneurship. It is assumed to aid entrepreneurs in navigating the uncertainty associated with starting new ventures, innovating, and making fast strategic decisions. Yet our understanding of entrepreneurs’ feedback seeking is under-theorised as it is often only vaguely described as a single act to gain information. Additionally, puzzling findings, such as that not all entrepreneurs seek feedback, despite its potential benefits, are unexplained. This doctoral thesis represents an in-depth inductive study with 37 nascent social entrepreneurs to better understand why, why not, how, and with what consequences entrepreneurs seek feedback. The data informed a dynamic model of entrepreneurs’ ambidextrous feedback seeking for venture emergence. The findings advance our current understanding of feedback seeking among individuals at work, both entrepreneurs and employees, and provide practical insights for entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship support organisations. Additionally, they enrich the broader entrepreneurship literature in relation to micro-foundations, hybridity in social entrepreneurship, communities of inquiry, and close social ties, as well as paradox theory.