Leading through paradox: How and when lead founder paradoxical leadership navigates entrepreneurial tensions
研究首席创始人的悖论领导如何通过提升新创团队的心理安全感，促进战略决策辩论，进而提高企业长期生存率，且这种效应在创始人创业激情高时更强。
In the dynamic and uncertain entrepreneurial environment, effective leadership and team dynamics are crucial for new venture success. This study investigates how and when a lead founder’s paradoxical leadership helps the new venture navigate the tensions in entrepreneurial processes by shaping key mechanisms within new venture teams (NVTs). By integrating social information processing theory with emotion-as-social-information theory, we argue that paradoxical leadership enhances NVT psychological safety, which in turn facilitates debate in strategic decision-making and improves long-term venture survival. These positive effects are more pronounced when the lead founder displays high levels of entrepreneurial passion. We test our model using multi-source, multi-wave survey data from 238 entrepreneurs nested within 85 NVTs. Our findings advance the scholarly understanding of paradoxical leadership in entrepreneurship, highlighting the joint impact of leadership behavior and affect in shaping entrepreneurial outcomes.