Abstract: In the VUCA era, entrepreneurs’ tolerance of ambiguity is often seen as an important trait that affects the survival and growth of startups. However, few studies have focused on whether there are unanticipated negative spillover effects that generate new problems when entrepreneurs use this trait to help their startups succeed. This study combines stress theory and the job demands-resources (JD-R) model to construct a moderated chain mediation model of entrepreneurial ambiguity tolerance inducing middle-level supervisor anxiety and subsequent negative behavior through their own risky decisions and role ambiguity instructions to their subordinates, and examines the boundary utility of role-breadth self-efficacy. Two field questionnaire studies with different samples support the research hypotheses in general. A total of 425 entrepreneur-middle manager paired data and 560 front-line employee data analyses reveal that entrepreneurs’ tolerance of ambiguity positively influences mid-level supervisor anxiety through risky decision-making behavior and role ambiguity instructions, which in turn leads to resistance and opposition behavior; middle-level supervisor anxiety also leads to reduced support for subordinates; the role-breadth self-efficacy of middle-level supervisors moderates the serial mediating process from entrepreneurs’ ambiguity tolerance to the negative behavior of the lower level, such as the path of role ambiguity instructions, and this spillover effect is particularly significant for low-efficacy middle-level supervisors, and vice versa. By revealing the unknown aspects of entrepreneurs’ ambiguity tolerance (e.g. when will it induce subordinates’ negative emotions and what is the key mechanism in mitigating this effect) from the perspective of the relationship between superiors and subordinates, this paper makes the study of ambiguity tolerance more dialectical and complete, and also has certain guiding significance on how to give play to ambiguity tolerance in entrepreneurial activities.

Key words: entrepreneur’s tolerance of ambiguity, middle manager anxiety, job demands-resources, role breadth self-efficacy, serial mediation model