Hybrid Entrepreneurship: How and Why Entrepreneurs Combine Employment with Self-Employment

Abstract

Changes in the labour market and growth in the diversity of non-standard working arrange- ments have heightened the interest of policy makers and entrepreneurship researchers in “hybrid entrepreneurship”, which is a combination of employment and entrepreneurship. This form of entrepreneurship is particularly popular among highly educated professionals in the high-technology and R&D sectors. With the goal of improving our understanding and defining a research agenda for this phenomenon, I examined the relevant literature to clarify definitions and I undertook a research study to examine first-hand, through a longit- udinal case study, the experiences of two hybrid entrepreneurs, one who intended to be- come a full-time entrepreneur and one who wish to be hybrid entrepreneur. The key result of the study emphasizes that hybrid entrepreneurs should not be considered as a homogen- eous group: some hybrid entrepreneurs may always stay at their waged jobs and others may tend to become full-time entrepreneurs. The results have implications for policy makers wishing to encourage hybrid entrepreneurship and for researchers wishing to un- dertake further research into this phenomenon.