How outcomes of entrepreneurship differ between hybrid and full-time entrants.

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Matthias Schulz
• Subject Area: Management and Marketing
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 545938086

Entrepreneurship research commonly assumes that individuals engage in either entrepreneurship or wage-earning employment. This assumption neglects that many individuals blend both occupations by starting a firm while continuing to work in a wage-earning job, an entry mode coined hybrid entrepreneurship. In fact, hybrid entry is the most common way of starting a firm around the world. While research on hybrid entrepreneurship has studied the determinants of the decision to engage in hybrid rather than full-time entry in depth, we still lack knowledge if and how the outcomes of entrepreneurship differ between hybrid and full-time entrants. This is surprising, since knowing what shapes firm-level outcomes such as a firm’s innovativeness, employment growth, and survival and region-level outcomes such as regional innovation and economic growth is of particular interest to both entrepreneurs who seek to be successful as well as policy makers who seek to design policies that promote entrepreneurship. Yet, conducting such research also comes with several conceptual and empirical challenges, which may explain the related lack of research. The overall objective of this project is to address the challenge of providing theory and reliable empirical evidence on how the outcomes of entrepreneurship differ between hybrid and full-time entrants. In keeping with this overall objective, this proposal has three sub-aims. First, I aim to gather data on collective agreements in Germany which will allow me to address the research questions of this project by employing an Instrumental Variable Estimator approach, as explained in detail in the proposal. Second, I aim to theoretically and empirically investigate how the firm-level outcomes of entrepreneurship differ between hybrid and full-time entrants. Third, I aim to theoretically and empirically investigate how the region-level outcomes of entrepreneurship differ between hybrid and full-time entrants. The insights of this project will inform the large strand of research on firm-level outcomes of entrepreneurship about if and when to consider hybrid entrepreneurship. Furthermore, this project will provide missing information about how the outcomes of entrepreneurship at the regional level differ between hybrid and full-time entrants, which will enable policymakers to design and adapt policy tools that increase regional innovation and economic growth.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Switzerland
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Dr. Martin Murmann