Knowledge that Transforms

Hybrid entrepreneurship—pursuing a venture while maintaining paid employment—can enhance or undermine well-being. Based on a longitudinal, qualitative study, we identify two distinct trajectories shaped by envisioned future selves: delayed entrepreneurial gratification with cumulative strains on well-being, and present gratification with supportive effects on well-being. Drawing on role identity theory, we theorize how role internalization and identity centrality relate to the well-being experiences of hybrid entrepreneurs and introduce gratification and rationalization as ways to handle strains on well-being. Our findings offer a deeper understanding of the divergent well-being experiences in hybrid entrepreneurship.

High-impact entrepreneurship research stands or falls with data quality. Yet research design and data collection choices often force researchers into trade-offs among relevance, validity, and replicability. Reliance on existing databases constrains the questions we can study, while primary data collection to address new questions often struggles to deliver high-quality, large, and representative samples. Increasingly, the most tangible contributions come from unique, high-quality data that answer novel, important questions. We present a 5I framework (Invest, Integrate, Innovate, Incentivize, Impact), offering guidance for authors, reviewers, and editors to navigate these trade-offs and build unique datasets that enable relevant, valid, and replicable research.

Hybrid entrepreneurship as a side hustle is a widespread yet understudied coping strategy among low-income wage workers. This study examines how loss aversion is associated with such side-hustle activities and their links to well-being. We conducted a mixed-method study in Bangladesh. Quantitative analysis, based on surveys and lab experiments, indicates that loss aversion is associated with a higher likelihood of engaging in hybrid entrepreneurship, which is in turn linked to higher well-being. Qualitative analysis, based on in-depth interviews, illustrates mechanisms that may underlie these associations. Together, these findings provide insights into the protective role of hybrid entrepreneurship in poverty contexts.

We investigate how environmentally oriented ventures (EOVs) acquire financial resources through equity crowdfunding (ECF) and allocate resources to job creation. Our results suggest that EOVs raise 22.20% to 34.70% more funding and increase headcount by 18.06% to 61.95% relative to non-environmentally oriented ventures. We argue that environmental orientation may increase demand for labor, through the ongoing development of environmental capabilities, and labor supply, by making EOVs more attractive employers. Our evidence is more consistent with a supply explanation as EOVs find it somewhat easier to hire in tight labor markets. Our study highlights how ECF has real-economic impact through job creation. JEL classification: L26, M13, M14, M51

This study investigates how online and offline shareholder activism influences a firm’s innovation focus—on exploration or exploitation—in family and non-family firms. We theorize, from a mixed gamble perspective, that such activisms pose distinctive threats to a firm’s economic and non-economic interests. We analyze 7,887 firm-year observations from Chinese listed firms (2012–2022) and find that non-family firms are more likely than family firms to shift toward exploitation in response to offline activism, and family firms are more inclined to focus on exploration when facing online activism. Additionally, second-generation family firms are found to be more responsive than first-generation firms to both forms of shareholder activism.