Hybrid entrepreneurs: The value of experience

Hybrid entrepreneurs—individuals acting simultaneously as entrepreneurs and employees—are often considered to be in a transitional stage toward becoming full-time entrepreneurs. However, they may also exit a venture or remain hybrid entrepreneurs. In this research, we investigate how being a hybrid entrepreneur impacts innovative opportunity recognition through entrepreneurial learning and how the exit experience may influence this mechanism. We use a standard logit approach, a causal mediation analysis, and the multilevel random effect model as a robustness test on a large cross-sectional sample of individuals of different ages and from 90 countries to test our hypothesis. Our findings indicate that, in the context of hybrid entrepreneurship, the exit phase could be part of a recursive stage rather than a final step. This implies that hybrid entrepreneurs can also be considered habitual entrepreneurs, as they may experience exits as an integral and iterative aspect of their entrepreneurial journey. We also found that this habitual entrepreneurship experience mediates the relationship between hybrid entrepreneurs and their potential to recognize opportunities and their innovative behavior.