Hybrid entrepreneurship better protects mental well-being

Entrepreneurs who work in a hybrid mode can learn to protect their psychological well-being, new research from the University of Cologne reveals.

Over a period of 29 years, the researchers Johanna Kuske, Matthias Schulz, and Christian Schwens investigated entrepreneurs’ psychological well-being in the UK across various stages of early business development.

‘Hybrid entrepreneurs’ build their own business ventures whilst still maintaining a wage paying job, to support themselves, as opposed to only focussing on their business start-up.

This combination allows hybrid entrepreneurs to experience entrepreneurial stress and try out different strategies to cope with it — a learning experience, which benefits their psychological well-being when reaching the implementation stage of their business idea, in which they leave behind their other work.

This beneficial learning effect of hybrid entrepreneurship, however, depends on entrepreneurs’ personal circumstances: According to the findings, it is only those entrepreneurs who did not face any caring responsibilities and could therefore fully focus on learning, that benefit in term of psychological well-being.

Thus, the study suggests that entrepreneurs can learn to be well even before fully committing to their entrepreneurial venture. And that it is important to make sure that their personal circumstances provide them with enough freedom to learn from their experience.