Events

Drawing from the literature on the entrepreneurial threshold, we develop a theory of how hybrid entrepreneurship may affect the financing and commercialization of an entrepreneurial activity. The central premise is that hybrid entrepreneurs will have a lower entrepreneurial threshold than full-time entrepreneurs, which will subsequently affect the likelihood of achieving their financing and commercialization goals. On the one hand, hybrid entrepreneurs are expected initially to have a lower entrepreneurial threshold, which may increase the likelihood of success in achieving a financing goal. Accordingly, we hypothesize that the higher financing success rates of hybrid entrepreneurs are mitigated by lower entrepreneurial thresholds, which are shaped by expected returns that are less risky and more reasonable. On the other hand, we argue that, due to their lower entrepreneurial thresholds, hybrid entrepreneurs will simultaneously have a lower likelihood of success in achieving a commercialization goal. We found strong support for our arguments in the context of crowdfunding projects in the video game category over the period of 2009-2012. Our findings illustrate that entrepreneurial success may be better understood by considering the heterogeneity in the entrepreneurial threshold in relation to the entrepreneurs’ performance.