Hybrid Entrepreneurship as a Tool for Poverty Reduction in Nigeria: A Review of Literature with Qualitative Research and Content Analysis

In today’s Nigeria, employment in organizations has turned upside down due to poor economic situations which do not allow many companies to pay their employees well. There is a need for individuals to look for ways to increase their incomes for meeting financial obligations. The need for hybrid entrepreneurship is critical as well. This paper conducts a review of literature on hybrid entrepreneurship as a tool for poverty reduction. The research employs qualitative research approach and content analysis. The study concludes that, hybrid entrepreneurship is a determinant practice to reduce the rate of poverty in Nigeria. The paper recommends that, hybrid entrepreneurship should be encouraged among the Nigerian citizens so as to reduce the poverty level that has become a problem of Nigerians. Also, every Nigerian should try to get involved or engage in other businesses to augment their incomes so as to achieve their personal and family goals.


I. Introduction
Poverty has become a major concern for world leaders, governments, international bodies, nongovernmental bodies, individuals as well as researchers. As a matter of fact, poverty is a great challenge in the globe. As Aristotle states, "Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime" (Aristotle, 3843-22BC). The concern has forced the local and international bodies to focus on methods to eliminate and to reduce poverty rate in the world, especially in developing economies.
Ezeanyeji, Imoagwu and Ejefobihi (2019) mention that when there is no development in the entrepreneurial or business activities, the daily income of individuals could be stagnant or reduced. Therefore, there is need for the development of business activities in order for poverty to be decreased in any economy. One of the entrepreneurial or business activities identified is hybrid entrepreneurship (Kurczewska, Mackiewicz, Doryń, & Wawrzyniak, 2020;Luc, Chirita, Delvaux & Kepnou, 2018;Dzomonda & Fatoki, 2018;Solesvik, 2017;Raffiee & Feng, 2014).  posit that, hybrid entrepreneurship brings a new employment phenomenon into entrepreneurial practices and theory. The state of developing economies like Nigeria has forced the people to think and rethink on a source of income to achieve their personal and family goals. Hybrid entrepreneurship is more of a creative and supportive entry mode into full entrepreneurship (Dzomonda & Fatoki, 2018;Xi, Block, Lasch, Robert & Thurik, 2017;Raffiee & Feng, 2014). As noted by Viljamaa and Varamäki (2015), hybrid entrepreneurship serves as a vantage platform for learning which allows individuals to develop relevant entrepreneurial skills for entrepreneurial venture (Solesvik, 2017) and establish the market demand for their offering (Raffiee & Feng, 2014).
In Africa at large, poverty has been viewed as part of the continental characteristics due to the high level of unemployment and high rate of inflation. Nigeria as a developing economy in Africa is faced with a series of challenges that have led to poor living conditions which has resulted in poverty. Umaru and Ibrahim (2019) point that, poverty level is identified when the daily income in an economy is less than $1.25 or exactly $1.25 and contextual observation indicates that most daily income in Nigeria is not up to $1.25. This signifies the evidence of poverty in Nigerian economy which requires vigorous efforts from the government to curb this menace.
Nigeria is rated second in the list of poorest countries all over the world in recent times. Among the reasons accounted for this high level of poverty is the orientation towards paid employment. Most Nigerians that finish secondary school or university are looking for paid employment. This was going on well after the country's independence in 1960 till say 1980s. But the situation changes as the jobs are no longer able to sustain the population depending on the income (salary). The population has grown geometrically. Besides, the jobs are no longer there. The few who are still having the jobs are now considering how to sustain themselves, thus, giving birth to hybrid entrepreneurship. Necessity of the present situation (economic situation) could be attributed to the development of hybrid entrepreneurship in Nigeria even though this is not the case in many other climes. Poverty and degree of need is making many that even have jobs to think out of the box on how to survive, hence hybrid entrepreneurship.
According to Olajide (2018) Alvarez & Barney, 2014). Thus, the question of what other means can be done for poverty to be reduced in Nigeria arises. In the opinion of Bogenhold (2018), hybrid entrepreneurship could make an individual entrepreneurial billionaire. Therefore, it could be postulated that hybrid entrepreneurship could aid in reducing poverty level. Thus, it is important to see how hybrid entrepreneurship has been used as a tool for poverty reduction in Nigeria. Luc et. al. (2018) see hybrid entrepreneurship as the process that involves combination of self-employment and wage labor. It is a situation whereby an individual combines both paid job and entrepreneurial venture together. It implies that an individual works and still engages in self-employment activities. Hammarström and Nylén (2014) see hybrid entrepreneurship as the means which a person tries out a business idea and business entrepreneurial skills while still maintains wage-work in order to alleviate personal financial risk. According to Dzomonda and Fatoki (2018), hybrid entrepreneurship is a situation where individuals integrate their time in both self and wage employment. In other words, the individual has a business of his own while he/she still works as an employee. Thus, hybrid entrepreneurship could be the mixture of an individual being an employee as well as employer in different organizations. Hammarström and Nylén (2014) further see hybrid entrepreneurship as method for minimization of personal risk, which involves entrepreneurial venture and paid employment. Hybrid entrepreneurship has been confused with part-time entrepreneurship. Some studies state that hybrid entrepreneurship is the same with part-time entrepreneurship (Luc et al 2018;Schulz, Urbig, & Procher, 2016;Petrova, 2012) while some studies state that hybrid entrepreneurship is different from part-time entrepreneurship (Dzomonda & Fatoki, 2018;Nordstrom, 2015;Hammarström & Nylén, 2014;Viljamaa & Varamäki, 2014;Folta, Delmar, & Wennberg, 2010;Petrova, 2010;Kim, Aldrich & Keister, 2006). Nordstrom (2015) is of the view that part time entrepreneurship covers a series of alternatives compared to hybrid entrepreneurship. Part-time entrepreneurship could make an individual to mix unemployment and entrepreneurship at a go or it could be having a series of portfolio businesses (Nordstrom, 2015;Petrova, 2012). Part-time entrepreneur is recognized by having a normal wage job while balancing the work with personal business at the same time (Petrova, 2010). An individual can only engage in part-time entrepreneurship in as much as the individual is not under a paid or wage job while practicing entrepreneurship. Specifically, the combination of paid employment and self-employment is known to be hybrid entrepreneurship Dzomonda & Fatoki, 2018). Hammarström and Nylén (2014) narrate that, hybrid entrepreneurship is aimed at attempting business or entrepreneurial idea while still under employment contract with an organization. This is a strategy in which an individual tries his/her entrepreneurial abilities and the opportunities of his/her ideas in order to minimize personal financial risk while still keeping a wage-work. Hybrid entrepreneurship serves as an understanding of the practice of entrepreneurship without worrying about income or profit. In other words, it is preentrepreneurship practice. Therefore, a hybrid entrepreneur may have the intention of becoming a full entrepreneur . Part-time entrepreneurship has the sole aim to complement the current income of an individual. A part-time entrepreneur does not have the aim of becoming a full entrepreneur unlike a hybrid entrepreneur. A part-time entrepreneur sticks to the wage job while being able to meet his/her other financial obligations with a side venture (Hammarström & Nylén, 2014). Basically, hybrid entrepreneurship is associated with the early stages of entrepreneurial venture development. It is worth noting that, establishing a part-time business is not necessarily indicative of a desire to enter full-time entrepreneurship (Viljamaa, Varamäki, & Joensuu-Salo, 2017).

III. Poverty Reduction
Poverty is seen as a condition of low-income or low consumption (Ezeanyeji et al., 2019). Poverty is the inability of individuals in an economy to attain a minimum standard of living (World Bank Report, 1990). (2015) refer poverty as the absence of command over basic consumption needs such as insufficient food, clothing and/or shelter while Olayemi (1995) refers to the poor as those having no access to the basic necessities of life such as food, clothes and economic obligation. They lack skillful employment, have few, if any economic assets and sometime lack self-esteem. World Bank (2011) sees poverty as an economic situation where people lack plenty income to obtain certain minimal levels of health services, food, housing, clothing and education which are necessities for the standard of living. Therefore, poverty is the incapacity of people in an economy to meet basic needs of life.

Ibotoye, Atoyebi and Sufian
Ikechukwu, Onyi and Edeh (2017) divide poverty into three categories: Absolute poverty, relative poverty and subjective poverty. Absolute poverty is a situation where an individual is constrained with limited financial resources and he is unable to meet his/her basic needs of life such as food, clothes, shelter and health. Relative Poverty is a situation where an individual's income is less than the average income of the population in the society being considered. Subjective poverty is based on the individual perception about an individual's standard of living.
Poverty reduction is the alleviation of level of poverty in an economy. Ezeanyeji et. al. (2018)

IV. Lazear Theory of Entrepreneurship
Lazear Theory of Entrepreneurship is also known as jack-of-all-trades theory. It is propounded by Edward Lazear in 2002. Astebro and Thompson (2011), Backes-Gellner and Moog (2013) Lazear Theory of Entrepreneurship indicates that, entrepreneurs should be jacks-of-all-trades in order to have broad and diverse knowledge, skills and professional experience in different aspects of business . The theory explains an individual selection into entrepreneurship (Hsieh, Parker and van Praag, 2017), which signifies alternative perception to the risk aversion theory. The theory considers that individuals with a balanced but diversified combination of skills and knowledge, collected from diverse sources and domains, are more likely to become entrepreneurs, therefore capturing hybrid entrepreneurship in theory and in practice.
Despite the relevance of Lazear Theory of Entrepreneurship to the practice and concept of hybrid entrepreneurship,  state that this theory fails to capture how entrepreneurs as jacks-of-all-trades become successful. Thus,  (Tegtmeier, Kurczewska & Halberstadt, 2016).

V. Conceptual Framework
The conceptual framework of research is indicated in Figure 1 below. As it is observed, three factors which are paid employment, hybrid entrepreneurship and selfemployment affect poverty reduction.

VI. Research Methodology
The study adopts qualitative research approach and employs exploratory research design. The paper makes use of secondary data and the data are retrieved via review of the past studies on hybrid entrepreneurship. The study employs a critical review on past studies on the subject matter so as to identify the relationship that exists between hybrid entrepreneurship and poverty reduction. Content analysis is used to analyze the observations in the studies reviewed.

Review of Studies on Hybrid Entrepreneurship and Poverty Reduction
The review of studies on hybrid entrepreneurship and poverty reduction via qualitative research and content analysis are listed below in Table 1:

VII. Findings and Discussion
One of the contemporary issues in entrepreneurship is hybrid entrepreneurship. Hybrid entrepreneurship is very important for the survival of individuals, especially in developing economies like Nigeria. The challenges in Nigerian economy have made living conditions for Nigerians difficult to bear. The high rate of inflation as a Additionally, it is observed that there are studies on hybrid entrepreneurship in the globe. Most of the studies are not done in Africa, especially in Nigeria as they are conducted in developed countries. The study of Aladejebi (2020) on hybrid entrepreneurship does not capture poverty reduction. Relatively, the studies of Hussaini andIbrahim (2019), Ezeanyeji et. al. (2019), Ikechukwu, Onyi and Edeh (2017), Ibitoye, Atoyebi and Sufian (2015) examine entrepreneurship and poverty reduction in Nigeria, but hybrid entrepreneurship is not captured. This is a strong evidence that, more about hybrid entrepreneurship need to be examined.
It is obvious that much focus has not been given in the literature to how hybrid entrepreneurship could reduce poverty level, because most of the studies are from developed economies where poverty is not a major issue of concern. The few studies in Nigeria and probably in developing economies are only looking for how entrepreneurship activities could be promoted. What is prevalent in Nigeria and many other developing economies is part-time entrepreneurship which has not enhanced poverty reduction as such, because there is still evidence of poverty from the contextual observation. This could be as a result of the legal framework as it operates in Nigeria. Besides, the medical and legal professionals running self-employment with official jobs are not tolerated as such. Government and many private organizations see this as divided interest, which will jeopardize the main interest of organization. Also, it could be as a result of poor risk taking ability and poor income that are not sufficient to engage in extra activity.

VIII. Conclusion
Literature shows that, hybrid entrepreneurship has elevated some notable businessmen and businesswomen to achieve their personal goals for becoming billionaires of the world. For instance, Steve Wozniak as the founder of Apple worked in a paid job while running his personal business. Similarly, Pierre Omidyar was a paid personnel at a software development firm when he founded e-bay.
Thus, one could see that hybrid entrepreneurship will lift individuals out of poverty to the point of becoming millionaires if embraced. It is concluded that, hybrid entrepreneurship is a determinant practice to reduce the rate of poverty in Nigeria because of availability of many untapped resources and opportunity. Thus, hybrid entrepreneurship has several advantages in terms of economics and finance.
Therefore, the study recommends that hybrid entrepreneurship should be encouraged among the citizens in Nigeria to reduce the poverty level. Also, every Nigerian should try to get involved or engage in other businesses to augment their income for achieving their personal and family goals. This would create jobs and minimize the poverty level.