PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate how degree-holding secondary school teachers cope in a recessive economy by embracing hybrid entrepreneurship (HE). Specifically, we investigated how comparison with referent others, underemployment and relative deprivation led to HE.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopted a cross-sectional research design. We used snowball and purposive sampling techniques to recruit 303 bachelor’s degree holders teaching in Nigerian public secondary schools in two states of the federation (Ondo and Ekiti states). We analyzed the data with regression path analysis and controlled for age and gender.FindingsThe results of this study showed the following. First, teachers were high in the feeling of pay underemployment and relative deprivation. Second, pay underemployment and relative deprivation directly led to HE. Third, teachers were indirectly high in HE through either pay underemployment or relative deprivation. Finally, underemployment and relative deprivation serially mediate the relationship between referent others and HE.Research limitations/implicationsOverall, the results suggest that teachers’ involvement in HE is necessity-driven to cope with the recessive Nigerian economy. However, future research should focus on a more experimental approach to determine the cause-effect relationship.Originality/valueThis is the first study to investigate how workers embrace HE to cope with the consequences of a recessive economy.
Predicting hybrid entrepreneurship among secondary school teachers in Nigeria