Stimulation Versus Simulation: The Student Side Hustle as a Learning Innovation

Abstract

A side hustle is a small-scale business activity in addition to one’s primary job. Our learning innovation is the student side hustle (SSH), a small-scale business in addition to the student’s academic work. It fits within an existing entrepreneurship course, allowing students to launch small scale ventures on a campus-based peer-to-peer marketplace platform. The SSH contributes to the broader category of side hustles and to the existing category of experiential learning exercises that result in student businesses. We position the concept in the appropriate foundational literature, and offer insights into the details of our “stimulation” and its outcomes, evidence of its effectiveness, lessons learned, and extensions of the exercise.

Side-hustling and Meaningfulness in Work

“…This was identified on two levels: the individual and the common good. The major contribution of this study is that meaningfulness has been lacking in previous side-hustle discussion (Ashford et al, 2018;Clark, 2018;Forster-Holt, 2021;Nduati Omanga, 2016;Scott et al, 2020;Sessions et al, 2021). Based on this study, it can be argued that side job has influence on the experience of career meaningfulness.…”

“…Our study contributes to the discussion on the nature of contemporary careers (Boyd et al, 2016;Campion et al, 2020;Caza et al, 2018;Cohen & Mallon, 1999;Fraser & Gold, 2001;Handy, 1985;Innes et al, 2005;Marucci-Wellman, et al, 2016;Raffel & Groff, 1990;Wu et al, 2009), side-hustling (Ashford et al, 2018;Clark, 2018;Nduati Omanga, 2016;Forster-Holt, 2021;Scott, Edwards, & Stanczyk, 2020;Sessions et al, 2021) and meaningfulness in work (Pratt & Ashforth, 2003;Rosso et al, 2010;Yeoman, 2014). The role of individual agency (Arthur, 1994;Arthur & Rousseau, 1996) and responsibility for managing one's own career (Hall, 2002;Hall & Moss, 1998;Mirvis & Hall, 1996;Sullivan & Baruch, 2009) are visible in the data of this study.…”

“…The concept side-hustle is relatively new in career discussions and side-hustling research scant so far, but the interest to has been rising recently (see: Ashford et al, 2018;Clark, 2018;Forster-Holt, 2021;Nduati Omanga, 2016;Scott et al, 2020;Sessions et al, 2021). The concept of side-hustle means income-generating work performed alongside full-time jobs (Sessions et al, 2021).…”