Bridge Employment as a Post-Retirement Strategy: Insights from Croatian Entrepreneurs

Population aging is reshaping retirement trajectories, challenging traditional models that conceptualize retirement as a definitive withdrawal from productive roles. While bridge employment has been widely studied, research has largely focused on former salaried employees, leaving the post-retirement pathways of entrepreneurs underexplored. This qualitative case study research examines how seven retired Croatian entrepreneurs engage in bridge employment (paid or voluntary work undertaken after formal exit from their primary businesses) and how they interpret this engagement in later life. Drawing on Continuity theory, the findings suggest that entrepreneurial retirement is better understood as a process of role reconfiguration rather than role exit. Participants strategically redeployed accumulated human, social, and symbolic capital into advisory roles, mentoring, new ventures, and community activities. Contrary to dominant assumptions emphasizing financial necessity, engagement was predominantly intrinsically motivated, grounded in autonomy, competence, and purpose preservation. The study refines Continuity theory by demonstrating that identity continuity among entrepreneurs is structurally scaffolded through retained ownership, networks, and agency. By situating the analysis within a post-socialist transition economy, the paper contributes to retirement and entrepreneurship research by conceptualizing entrepreneurial bridge employment as a redistribution model of engagement in later life. The findings offer theoretical insights and inform policy discussions on active aging and the societal value of retired entrepreneurs.