IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/sbusec/v42y2014i3p579-594.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ageing and entrepreneurial preferences

Author

Listed:
  • Teemu Kautonen
  • Simon Down
  • Maria Minniti

Abstract

Previous research on age and entrepreneurship assumed homogeneity and downplayed age-related differences in the motives and aims underlying enterprising behaviour. We argue that the heterogeneity of entrepreneurship influences how the level of entrepreneurial activity varies with age. Using a sample of 2,566 respondents from 27 European countries, we show that entrepreneurial activity increases almost linearly with age for individuals who prefer to only employ themselves (self-employers), whereas it increases up to a critical threshold age (late 40s) and decreases thereafter for those who aspire to hire workers (owner-managers). Age has a considerably smaller effect on entrepreneurial behaviour for those who do not prefer self-employment but are pushed into it by lack of alternative employment opportunities (reluctant entrepreneurs). Our results question the conventional wisdom that entrepreneurial activity declines with age and suggest that effective responses to demographic changes require policy makers to pay close attention to the heterogeneity of entrepreneurial preferences. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014

Suggested Citation

  • Teemu Kautonen & Simon Down & Maria Minniti, 2014. "Ageing and entrepreneurial preferences," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 42(3), pages 579-594, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:sbusec:v:42:y:2014:i:3:p:579-594
    DOI: 10.1007/s11187-013-9489-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11187-013-9489-5
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11187-013-9489-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Croson, David C. & Minniti, Maria, 2012. "Slipping the surly bonds: The value of autonomy in self-employment," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 355-365.
    2. Andrew Henley, 2007. "Entrepreneurial aspiration and transition into self-employment: evidence from British longitudinal data," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(3), pages 253-280, May.
    3. Parker,Simon C., 2009. "The Economics of Entrepreneurship," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521728355, March.
    4. C. Mirjam Van Praag & Hans Van Ophem, 1995. "Determinants of Willingness and Opportunity to Start as an Entrepreneur," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(4), pages 513-540, November.
    5. Simon C. Parker & Martin T. Robson, 2004. "Explaining International Variations in Self-Employment: Evidence from a Panel of OECD Countries," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 71(2), pages 287-301, October.
    6. Cramer, J. S. & Hartog, J. & Jonker, N. & Van Praag, C. M., 2002. "Low risk aversion encourages the choice for entrepreneurship: an empirical test of a truism," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 29-36, May.
    7. Zissimopoulos, Julie M. & Karoly, Lynn A., 2007. "Transitions to self-employment at older ages: The role of wealth, health, health insurance and other factors," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 269-295, April.
    8. Gangaram Singh & Alex DeNoble, 2003. "Early Retirees As the Next Generation of Entrepreneurs," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 27(3), pages 207-226, July.
    9. Paull Weber & Michael Schaper, 2004. "Understanding The Grey Entrepreneur," Journal of Enterprising Culture (JEC), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 12(02), pages 147-164.
    10. Parker,Simon C., 2009. "The Economics of Entrepreneurship," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521899604, March.
    11. Van Praag, C Mirjam & Van Ophem, Hans, 1995. "Determinants of Willingness and Opportunity to Start as an Entrepreneur," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(4), pages 513-540.
    12. Jan de Kok & Ingrid Verheul & Abdelfatah Ichou, 2010. "New Firm Performance: Does the Age of Founders Affect Employment Creation?," Scales Research Reports H201015, EIM Business and Policy Research.
    13. Paul Reynolds & Niels Bosma & Erkko Autio & Steve Hunt & Natalie De Bono & Isabel Servais & Paloma Lopez-Garcia & Nancy Chin, 2005. "Global Entrepreneurship Monitor: Data Collection Design and Implementation 1998–2003," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 205-231, February.
    14. Romain Duval, 2004. "Retirement Behaviour in OECD Countries: Impact of Old-Age Pension Schemes and other Social Transfer Programmes," OECD Economic Studies, OECD Publishing, vol. 2003(2), pages 7-50.
    15. Victor R. Fuchs, 1982. "Self-Employment and Labor Force Participation of Older Males," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 17(3), pages 339-357.
    16. Evans, David S & Jovanovic, Boyan, 1989. "An Estimated Model of Entrepreneurial Choice under Liquidity Constraints," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(4), pages 808-827, August.
    17. Concepción Román & Emilio Congregado & José Millán, 2011. "Dependent self-employment as a way to evade employment protection legislation," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 37(3), pages 363-392, October.
    18. Blanchflower, David G. & Oswald, Andrew & Stutzer, Alois, 2001. "Latent entrepreneurship across nations," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(4-6), pages 680-691, May.
    19. Levesque, Moren & Minniti, Maria, 2006. "The effect of aging on entrepreneurial behavior," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 177-194, March.
    20. James Curran & Robert A Blackburn, 2001. "Older People and the Enterprise Society: Age and Self-Employment Propensities," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 15(4), pages 889-902, December.
    21. Teemu Kautonen & Erno Tornikoski & Ewald Kibler, 2011. "Entrepreneurial intentions in the third age: the impact of perceived age norms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 37(2), pages 219-234, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nadia Simoes & Nuno Crespo & Sandrina B. Moreira, 2016. "Individual Determinants Of Self-Employment Entry: What Do We Really Know?," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 783-806, September.
    2. Hannu Tervo, 2014. "Who turns to entrepreneurship later in life? - Push and pull in Finnish rural and urban areas," ERSA conference papers ersa14p236, European Regional Science Association.
    3. Kautonen, Teemu & Kibler, Ewald & Minniti, Maria, 2017. "Late-career entrepreneurship, income and quality of life," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 318-333.
    4. Mikaela Backman, 2013. "Who says life is over after 55? - New firm formation and an ageing population," ERSA conference papers ersa13p58, European Regional Science Association.
    5. Backman, Mikaela & Karlsson, Charlie, 2013. "Who says life is over after 55? Entrepreneurship and an aging population," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 325, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    6. Steven A. Brieger & Anne Bäro & Giuseppe Criaco & Siri A. Terjesen, 2021. "Entrepreneurs’ age, institutions, and social value creation goals: A multi-country study," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 425-453, June.
    7. Ting Zhang & Roger Stough & Dan Gerlowski, 2022. "Digital exposure, age, and entrepreneurship," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 69(3), pages 633-681, December.
    8. Ting Zhang & Zoltan Acs, 2018. "Age and entrepreneurship: nuances from entrepreneur types and generation effects," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 51(4), pages 773-809, December.
    9. Peter van der Zwan & Ingrid Verheul & Roy Thurik & Isabel Grilo, 2009. "Entrepreneurial Progress: Climbing the Entrepreneurial Ladder in Europe and the US," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 09-070/3, Tinbergen Institute, revised 17 Mar 2010.
    10. Murmann, Martin & Salmivaara, Virva & Kibler, Ewald, 2023. "How does late-career entrepreneurship relate to innovation?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(6).
    11. Kautonen, Teemu & Hatak, Isabella & Kibler, Ewald & Wainwright, Thomas, 2015. "Emergence of entrepreneurial behaviour: The role of age-based self-image," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 41-51.
    12. Justin Van Der Sluis & Mirjam Van Praag & Wim Vijverberg, 2008. "Education And Entrepreneurship Selection And Performance: A Review Of The Empirical Literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(5), pages 795-841, December.
    13. Amelia Biehl & Tami Gurley-Calvez & Brian Hill, 2014. "Self-employment of older Americans: do recessions matter?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 42(2), pages 297-309, February.
    14. Hannu Tervo & Hannu Niittykangas, 2011. "Self-employment transitions at older ages in different local labor markets," ERSA conference papers ersa11p764, European Regional Science Association.
    15. Joern Block & Roy Thurik & Peter van der Zwan & Sascha Walter, 2013. "Business Takeover or New Venture? Individual and Environmental Determinants from a Cross–Country Study," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 37(5), pages 1099-1121, September.
    16. Paul A. Coomes & Jose Fernandez & Stephan F. Gohmann, 2013. "The Rate of Proprietorship Among Metropolitan Areas: The Impact of the Local Economic Environment and Capital Resources," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 37(4), pages 745-770, July.
    17. Saul Estrin & Tomasz Mickiewicz & Anna Rebmann, 2017. "Prospect theory and the effects of bankruptcy laws on entrepreneurial aspirations," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 48(4), pages 977-997, April.
    18. Kameliia Petrova, 2016. "Entrepreneurship And The Informal Economy: An Empirical Analysis," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 21(02), pages 1-21, June.
    19. Farzana Chowdhury & David B. Audretsch, 2021. "A dynamic relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and entrepreneurial activity," Journal of International Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 339-356, September.
    20. Ying Zhu & Ayse Collins & Zhixing Xu & Deepak Sardana & S. Tamer Cavusgil, 2022. "Achieving aging well through senior entrepreneurship: a three-country empirical study," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 59(2), pages 665-689, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Age; Entrepreneurship; Self-employment; Preference; Demographic change; J14; J24; M13; L26;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • M13 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - New Firms; Startups
    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:sbusec:v:42:y:2014:i:3:p:579-594. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.