Search results

The ideal-typical entrepreneur presents him/herself in the neoliberal iconography as an autonomous and pro-active individual who is highly engaged with his/her vocation. Nevertheless, empirical research on the actual work engagement of the self-employed is scarce. In addition, phenomena like “necessity self-employment” and “economically dependent self-employment” raise concerns about the potential eudaimonic well-being outcomes of these self-employed. In this study, it was therefore investigated to what extent necessity self-employment and economically dependent self-employment are associated to work engagement and whether this relation is mediated by intrinsic job resources.

The authors used data from the 2015 European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) involving 5,463 solo self-employed participants. For analyzing the data, structural equation modeling (SEM) with the Lavaan package was used.

Both necessity self-employment and economically dependent self-employment were linked to poor work engagement, however, intrinsic job resources mediated both effects.

While previous studies have shown differences in hedonic well-being between opportunity/necessity entrepreneurs, and economically (in)dependent entrepreneurs, this study considers their distinct profiles regarding eudaimonic well-being. Eudaimonic well-being was deemed particularly relevant because of its implications for other outcomes such as life satisfaction, psychological well-being, ill-health, business performance and persistence in self-employment.

This chapter investigates how normative beliefs attributed to insecure paid work and care responsibilities affect social understandings of the work–family boundary, and either challenge or reinforce traditional links between gender and moral obligation.

Within an interpretive approach and from a gender perspective, I present a discourse analysis of 41 interviews with Italian parents.

This chapter shows that women in the sample felt forced into blurred boundaries that did not suit their work–family normative beliefs. Men in the sample perceived that they had more boundary control, and they created boundaries that support an innovative fatherhood model. Unlike women, men’s boundaries aligned with their desires.

The specific target of respondents prevents empirical comparisons between social classes. Moreover, the cross-level analysis presented is limited: in particular, further investigation is required at the level of organizational cultures.

The study suggests not only thinking in terms of work–family boundary segmentation and integration but also looking at the normative dimensions which can either enhance or exacerbate perceptions of the work–family interface. The value of the study also stems from its theoretically relevant target.

This explorative study aims to investigate work precariousness (WP) among EU27-based economically dependent solo self-employed, i.e. those with no employees and usually relying on just one client.

Univariate and multivariate analyses of European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) (2015) and Eurostat data.

The analyses yielded Disempowerment, intended as lack of job autonomy and money-induced Vulnerability as the dimensions of WP. Disempowerment was found positively influenced by workers' threat of losing the job and negatively by the enjoyment from being their own boss. Vulnerability was negatively influenced by workers' age, perceived easiness to find new customers, household's financial well-being as well as the country's employment rate.

The study represents pioneer exploration of the phenomenon's dimensionality and main determinants.

This paper analyses the relation between occupational characteristics and the probability that a worker in the Netherlands has a false self-employed arrangement instead of an employee arrangement. These are arrangements in which self-employed workers perform tasks in the hierarchy of the firm as if they were employees.

Data from the Dutch Labour Force Survey is used to analyse the relationship between occupational skill, routine and wage level and the probability to be a false self-employed or a standard or non-standard employee.

The results show that the probability to be false self-employed decreases slightly with the skill level of the occupation, but there is no evidence that false self-employment is more likely in low paid, routine occupations. Workers in the lowest paid occupations are more likely to have a non-standard contract as an employee. False self-employment arrangements are more likely in the (lower) middle paid occupations. Finally, the results show that working in the highest paid occupations increases the probability of being in a false self-employed arrangement, but only in arrangements that are characterised by economic and organizational dependency. These are arrangements with financial dependency on one client for income combined with dependency on this client on when and where to work.

This study makes an important contribution to the literature on identifying vulnerable self-employed workers as well as to the literature on mechanisms behind the growth of solo self-employment.

Since the late 1980s, much attention has been afforded to the notion of social exclusion and how governments might address this problem. One such solution has been the encouragement of self employment amongst those considered to be socially excluded with the aim of creating opportunity for individuals, generating new jobs and contributing to local economic regeneration. The purpose of this paper is to critically evaluate the relationship between entrepreneurship and social exclusion by considering the potential for benefit dependent lone mothers to enter self employment in order to escape disadvantage.

A theoretical paper which draws upon the concepts of gender, enterprise and social exclusion which are then linked through an analysis of the possibilities which self employment may offer benefit dependent lone mothers to undertake an economically viable activity.

From the arguments explored here, it would appear that self employment is limited in terms of meeting the economic needs of these women, is unlikely to create new job opportunities or act as impetus to local regeneration and in fact, may encourage undeclared working for both the owners and employees in such enterprises.

Draws upon a range of diverse arguments to offer an original contribution to the social policy and entrepreneurship debate.

This study focusses on dependent self-employment, which covers a situation where a person works for the same employer as a typical worker whilst on a self-employment contractual basis, i.e. without a traditional employment contract and without certain rights granted to “regular” employees.

The research exploits the individual-level dataset of 35 European countries extracted from the 2017 edition of the European Labour Force Survey (EU LFS) and compares the characteristics of employees and dependent self-employed individuals. Methodologically, the study relies on the estimation of a multivariate logistic regression model.

The main hypothesis assuming that dependent self-employed work most often in low-skilled occupations was empirically supported. There was also a non-linear (u-shaped) relationship between the years of accumulated experience (with a turning point at 35 years) and the likelihood of being dependent self-employed. Other results showed that dependent self-employed are less likely to be women and the dependent self-employed are more likely born outside of the countries where the dependent self-employed participate in the labour markets.

The study contributes to the field by adopting a comparable definition of dependent self-employment and exploiting the recent theoretical support of The Work Precarity Framework. The phenomenon should still be addressed by policymakers and labour office representatives, aiming to protect, primarily, vulnerable lower-skilled workers. The ongoing research should study the longitudinal dimension of dependent self-employment with a focus on motivational aspects.

There is growing political interest in new forms of precarious self‐employment located in a “grey area” between employment and self‐employment. A wide range of concepts has been used to debate this issue, and this paper aims to clarify these debates through the concept of involuntary self‐employment.

The paper reviews the empirical, conceptual and legal‐policy approaches to involuntary self‐employment via three country case studies in Finland, Germany and the UK. A range of relevant domestic academic literature, articles in the media, selected key expert interviews, and policy and legal documents are employed.

Conceptual clarity regarding involuntary self‐employment is achieved through a discussion of two aspects of the phenomenon: the characteristics of involuntariness from a motives‐based perspective, and the legal/economic perspectives and policy issues. The motives‐based analysis argues that involuntariness as such does not seem to have severe implications on the individuals' well being, given that the individual earns a satisfactory livelihood from her or his business activities. The discussion of the characteristics of and regulation related to working arrangements in the “grey area” between employment and self‐employment, where the self‐employed individual is strongly dependent on the principal, shows that it is very difficult to regulate quasi self‐employment without harming “voluntary” forms of enterprise and inter‐firm cooperation at the same time.

The key contribution of the paper is to facilitate a foundation for subsequent empirical research and policy development.

The purpose of this study is to discuss the ongoing increase of female entrepreneurship within a broader context of influencing factors, especially within the division of work. Talk about the rise and future of self-employment must be linked to the discussion about changes in the structure of occupations, labour markets and regulations and gender. The increase of the service sector and the continuous rise of the liberal professions mirror changes within the category of self-employment. All different items are embedded into a general trend of a growing knowledge society. A fundamental question is how gender matters when investigating these trends. Do we find specific “gender patterns” or will the new chances and risks lead to a greater equality of opportunities? Is the increase of solo self-employment of females driven by the need to earn a living, or is it the result of females taking the risk, e.g., to become more economically independent?

The paper combines conceptual thoughts on the development of self-employment and gender within stratified modern societies with empirical reflections based on public census data for Germany. The research delves deeper into the different segments of the employment system and connects empirical findings with the theoretical discussion on professional groups in modern capitalist societies.

We learn to acknowledge that the rise of self-employment is mostly supported by the rise of micro-firms and solo self-employment, of which especially solo self-employment is a female domain. The independent liberal professions also indicate a significant revival of female labour.

The paper highlights the increasing expansion of self-employment and specific gender patterns within this trend.

In recent years, there has been a concern that employers are falsely classifying employees as self-employed to evade collective agreements and labour laws (e.g. minimum wages, working time legislation and protection in case of redundancy), and the result is that these dependent self-employed suffer poorer working conditions. The purpose of this paper is to provide an extensive evaluation of the working conditions of those in dependent self-employment compared with the genuine self-employed.

To do so, data are reported from a 2015 European Working Conditions Survey of 35,765 workers in 28 European Union member states.

Of the 4.3 per cent of the working population found to be in dependent self-employment, the finding is that they have similar working conditions to the genuine self-employed in terms of their physical and social environment and intensity of work. However, they have poorer job prospects and less ability to use their skills and discretion than the genuine self-employed. In terms of the working time quality, meanwhile, the finding is that they have better conditions than the genuine self-employed. Therefore, this analysis uncovers the need for a more nuanced understanding of the relative working conditions of the dependent self-employed.

If the working conditions of the dependent self-employed are to be tackled, evaluation is now required of whether the current policy approaches, such as developing a hybrid category of employment with legal rights attached, address the specific working conditions that are worse for the dependent self-employed.

This is one of the few papers which provides an extensive evaluation of the working conditions of those in dependent self-employment in the EU28.

This paper sets out to examine the challenges facing benefit‐dependent lone mothers who seek to engage with self‐employment.

A case study approach offers a detailed analysis of the experiences of three women considering the transition from benefit dependency to self‐employment.

The current welfare regime discourages lone mothers from entering formal self‐employment.

The number of cases is limited by the nature of the study involved. Future work would seek to expand upon this.

Questions are raised regarding the efficacy of current welfare to work policies as, in this case, they would appear to impede enterprising behaviour and positively encourage informal working.

The paper engages in a novel fashion with the concepts of gender, welfare dependency and enterprise whilst developing a critique of current policy.