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The aim of this article is to discuss how age and entrepreneurship interact in the specific case of older (50+) entrepreneurs. Building on theories on entrepreneurship and theories on age and aging, the authors’ focus is on how such entrepreneurs relate to the building and running of a business organization. The authors discuss how entrepreneurship among the elderly plays out and how older entrepreneurs relate to the narratives on both age and entrepreneurship.

This research comprises quantitative as well as qualitative studies. The authors show that qualitative methods that unfold the process over time are necessary and essential to fully understand how and why entrepreneurs start their own business and/or continue to run it at older ages.

The authors find that the choice to become an entrepreneur at the age of 50+ (or to stay as one) is not a goal in itself, becoming an entrepreneur is a means to stay active in the labor market.

The study findings add to entrepreneurship theory by insights on the link between entrepreneurship and the labor market where the authors argue that becoming an entrepreneur at ages 50+ might be more a question of choice of organizational form than a question on a way of living or occupation. The authors also contribute to theories on age by showing that entrepreneurs aged 50+ choose entrepreneurship as a means to be able to stay in the labor market.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the construction of master narratives related to age, gender and entrepreneurship in the context of entrepreneurship education (EE) in Finnish higher education (HE). This is important as master narratives create and limit our understanding of entrepreneurship.

The data comprises 30 student interviews generated in one multidisciplinary Finnish university. The data were analyzed using narrative positioning analysis to examine what kinds of master narratives are (re)constructed in relation to age and entrepreneurship by Finnish university students and how gender intertwines with age in the construction of entrepreneurship.

Three aged and gendered master narratives were identified: (1) youthful, masculine, startup/growth entrepreneurship; (2) middle-aged feminine, expert entrepreneurship and (3) modest, feminine, senior entrepreneurship. The paper makes visible aged and gendered master narratives and cultural norms related to entrepreneurship in the context of EE and HE. Authors argue that the youthful, masculine startup/growth entrepreneurship is the hegemonic master narrative in the context of EE in Finnish HE. Femininity is mostly excluded from this master narrative.

The paper contributes to critical literature on entrepreneurship as an aged as well as gendered phenomenon in the context of EE and HE. So far research on entrepreneurship as an aged and gendered phenomenon in EE and in the context of HE has been virtually non-existent. Moreover, the theoretical and methodological focus on master narratives in entrepreneurship and EE literature is novel. The master narratives identified in the study show that HE students are not addressed equally in relation to entrepreneurship, but aged and gendered hierarchies are sustained.

Over the last decades, the development of entrepreneurial activity has allowed greater growth and economic development in Spain. However, within the analysis of Spanish entrepreneurial dynamics, insufficient attention has been paid to a key group: senior entrepreneurs. The fact that the first two decades of the 21st century have been accompanied by the two worst economic crises in remembrance since the Great Depression of the 1930s has had a great impact on the professional careers of the group of senior workers, whose careers have been cut short due to the closure of companies. In this way, the present work delves into the reality of senior entrepreneurs in Spain, analyzing the main characteristics of this group, which is becoming increasingly important in society.

Using microdata from the Spanish National Statistics Institute's Labour Force Survey, the study focuses on reference persons who, being 50 years of age or over and actively working, work as an entrepreneur and have started their activity in the last 12 months. The study covers, in turn, the analysis period of the fourth quarters from 2005 to 2020. In relation to the methodology, the work focuses on the use of binary logistic regression techniques, given that the phenomenon to be studied is binary in nature: entrepreneurship or not.

The main conclusions drawn are the importance of sociodemographic factors such as educational level, age, the profession of the couple as well as the fact of having or not having children. The sector of activity and region are also significant. It is also concluded that senior entrepreneurship in Spain is of a necessary nature, considering the evolution of unemployment and decisions based on pension reform.

The main limitations of the study refer to the lack of socioeconomic information. Thus, it would be interesting to know the link among the sociodemographic characteristics and the economic situation of the professionals, as well as the fact of whether they have started from a previous situation of unemployment or employment.

The obtained conclusions allow progress to be made in the generation of economic policies aimed at the professional reorientation of a group of workers who, due to labor market circumstances, are obliged to end long professional careers and to seek alternatives. In fact, entrepreneurship is a viable professional alternative for these professionals.

Despite the importance of senior professionals in the Spanish economy, more research is needed on their characteristics and needs. Despite important studies such as Socci et al. (2020) or Perez-Encinas et al. (2021), there are not many studies for the Spanish reality. This paper seeks to deepen the understanding of the sociodemographic characteristics of Spanish senior entrepreneurs, based on current public information and considering different stages of the economic cycle.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO, 2015), in the next 30 years, the world population will age rapidly, so that in the middle of the twenty-first century those people who are over 60 years of age will be double that at the beginning of the century. Between 2015 and 2050, the world population with more than 60 years of age will increase from 900 million to 2,000 million.

Faced with this demographic change experienced by the world population, formulas are increasingly being raised that make active aging possible, opening possibilities for self-realization and personal and professional growth until the end of life. This is one of the reasons why more and more scholars and practitioners are focusing on the value of entrepreneurship in older adults and the programs that encourage it.

This chapter aims to reflect on what leads the group of so-called senior entrepreneurs to start a new work–life based on entrepreneurship or self-employment, as well as discuss some myths of entrepreneurship. To what extent we must consider the firm performance as a variable on which the decision can be taken is pivoted. Entrepreneurship is a complex issue, and although it is true that it has been strongly analyzed both academically and professionally by different generations of young people, the behavior of senior entrepreneurs, a population group that is becoming increasingly important sociologically and economically, has barely been studied.

This study investigates how older women linguists' careers developed and led to self-employment, and this not necessarily in a linear career stage fashion. The focus is on understanding the factors that influence older women to become or continue into an entrepreneurship lifestyle, beyond economic reasons.

The research questions that guided this research are: (1) How have women linguists' careers developed at older or older old age? and (2) Which factors influenced women linguists' decision to become or continue as self-employed at older or older old age? This study is based on semi-structure interviews and short narratives written by ten informants about their late-career motivations and decisions. To get a holistic view of career development of women linguistics at an older age, the approach adopted in this study is explorative and interpretive, where the theoretical perspective supporting this approach derives mainly from career and wellbeing theories.

The authors’ findings signal that these self-employed older women's careers develop along parallel, explorative or expertise directions. The factors which appear to influence these women's decision to continue their careers as entrepreneurs include economic reasons (having), clearly. They also importantly point to other themes surrounding wellbeing including social relations (loving), self-realization and lifelong learning (being), entrepreneurship as a life style (acting) and meaningful extension of one's career (belonging).

This paper discusses how older women entrepreneurs may experience wellbeing and careers integrated together. It challenges the common notion of “career” as a one-time, linear “choice”, and instead shows how older women's entrepreneurship is a complex phenomenon.

Mature age or older entrepreneurship is an understudied but important area of research due to the ageing population and changing demographics in society. The purpose of this study is to review the literature about older entrepreneurship to understand the gaps and areas that need more attention.

A systematic literature review was undertaken and then the content was analyzed according to main themes. The key issues currently discussed about older entrepreneurship are stated, which leads to a number of future research suggestions.

The findings involve the need to take more care in how to define and conceptualize older entrepreneurship and to undertake more studies that have an older sample in general entrepreneurship research.

The systematic literature review highlights the gaps in the literature about older entrepreneurs that need to be addressed in future research.

The paper provides some suggestions about how older people can be more involved in entrepreneurship.

This study contributes to the emerging literature about older entrepreneurship by providing an overview and directions for the future.

The research aims to examine the underlying factors of entrepreneurial intentions among seniors. In this vein, it evaluates the role of social context proxied by the human development index (HDI) along with individual characteristics towards these initiatives. Emerging economies deliver great potential for income generation swiftly approaching the standards of their developed counterparts. Their present ageing trends severely threaten growth prospects because of workforce withering. European insights will help anticipating constraints through alternative models of human capital allocation.

Four logistic regressions were run to address hypotheses in test, relying upon the global entrepreneurship monitor – adult population survey. Estimations include 20,386 individuals from database and 21 European Union countries. Ex-post robustness checks corroborate the global significance of the proposed model.

Empirical findings reinforce the importance of the macroeconomic context among senior endeavours and the non-linearities in terms of the age effect. Moreover, context can help eroding gender gaps in this field and refine the opportunity perception These results go in line with the literature and extend the importance of promoting a favourable ecosystem. Promotion of senior endeavours must consider smart policy packages encompassing the individual singularities as this age range will be too important to be wasted. Senior entrepreneurs are key to the latent job market crisis, needing to be encouraged through positive discrimination.

Originally, by incorporating an exogenous variable encompassing the role of the entrepreneurial context, this study contributes academically to evaluating the determinants of entrepreneurial activity among the elderly. In addition, the development of cohorts highlights the specific importance of individual characteristics in entrepreneurial propensity in each context. The heterogenous results proves the ineffectiveness of “one sizes fits all” policies.

This research reinforces extant literature, notwithstanding the empirical refinements implemented brought up two additional perspectives: complementing previous towards the relevance of HDI cohorts along with the non-linearities of the effect of age. Learning from the European context and acknowledging efficacy of policy instruments will avoid serendipitous actions or failures, enhancing promising ecosystems such as emerging economies.

The study academically contributes to the appraisal of the determinants of entrepreneurial activity among seniors, thus, in an original way, by incorporating an exogenous variable to appraise the role of the context. Development cohorts evidence the existence of singularities in entrepreneurial propensity and individual characteristics according to their levels, such that policy actions should consider their differences.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the developing literature on entrepreneurship and identity by exploring the multidimensionality of older (50+) British women entrepreneurs’ identity. By using positionality as a lens, greater insight into the complexity of the lived multiple identities of older women entrepreneurs is explored.

A total of 12 in-depth qualitative interviews took place throughout the UK seeking to capture the various experiences of how older women engage with intersecting discourses surrounding enterprise culture and ageing whilst constructing their identities.

Overall, findings evidence the outcomes of these intersecting dimensions are largely positive and demonstrate the life enhancing benefits of these overlaps. Whilst tension was evidenced between age and how these women entrepreneurs perceive their entrepreneurial identities, as well as some constraints between identity as “mother” and “entrepreneur”, overall synergy was found between the intersection of older women entrepreneurs’ social identities and their entrepreneurial identity. It must be noted, however, that this synergy was heavily reliant on context and stage of life for these women.

This paper challenges the traditional discourse of entrepreneurship, which produces a homogenous view of entrepreneurs and omits key historical and social variables in the process of identity formation. The current paper adds to increasing calls to develop more sophisticated ways of measuring and understanding entrepreneurship and its impacts. The authors echo calls throughout the most recent literature to move away from the agency agenda and pursue lines of enquiry that examine entrepreneurship as a process in contexts that are underpinned by both agency and external factors.

This study investigates the personal factors influencing innovative entrepreneurship combined with additional contextual insights from high-income European countries. Specifically, this study has three main objectives: (i) to measure differences in the level of entrepreneurial innovativeness activity among high-income European regions; (ii) to uncover key factors leading to appropriate levels of entrepreneurial innovativeness and (iii) to suggest policies that may enhance the regional level of entrepreneurial innovation.

A sample of 4,430 nascent and new entrepreneurs from 16 different high-income European countries drawn from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Adult Population Survey (APS) was used in conjunction with macroeconomic indicators. Data were analyzed using a logistic regression analysis.

There are significant differences in the conditions that influence entrepreneurial innovativeness in European regions. These variations in entrepreneurial activity can be explained using contextual factors and individual characteristics. Although technological novelty increases the probability of innovative entrepreneurship, the technology effect is significantly greater in Western Europe than other regions across Europe.

This study illustrates how a contextualized view of entrepreneurship enriches the knowledge of the human and dynamic socioeconomic drivers that motivate innovative entrepreneurial action in high-income European countries.