Abstract
Do we really know senior entrepreneurs? What drives them to start a business? What is their human, social and financial capital? Is there a profile of senior entrepreneurs or are there multiple? Do they start innovative businesses? What experiences occur in different contexts? Are current policies supporting senior entrepreneurs or is there a need for more specific ones?
The Handbook of Research on Elderly Entrepreneurship encompasses contributions from 32 authors located in different contexts and from a variety of backgrounds. A broad and diversified perspective (i.e. psychological, sociological, political and economic) is adopted to answer these questions. The Handbook is a relevant read for scholars, as well as policymakers and practitioners concerned with the dynamics associated with senior entrepreneurship. It includes concise reviews of the literature (Chapters 2 and 12); considerations of the links between psychology, sociology and gerontology theories and ageing and retirement, within the field of entrepreneurship (Chapters 3–5); studies focusing on the existing diversity among senior entrepreneurs (Chapters 6–10); and studies presenting different contexts of senior entrepreneurship (Chapters 11, 13 and 14).
Part I explores theoretical approaches and empirical results regarding senior entrepreneurship entry and exit and reflects the state of the art. Chapter 2 reviews the existing literature on senior entrepreneurship and identifies a major focus on the psychological dimension in existing studies. The chapter highlights the need to use psychological age as a better predictor of entrepreneurial intention (following previous research by Kautonen and Minniti (2014) and Kautonen et al. (2015)). In Chapter 3, the authors discuss the importance of context and how it affects entrepreneurial behaviour. They state that ‘researchers need to be sensitive to the impact of being in a given group such as elderly. This is a context that clearly impacts entrepreneurial cognitions’ (p. 47). Chapter 4 goes on to link entrepreneur retirement and firm exit. This is a relevant and unique contribution, as most of the research on senior entrepreneurship focuses on entry (Matos et al., 2018). The chapter explores how and when individuals decide to cease entrepreneurial activity and what plans (i.e. succession, sale) senior entrepreneurs have for their firms after they retire. Chapter 5 takes a closer look at the characteristics of older people and possible positive implications for the well-being of the older individuals through the pursuit of entrepreneurship.
Part II sets out to explore different facets of senior entrepreneurship which might help to understand different profiles and challenges/needs of senior entrepreneurs. Chapter 6 distinguishes between nascent and existing, necessity and opportunity, incorporated and unincorporated and full- and part-time entrepreneurs. Echoing previous research, the author highlights that senior entrepreneurs are a heterogeneous group. Within this diversity, Chapter 7 tests (and finds support for) the hypothesis that older individuals tend to have a lower propensity to adopt innovative technology and pursue product/service innovation, compared to younger individuals.
Chapters 8–10 explore senior entrepreneurs in terms of gender. Chapter 8 discusses why gender matters in senior entrepreneurship. It emphasizes the potential double discrimination among senior female entrepreneurs, so-called ‘gendered ageism’ (Duncan and Loretto, 2004). Chapter 9 points to the policies fostering senior female entrepreneurship. The authors assess the key Entrepreneurial Framework Conditions and find evidence for the importance of entrepreneurial finance and government policies encouraging entrepreneurial activity by senior women. Chapter 10 focuses on understanding the engagement of senior female entrepreneurs in professional networks. The authors suggest the existence of three categories of senior female entrepreneurs, divided according to the motivation to be part of a professional network and their willingness to make their business grow.
Following the call for a more contextualized analysis of entrepreneurship (Minola et al., 2016; Welter, 2011), Part III expands on previous chapters by focusing on senior entrepreneurship in different contexts. The interesting contribution of Chapter 11 is that it illustrates the case of a senior entrepreneur who, at the age of 69, founded an organisation in the health sector which developed an innovative model of treatment. Chapter 12 builds a portrait of the older entrepreneur. Aspects such as age range, modes of transition to entrepreneurship, personal and societal importance, stage of life and context are discussed.
Chapter 13 presents and discusses the case of a pilot senior entrepreneurship incubator initiative in Israel. The initiative seems to have contributed to raising awareness of the entrepreneurial opportunities for older people, enhancing knowledge on senior entrepreneurship and fostering entrepreneurial intentions and motivations, thus highlighting the importance of age-specific training programmes.
The last chapter focuses on foreign senior entrepreneurs in the Chinese context. Based on the author’s personal experiences in China, the study emphasises the importance of the cultural context. In China, elderly people benefit from ample respect due to their life experience and this may increase their chances of succeeding as entrepreneurs in the Chinese market.
The Handbook provides valuable and fresh insights into the field of senior entrepreneurship. According to Shepherd (2015), research on entrepreneurship must accompany mega trends of society, such as ageing. The specificities of ageing, how age is perceived, the role of technology and the role of diversified contexts, are some of the aspects discussed in the Handbook, the ways in which they shape senior entrepreneurial activity. These contributions enable the reader to obtain a broad perspective of the state of the art and of ongoing discussions and to identify future research opportunities, as well as practical orientations. All in all, the authors have written an interesting and insightful book, which obviously benefits from the diversity of backgrounds of the authors.