Grey vs. Young Entrepreneurs: Are They Really That Different in Terms of Entrepreneurial Intentions? Empirical Evidence from Italy

Abstract

In the past, entrepreneurship was considered a young person's endeavour, since it was a working choice made after graduation. Social and demographic changes occurring over the last decades have totally modified that assumption so that entrepreneurship is now a phenomenon involving third age people (aged 55 or older) as well. Scholars have started investigating the differences between young and grey entrepreneurs. This topic of research has always been considered halfway between psychological and social studies on the one hand and entrepreneurial studies on the other. Without denying the relevance that psychological and social studies have in the field of entrepreneurship, in the present paper the phenomenon of grey entrepreneurship is only investigated according to an entrepreneurial perspective. Thus, predictors of entrepreneurial intentions are only rooted in entrepreneurial literature and refer to intellectual capital. The results, based on data retrieved from Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) website for Italy in 2013, indicate that grey and young entrepreneurs are not that different regarding intellectual capital affecting their entrepreneurial intentions. This result enriches previous literature about grey entrepreneurs.

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