Influence of work history on entrepreneurial intentions in ‘prime age’ and ‘third age’: A preliminary study

Abstract

This exploratory study investigates the relationship between an individual's socialization into different professional and organizational cultures and their subsequent entrepreneurial intentions. Using age cohorts as a proxy for the duration of work-related socialization processes and changes in the business environment over time, the study proposes that the impact of work history is stronger in 'third age' (50-64 years) than in 'prime age' (20-49 years). The principal finding is that older individuals, those aged 50-plus, who have spent the majority of their career in 'blue-collar' industrial work are less inclined towards entrepreneurship than the working-age population in Western Finland generally. One reason is the perceived lack of support from important social contacts. Contrary to expectations, a work history in the public sector or small businesses does not seem to affect subsequent entrepreneurial intentions. Further research is required to provide a more fine-grained understanding of the impact of work history on entrepreneurial intentions.

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

“…In the same vein, some scholars focused on European countries. Kautonen et al (2010Kautonen et al ( , 2011 investigated grey entrepreneurship in Finland, Backman and Karlsson (2013) investigated the Swedish case and Curran and Blackburn (2001), Parker and Rougier (2007), Small (2012), and Kautonen (2013) investigated the phenomenon in the United Kingdom. Other scholars chose non-European countries.…”

“…This result is aligned with some previous studies. According to Kautonen et al (2010), some differences exist between young and third age entrepreneurs and, in particular, according to Zolin (2015), senior entrepreneurs display an exceptionally shrewd approach to entrepreneurship.…”

“…Kautonen et al (2011) used this model to test the impact of perceived age norms. Alternatively, Kautonen, Luoto and Tornikoski (2010) addressed their attention toward the role previously held by older entrepreneurs. They tested whether previous roles of industrial workers, employees in the public sector or small business affected entrepreneurial intentions in third age.…”

Building up the Entrepreneurial Intent Construct among Technical Students in Vietnam

“…In fact, TPB has been found to be an effective model for studying and understanding entrepreneurial intention (Moriano et al, 2011;Van Gelderen et al, 2008). Using TPB to study entrepreneurial intention was found in various studies, for examples, Kautonen et al (2010), Sommer and Haug (2011), just to name a few. Thus, we decided to adapt TPB in determining the factors affecting the technical undergraduates' intention in becoming entrepreneurs.…”

Entrepreneurship in Golden Years—Creative Opportunity or Not?

“…Both quantitative and qualitative studies have been exploited in order to describe and understand the phenomenon of older age entrepreneurship. Recent topics of older age entrepreneurship have covered such areas as older people attitudes to self-employment and factors influencing to self-employment (Curran & Blackburn, 2001); the influence of work history and age norms on entrepreneurial intentions in third age (Kautonen et al, 2010; ageing people motivations for business start-up (Kautonen, 2008); characteristics of early retirees as the next generation of entrepreneurs (Singh & DeNoble, 2003); the factors that affect grey entrepreneurs business behavior (Weber & Schaper, 2004) and institutional framework and factors influencing motives and incentives to be self-employed and/or start a business in older age (Kyrö, Moisala, & Nyrhinen, 2012).…”