Micro-Entrepreneurship: Tendency towards Precarious Work? Empirical Findings for Austria

Abstract

The complex interaction of technological development, globalisation and socio-demographic change has accelerated a structural change in the economy, resulting in a changing working environment and new forms of employment. In the field of self-employment, an emerging trend can be observed towards one-person enterprises, which already represent more than 50 percent of all Austrian companies. The primary aim of this paper is to analyse the rationalities of these microenterprises based on an empirical online survey of one-person enterprises in Carinthia; the focus of the analysis is the motive for being self-employed. We found evidence that one-person entrepreneurs are mainly driven by motives like selfrealization or working without hierarchies. However, there are also one-person entrepreneurs who have been crowded out from the (dependent) labour market and are therefore driven by economic reasons (e.g. self-employment as an alternative to unemployment). This economically driven group of one-person enterprises is comparatively dissatisfied with their professional situation, is less optimistic regarding their entrepreneurial future, and generates lower incomes.

The relationship between financial distress and well-being: Exploring the role of self-employment

“…In particular, financial distress had a greater negative association with overall health and life satisfaction for the solo self-employed compared to wage-workers, while the negative association with mental health and quality of life was found to be most pronounced for the self-employed with employees. These results should be of major importance for policy makers as we confirm earlier findings by Boegenhold and Klinglmair (2015) and Fachinger and Frankus (2017) showing that a greater share of self-employed may be considered precarious in terms of having money worries. This holds particularly for the solo self-employed.…”

Independent work, modern organizations and entrepreneurial labor: Diversity and hybridity of freelancers and self-employment

“…What are their economic and social rationalities, and how can they be interpreted in terms of recent popular discussions about entrepreneurship; is their emergence due to missing chances in the labor market for their stakeholders and/or do they reflect new interesting patterns to interpret and to realize participation in business life? All these aspects contribute to an appropriate understanding of the landscape of one-(wo)man-enterprises , while a further research inquiry delves deeper, asking about the socioeconomic logics of these small companies so that research approaches need a multidisciplinary design (Bögenhold, Fink, & Kraus, 2014). The study includes companies, which are driven by need or necessity to realize any economic income at all (instead of being unemployed), and those which are also or mostly driven by ‘non-economic motives’, such as self-realization or working without hierarchies.…”

Areas of small business development in Ukraine in the conditions of European integration

“…There is ample evidence that small business-dominated communities are socially stable, actively involved in the electoral process, attract more tourists to the region, and support more enterprises (Bögenhold & Klinglmair (2015)). Another positive aspect of small business is the local concentration of funds and, respectively, the growth of local economic indicators.…”