Senior entrepreneurship following unemployment: a social identity theory perspective

Abstract

This article applies social identity theory to examine how identification with social groups shapes the entrepreneurial endeavours of individuals aged 50 or over who start businesses when unemployed or under threat of redundancy. Understanding what drives older individuals to start a business as an alternative to unemployment has important policy implications: governments are interested in promoting self-employment to reduce benefits dependence among older individuals for whom finding employment in the traditional labour market can be difficult. Our exploratory analysis is based on data collected in 21 personal interviews with senior entrepreneurs in the UK who received support from an organisation dedicated to support enterprising activity among older unemployed people. Our findings suggest that income levels beyond making ends meet is not an important motive for starting a business among this demographic group. Instead, our data highlight the relevance of non-monetary self-rewards -such as pursuit of autonomy, self-realisation, and wanting to feel active, useful and valuable -for senior entrepreneurs who start businesses under adverse conditions. This finding resonates with the European Commission's policy of promoting 'active ageing'. Our analysis indicates non-monetary objectives should be included in any conceptualisation of self-interest in an entrepreneurial context.

Qualitative research: extending the range with flexible pattern matching

“…Grounded theory is one of the most cited qualitative research methods in business and organization studies (Gioia et al 2013;Glaser and Strauss 1968;Langley 1999;Strauss and Corbin 1998). It is a technique for surfacing and constructing relevant categories that provide deep and rich theoretical descriptions of the context to explain the phenomenon of interest and clarify all data-to-category connections (Chiles et al 2010;Gioia et al 2013;Soto-Simeone and Kautonen 2020). Flexible pattern matching similarly involves the process of "coding" data where researchers distill insights from qualitative data into more manageable "categories" or "patterns".…”

The role of skill versus luck in new venture survival

“…Conversely, Coad and Storey's (2021) work implicitly assumes that the agents behind firm creation are homogeneous, which seems unlikely. It is broadly acknowledged in the literature that entrepreneurs have different motivations to start a business, shown, for example, by the difference between profit‐driven, non‐profit and pro‐social ventures (Fauchart & Gruber, 2011; Kibler et al., 2019; Kimmitt et al., 2020) or dignity motives in senior entrepreneurship (Soto‐Simeone & Kautonen, 2020). Such motives, in turn, are relevant when determining which measures of performance best capture the realization (or lack thereof) of the firm's objectives (for instance, some firms might prioritize their social impact over financial performance; Grimes et al., 2013).…”

Factors influencing senior entrepreneurship in Chile. A GEM perspective

“…Among the pull factors can be considered the self-realization, the desire to increase income to get one most cherished goal, or to maintain a good personal and social activity level. (Wainwright et al, 2015;Heimonen et al, 2012;Matos et al, 2018;Soto-Simeone & Kautonen, 2020;Weber & Schaper 2004). Negative motivational factors arise from dismissal or lack of satisfaction in their professional activities, causing conflicts between individual aspirations and reality (Harms et al, 2014), reduction in wages and job stability (Weller et al, 2018), or from situations where an alternative career does not generate enoughincome.…”