Young and Older Entrepreneurs: An Empirical Study of Difference

Abstract

Young entrepreneurs represent an important proportion of the population of business owners. One of the major problems encountered by the young entrepreneur is the lack of credibility given by the business and government representatives, on account of their young age. Few researchs have studied the reality of the young entrepreneur. This research reports some results on the personal profile, organizational characteristics, a description of the start-up process and problems encountered since by a group of 82 young entrepreneurs compared to a group of 146 older entrepreneurs who created their ventures less than two years earlier. Results suggest that there is no significative differences between the two groups except for their family situation and the work experience, both being logically strongly related to the passage of time. Both groups had the same motivation to start the business, had the same growth experience, adopted the same management style and encountered the same business problems. This research shows that young entrepreneurs should not be discriminated against by the business community on account of their age. SOMMAIRE Les jeunes entrepreneurs repn?sentent une part importante des chefs d'entreprise. Cependant, en raison de leur age, ils doivent fa ire face aux reticences du milieu des affaires et du gouvernement a leur egard. On trouve peu d'etudes sur /es jeunes entrepreneurs. La presente recherche compare /es entreprises crees par 82 jeunes entrepreneurs a cel/es crees par 146 entrepreneurs plus ages if y a moins de deux ans. Le profil personnel des entrepreneurs, /es caracteristiques de /'entreprise, sa creation et /es prob/emes rencontres depuis sa fondation ont ete analyses. Les resultats semblent indiquer qu 'if n 'y a pas de grandes differences entre les deux groupes, a /'exception de Ia situation familia/e et de /'experience de travail des entrepreneurs, toutes deux /iees au facteur temps. En d'autres termes, /es deux groupes etaient egalement desireux de fonder leur propre entreprise, ont enregistre Ia meme croissance, ont adopte le meme style de gestion et ont eu /es memes prob/emes. Cette recherche demontre que /es jeunes entrepreneurs ne doivent pas etre discrimines par le milieu des affaires en raison de leur age.

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