Report on Senior Entrepreneurship: Issues and Business Planning

This report provides a comprehensive overview of senior entrepreneurship, analyzing its definition, literature review, and economic contributions. It explores the decision-making processes involved in senior entrepreneurship and discusses whether it is beneficial for new ventures. The report delves into the contemporary issues and challenges faced by senior entrepreneurs, including lack of capital, regulatory barriers, self-belief, social and human capital limitations. The analysis highlights that senior entrepreneurship is effective in business ventures, and it emphasizes the challenges older entrepreneurs encounter. The report concludes by summarizing the trends and difficulties senior entrepreneurs face when starting a new business, offering insights into the dynamics of this growing field. This report aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the senior entrepreneurship landscape, supporting entrepreneurs with the knowledge to navigate the challenges and seize the opportunities in this evolving field.

Running Head: Entrepreneurial Business Planning 1
Senior Entrepreneurship

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Contents
Overview..........................................................................................................................................3
Senior entrepreneurship...............................................................................................................3
Literature review..............................................................................................................................3
Senior entrepreneurship: Good or bad for new venture...................................................................5
Contemporary issue and challenges of senior entrepreneurship......................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9

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Overview
There is the increasing dependency ratios and ageing workforce in the developed
countries and they are attracting towards the policy research and older workers in terms of the
promotion of self-employment and business start-ups. In recent years, due to the socio-
demographic changes, unemployment and aging population is becoming an issue of the inclusive
entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship focuses on the underprivileged group of population i.e.
youth, women, ethics minorities, people with disabilities and seniors and add them in the
entrepreneurial activities (Van Der Zwan, Verheul, Thurik & Grilo, 2013). Senior
entrepreneurship comes under the inclusive entrepreneurship which has aim to ensure that all the
people have equal opportunities and rights to start and manage their own business. There are
various policies and initiatives to support this type of entrepreneurship. This report focuses on
the identifying the entrepreneurial process. Along with this, report identifies those issues which
have to face by entrepreneurs during the start-up of new venture. Based on the secondary
research, report analyzes the interest and relevance of the selected topic in the life cycle of an
entrepreneurial venture. For the discussion, topic ‘senior entrepreneurship’ is selected. This
report is supported by the different reviews of literatures and secondary research (Maritz, 2015).
Senior entrepreneurship
It is the common belief that entrepreneurship is the game of young people. But it is
observed that the relative returns of entrepreneurship from the individual age are reducing and
people in the older demographics are becoming entrepreneurs. They are increasing the incentives
and opportunities in the senior age ranges to consider entrepreneurship. The senior
entrepreneurship can be defined as the process in which people having the age 50 plus participate
in the business start-ups (Maritz et al, 2015).
Literature review
There are very researchers who researched on the topic of senior entrepreneurship. There
is the lack of research investment on the senior entrepreneurship. However, there is one thing to
gather the agreement in the recent research that senior entrepreneurship is an extremely diverse
group in terms of motivations, intentions, entrepreneurial decision process, and evolved age. In
other words, there are various factors affecting the senior entrepreneurship and those are

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typically different when people are the age of 5o’s or 60’s or at different stages of life courses.
There are some points which must be considered while understanding the concept of senior
entrepreneurship. There are some significant drivers of senior entrepreneurship (Kautonen,
2008).
Age vs. entrepreneurship-
The research identifies the possibilities and benefits associated with the senior
entrepreneurship. The opinion of the literature is different about the impact of age on starting a
successful venture. Some researchers consider the age as the important for the success of
entrepreneurial process. On the other hand, some found it as the barriers or constraints to hamper
the establishment of specific phenomenon. According to various studies, people age between age
of 25 and 35 are individuals who attempt the creation of new firm. It is observed that self-
employed people tend to remain in the work force for longer time as compared to those who are
employed by others (Lévesque & Minniti, 2011). Due to this reason, the employment rate is
decreasing continuously with the age. The percentage of older self-employed people is higher as
compared to the younger people. There is one more fact regarding age in the entrepreneurship.
According to the Kautonen (2014), age has direct impact on the entrepreneurial behavior. Based
on this research, it is observed that the probability of the entrepreneurial behavior of self-
employers improves with the age factor. Along with this, in terms of the performance of
organization, older entrepreneurs have higher survival rate as compared to the younger founders
(Tornikoski & Kautonen, 2009).
Senior entrepreneurship and economic contribution-
Senior entrepreneurship has presented an effective option to deal with the issue of
shrinking workforce and aging population. There are findings that new ventures generate
economic contributions created by the older people. There is a case of PRIME, in which authors
found that company got economic success due to the entrepreneurship by the older people. There
were substantial economic benefits associated with the senior entrepreneurship i.e. increased
potential for innovation, job creation, improvement of technological adaptability etc. This type of
entrepreneurship leads a good metrics of success for the organization. On the other hand, other
study suggests that firm created by the senior entrepreneurs might not contribute to the economic

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success as ageing population can negatively impact on the employment creation. Age of the
entrepreneurs is negatively related to the number of the employees in new venture (Manolova,
Eunni & Gyoshev, 2008). According to the Minniti, (2011), there is the u-shaped relationship
between age and choosing entrepreneurship. Further, another empirical analysis is done by
Verheul and Van Stel (2007) on the total entrepreneurial activity along with diversity induces i.e.
age, gender and education etc. They studied the impact of these entrepreneurial factors on the
GDP in 36 countries. They identified that the contribution of entrepreneurship depends upon the
level of economic development i.e. in the developing or less developed countries, higher
educated and older entrepreneurs are important for the economic growth. The results also reveal
that necessity entrepreneurs also have lower contribution in the economic growth (Meier &
Werding, 2010).
Decision process in senior entrepreneurship-
Being complexity in the senior entrepreneurship, there is important point of decision
making process in the new business venture. Along with the potential benefits, there are some
barriers associated with starting of new business venture in the senior entrepreneurship.
Kautonen, Tornikoski and Kibler (2009) investigated the impact of attitude, perceived behavior
and subjective norms on the formation of entrepreneurial intentions. It is founded that older
persons are socially acceptable to become an entrepreneur at any age. Further, Levesque and
Minniti (2006) studied some factors for the employment choice i.e. age, wealth and risk aversion
which are crucial determinants for being an entrepreneur. By the research, they achieved a
negative relationship between the entrepreneurial age and attitude that impact the decision
towards entrepreneurship. So, majority of the research indicate that senior Entrepreneurship is
that who are above fifty and are involved in creating business. Main identified barriers which
have to face by older people in entrepreneurship are related to the energy, health and productivity
as compared to young entrepreneurs. The authors concluded that the trend of senior
entrepreneurship is increasing slowly and it has little chances of success (Bloom, Canning, &
Fink, 2010).

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Senior entrepreneurship: Good or bad for new venture
After observing the literature on senior entrepreneurship, it is analyzed that there are
some constraint associated with the self-employment and senior entrepreneurship. There are
various factors seem to push back senior entrepreneurial intentions and motivation in the older
people such as family and health issues, personal issues, opportunity cost of time, risk and
perceived age norms etc (Verheul, Thurik, Hessels & Van der Zwan, 2010). On the other hand,
some other authors consider that there are some factors such as professional experience, bigger
experience, and larger amount of capital for investments and availability of time which support
the senior entrepreneurship. In the above discussion of the report, it is described that senior
entrepreneurship is becoming effective for the new ventures as compared to the young
entrepreneurship. But, everything has some challenges and issues at the initial stage. Despite of
the positive points, there are some challenges which have to face by the senior entrepreneurs
while starting new business venture (Kautonen, Down & Minniti, 2014).
Contemporary issue and challenges of senior entrepreneurship
Challenges refer to the difficulties which have to face by senior entrepreneurs while
wishing to participate in the business start-up activities. Some of those challenges are described
below:
Lack of capital-
Lack of capital is considered as the main resource limitation in the entrepreneurship and
for the senior entrepreneurship, it is not different. The cross-tabulation identifies that 46% of
experienced entrepreneurs have to face issue due to the lack of financial capital and stops start-
up activities. 73% of senior entrepreneurs have to deal with the issues of the lack of capital.
While trying to establish a new business, entrepreneurs might struggle with the access of finance.
Of course not, all the older people are able to save the money during their life cycle. Older
people only have money in terms of their savings and pension allowance. Along with this, due to
their age they have to face discrimination while applying for the credit in the regular banking
system (Kautonen, Tornikoski & Kibler, 2011). Sometimes, they are asked to subscribe for
additional insurance to cover the risk and insurance companies do not want to contract with the

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older people. Lack of the access of finance is considered as the major challenge in the senior
entrepreneurship while older entrepreneurs want to start a new business (Welter, 2011).
Regulatory barriers-
Creating a new business needs a broad range of reinforcing and supportive policies.
These policies include fiscal and monetary policies which are important for the stable
macroeconomic environment. Along with this, there are structural policies to determine overall
economic framework in which the business will operate such as tax design, financial markets,
labor markets and bankruptcy laws. There is the considerable evidence that administrative and
regulatory burden impose adversely impact on the senior entrepreneurial activities. There can be
legal entry barriers that should be avoided by senior entrepreneurs to achieve benefits of the
business. Employment regulations also restrict the flexibility of senior people in the new
business venture. There can also challenges in terms entry and exist that cam discourage
entrepreneurs in to enter in the market. When the entry of the firm include considerable risk, then
it would be difficult to survive the business in the market (Kerr & Armstrong-Stassen, 2011).
Self-belief-
This can be a significant barrier for the senior entrepreneurship. Experienced
entrepreneurs has assumption that self-belief is not a barrier for the new business venture due to
high level of self efficiency. But, self-belief can be considered as the barrier due to the lack of
experience and lower level of self efficiency. Some people believe that government’s rules and
regulations create barriers for the senior entrepreneurship which indicates that governments are
not promoting the merit of senor entrepreneurship (Oosterbeek, Van Praag & Ijsselstein, 2010).
Social capital-
In the senior entrepreneurship, older entrepreneurs are already retired so they can find it
more difficult to build up social networks again which they had during their careers. It is difficult
for the entrepreneurs do rebuild the network to operate small home based business. Along with
this, it can also be challenging for them to get essential human capital for the older entrepreneurs
who are going start a new business in the different industry as compared to the previous

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employment. For this manner, social capital can be the major challenge for senior
entrepreneurship due to the long- term retirement or unemployment.
Human capital-
In the senior entrepreneurship, the older entrepreneurs enter in the self-employment from
the paid employment. Their new start business can be different from their previous occupation so
generally they do not have high level of human capital. Along with this, they can also face
specific number barriers as there can be the lack of entrepreneurship skills which are required for
the success. Further, entrepreneurial skills may be outdated or they have lower level of digital
literacy (Hairault, & Jean‐Olivier, 2010).
Conclusion
This report focuses on the trends and challenges faced by the senior entrepreneurs while
forming a new business joint venture. From the above discussion, it is analyzed that in current
time, senior entrepreneurship is very effective in the business venture as compared to the young
entrepreneurs. Senior entrepreneurship can be described as the people involved in their own
business in the age of 50 to 60. Further, it is also observed that although senior entrepreneurship
is effective and new trend but there are some challenges which have to face by the older people.
It is not easy for them to form a new business in the different industry. It is analyzed that senior
entrepreneurship sometimes contributes in the growth of economy. They have experience and
self-efficiency to deal with the business risks while forming a new venture. But there are some
challenges in this type of entrepreneurship i.e. lack of human capital, social capital, regulatory
barriers, and lack of capital etc. Entrepreneurs have to face discrimination while applying for the
credit in the regular banking system. Sometimes, administrative and regulatory burden impose
adversely impact on the senior entrepreneurial activities. So, it is clear that senior
entrepreneurship is essential for the business ventures and their requirements in terms of human
and social capital should be fulfilled on the urgent basis.

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References
Bloom, D. E., Canning, D., & Fink, G. (2010), Implications of population ageing for economic
growth: Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 26(4), 583-612.
Hairault, & Jean‐Olivier (2010), Distance to retirement and older workers ‘employment: The
case for delaying the retirement age: Journal of the European Economic Association, (1542-
4766), 8 (5), p. 1034
Kautonen, T., (2008), Understanding the older entrepreneur: Comparing third age and prime
age entrepreneurs in Finland. International Journal of Business Science and Applied
Management, 3(3), 3-13

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Kautonen, T., Down, S., & Minniti, M. (2014), Ageing and entrepreneurial preferences: Small
Business Economics, 42(3), 579-594
Kautonen, T., Tornikoski, E. T., & Kibler, E. (2011), Entrepreneurial intentions in the third age:
The impact of perceived age norms. Small Business Economics, 37(2), 219-234
Kerr, G., & Armstrong-Stassen, M., (2011), The bridge to retirement older workers’ engagement
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Lévesque, M., & Minniti, M. (2011), Age matters: how demographics influence aggregate
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