What are the real motivations and experiences of silver entrepreneurs? Empirical evidence from Poland.

• Author: Ilczuk, Daria

INTRODUCTION

The aging of society is one of Europe's most important economic problems affecting the labor market. The issue of entrepreneurship among mature people expands the current discourse on reduced inequalities in relation to United Nation Sustainable Development Goal 10 in the age context (UN General Assembly, 2015). Mature people are a group at risk of exclusion from the labor market due to their age. Therefore examining the experience and motivation of silver entrepreneurs will contribute to strengthening the position of these people among society. In addition, supporting entrepreneurship is one of the tasks of Sustainable Development Goal 8, which is promoting stable, sustainable, and inclusive economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all people (UN General Assembly, 2015).

Regarding the characteristics of entrepreneurs at a later age, researchers often focus on defining this concept and the terminology used, as well as identifying appropriate target age groups. In the literature, several terms of entrepreneurship among mature people can be found, such as older entrepreneur (Kautonen et al., 2008; Kautonen, Down, et al., 2013; Kerr & Armstrong-Stassen, 2011; Kibler et al., 2011, 2012, 2014; Maalaoui et al., 2013; Wainwright & Kibler, 2013), elder entrepreneur (De Bruin & Firkin, 2001), senior entrepreneur (Efrat, 2008; Kautonen, 2013; Pilkova et al., 2014, 2016; Soto-Simeone & Kautonen, 2021), silver entrepreneur (Ahmad et al., 2014), grey (or gray) entrepreneur (Harms et al., 2014; Stirzaker et al., 2019), second-career entrepreneur (Baucus & Human, 1994), third age entrepreneurs (Botham & Graves, 2009; Kautonen, 2008, 2013; Lewis & Walker, 2013). Several authors also use short terms resulting from the combination of adjectives describing aging with the word entrepreneur, like elderpreneur (Patel & Gray, 2006), and seniorpreneur (Maalaoui et al., 2013).

For consistency and lack of confusion, we will use the term silver entrepreneurship throughout this article to refer to mature people who decided to start their own business at a later age, following Ahmad et al. (2014). We also use the phrases entrepreneurship among mature people, entrepreneur at a later age, and we avoid terms such as senior entrepreneur or older entrepreneur due to the neutrality in describing a group of people at a later age and avoiding associations with a lack of vitality among this group. The word mature is intended to evaluate positively because, unlike words such as old, and senior, it does not refer to age, but emphasizes status and experience.

Previous research conducted on mature people has focused mainly on preventing this group's exclusion from the labor market. However, along with demographic changes, it is increasingly frequent that many mature people resign from their full-time jobs and decide to start their own businesses, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (Schott et al., 2017). Manifestations of individual entrepreneurship among this group can be caused by many motives, but these factors usually remain unknown to current employers or do not constitute a valid reason for understanding and keeping a mature person in the workplace.

The relatively limited literature in the field of silver entrepreneurship still does not provide exhaustive information on this important aspect, which is the motivations and experiences of these people, influencing the propensity to start a business. In addition, the results of previous empirical studies are often ambiguous. Moreover, the existing literature focuses mainly on Western Europe, in particular the United Kingdom (Soto-Simeone & Kautonen, 2021; Stirzaker & Galloway, 2017), Finland (Kautonen, 2008), France (Maalaoui et al., 2013), and little concerns the countries of Eastern Europe, including Poland. The findings of Cerveny et al. (2016) show differences in the activity of silver entrepreneurship between Eastern and Western Europe and conclude that other research would be needed to understand how cultural and structural differences can influence the development of entrepreneurship among mature people. In addition, Kautonen et al. (2010) and Minola et al. (2016) emphasize that environmental issues at the regional and national levels can influence silver entrepreneurship. Therefore, future research will be particularly justified in Poland as a transition country, where mature people had to face the realities of an open market economy, significantly different from the centrally planned economy.

The main purpose of our article is to identify entrepreneurial motivations, both internal and external, which influenced the decision to start a business only at a later age. Our research also takes into account the previous experiences of mature people. In order to investigate the motivations and experiences of silver entrepreneurs that influenced their decision to start a business later in life, we used a combination of the push/pull approach (PPA) and the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). To understand the reasons for the

This paper is structured as follows. The second section presents the theoretical background, focusing on the concept of entrepreneurship among mature people, their internal entrepreneurial motivations, previous experiences, and external factors influencing entrepreneurial activities. The third section explains the process of data collection and analysis and the method used for the research. The fourth section discusses the results of the analyses. The last section presents a summary of the research and the debate on the conclusions from the research, as well as theoretical, practical, and managerial implications. It also identifies the study's limitations and suggests some directions for further research.

LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESES DEVELOPMENT

Concept of silver entrepreneurship

The key research topics and concepts related to silver entrepreneurship are mainly divided into three conceptual categories: the "who" category (which focuses on the characteristics of this group of entrepreneurs), the "why" category (examining the motivations which precede the intention to undertake entrepreneurial activities by mature people) and the "how" category (which analyzes the entrepreneurial process itself and the limitations faced by silver entrepreneurs) (Biron & St-Jean, 2019).

Kautonen has proposed definitions of silver entrepreneurship as individuals who become self-employed or start a new business late in their working career (Kautonen, 2008) and as individuals aged fifty or above who are planning to start a business, are currently in the process of starting one, or have recently started one (Kautonen, 2013). Blackburn et al. (2000) described silver entrepreneurship as mature entrepreneurs, especially those who have retired or opted for early retirement, to launch an entrepreneurship career.

The researchers mentioned that silver entrepreneurship is also identified as retirees (voluntary or involuntary) who started second-career businesses (Baucus & Human, 1994). At the same time, Bornard & de Chatillon (2016) stated that silver entrepreneurship refers to an individual who undertakes an entrepreneurial experience (creating or acquiring) as a second-career phase post the age of fifty. Other researchers, such as Maalaoui et al. (2012), reported that silver entrepreneurship denotes individuals who have undertaken an entrepreneurial experience after the age of forty-five and wish to face social disengagement and extend their professional activities.

In previous studies, the authors more concisely described entrepreneurship among mature people, for example, an elderly person aged fifty or over who owns and operates a business (Patel & Gray, 2006), older individuals over fifty (Efrat, 2008), entrepreneurship or self-employment, fifty and over (De Bruin & Firkin, 2001), entrepreneurs who become self-employed at a mature age (Harms et al., 2014), an individual aged 55-64 who has created a business for the first time (Rossi, 2009). There is also an approach based on the typological categorization of entrepreneurs around retirement age (Maalaoui et al., 2013; Singh & DeNoble, 2003; Wainwright etal., 2015).

Silver entrepreneurship has several definitions. However, the idea behind this concept is the same, which means individuals nearing retirement who launched a new business after a career as a salaried worker (Bornard & Fonrouge, 2012). The general difference between the various definitions relates primarily to the age at which the individual starts a business. Based on the literature review, we noticed that most of the authors focus on the group of people over fifty, but a few researchers have extended the group to people aged thirty and older or forty and older (Ahmad et al., 2014; Say & Patrickson, 2012).

Internal entrepreneurial motivations and previous experiences

Previous research on the phenomenon of silver entrepreneurship is characterized by interdisciplinarity, using combinations of dimensions such as the social, economic, and psychological. The multidimensional research approach is based on economic theories and psychosocial theories. For example, Maalaoui et al. (2013) used theories of disengagement, activity, continuity, and socialization to explain and understand entrepreneurial intentions among people who have retired or are close to retirement.

When it comes to deliberations on the entrepreneurial intentions of mature people, scientists most often refertothe Model of the Entrepreneurial Event (SEE) (Shapero & Sokol, 1982) and the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) (Ajzen, 1991). For example, Stirzaker and Galloway (2017) used the SSE to investigate individuals over fifty from the United Kingdom who become entrepreneurs due to redundancy as the main reason to start a business. Elsewhere, Harms et al. (2014) applied the TPB to explore the drivers of motivations towards self-employment of silver entrepreneurs from...