Entrepreneurship Age Factor

Despite the fact that he is an entrepreneur of all ages, many automatically think that the entrepreneur is an adult from the early 20s to the mid 30s, studying at university, and starting a technological venture. A study found that the average age to establish a company is between the late 30s and early 40s. The Kaufmann Foundation found that the most frequent age of entrepreneurs in decreasing order in 2019 is:

• Between the ages of 20-34 27.2%

• 25.1% between the ages of 55-64

• 24.8% between the ages of 45-54

• Between the ages of 35-44 22.9%

This age distribution reflects a change since 1996, when it was determined that the proportion of new entrepreneurs decreased as the age increased. Two age groups are missing in the Kaufmann Foundation, namely entrepreneurs under 20 and entrepreneurs 65 and over.

Regardless of the age of the entrepreneur, there are both common and unique challenges. There are also common and unique opportunities. This chapter will first frame entrepreneurship from a developmental theoretical framework and then review the literature on the relationship between age and entrepreneurship. This literature review will not be comprehensive due to field limitations. After theorizing about entrepreneurship and reviewing the relevant literature, the challenges and opportunities faced by entrepreneurs of different ages will be explained.

These challenges and opportunities will be discussed not only from the entrepreneur’s perspective, but also from the perspective of entrepreneurial ecosystems. Towards the end of this section, proposals for entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship support organizations (ESOs) in certain age groups will be presented. Next, a research agenda with specific hypotheses will be presented to academics to include age as a key variable in research. Finally, recommendations for entrepreneurship educators in formal and informal educational settings will be formulated.

Developmental Perspective on Entrepreneurship

The theoretical framework is based on a developmental perspective based on Amartya Sen’s talent approach. You equate human development with the expansion of positive freedoms. A concept related to Sen’s talent approach is the agency. Representation is the ability to follow and realize the goals set by people and which are valuable accordingly. And the opposite of the perpetrator is the person who is passive, oppressed, and compelled. Moreover, human agency is a central concept among motivational theories.

This talent approach has been strengthened by a lifelong developmental approach based on Baltes. According to Baltes, “Lifelong developmental psychology involves the study of stability and change in behavior throughout life (ontogenesis) from conception to death.” The focus behavior in this section is entrepreneurial activity. Referring to the body of the research, a team of researchers claims that “Individuals’ orientation towards entrepreneurial activities differs depending on where they stand throughout their life span. Lifetimes are typically measured by age and sometimes by developmental periods such as adolescence.

Still, age is a more commonly used indicator of human development. There are two age categories: chronological and subjective. The chronological age is marked by the date of birth or the number of years alive. Regarding the chronological age, various models of entrepreneurship have been documented. Unlike chronological age, subjective age is how young or old an individual experiences themselves. Beyond chronological age, age-related factors such as future time perspective explain changes in motivation. Hence age is objective and subjective as well as static and dynamic.

Age is not the only indicator of human development and entrepreneurship development. Experimentally, it was found that entrepreneurial activity varies with age, but this relationship is mediated by perceived opportunities and perceived skills. As it relates to opportunities, it has been found that among high school students, entrepreneurial intention is positively influenced first by parents, then by peers and third neighbors. Therefore, entrepreneurs are placed in a social context. The effect of context on the development of entrepreneurial behavior is well established. Moreover, one study has empirically shown that entrepreneurs who are settled in a supportive social context are more likely to transform their entrepreneurial intentions into a real start.

Any discussion of developmental environments returns to the discussion of natural breeding. Nature breeding debate is not a situation to be resolved here. Still, evidence is clear that a child’s chance of becoming an entrepreneur increases by 60% if one parent is an entrepreneur. This finding does not address the extent to which entrepreneurship is affected by genetics. Obschonka, recent research in behavioral genetics shows that entrepreneurship has an important genetic component. Regardless of the relative contributions of nature or nurture, Obschonka concludes: “… adolescence is a crucial developmental stage in entrepreneurial development.

Another period of growth in entrepreneurial activity is the loss of jobs for individuals over the age of 50, as described by Moulton and Scott: “We found that job loss demonstrates a strong association with self-employment, particularly less desirable forms of self-employment. Employment ”This finding is important as it shows that entrepreneurship or self-employment is inherently undesirable. Turning back to the nature / nurture debate, entrepreneurship educators assume that entrepreneurship can be learned. Therefore, this assumption shows that entrepreneurship can be nurtured throughout the age continuum. Such an entrepreneurship education program targeting primary / primary school children described the effects of this type of education as:

“The implementation of this Home model from September 2009 to June 2014 led to the conclusion that children could become entrepreneurs and, in the short term, open, operate and close a small business, thanks to the experience provided by the trainers and consultants. there is a lack of literature. Moreover, most of these programs target young entrepreneurs. Hantman and Gimmon describe an entrepreneurship incubator in which 70% of 22 participants, all 55 years old or older, start a new venture through a 12-meeting training program.