Are There Differences and Complementarities between Senior and Young Entrepreneurs? An Intergenerational Perspective

Abstract

Social exclusion related to the unemployment of vulnerable population groups constitutes a crucial limitation to achieving a sustainable world. In particular, young and senior populations have specific characteristics that put them at risk of exclusion from the labor market. This circumstance has motivated an attempt to foster cooperation between these age groups to enable them to develop entrepreneurial initiatives that will contribute to close this social vulnerability gap. We approach this topic by focusing on intergenerational entrepreneurship, understood as entrepreneuring projects jointly undertaken by seniors and young adults. The objective of this study was to identify the differences and complementarities between senior and young entrepreneurs with a view to enabling them to develop viable intergenerational entrepreneurial projects, with special emphasis in the motivational push, pull, and blocking factors that affect them. This kind of entrepreneurial initiative fosters knowledge transfer and experience between age groups, promotes job creation and social inclusion, improves a sense of belonging, and, thus, contributes to the construction of a stronger society serving as an engine for sustainable development. Therefore, intergenerational entrepreneurship can be considered a form of social innovation. A mixed-methods approach was utilized in this study, using quantitative data from a questionnaire as a starting point for the characterization and identification of senior and young entrepreneurial profiles, and qualitative data from focus groups, which enabled us to identify complementarities among generations. The results show that there are significant differences between youths and seniors in terms of the motivations and factors that push, pull, or block the decision to form an intergenerational entrepreneurial partnership. These differences can be interpreted as complementarities that can boost intergenerational cooperation to promote social inclusion.

Intergenerational Entrepreneurship to Foster Sustainable Development: A Methodological Training Proposal

“…This phenomenon may happen spontaneously, as a group of young and senior people share a common personal and technical background. However, prejudices and flaws in communication make it very unusual and fragile in most situations, as indicated by Perez-Encinas et al and Baschiera et al [22,34]. So, what we call "stakeholders" are a key element to approach its full potential.…”

“…Other studies have been focusing on the main obstacles that this population group overcomes [20,21] and the motivations, skills, and opportunities for this group [17,[22][23][24]. Senior people, in addition to increasing their share in total population in most societies, accumulate a very valuable load of experience and maturity that any changing society should consider putting into value.…”

“…Therefore, there is a potential for young and senior collectives complementing each other in terms of their financial and knowledge contribution, life circumstances, and networks, among others, meaning that favorable factors for one group can represent blocking factors for the other, giving place to positive synergies for an intergenerational match [22].…”

“…Thus, the relevance of this project lies on the evidence of the potential value added by young and senior entrepreneurs teaming up [15] and the significant complementarities both groups have to boost intergenerational cooperation and promote social inclusion [22].…”

Longevity trends in entrepreneurial activity. An analysis of the characteristics of senior entrepreneurship in Spain

“…However, the results of the work allow us to conclude that in Spain, commercial distribution services stand out as an opportunity to generate business projects among experienced professionals. On the other hand, and in line with contributions such as those of Perez-Encinas et al (2021), senior professionals whose partner is also self-employed are more likely to start a business than other cases. This is due to the support provided by experience in starting up a business, as well as family support as a factor of entrepreneurial motivation Gimmon et al (2018).…”