Synergies of Longevity / Silver Economy and Senior Entrepreneurship for a Sustainable Society. The Case of Romania

Dragusin, Mariana; Sirbu, Mirela; Grosu, Raluca Mariana; Iosif, Alina-Elena

doi:10.1007/978-3-658-26172-6_2

Cited by 4 publications

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“…There are numerous studies in the literature on senior entrepreneurship [60] as a means to solve the social and economic problems of an aging population, because those people would stay in the labor force and might even generate economic growth [61,62]. There are authors who address differing aspects of this phenomenon related to seniors' profiles and driving motivations [63,64], while the European Union has prepared the report document Senior Entrepreneurship Good Practices Manual [65], in which, although only senior entrepreneurship is addressed, it has an implicit intergenerational perspective because it identifies the various roles of seniors in the entrepreneurial process (entrepreneur, supporting businesses, or mentoring) in a series of cases analyzed. This study has been complemented by other projects in this area, such as the Senior Entrepreneurs: Best Practices Exchange [66] and the 50+ Entrepreneurship Platform [67].…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

et al. 2021

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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.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

et al. 2021

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“…This is primarily due to the former centralized economy's constraints, before 1990, a troublesome transition process after, and very low levels of salaries and pensions compared to those in other EU countries. Despite this, their number and spending power cannot be overlooked, nor can their capacity to fuel demand for adapted and/or new products and services, driving growth and stimulating innovation in older and/or emerging domains (Dragusin et al 2017). Our rough estimation led us to over three billion EUR of potential private spending in 2017 alone, considering the average net salary (of 2629 lei, around 565 EUR) and the average net pension (1026 lei, around 220 EUR) (NIS 2018d, 2018f), correlated with the number of working seniors and that of retirees.…”

Section: Turning the Challenges Of An Ageing Demographic Into Entrepreneurial Opportunitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A possible explanation may lie in the reality that, as for most Romanian entrepreneurs, senior entrepreneurs too tend to develop their businesses either alone or in partnership with other associates of the same or differing ages, mainly due to modest available resources. Those who start their business by themselves, either act as solopreneurs or get family support, as revealed by the preliminary results of pioneering ongoing exploratory qualitative research (Dragusin et al 2017) further detailed in the chapter. As pointed out in the literature, family support, along with a 'positive attitude towards entrepreneurship' and individuals' perceptions regarding 'their own ability to start and run a business', are essential features that influence seniors' entrepreneurial activity (Kautonen et al 2011, p. 219).…”

Section: Romanian Senior Entrepreneurshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This trend is being spurred by the increasing mobile phone penetration rate among all categories of the 'silver' segment in Romania, as well as improved internet speed, easy accessibility and affordable costs. Of a high importance and with an outstanding potential, senior entrepreneurship in Romania is further approached based on the summarized preliminary results of pioneering ongoing exploratory qualitative research (Dragusin et al 2017). The information obtained from in-depth semi-structured interviews carried out with senior entrepreneurs and representatives of Romanian elderly focused non-governmental organizations (NGOs), provide valuable insights regarding the Romanian senior entrepreneur's profile, his/her main motivations and the principal barriers to overcome.…”

Section: Romanian Senior Entrepreneurshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…repair, knitwear manufacturing and specific agricultural activities, are examples of seniors' businesses developed under the subcategories of these five NACE Rev. 2 industries, as resulting from the pioneering ongoing exploratory research(Dragusin et al 2017). However, the shares of registered active businesses established by seniors as a percentage of the total registered active businesses in an industry differ from one category to another.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Romania’s ageing population: entrepreneurship opportunities and challenges

Welsh¹

2019

Handbook of Research on Entrepreneurship and Aging

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A globally acknowledged growing phenomenon -ageing of the population -translates into an unprecedented reality. In 2015, the number of people aged 50 and over (seniors) reached 1.6 billion worldwide, with projections pointing to 3.2 billion by 2050. In the United States of America (US) alone, there were 111 million such senior citizens, representing one-third of its total population in 2015 (Oxford Economics 2016). Europe is confronted with a similar 'greying' trend as emphasized in official documents. The 2018 Ageing Report projects significant changes in the age structure of the European Union's (EU) population in the coming decades, resulting in complex major impacts at all levels of the society. According to the document, the old-age dependency ratio (people over 65, relative to those aged 15-64), for example, might rise to 51.2 per cent by 2070 (EC 2018c). Romania is not an exception to this demographic trend. However, just as in other countries, the challenges generated by the country's ageing population are accompanied by many opportunities to foster entrepreneurship, particularly senior entrepreneurship, as underlined further in this chapter.

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Intergenerational Entrepreneurship to Foster Sustainable Development: A Methodological Training Proposal

et al. 2021

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Intergenerational entrepreneurial initiatives are aimed at addressing the needs and opportunities of certain social groups and have the potential of becoming successful business projects. Moreover, they are a key to undertake sustainability practices that may represent a competitive advantage for the companies and an example to imitate when creating businesses. The objective of the study is to propose an intergenerational training methodology so that young people and seniors can create companies together, generating social cohesion and sustainable development in response to generational challenges. Intergenerational entrepreneurship seems to be a novel research area, especially when referring to developing methodologies of collaborative entrepreneurship projects. For this purpose, our literature review focuses on, first, the matching theories and experiences applied for intergenerational cooperation; then, literature about training methodologies for entrepreneurship is reviewed; finally, the main theories on training skills for entrepreneurship are approached. Focus groups were conducted as they serve as the main sources of data and are very appropriate for the generation of new ideas within a social context. In general, results show that, for achieving a successful intergenerational cooperation, some specific training is needed for both generations. This paper is a starting point for future research approaching intergenerational entrepreneurship, or entrepreneurial initiatives with singular characteristics, such as rural contexts or people with disabilities.

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Synergies of Longevity / Silver Economy and Senior Entrepreneurship for a Sustainable Society. The Case of Romania

Cited by 4 publications

References 6 publications

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

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

Romania’s ageing population: entrepreneurship opportunities and challenges

Intergenerational Entrepreneurship to Foster Sustainable Development: A Methodological Training Proposal

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