The Gendered Aspects of Age Capital for Navigating Entrepreneurship

Abstract

For an increasing number of older individuals over 50, entrepreneurship is becoming a means of finding new opportunities, fulfilling long held ambitions or, of augmenting retirement income. Yet, despite its potential benefits to individuals and the economy, understanding of later-life entrepreneurship is often only limited to describing this phenomenon as unnuanced and uniform, while ignoring substantial gendered heterogeneity in decisions about later-life entrepreneurship. This doctoral thesis extends the current view of later-life entrepreneurship to a nuanced, interconnected process. A qualitative research methodology is selected, underpinned by interpretative philosophy. To improve understanding of the gendered aspects of why and how later-life entrepreneurship is ignited, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 32 individuals over the age of 50 living in the United Kingdom. The analysed data informed an emergent, dynamic model that conceptualises the gendered aspects of acquiring age capital for venture creation in later life. The model captures the triggers, conflicting drivers, enablers, and barriers associated with this phenomenon. It illuminates laterlife entrepreneurship not as a simple action, but as a dynamic, complex process and explains the gendered complexities of motivational triggers, the conflicting drivers of the normative environment and the process of accumulating different forms of capital for venture creation. A key contribution of this research is extending the use of three theoretical lenses (one lead theory and two supporting theories), which highlights the limitations of being guided by only one theory, and the explanatory power offered by applying aspects of several theoretical frameworks. With regard the contribution to knowledge of the empirical findings, a nuanced, gendered perspective identified from the findings, contributes towards creating distinctive challenges for policy makers and other stakeholders designing business support.