TY - CHAP

T1 - Are senior entrepreneurs less innovative than younger ones?

AU - Sternberg, Rolf

PY - 2019/12/5

Y1 - 2019/12/5

N2 - Senior entrepreneurship may be an option for innovation-driven countries when they are trying to increase their overall entrepreneurship rate. Research gaps are large, however, when it comes to inter-temporal comparisons of senior entrepreneurship and to the innovativeness of senior entrepreneurship across countries. This exploratory chapter is based upon GEM data and focuses on innovative entrepreneurship in innovation-driven countries. It shows that senior entrepreneurship has grown in absolute as well as in relative terms in the 15 countries studied. This increase was stronger than the increase of the share of elderly people in the total population. Consequently, in 2018, entrepreneurship is much more frequent among 55- to 64-year-olds than it was 12 years ago. Nevertheless, and from a static view, the level of senior entrepreneurship is (still) lower than its population share might signal. Second, businesses of senior entrepreneurs are neither less nor more innovative than those of younger entrepreneurs. Instead, innovative businesses are a small minority among senior entrepreneurs, too. The case study of Germany revealed that innovativeness differs between both age groups, but not in favour of one or the other group for each of the indicators. In the concluding section several policy implications are discussed.

AB - Senior entrepreneurship may be an option for innovation-driven countries when they are trying to increase their overall entrepreneurship rate. Research gaps are large, however, when it comes to inter-temporal comparisons of senior entrepreneurship and to the innovativeness of senior entrepreneurship across countries. This exploratory chapter is based upon GEM data and focuses on innovative entrepreneurship in innovation-driven countries. It shows that senior entrepreneurship has grown in absolute as well as in relative terms in the 15 countries studied. This increase was stronger than the increase of the share of elderly people in the total population. Consequently, in 2018, entrepreneurship is much more frequent among 55- to 64-year-olds than it was 12 years ago. Nevertheless, and from a static view, the level of senior entrepreneurship is (still) lower than its population share might signal. Second, businesses of senior entrepreneurs are neither less nor more innovative than those of younger entrepreneurs. Instead, innovative businesses are a small minority among senior entrepreneurs, too. The case study of Germany revealed that innovativeness differs between both age groups, but not in favour of one or the other group for each of the indicators. In the concluding section several policy implications are discussed.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85089058707&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.4337/9781788116213.00011

DO - 10.4337/9781788116213.00011

M3 - Contribution to book/anthology

AN - SCOPUS:85089058707

SN - 9781788116206

SP - 110

EP - 142

BT - Handbook of Research on Entrepreneurship and Aging

A2 - Backman, Mikaela

A2 - Karlsson, Charlie

A2 - Kekezi, Orsa

PB - Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd.

ER -