Starting up, not slowing down: Social entrepreneurial intentions in later working-life

Djebali, Z ORCID: 0000-0002-5201-0839, Di Domenico, ML ORCID: 0000-0002-7821-0783 and Saunders, MNK ORCID: 0000-0001-5176-8317 (2023) Starting up, not slowing down: Social entrepreneurial intentions in later working-life International Small Business Journal Researching Entrepreneurship, 41 (3). pp. 239-268. ISSN 0266-2426, 1741-2870

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Abstract

Despite a growing literature on entrepreneurial intentions, there remain gaps in the understanding of how these are affected by the age of later working-life social entrepreneurs. This research examined the ‘over-50s’ social entrepreneur understandings of age as an antecedent of their social entrepreneurial intentions. In-depth interviews were conducted with 28 UK-based social entrepreneurs. Our findings demonstrate that social entrepreneurial intentions in later working-life are influenced by an interplay of necessity, fulfilment and experienced later life, age being perceived as a positive construct rather than as a barrier. Our research contributes to the social entrepreneurship and small business literature by enhancing and advancing current knowledge and theorisation of the social entrepreneurial intentions of the over-50s. We reveal first, how social entrepreneurs make sense of their older age and the influence of their social entrepreneurial intentions; and second, how these social entrepreneurial intentions are formed by the intertwining of necessity, fulfilment and experienced later life.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	ageing, later working-life, social entrepreneurial intentions, social entrepreneurship
Divisions:	Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences > School of Management
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	14 Oct 2024 07:17
Last Modified:	28 Feb 2026 18:06
DOI:	10.1177/02662426221093570
Open Access URL:	https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/026624262...
Related Websites:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3185056
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