Abstract
This study explores the relationship between an entrepreneur's age and his/her social value creation goals. Building on the lifespan developmental psychology literature and institutional theory, we hypothesize a U-shaped relationship between entrepreneurs’ age and their choice to create social value through their ventures, such that younger and older entrepreneurs create more social value with their businesses while middle age entrepreneurs are relatively more economically and less socially oriented with their ventures. We further hypothesize that the quality of a country’s formal institutions in terms of economic, social, and political freedom steepen the U-shaped relationship between entrepreneurs’ age and their choice to pursue social value creation as supportive institutional environments allow entrepreneurs to follow their age-based preferences. We confirm our predictions using multilevel mixed-effects linear regressions on a sample of over 15,000 entrepreneurs (aged between 18 and 64 years) in 45 countries from Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data. The findings are robust to several alternative specifications. Based on our findings, we discuss implications for theory and practice, and we propose future research directions.
Highlights
Individuals’ orientation towards entrepreneurial activities differs depending on where they stand in their lifespans (Gielnik et al 2012; Kautonen et al 2017; Lévesque and Minniti 2006; Parker 2009)
Drawing on lifespan developmental psychology (Baltes et al 2006; Ebner et al 2006), we argue that entrepreneurs’ priorities for social objectives differ over the stages of their lifetimes
We propose that the focus on social value creation decreases with increasing age throughout early middle adulthood, during which entrepreneurs are more likely to prioritize personal welfare and economic motives over social motives, and later increases again during late middle adulthood
Summary
Individuals’ orientation towards entrepreneurial activities differs depending on where they stand in their lifespans (Gielnik et al 2012; Kautonen et al 2017; Lévesque and Minniti 2006; Parker 2009). Existing research offers important insights on the relationship between individuals’ age and their entrepreneurial behavior, we know little about which types of goals (i.e. social, economic, or environmental) entrepreneurs pursue in different life stages through their organizations This knowledge gap is surprising given that previous research in the social sciences identifies significant age differences in people’s attitudes, values, intentions, and behaviors. Political science research presents evidence for enduring birth cohort effects by showing that younger people give more priority to postmaterialist values (selfexpression and quality of life) than materialistic values (economic and physical security) compared with their older counterparts (Inglehart 1997; Inglehart and Welzel 2005). On average, younger cohorts grew up in safer and more prosperous conditions than their older counterparts, young people are more postmaterialist which is linked with a rising sense for human autonomy, tolerance, trust, and equality (Inglehart 1997; Inglehart and Welzel 2005)
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