Abstract
For older workers, self-employment is an important alternative to waged employment. Drawing on social learning theory and social cognitive career theory we examine how attitudes toward one’s own aging, future time perspective (captured by perceived time left to live) and perceived support from referent individuals predict self-efficacy for entrepreneurship and outcome expectations, influencing self-employment interest. Findings from a sample of professional association members (n = 174, mean age 52.5 years), revealed that an open-ended time perspective relates positively to entrepreneurial self-efficacy, while social support relates positively to outcome expectations. Consistent with social cognitive career theory, entrepreneurial self-efficacy mediated the relationship between future time perspective and interest in self-employment, and outcome expectations mediated the relationship between social support and interest in self-employment. This study extends current career and entrepreneurship theory in several ways. First, the inclusion of age-related psychosocial and sociocultural factors in the study model shed light on the intersection between older age, the contextual environment and development of self-employment interest. Second, the findings support earlier arguments that older entrepreneurship is a social process whereby the social context in which people work and live influences their interest in entrepreneurship, and that entrepreneurial behavior among older people needs to be supported to occur. Finally, the findings suggest the utility of social cognitive career theory in informing the development of self-employment interest in the late career stage. We discuss implications for the career and entrepreneurship literatures as well as practitioners involved in late-career counseling or seeking to promote entrepreneurship for older people.
Highlights
Older workers will become an ever-increasing segment of the workforce in developed countries with many older workers expected to work beyond ‘normal’ retirement age (Maritz, 2015; Kautonen et al, 2017; Stirzaker and Galloway, 2017)
Late-career decisions are dynamic and idiosyncratic adding support to the emerging body of career research suggesting that older workers are heterogeneous (Sterns and Miklos, 1995; Bal and Jansen, 2015) and will require individual late career working arrangements that can meet each individual’s motivations and needs
This study contributes to the career and entrepreneurship research in several ways
Summary
Older workers will become an ever-increasing segment of the workforce in developed countries with many older workers expected to work beyond ‘normal’ retirement age (Maritz, 2015; Kautonen et al, 2017; Stirzaker and Galloway, 2017). Individuals are likely to develop interests and goals for their late-career from late in their mid-career onwards (approximately 45 years of age onwards). This time coincides with the age at which workers begin to perceive themselves as ‘older workers’ in part because of increased difficulty obtaining employment, experiences of agerelated biases and discrimination, and the awareness of the onset of physical and cognitive decline (Curran and Blackburn, 2001; Kibler et al, 2012)
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