Senior Entrepreneurship in the Perspective of European Entrepreneurial Environment

Abstract

This paper studies the relationship between senior entrepreneurship propensity (entrepreneurship of the elderly) and national entrepreneurial context, in the European countries that exhibit either high or low levels of senior entrepreneurship. We focus on European countries that participated in Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) in 2013. We use GEM data as the main data source for our analysis. Firstly, we analyse the propensity of senior entrepreneurship on the national level, in order to create two clusters (high and low ones) based on the senior entrepreneurial activity. These clusters are then studied separately, compared and analysed based on their entrepreneurial environment. In order to assess the state of the national entrepreneurial environment, we use the GEM evaluation of key Entrepreneurial Framework Conditions, which are evaluated by GEM National Expert Survey. We thereafter compare the quality and profile of entrepreneurial environment based on the framework conditions in each of the created clusters and study similarities and differences both within the clusters and between them. In the further analysis, we investigate which of the entrepreneurial conditions and to what extent might play the role in influencing the senior entrepreneurial activity propensity in both high-activity and low-activity clusters.