Title: The perceptions of individuals aged 50 years and older towards engaging in entrepreneurial activities

Authors: Reham Abdelhafiz ElTamimi; Nadia J. Sweis

Addresses: Governmental and Internal Solutions Division, Systems Engineering and Software Development, Royal Scientific Society, Jordan ' Department of Business Administration, King Talal School of Business Technology, Princess Sumaya University for Technology, Jordan

Abstract: Aging population and the increasing of dependent ratio have attracted researchers to call for senior/older entrepreneurship as a late career alternative. This research aims to overview the perceptions of Jordanians aged 50+ years regarding entrepreneurial activities, and their effect on intentions to engage in these activities. This objective was achieved through analysing data for this group that was collected by Global Entrepreneurship Monitoring (GEM) for Jordan in 2004, 2009 and 2016 using descriptive, binary logistic regression and generalising a comparison across years. Results revealed that individual perceptions followed by socio-cultural perceptions have the strongest effect on seniors' intentions. Choosing entrepreneurship as a good career choice has been revealed to have the weakest effect between all types of perceptions across years. This study presents new framework that described the relation between perceptions and intentions. It also proposes two new terms of entrepreneurship: 'entrepreneurship the dream' and 'golden entrepreneurship'; and recommends applicable solutions to boost them in Jordan.

Keywords: entrepreneurship; perception; intention; unemployment; senior; older; active age; early retirement; demographical shifting; inclusivity; golden entrepreneurship; silver economy; Jordan; Arab countries; Global Entrepreneurship Monitoring; GEM.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2021.114238

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2021 Vol.42 No.4, pp.422 - 450

Received: 13 Mar 2018
Accepted: 23 Nov 2018
Published online: 15 Apr 2021 *

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