Title: Age effects on entry into entrepreneurship of the unemployed, employed and self-employed

Authors: Maryam Cheraghi; Nastaran Simarasl

Addresses: Danske Bank, Ewin Rahrs Vej 40, 8220 Brabrand, Aarhus, Denmark ' California State Polytechnic University Pomona, 3801 West Temple Avenue, Pomona, CA 91768, USA

Abstract: Prior research suggests that hybrid entry, becoming an entrepreneur alongside being employed/engaged in another business, is a strategy to reduce the opportunity costs and risks of engaging in entrepreneurship. So far, research has primarily relied on the assumption of homogeneity among hybrid entrepreneurs and that they all incur similar switching costs for entry into entrepreneurship during their lifetime. This paper considers self-employed individuals who engage in creating another business as a new type of hybrid entrepreneurs. We argue that an individual's age affects the switching cost of entry into entrepreneurship in relation to an individual's occupation. We test our proposed framework on a Spanish dataset from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. Our findings show that an individual's age and occupation impact the switching costs of entry into entrepreneurship.

Keywords: hybrid entrepreneurs; unemployed nascent entrepreneur; portfolio nascent entrepreneur; entrepreneur's age; switching costs; opportunity costs; risk; entrepreneurship entry; small business; Global Entrepreneurship Monitor; GEM.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2021.113201

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2021 Vol.42 No.3, pp.259 - 281

Received: 05 Oct 2018
Accepted: 31 Oct 2018
Published online: 24 Feb 2021 *

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