Senior entrepreneurship may contribute to a solution for problems of an aging population in most developed countries. This is only a viable solution if a transition into entrepreneurship is also beneficial to older individuals. Therefore, it is important to understand the motivation to become a senior entrepreneur. This information is useful for motivational campaigns. In this thesis, it is hypothesized that a lower quality of life is related to a higher probability of future senior entrepreneurship, where the quality of life is measured using the satisfaction with the respective conditions of life. This is then divided into three domains: life satisfaction, job satisfaction, and financial satisfaction. To examine this relationship between quality of life and future senior entrepreneurship, the analysis consists of two steps. In the first step, the relation between quality of life and leaving the wage-job for another career path is tested. Second, the level of quality of life of future entrepreneurs is compared to seniors that will transition into a new wage-job. Generalized linear models (GLM) are used in this thesis. The results showed that only job satisfaction and financial satisfaction are significantly negatively related to making a career change. However, this effect is not found specifically to senior entrepreneurs. Quality of life has no significant influence on the transition into entrepreneurship compared to seniors that change wage-jobs. These results suggest that a lower quality of life does not predict future senior entrepreneurship. This suggests that older individuals may not a low quality of life does not push seniors into self-employment.

A.R. Thurik
hdl.handle.net/2105/49519
Business Economics
Erasmus School of Economics

N.F.A. Hack. (2019, November 8). How is quality of life related to future senior entrepreneurship in the US?. Business Economics. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2105/49519