ABSTRACT

Entrepreneurship has been proposed as a solution to extending working lives. However, little is known about how older (50+) entrepreneurs manage their personal transitions into entrepreneurship. In this paper, we propose to use a liminal identity work perspective to explore the identity paradoxes that older entrepreneurs experience during their transition into entrepreneurship and how they manage it. We use a qualitative study conducted over 14 months in the United Kingdom. Our analysis shows how older entrepreneurs confront identity paradoxes, interruptions and identity polarization in their attempts to shift from older identities and activity patterns into new ones. The entrepreneurs who manage to overcome the identity interruptions and polarization that the transition brings move away from an initial sense of isolation and bring creative understandings to older entrepreneuring processes. Our results expand current understanding of entrepreneurial identity work in liminal conditions, especially among older entrepreneurs, by looking at the tensions emerging between potentially new and customary identities and behaviours as an important aspect of entrepreneuring transitions rather than as negative frictions to be avoided.

摘要

提出企业家精神是延长工作寿命的一种解决方案。然而，对于年长（50岁以上）的企业家如何管理其向企业家身份的个人过渡知之甚少。在本文中，我们建议使用有限身份工作视角来探讨老年企业家在过渡到企业家身份过程中遇到的身份悖论及其管理方式。我们使用在英国进行了超过14个月的定性研究。我们的分析表明，年长的企业家在从旧的身份和活动模式转变为新的身份的尝试中如何面对身份悖论，中断和身份两极分化。设法克服过渡带来的身份中断和两极分化的企业家摆脱了最初的孤立感，并将创意理解带入了较旧的企业家过程。通过将潜在的新的和习惯的身份与行为之间出现的紧张关系视为企业家过渡的重要方面，而不是避免避免的负面摩擦，我们的结果扩展了当前对在极限条件下，尤其是在老企业家中企业家身份工作的理解。