Despite a growing literature on entrepreneurial intentions, there remain gaps in the understanding of how these are affected by the age of later working-life social entrepreneurs. This research examined the ‘over-50s’ social entrepreneur understandings of age as an antecedent of their social entrepreneurial intentions. In-depth interviews were conducted with 28 UK-based social entrepreneurs. Our findings demonstrate that social entrepreneurial intentions in later working-life are influenced by an interplay of necessity, fulfilment and experienced later life, age being perceived as a positive construct rather than as a barrier. Our research contributes to the social entrepreneurship and small business literature by enhancing and advancing current knowledge and theorisation of the social entrepreneurial intentions of the over-50s. We reveal first, how social entrepreneurs make sense of their older age and the influence of their social entrepreneurial intentions; and second, how these social entrepreneurial intentions are formed by the intertwining of necessity, fulfilment and experienced later life.

尽管关于创业意图的文献越来越多，但在理解这些如何受到后来工作生活的社会企业家年龄的影响方面仍然存在差距。这项研究考察了“50 多岁”社会企业家对年龄的理解，将其视为他们社会企业家意图的先决条件。对 28 位英国社会企业家进行了深入访谈。我们的研究结果表明，后期工作生活中的社会创业意图受到必要性、满足感和经历过的晚年生活的相互作用的影响，年龄被视为一种积极的结构而不是障碍。我们的研究通过增强和推进对 50 岁以上社会企业家意图的当前知识和理论化，为社会企业家精神和小企业文献做出贡献。我们先揭晓，社会企业家如何理解他们的年龄以及他们的社会企业家意图的影响；其次，这些社会创业意图是如何通过必要性、满足感和经历的晚年生活交织而成的。