Continuing Instead of Retiring: A Qualitative Study and an Entrepreneurship Continuation Model

Abstract

Considering the societal and economic importance of creating and maintaining businesses, it is vital to get insights into factors stimulating older entrepreneurs to continue running a business. Especially there is a need of empirically grounded psychological understanding of antecedents of decision to continue running a business even when one could be retired. Our qualitative study was conducted to explore older entrepreneurs’ motivations for the decision to continue operating a company at the retirement age. By analyzing 50 in-depth semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurs through thematic analysis, we have identified three main themes: motivation to continue, life stage resources, and life stage demands, along with specific codes expressing each theme. Based on the results we propose the entrepreneurship continuation model explaining older entrepreneurs’ decision to continue their activity.