Hardly an Oxymoron: Senior Entrepreneurship

Abstract

A series of cross-cutting demographic and economic devel- opments have generated a burgeoning enterprise among today’s older adults in the name of senior entrepreneurship. Two divergent economic trends—improved well-being among the older population accompanied by rising levels of inequality within that population—have created, in the words of Alastair Clegg, both “opportunity” and “neces- sity” entrepreneurship. Growing numbers of seniors have the resources, skills, and interest in venturing out on their own, often after years of wage and salary employment. Efforts of this kind hold the promise of both heightened life satisfaction among elders and discernible contributions to the larger economy.