Senior entrepreneurs: the impact of temporal perception on the entrepreneurial process

Abstract

PurposeLonger life expectancy brings a new phenomenon: senior entrepreneurship. Whereas starting a business involves investing energy, time, money or other types of resources, ageing is somewhat incompatible with these terms. Research on the impact of time perception on the entrepreneurial process is rather scarce. Considering the lack of knowledge related to the impact of time perception on the entrepreneurship process, this study aims to answer the following research question: how does temporal perception influence the entrepreneurial process?Design/methodology/approachSenior entrepreneurs are the most relevant category of individuals from which the impact of time perception could be observed, as they are objectively closer to the end of their careers than younger entrepreneurs. Therefore, longitudinal research was conducted by interviewing five senior entrepreneurs at 4-year intervals.FindingsResults show that there are two types of temporal perception in entrepreneurship: temporal perception of the entrepreneur's career and temporal perception of the enterprise's development. When these two-time perspectives are not synchronized with the entrepreneur's vision, the entrepreneur develops strategies for seeking to re-establish synchronicity between the temporal perspective (TP) of their entrepreneurial career and that of the business development. The senior entrepreneur is distinguished from a traditional entrepreneur by a limited TP of their entrepreneurial career combined with the notions of bridge employment and generativity.Research limitations/implicationsThe number of cases under study did not allow us to examine every possible type of situation. The sampling of the cases under study did not offer great diversity in terms of gender, as the study had only men. However, the range of ages at startup, from 50 to 65 years, provides greater diversity, as does the range of business segments that included the service, manufacturing and retail food industries.Originality/valueEntrepreneurs with a limited career time perspective correspond to senior entrepreneurs, while others who have an open career prospect, regardless of their age, correspond to any other form of an entrepreneur. This study has also been able to identify that an entrepreneur who realizes their limited entrepreneurial career horizon and perceives a temporal purpose of their company in the service of the involved parties tends to plan the entrepreneurial exit phase.