3^rd Global Entrepreneurship Congress

Biography

Biography: Farzana Chowdhury

Abstract

Entrepreneurs satisfy the needs of various stakeholders in society by introducing new products, processes, or societal needs. We test whether an individual's age influences their perception of time, which affects the decision to undertake different types of entrepreneurial activity, and whether access to resources such as knowledge, skills, and finances moderates this effect. Using a sample of 194,937 entrepreneurs, we find that formal education and entrepreneurial education play an important but different roles for entrepreneurs in various age groups. For example, middle-aged (45-64) and older individuals in the upper-income household are more likely to undertake both social and market-driven entrepreneurship, while younger entrepreneurs (25-44) belonging to the upper-income household are more likely to engage in market-driven entrepreneurship. While entrepreneurial experience is vital for both types of entrepreneurship, age negates the positive influence on entrepreneurship. In this study, we seek to contribute to the entrepreneurship literature by proposing that factors that influence the decision to engage in social entrepreneurship are different from those conducive to market-driven entrepreneurship. There are reasons to think those antecedents that influence social entrepreneurship are different from market-driven entrepreneurship. First, acquiring and orchestrating resources are essential for entrepreneurial activity to flourish. The knowledge and skills possessed by entrepreneurs and the ability to use these resources to access financial resources go hand in hand. Third, individuals equipped with various skills and knowledge can leverage resources in their possession to acquire additional resources for their venture to be successful. Fourth, existing studies suggest that venture capitalists are more likely to extend their resources to firms that have founders with high human capital (Brush et al., 2001). Finally, while resources are important for entrepreneurship, the ability of entrepreneurs to access these resources may differ systematically along with the entrepreneur's "vision and intuition'. In this case, an entrepreneur's judgment regarding combining different resources impacts the assessment of the attractiveness of different types of entrepreneurship.

Second, we contribute to the entrepreneurship literature by demonstrating that age significantly influences decisions related to engagement in social and market-driven entrepreneurship. In this regard, we consider entrepreneurs in different age groups and their decision to engage in market-based vs. socially motivated ventures. The results of the study suggest that motivation to engage in entrepreneurship varies by age. The theoretical basis of our expectation regarding age and different types of entrepreneurial activity is based on two streams of literature. First, construal level theory (CLT) argues that the experience of individuals influences their decision to engage not just in entrepreneurship but also in different types of entrepreneurship. To gain additional focus, we draw on the resource-based view (RBV) literature which suggests that resources are important for an entrepreneur to be able to undertake any type of entrepreneurial activity. Older entrepreneurs in the middle- and upper-income levels are less likely to be concerned about resource constraints in terms of capacity or financial resources. Older entrepreneurs tend to have greater capacity given the diversity of tasks they have tackled during their life. Being experienced with and prepared to address a broad spectrum of diverse tasks heightens their awareness of various social problems and induces them to pay attention to entrepreneurial opportunities to alleviate social problems.