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Making sense of self-employment in late career: understanding the identity work of olderpreneurs

Author

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  • Oliver Mallett

    (Durham University Business School, UK)

  • Robert Wapshott

    (Sheffield University Management School, UK)

Abstract

The enterprise culture is a pervasive socio-historical discourse. This article adopts a narrative identity work approach to explore how individuals may exert agency to make sense of and negotiate with the structuring features of such discourses. Older entrepreneurs are an interesting case through which to explore these processes because ageing is predominantly portrayed as a form of decline to be resisted or hidden and as inherently anti-enterprise. Qualitative, in-depth, semi-structured interviews with two UK-based older entrepreneurs reveal how they engaged problematically with discourses around enterprise culture and ageing in constructing their identities. Sedimentation and innovation are proposed as valuable concepts for understanding how particular discourses become embedded in the understanding and identity work of individuals and how they seek to exert agency. The findings demonstrate the difficulties in innovative identity work for older entrepreneurs and this is discussed in terms of narrative resource poverty.

Suggested Citation

  • Oliver Mallett & Robert Wapshott, 2015. "Making sense of self-employment in late career: understanding the identity work of olderpreneurs," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 29(2), pages 250-266, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:29:y:2015:i:2:p:250-266
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    Cited by:

    1. Kautonen, Teemu & Hatak, Isabella & Kibler, Ewald & Wainwright, Thomas, 2015. "Emergence of entrepreneurial behaviour: The role of age-based self-image," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 41-51.
    2. Kautonen, Teemu & Kibler, Ewald & Minniti, Maria, 2017. "Late-career entrepreneurship, income and quality of life," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 318-333.

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