Organising family and business: Affective value prioritisation amongst older entrepreneurs

Abstract

This paper explores the entrepreneurial motivations of older entrepreneurs, specifically the importance of affective motivations and the influence of family and personal wellbeing on older entrepreneurs’ decisions to start-up and their subsequent business model choices. Departing from the extant literature examining the effects of family on firm and vice versa, the focus here is on the influence of family outside the boundary of the firm. Drawing on socioemotional selectivity theory (SST), the paper reports a study of older entrepreneurs who report motivations that prioritise family-based affective value external to the enterprise itself. As such, the paper contributes new knowledge on motivations for entrepreneurship and the embedded nature of family and business, particularly for older entrepreneurs.