Abstract
This chapter addresses the situation of those who begin an entrepreneurial venture in their mid-career. Defining exactly when mid-career begins and ends is a challenging exercise as it seems to be mostly understood as a period without specific boundaries that lies somewhere between the first few years of employment, when one is considered to still be a relative newcomer, and the final few years prior to retirement. One attempt by Saunders (2008) placed it as not less than ten years’ working experience and not less than ten years prior to retirement. Others (e.g. Reining 2004; Winkle man 2007) have defined it largely in terms of a state of mind, associated with a period of stagnation or career plateau in between stages of career advancement. More recently Lindstrom (2011) classified career stages based on earlier work by Super (1957), and a combination of previous empirical studies have divided careers into four stages largely underpinned by age, though to a lesser extent still associated with the conditions underpinning upward progress. These stages consist of new career entrants up to age 20, early career people in the 20–34 range, mid-career 35–49, and late career people 50–65. Equating mid-career with age would place mid-career employees in the broad 35–50 range, but these categories are only guidelines given that chronological age is a convenient and easy way to select which people fall into the category of mid-career incumbents.
Chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
References
Adler, P. S., and S. W. Kwon. (2002). Social Capital: Prospects for a New Concept. Academy of Management Review 27(1): 17–40.
Ahmetoglu, G., F. Leutner and T. Chaorro-Premuzic. (2011). EQ-nomics: Understanding the Relationship between Individual Differences in Trait Emotional Intelligence and Entrepreneurship. Personality and Individual Differences 51(8): 1028–1033.
Anthes, W., and S. Lee. (2002). The Financial Psychology of Four Life-Changing Events. Journal of Financial Planning 15(5): 76–85.
Antoniu, E. (2010). Career Planning Process and Its Role in Human Resource Development. Annals of the University of Petrospani Economics. 10(2): 13–22.
Ardichvili, A., R. Cardozo and S. Ray. (2003). A Theory of Entrepreneurial Opportunity Identification and Development. Journal of Business Venturing 18(1): 105–123.
Baron, R. A. (2006). Opportunity Recognition as Pattern Recognition: How Entrepreneurs Connect the Dots to Identify New Business Opportunities. Academy of Management Perspectives 20(1): 104–119.
Bhave, M. P. (1994). A Process Model of Entrepreneurial Venture Creation. Journal of Business Venturing 9(3): 223–242.
Brockhouse, R. H. and P. S. Horwitz. (1986). The Psychology of the Entrepreneur. In D. L. Sexton and R. W. Smilor (eds), The Art and Science of Entrepreneurship, 25–48. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger.
Cardon, M. S., J. Wincent, J. Singh and M. Drnovsek. (2009). The Nature and Experience of Entrepreneurial Passion. Academy of Management Review 34(3): 511–532.
de Bruin, A., and P. Firkin. (2003). Elder Entrepreneurship. In de Bruin, A. and Dupuis, A. (eds), Entrepreneurship: A New Perspective in a Global Age, 185–205. Hampshire, England: Ashgate.
De Clercq, D., and P. Arenius. (2006). The Role of Knowledge in Business Start-up Activity. International Small Business Journal 24(4): 339–358.
Demerouti, E., A. B. Bakker, I. Vardakou and A. Kantas. (2003). The Convergent Validity of Two Burnout Instruments: A Multitrait-Multimethod Analysis. European Journal of Psychological Assessment. 18(3): 296–307.
Djukic, S. (2011). Profile of Mid-Career Entrepreneurs: Career Trade-offs and Income Appropriation of High Human Capital Individuals. Small Business Branch, Industry Canada. Government of Canada.
Gasse, Y. (1982) Elaborations on the Psychology of the Entrepreneur. In C. A. Kent. D. L. Sexton and K. H. Vesper (eds), Encyclopaedia of Entrepreneurship, 57–71. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Haber, S., and A. Reichel. (2007). The Cumulative Nature of the Entrepreneurial Process: The Contribution of Human Capital, Planning and Environment Resources to Small Venture Performance. Journal of Business Venturing 22(1): 119–145.
Hayek, R. A. (1945). The Use of Knowledge in Society. American Economic Review 35(4): 519–530.
Henderson, T., and M. Robertson. (2000). Who Wants to Be an Entrepreneur? Young Adult Attitudes to Entrepreneurship as a Career. Career Development International 5(6): 279–287.
Hmieleski, K. M., and R. A. Baron. (2009). Entrepreneurs Optimism and New Venture Performance: A Social Cognitive Perspective. Academy of Management Journal 52(3): 473–488.
Kor, Y. Y., J. T. Mahoney and S. C. Michael. (2007). Resources, Capabilities and Entrepreneurial Perceptions. Journal of Management Studies 44(7): 1187–1212.
Lent, R. W. (2013). Career-Life Preparedness: Revisiting Career Planning and Adjustment in the New Workplace, Career Development Quarterly 61(1): 2–14.
Lindstrom, C., J. Levi, L. R. Murphy, S. L. Sauter, eds. (2011). Encyclopaedia of Occupational Health and Safety. Geneva: International Labour Organization.
Liles, P. R. (1974). New Business Ventures and the Entrepreneur. Homewood, IL: Richard Irwin.
OECD (2011). Pensions at a Glance 2011: Retirement-Income Systems in OECD and G20 Countries. OECD Publishing, http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/pension_glance-2011-en. Accessed 4 September 2014.
Plummer, L., J. Haynie and J. Godesiabois. (2007). An Essay on the Origins of Entrepreneurial Opportunity. Small Business Economics 28(4): 363–379.
Rae, D. (2005). Mid-Career Entrepreneurial Learning. Education and Training 47(8/9): 562–574.
Rae, D. (2007). Entrepreneurship: From Opportunity to Action. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Ronstadt, R. (1988). The Conidor Principle. Journal of Business Venturing 3(1): 31–40.
Rauch, A., and M. Frese. (2007). Let’s Put the Person Back into Entrepreneurship Research: A Meta-Analysis on the Relationship between Business Owners’ Personality Traits, Business Creation and Success. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology 16(4): 353–385.
Reining, S. (2004). Midcareer Change: Moving from Success to Significance, The Reining Leadership Group, www.reiningleadership.com. Accessed 16 July 2014.
Retna, K., and D. Jones. (2013). The Learning Organisation and Singapore Culture. Learning Organization 20(4/5): 338–351.
Say, P.-Y. A., and M. Patrickson. (2012). Switching to Entrepreneurship in Mid Career: A Singaporean Perspective. Journal of Enterprising Culture 20(2): 119–149.
Sarasvathy S. D., N. Dew, R. Velamuri and S. Venkataraman. (2003). Three Views of Entrepreneurial Opportunity. In Z.J. Acs and D. B. Audretsch (eds), Handbook of Entrepreneurship Research. London: Kluwer Academic: 141–160.
Saunders, V. (2008). Mid-Career Professional Development: Long Term Asset or Short Term Liability? Culture Work 12(1). pages.uoregion.edu/culturwk/culture-work40.html. Accessed 16 July 2014.
Schjoedt, L., and K. G. Shaver. (2007). Deciding on an Entrepreneurial Career: A Test of the Pull and Push Hypotheses Using the Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics Data. Entrepreneurship: Theory & Practice 31(5): 733–752.
Shane, S. A., and S. Venkataraman. (2000). The Promise of Entrepreneurship as a Field of Research. Academy of Management Review 25(1): 217–226.
Shane, S., E. A. Locke and C. J. Collins. (2003). Entrepreneurial Motivation. Human Resource Management Review 13(2): 257–279.
Shapero, A., and L. Sokol. (1982). The Social Dimensions of Entrepreneurship. In C. A. Kent, D. L. Sexton and K. H. Vesper (eds), Encyclopaedia of Entrepreneurship, 72–90. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Singh, G., and A. DeNoble, A. (2003). Early Retirees as the Next Generation of Entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship: Theory & Practice 27(3): 207–226.
Soontiens, W. (2007). Chinese Ethnicity and Values: A Country Cluster Comparison. Cross Cultural Management 14(4): 321–335.
Stam, W., S. Arzlanian and T Elfring. (2014). Social Capital of Entrepreneurs and Small Firm Performance: A Meta-Analysis of Contextual and Methodological Moderators. Journal of Business Venturing 29(1): 152–173.
Stewart, W. H. Jr, and P. L. Roth. (2001). Risk Propensity Differences between Entrepreneurs and Managers: A Meta-Analytic Review. Journal of Applied Psychology 86(1): 145–153.
Super, D. E. (1957). The Psychology of Careers. New York: Harper.
Ucbasaran, D., A. Lockett, M. Wright and P. Westhead. (2003). Entrepreneurial Founder Teams: Factors Associated with Member Entry and ’Exit. Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice 28(2): 107–128.
Ucbasaran, D., P. Westhead and M. Wright. (2008). Opportunity Identification and Pursuit: Does an Entrepreneurs Human Capital Matter? Small Business Economics 30(2): 153–173.
Van de Ven, A. H. (2007). Engaged Scholarship: A Guide for Organizational and Social Research. New York: Oxford University Press.
Weber, P., and M. Schaper. (2004). Understanding the Grey Entrepreneur. Journal of Enterprising Culture 12(2): 147–164.
Weber, P., and M. Schaper. (2007). Are Mature (Grey) Entrepreneurs More Successful Than Their Younger Counterparts? A Study of Australian Tourism Hosted Accommodation Owners. In Proceedings of the 20th Small Enterprise Conference: Building Sustainable Growth in SMEs, Small Enterprise Association of Australia and New Zealand, Manukau, Auckland.
Winkleman, E. (2007). What Does Mid-Career Mean? www.edwardwinkleman.com. Accessed 15 July 2014.
Wong, C., C. Millar and C. J. Choi. (2006). Singapore in Transition: From Technology to Culture Hub. Journal of Knowledge Management 10(5): 79–91.
Yao, S. (2007). Singapore: The State and the Culture of Excess: Asia’s Transformation. London: Routledge.
Zhao, H., and S. E. Siebert. (2006). The Big Five Personality Dimensions and Entrepreneurial Status: A Meta-Analytic Review. Journal of Applied Psychology 91(2): 259–271.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2015 Margaret Patrickson, Alison Say and Leonie Hallo
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Patrickson, M., Say, A., Hallo, L. (2015). Entrepreneurship in Mid-career. In: Sappleton, N., Lourenço, F. (eds) Entrepreneurship, Self-Employment and Retirement. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137398390_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137398390_7
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-48532-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-39839-0
eBook Packages: Palgrave Business & Management CollectionBusiness and Management (R0)