On the motivational drivers of gray entrepreneurship: An exploratory study

Article history: Received 1 August 2014 Accepted 1 August 2014 Available online 28 August 2014 Against the background of demographic change, gray entrepreneurship has become more prevalent.When gray entrepreneurs chose to leave paid employment to become self-employed, it is of concern for companies whomay lose highly capable older employees. One of the reasons for this can be a failure to understand themotives of those older employeeswho are likely to become self-employed. Another is the fact that gray entrepreneurs proactively utilize entrepreneurial action and technology to improve our multigenerational society. Thus older people provide more to society than just being passive receptors of technology based innovations to improve their lot. If this is true then there is a missing link in our understanding of technology utility and the aging society. The purpose of this article is to understand how gray entrepreneurs affect entrepreneurial action and to highlight the motivational drivers of gray entrepreneurs with a particular emphasis on multigenerational HRM challenges of an agingworkforce.We investigate themotivational drivers of 12gray entrepreneurswith semi-structured interviews and indoing so becoming the first study to use the theory of planned behavior (TBP) to better understand gray entrepreneurs. The results are coded and structured around the concept domains of the theory of planned behavior. Our interpretive analysis shows to what degree HRM challenges were perceived to be push or pull factors in gray entrepreneurship. The results show that contrary to classic stereotyping, gray entrepreneurs remain highly ambitious and open to technological developments. Few other reasons related toHRM challenges play a role in their decision to become self-employed.We show that there is at least a segment of the “gray” society that creates value for the society through entrepreneurial action.We conclude this article by discussing implications for practice and theory. © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.