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Active ageing, where older people continue to contribute to the economy as active citizens, requires a holistic approach including social and physical factors, social and health services as well as economic factors (Zsarnoczky 2016).  Supporting such factors involves input from enterprises through the provision of relevant products and services.  This special issue Small Enterprises and the Silver Economy welcomes contributions on related topics and the needs of those over the age of 50. The cohort is classified into three groupings: active, dependent and fragile, all with different needs for goods and services.  This raises potential opportunities for enterprises in offering innovative goods and services that are meeting the needs of an ageing population.

Products and services associated with older people, social innovations the impact of ageing on future consumption and the impact on the demand for labour are all considered central to the Silver Economy (Klimczuk, 2016; Pauhofova and Kovalova 2015).  While most of the literature provides theoretical evidence of this impact, few studies provide robust analysis employing primary qualitative or quantitative data.  This special issue welcomes contributions in this area, which provides insights into the challenges, benefits or opportunities for small enterprises in the silver economy.

Suggested topics of interest for this Special Issue:

• The drivers of success in the silver economy for small enterprises.
• Different sectors of the silver economy of benefit to small enterprises.
• Small enterprises’ innovation activities related to an ageing population.
• Small enterprise policy supports and the silver economy.
• The value of small enterprises engaging with older people as stakeholders (e.g., employees, customers, suppliers).

This special issue will enable more dissemination of knowledge specifically related to what is commonly referred to as the Silver Economy (the ageing population and its contribution to the economy) from a research, practitioner and policy perspective.

References:  

Bloom, D.E., Chatterji, S, Kowal, P et al (2015) Macroeconomic implications of population ageing and selected policy responses, Lancet, 385(9968), 649–657.

Kautonen, T. (2012). Do age-related social expectations influence entrepreneurial activity in

later life? International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, 13(3), 179-187.

Kautonen, T., Kilber, E. and Minniti, M. (2017) Late-career entrepreneurship, income and quality of life, Journal of Business Venturing, 32, 318-333.

Klimczuk, A. (2016) Comparative analysis of national and regional models of the silver economy in the European Union. International Journal of Ageing and Later Life. doi: 10.3384/ijal.1652-8670.15286

Kovalova T. V. (2015) Theoretical aspects of enterprise financial stability management, Economic Processes Management: International Scientific E-Journal.3. Available:http://epm.fem.sumdu.edu.ua/download/2015_3/2015_3_11.pdf

Hennekam, S.  (2015) Challenges of older self-employed workers in creative industries:

The case of the Netherlands, Management Decision, 53(4) 876-891.

Pauhofova, I. and Dovalova, G. (2015) Potential of Silver Economy in the European Union (Selected Views) European Scientific Journal, ISSN 1857- 7431.

Pilkova, A., Holienka, M. and Rehak, J. (2014) Senior entrepreneurship I the perspective of European entrepreneurial environment, Procedia Economics and Finance 12, 523-532.

Prammer, D. (2019) How does population ageing impact on personal income taxes and social security contributions? The journal of the Economics of Ageing, 14, 100186. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeoa.2018.12.005

European Commission (2018) The Silver Economy. Available online:

https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/a9efa929-3ec7-11e8-b5fe-01aa75ed71a1

Zsarnoczky, M (2016) Innovation challenges of the silver economy, Journal of Management, 1(28), 105-109.

Submission Deadline: March 31^st  2020.

For further information, please contact guest editors

Dr Helen McGuirk                   [email protected]

Dr Aisling ConwayLenihan      [email protected]

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