The impact of internal and external motivations for senior entrepreneurship on entrepreneurial will and behavior

According to the 2023 Statistics Korea survey, the elderly population aged 65 or older in Korea accounted for 18.4% (approximately 9.5 million) of the total population. The working elderly population aged 65 or older (as of 2022) also reached 36.2%, which is a 6.1p% increase from 30.1% in 2012, 10 years ago (Statistics Korea, 2023). In particular, Korea has the highest elderly employment rate among OECD countries (Cho, 2023). Due to the aging population, various social problems are emerging, such as the burden of support and welfare costs for the elderly, but in particular, the employment problem of retirees is becoming a serious issue due to the full-scale retirement of the baby boomer generation (Curran, Blackburn, 2001; Choi, 2015). Therefore, this study aimed to derive and empirically analyze the internal and external motivations that affect seniors’ entrepreneurial will and entrepreneurial behavior in a dilemma situation where they have to make a decision between senior reemployment and entrepreneurship after retirement. The results of the study showed that the key factor affecting senior entrepreneurial will was internal motivation (Innovativeness, Risk Taking, and Technological capability), and this internal motivation ultimately led to actual entrepreneurial behavior. Based on these results, implications were suggested for establishing and supporting entrepreneurship support policies related to senior entrepreneurship, and the limitations of the study were presented.