Harnessing the silver tsunami: an investigation into the benefits and challenges of senior entrepreneurship in Singapore

Singapore is a fast-ageing society and recent Government data indicates that Singapore is facing an impending ‘silver tsunami’. Many researchers have raised the alarm on the problems that such an ageing Singaporean population would bring and how it would negatively affect the economy and society if not well managed. However, this silver tsunami can also be viewed as an opportunity, an impending wave of senior talent that can be harnessed and channelled into increased effective senior entrepreneurship in Singapore. Hence, this thesis seeks to explore an under-researched topic in Asia, namely, what are the benefits of senior entrepreneurship and identify the challenges that potential older entrepreneurs face and highlight potential supporting strategies that can be adopted to alleviate those challenges. The thesis adopts a qualitative interpretivist approach. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews of nine successful senior entrepreneurs who became founders after the age of 50 and also through two focus groups interviews with one group below the age of 50 and the other above age 55. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the collected data. The findings revealed that while business knowledge sharing is one of the benefits that can be leveraged from the senior entrepreneurs, the effective use of technology and positive sales generation were two distinct challenges that senior entrepreneurs often needed additional support with. The recommendations of this research highlight the need for relevant stakeholders to implement further policies and initiatives to assist Singaporean seniors with these potentially problematic areas. One such initiative identified is to create business incubators especially designed for seniors. This research also identified the differing support systems that male and female senior entrepreneurs may require and this is an area that future researchers are encouraged to explore.