28 June, 2022

Dr Helen McGuirk and Dr Aisling ConwayLenihan are guest editors on the recently launched Special Issue: Small Enterprises and the Silver Economy in the Small Enterprise Research journal.

A call for papers was launched in 2020 in the broad area of small enterprises and the silver economy, and it garnered interest from authors studying this topic in Ireland, European regions, Australia and Finland. The special issue includes five papers and will be a valuable addition to this nascent topic in the enterprise literature and contribute to the knowledge and empirical evidence of the valuable opportunities an older population holds for small enterprises.

Two topics link the five papers: the first, is the supply side of the economy, where McGuirk, ConwayLenihan and Lenihan (2021) and Kelly and Kelliher (2021) explore the supply of goods/services to the older population. The second group of three papers, investigates the motives, attitudes and experiences of the older entrepreneur Stephens and Hegarty (2021), Viljamaa, Ioensuu-Salo and Kangas (2021) and Eager, Maritz and Millemann (2021). 

Dr Helen McGuirk and Dr Aisling ConwayLenihan, along with their co-author Niamh Lenihan published a paper on the Awareness and potential of the silver economy for enterprises: a European regional level study. You will find the published article here.

Helen and Aisling were delighted to present the launch at this year's School of Business - End of Year Gathering which took place at MTU's Bishopstown Campus, June 14th.  

If anyone would like a copy of the article, you can email the authors directly helen.mcguirk@mtu.ie or aisling.conway@mtu.ie.