Empreendedorismo e terceira idade na economia informal: necessidade ou oportunidade?

Abstract

This study was conducted in Edson Diniz Shopping Center, located in the city of Campina Grande - PB and has a reality show about the different topics entrepreneurship, third age and the informal economy. For this, we performed an exploratory research and descriptive, aiming to analyze the profile of the older traders who work in the informal market to verify the presence of entrepreneurial characteristics and categorizes them on the motivation to undertake. Data were collected from a field research by carrying out semi-structured interviews applied to a sample of 50% of shopkeepers aged less than 60 years and the data were evaluated by means of qualitative and quantitative approach. The results obtained in the search indicated the presence of entrepreneurial characteristics in the profile of 75% of respondents. As for why these individuals to take, were found some evidence of opportunity for entrepreneurship in 37.5% of the sample, the other prevailing in the typical profile of necessity entrepreneurship. However, it is worth emphasizing that there is always opportunity behind the need, and considering the specifics of the sample, the results are not conclusive and point to the need for future studies to investigate this issue.