Inclusive Entrepreneurship of the Elderly in Poland and the Czech Republic

The situation of older people on the European labor market is constantly changing, but in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe indicators of both professional activity and employment still reach lower values than in Western European countries. The article analyzes the phenomenon of inclusive entrepreneurship of older people as a manifestation of their economic activity. Inclusive entrepreneurship should be taken as the concept of including social groups excluded from the labor market, which enables representatives of these groups to use their skills and competences to implement projects, mainly on the nature of business ventures. It is assumed that an inclusive system unleashes and drives creativity and entrepreneurship by strengthening positive bonds based on a sense of security, trust and a community of interests. The motivation to start own business, in the majority stems from external factors, among which the difficult situation on the labor market is mentioned first, which means that the activities related to extending the economic activity of older people focus primarily on maintaining current employment. For the purpose of this paper indexes showing the number of elder entrepreneurs and self-employment among people aged 50+ in European countries, in particular in Poland and the Czech Republic, are treated as expressions of inclusive entrepreneurship. For this purpose, the desk research method will be used, and Eurostat data will be used as the data source.