Awareness and potential of the silver economy for enterprises: a European regional level study

ABSTRACT

Europe’s population is getting older; dependency ratios are set to double by 2060. Such transformations and demographic change pose major challenges and potential benefits for the economy. Addressing the call in the literature for further research into the supply side of the silver economy, this research contributes to the understanding of enterprises’ awareness of this growing market and its potential economic value. This research employs primary data from eight regions across seven European Union countries. Using semi-structured interviews, the unit of analysis is at the firm level and qualitative content analysis to analyse the rich data. While we find some firms are aware of the silver economy, many have a social/caring view. The awareness of the potential for enterprises to benefit from the silver economy is weak and there is a lack of awareness of training or other public supports at a regional level in the European Union.

KEYWORDS:

• Silver economy
• ageing population
• content analysis
• enterprise
• awareness

Acknowledgement

Thank you to John McAleer for his expert contribution to the project. Thank you to the partners, stakeholders and survey respondents involved in the Interreg Europe SilverSME project. This paper has benefited from the valuable comments and suggestions of the anonymous reviewers of this journal.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Interreg Europe co-funded project SilverSMEs https://www.interregeurope.eu/silversmes/