The role of entrepreneur's gender, age and firm's age in autonomy. The case study from the Czech Republic

Abstract

The aim of this article is to explore the question of autonomy as an element of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) in the segment of small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs) in the Czech Republic. In relation to the independence of the researched companies, we have investigated whether the evaluation of an independent position of the companies differs according to three criteria: gender, age of the entrepreneur, and time of the company spent in the market. The researched entrepreneurs were divided into men and women, entrepreneurs "younger" (under the age of 45) and "older" (45+), and into "beginners and advanced" (1-10 years in business) and "experienced" (more than 10 years in business). The results showed that 46 % of the respondents perceive their companies as independent, 65% of them have reasonably autonomous staff in their companies, and 71% support the initiative of their employees in business opportunities. In relation to the criteria examined, we have found out that gender does not play the differencing role in autonomy between men and women. However, entrepreneur´s age and firm´s age do so. 68% of "experienced" companies are statistically more aware of the fact that staff in their company is reasonably autonomous in comparison with the “novice and advanced” companies. Furthermore, "younger" entrepreneurs support the initiative of their employees more (64%) than “older” entrepreneurs. © 2016, Centre of Sociological Research. All rights reserved.