Abstract
This paper develops a multi-level framework of later-life entrepreneurial resilience, addressing the conceptual fragmentation within resilience scholarship and the under-theorisation of entrepreneurship beyond mid-life. Drawing on Moore’s (2021) concept of age capital, the paper argues that resilience in later-life entrepreneurship is not a static psychological trait but a life-course situated, gendered and capital-mediated mobilisation process. Integrating psychological, social and systems traditions of resilience, the analysis conceptualises resilience as the mechanism through which accumulated experiential, relational and symbolic capital becomes strategically actionable under conditions of disruption. Empirical material from qualitative interviews with entrepreneurs aged 50+ illustrates how resilience operates across individual, relational, structural and capital levels. The findings demonstrate that later-life entrepreneurship is shaped by pension regimes, gendered labour histories, embodied ageing and legitimacy negotiation. By reframing resilience as capital activation embedded within institutional context, the paper advances entrepreneurship and resilience theory while informing policy debates on ageing, work and inclusive economic participation.