Guest Editorial: Framing Silver Economy in a management perspective: from practice to theory

Abstract

Global population aging has wide implications for civil society, governments, organisations, public service providers and businesses. The silver economy refers to the ‘economic activities related to production, consumption and trade of goods and services relevant for older people’ (European Union [EU], 2018, p. 6). The term ‘silver economy’ is sometimes used interchangeably with the ‘silver market’ (the aging or mature market), a narrower concept that emerged in Japan in the 1970s as a result of an increase in facilities available for seniors (Gschwendtner, 2020). The silver economy encompasses a wide range of concepts related to the business challenges and opportunities presented by an aging population. Older people have long been considered a fiscal burden; however, many countries in the EU are now leveraging this demographic to create new products, services and jobs, bolstering economic growth (EU, 2018; Zhukovska et al., 2021).... to be continued