EXPLORING INDONESIAN NEW ENTREPRENEURS CAREER SUSTAINABILITY DURING AN ECONOMIC CRISIS

Economic crises can create shocks for individuals career that trigger job change, such as a a job
change from paid employment to entrepreneurship. However, litle is known about the long term
impact of this particular type of job change on career sustainability. Therefore, the aim of this paper is
to explore the long term implication of a job change from paid employment to entrepreneurship by
using data of job changes during the period of Asian economic crisis in Indonesia. We use descriptive
statistics to reveal the survival rate in entrepreneurship and the career patterns of new entrepreneurs
who started their career during the crisis. We also examined their income and compared them with
similar individuals who remained in paid employment to understand the outcomes from a career
change. Our finding indicate support to the findings from career imprinting literature as it shows that
less than 50% of new entrepreneurs survive in their new career and only 78% of them were able to
show persistent career patterns. The rest showed mixed results with some episodes of going back to
paid employment or unemployment. Further, our results demontrate that in average, those who
survive demonstrate no financial gains from their new entrepreneurial career. Their annual income
were found to be relatively similar to those who remaind in paid employment during and after the
crisis.