Vol. 5, Issue 1, Part A (2023)

This article aims to consider the entrepreneurship as an occupational choice and to understand the flow among different forms of occupations. Professionally active people may decide to start their own business or find hired employment as an option of professional occupation, the main difference being the fact that an entrepreneur makes entrepreneurial pro fits with the risk of failure, while an employed person receives risk–free remuneration. The choice of the form of professional activity depends on the perception of attractiveness of both forms, people who perceive entrepreneurial profits as more beneficial than workers’ wages more likely decide to become entrepreneurs than waged employees. However, i n the presented paper, the choice is considered not only between entrepreneurship and employment but also concerns the scale of entrepreneur ship. When starting one’s own business, people also need to decide whether they will hire employees and become proper entrepreneurs or whet her they will abandon the idea of hiring employees and become quasi entrepreneurs, also known as solo entrepreneurs.
The issue of entrepreneurship as an occupational choice is presented empirically using the time series data for Poland on a quarterly basis in the years 2003–2018. The influence of the overall economic situation, which determines business opportunities and average salaries, on the choice between a pro per entrepreneur, a quasi–entrepreneur and a hired worker is presented with the use of regression analysis. The results show that changes in the overall economic situation and in the level of average wages lead to flows between proper entrepreneurs and quasi–entrepreneurs, and thus, to changes in the employment structure. Improving market conditions encourage people to follow the path of proper entrepreneurship or to become hired workers, while abandoning quasi entrepreneurship. The deterioration of business opportunities, in turn, is the reason for the reduction of entrepreneurship and employment downsizing, at the same time leading to an increase in the number of quasi entrepreneurs.