Do employees\u2019 generational cohorts influence corporate venturing? A multilevel analysis

Maribel Guerrero,José Ernesto Amorós,David Urbano

doi:10.1007/s11187-019-00304-z

Abstract

Organizations are facing an interesting phenomenon in the composition of their workforce: the concurrence of multiple age generations that demand suitable strategies regarding work design, job satisfaction, and incentives. Ongoing entrepreneurship and strategic management debates require a better understanding of the relationship between workplace generational cohorts’ configurations and organizational performance. We propose a conceptual model for understanding how a diversified workforce influences some determinants (i.e., employees’ human capital and attitudes, organizational climate, and environmental conditions) of entrepreneurial organizations’ outcomes (i.e., corporate venturing). Our framework offers insights into corporate venturing determinants for three generational cohorts: Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y. Using a sample of 20,256 employees across 28 countries, our findings lend support to the positive effect of individual and organizational determinants on corporate venturing, as well as how these effects are reinforced per generational cohort. Specifically, our results show that younger generations (millennials) have more propensity to be involved in corporate venturing activities. This study also contributes to thought-provoking implications for entrepreneurial organizational leaders who manage employees from different generations.

Highlights

Many organizations around the world are dealing with the irrevocable effect of the heterogeneous composition of their labor force
Our findings show the moderation role of generational cohorts reinforcing the positive effect of individual determinants and organizational determinants of corporate venturing
The first contribution relates to the effects of human capital and attitudes toward entrepreneurship on corporate venturing for different generational cohorts

Summary

Introduction

Many organizations around the world are dealing with the irrevocable effect of the heterogeneous composition of their labor force. While there is no consensus in the literature regarding the definitions of the different generations (Stewart et al 2017), current workplaces are composed of least three generations: Baby Boomers (born 1944–1964), Generation X (born 1965–1980), and Generation Y (born 1981–1995)—well known as Millennials To add to this complexity, the “youngest” members of the post-millennial generation (born after 1996), or Generation Z, have recently started to be active members in the labor force. From an entrepreneurship perspective, ongoing academic debates regarding age and entrepreneurship have centered on the literature exploring individuals’ occupational choices The majority of these studies have shown how the identification of entrepreneurial opportunities and intentions increases/decreases with age (Zhang and Acs 2018). Some examples include the necessity to analyze organizational design (e.g., definition of tasks/roles based on capabilities/attitudes), organizational human resource management (e.g., incentive pay, satisfaction, and career promotion), and organizational performance (Bloom et al 2014; De Meulenaere et al 2016; von Bonsdorff et al 2018)

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