Exploring what drives entrepreneurs: Intergenerational differences between entrepreneurs born in the 1980s and 1990s

Abstract

Many studies have discussed the influence of age whilst generation, which is intertwined with age, has received little attention. This article explores how the post-1980 and post-1990 generations in China (Generations Y and Z, respectively) have formed entrepreneurial teams and the differences between them given that these two generations account for a large part of the country's entrepreneur population. Survey and objective data were obtained from 148 entrepreneurial teams in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai (China). Multigroup structural equation modelling was employed to examine several hypotheses. Our two findings are that entrepreneurial self-efficacy positively mediates the relationship between team heterogeneity and opportunity recognition and that there are significant differences between the post-1980 and post-1990 generations. These findings explain the type of entrepreneurial teams young entrepreneurs should choose and how they can continue to cultivate their talent. This study offers a unified theoretical framework to understand the relationship between entrepreneurs' cognition, entrepreneurial teams, and entrepreneurs' abilities.