Do employees’ generational cohorts influence corporate venturing? A multilevel analysis

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.